The Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy have an almost exclusive reference to the discharge of this trust. "These things have I written unto thee;" with care have I laid down for thee the framework of the Christian ministry, and the qualifications of such as shall be chosen into its various ranks; their authority, their subordination, their need of faith and of a good conscience, pure doctrine and holy lives; so joined together by God that he who puts away one, will too surely make shipwreck concerning the other. I have charged thee, as overseer of the flock of Christ, with earnest and affectionate entreaty, to behave thyself in all these particulars unblameably in the house of God, because it is the Church of the living God, to whose keeping the great mystery of godliness is committed. The knowledge of that mystery is life eternal; it is to "know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent."

Such I believe to be the spirit of St. Paul's exhortation to his beloved son in the faith; and I have thought that, together with the short creed which follows, it suggests many reflections suitable to our present purpose; shewing the twofold office of the Church, as the keeper and the herald of divine truth-offices shadowed forth by the metaphorical terms in which she is described, the pillar and the ground-the one elevated and conspicuous; the other permanent, stedfast, and secure.

And here I would take occasion, from the bare recital of the text, to deprecate all unfavourable construction of that godly jealousy, which would guard and watch over the truth. In the exercise of her commission, whether it be to educate her children, to send the blessed Gospel to the colonies, or to convert the heathen, the Church cannot make any compromise with her enemies; she cannot abate her divine order and discipline, still less can she consent to throw a veil over her distinctive doc

trines, though by such a concession she might conciliate the powers of this world, and secure the favour and cooperation of every sect and denomination of Christians. She must in meekness and charity proclaim aloud each portion of her message, although many may be offended, and walk no more with her. Her Lord has given her the example. He was not yea and nay; but in Him was yea. All His words were measured and weighed by undeviating wisdom and truth, so that not one of them ever fell to the ground. In His promises there was neither deceit nor disappointment. All who followed Him knew the terms of their discipleship, and if at any time they erred in their expectation of a temporal kingdom or triumph, it was by such a misconstruction of His words as we are astonished at, and cannot account for. Nay, whatsoever had been predicted of Him by the Holy Ghost; whatsoever the word of prophecy had spoken for four thousand years respecting the most minute particulars of His life and sufferings, must be accomplished to the letter, before He would lay down His life. He could not die until it was finished.

It has ever been the distinguishing feature of the true Church of Christ to copy her Divine Master in this simplicity and godly sincerity; to take care that her yea be yea, and her nay nay: to add nothing to the absolute truth of God, nor diminish ought from it: to hold out no false unreal object, either to men's hopes or fears: to renounce all indirect acts, although their pretence may be to win souls to Christ-to see that her means be as pure and holy as her end.

But in proportion as men deviate from the Catholic faith, whether it be that the same obliquity of spiritual sight which causes them to err in doctrine, extends itself also to matters of practice; or whether this moral blindness be judicial, a meet return for their corruption

or rejection of God's truth; certain it is, that in the same proportion they lose that high sense of rectitude, that keen perception and instinctive disgust of all duplicity and fraud, which mark the faithful servant and disciple of Christ: they become zealots for a party, rather than soldiers of God's Church; and their spirit is often as unscrupulous in matters of religion as that of other partizans in affairs of state. And this sacrifice of good faith and probity is proverbially common to both extremes of error, Roman Catholic and Puritan-each pressing into what they would fain believe to be God's service, the tortuous and crooked policy which is most opposed to His essential truth. The apparent good which such a course may achieve, and sometimes on a gigantic scale, soon perishes, and leaves the kingdom of Satan stronger than before; the evil only is permanent.

It is not therefore from the bigotry or narrow-mindedness with which she is charged, but from an awful sense of the trust reposed in her by God, and of the character and example of her Lord, that the Church makes a conscience of many points, which to the worldly eye are indifferent, and would cast out from her the first seeds and beginnings of yet undeveloped evil. I would illustrate this by reference to St. Paul's short but pregnant summary of the hidden wisdom, the mystery of godliness, which is thus committed to her care. Its first article, "God manifest in the flesh;" the true article of a standing or a falling church, as it is received in its full signification and consequences, or denied; would any flattering hope or promise of unity, any pretence of charity, any probable extension of the Redeemer's kingdom, would any desertion of friends, or persecution of enemies prevail on us to sacrifice one of the most distant outworks of that sacred truth? It will prevail and triumph independently of the help of man;

but for the sake of her children, the Church has fortified it with as many defences as the evil one has avenues of attack; and these it would be treason to betray. Hence the Athanasian Creed; a beacon light for unstable souls, who might be beguiled, and make shipwreck of their faith, but for its solemn warning and instruction. The Church in this respect has the same office as the Holy Spirit Himself. "He," the incarnate God, "was justified in the Spirit ;" the mission of that Divine Being was to bear witness to His person, and to fulfil His work, and this by powers ordinary and extraordinary; by visible signs and miracles, and by His secret influence, mighty, yet unseen, like the wind, moving on the waters of Baptism, wielding the two-edged sword of the word, uniting the faithful to Christ in the holy eucharist, and working effectually in the believer's heart. "He was seen of Angels; preached unto the Gentiles; believed on in the world;"-all these propositions, even the first of them, which at first sight appears to contain no such meaning, declare the office of the Church in proclaiming the gospel to mankind, for although Angels glorified the Redeemer's birth, strengthened Him in His temptation and His agony, witnessed His resurrection and ascension; yet not without the Church was the full revelation made to those exalted beings of the manifold wisdom of God in Christ. "Unto me," writes St. Paul to the Ephesians, "who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God." The Church, of which St. Paul was an apostle, Timothy a bishop; in which there were presbyters and deacons, consecrated by the laying on of apostolic hands; called, chosen, sent. By this

Church was "the mystery which from the beginning of the world had been hid in God," first made known in heaven and in earth, "that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." And by the same Church, even now is that dispensation of mercy carried out and continued; through her alone is Christ preached effectually to the Gentiles; through her is He believed on in the world-believed: but in a spirit and measure how limited by the corruption of the times, and the sure and mournful words of our Lord's own prophecy! Still, if in any quarter of the globe the fields appear white unto the harvest, if there be a promise of large accessions to the people of God, it is where the Church has gone forth in her strength, in her visible form and feature, with her holy bishops, her apostolical ministry, her living sacraments, her pure and undefiled word and doctrine of God.

But it may be asked, "Have they not heard?" "Yes verily; their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." "When" then "the Son of Man cometh, shall He" not "find faith on earth?" Whatever be the answer to this question, our duty, my brethren, is plain. Whether God, as to the Jews of old, "so even now be stretching out His hands all the day long to a disobedient and gainsaying people,” or brighter prospects cheer our efforts, we must go forth in the spirit of love and obedience, knowing the divine nature of that work in which we are permitted to cooperate, and seeking the explicit guidance and direction of God in every step of our progress. Not only must the increase be expected at His hands; the planting also and the watering must be in strict accordance with the rule established for those purposes by the divine will made known to us in the scriptures. The Church of Christ still exists in this country, blessed with her Sa