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talent which He has left with us, and rigorously examine whether we have been afraid and hid it in a napkin, or have diligently put it out to usury and turned it to full account. Let us turn our thoughts again to the representation, which St. Paul gives us, of our character and calling. "We are Ambassadors for Christ." Now what should we think of the Ambassador of an earthly King, who when he came among the people to whom he was sent, should seem to regard it as a matter of slight importance, whether he were indeed commissioned or not, or seem willing to conceal the full powers with which he was vested, and speak only as an individual? Would this be to be faithful to him that appointed him? would his Master own him as a good and faithful servant? And if we are Ambassadors for Christ, His "deputies for the reducing of man to the obedience of God," we must follow the example which our Master has set us, and, as he was, so must we be in this world. For He has Himself declared to us, "as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you^[1]." How then did Christ fulfil the office which the Father had committed to Him? Let us look to His discourses as recorded in St. John's Gospel, and to the solemn prayer with which He concluded His earthly Ministry. We there find Him again and again proclaiming that He had been sent from the Father; it was with this in view He prayed so earnestly for the unity and holiness of His Church, that the world might believe that the Father had sent Him; it was because His chosen disciples had believed that the Father had sent Him, that He poured forth such fervent thanksgivings on their behalf^[2]. "I am not come of Myself, but He sent Me." "I have not spoken of Myself, but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak." "They have known that all things are of Thee; they have known that I came out from Thee; they have believed that Thou didst send Me^[3]." Thus did Christ stand in the midst of His generation as an Apostle, as one sent from God; and so must His deputies likewise stand among their brethren; as men sent to a rebellious house, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, speaking with

1. Comp. St. John xvii. 18. "As Thou hast sent Me into the world, so have I also sent them into the world."
2. St. John xvii. 8. 21. 23. 25.
3. Ibid. xii. 49, 50. Comp. xiv. 10, 24. vid. also our Lord's remarkable words, ibid. v. 31. 43.