that we there receive verily and indeed the Body and Blood of CHRIST.

And so in all other the most material points of faith and practice. Any one who should consider them one by one, first in the Prayer-Book and afterwards in the practice of Christians, must needs confess that what is corrupt among us is our own fault, and not the fault of our Church.

And when we find such wholesome laws, such sacred and heavenly services neglected, what must we naturally look for in the other parts of the same person's life and conduct? Surely we must make up our minds to see great want of seriousness and devotion, great neglect of eternal things; irregularity in every kind of duty; much dissolute and covetous conduct; discontent, murmuring, disloyalty of every kind; contempt of parents, disobedience to magistrates, irreverence to pastors, presumption towards GOD HIMSELF. And what must we expect in the end thereof? What sort of a countenance, think you, shall we appear with at the last day, when the Great KING will come to demand an account of all our talents, and especially of these, our Church privileges? how, I say, shall we look upon HIM, who have for this and so many past years possessed in such abundance the means of grace, and have turned them into means of sin? The JUDGE HIMSELF has given us some insight into the proceedings of that fearful day, so far as regards impenitent and slothful Christians. "Many will come to me in that day, saying, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and THOU hast taught in our streets and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from ME, ye that work iniquity." Alas! if any persons in the world stand in danger of this sentence, surely it is they who live among the Church services, and yet continue profane and indevout, and go on in the ordinary way of the world.

If there be any such here-any whose conscience charges him with being no truer a penitent, no nearer his God now than he was a twelvemonth ago, when we last finished the course of Sunday Services, and turned back to Advent again—as he cannot but feel in his heart that the blame rests not with the Church, but with himself, so he may understand that the remedy also, by God's grace, depends on himself, and it is not too late. The

ALMIGHTY, by sparing you to another Advent, gives you clearly and distinctly to know, that He will yet accept and pardon you, if you will yet turn to HIM, and begin at last to make the right use of these inestimable privileges. He will presently begin to warn you again, by the course of Sunday Lessons and Collects, of His speedy coming in His glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and the dead. He will then assure you, week after week, of His Son's unspeakable condescension in taking our nature upon HIM, and doing and suffering all for us, even to the death of the Cross. By the Easter and Whitsuntide Services, HE will afterwards teach you how to glorify HIM who died for you, and now reigns over you; and how to submit yourselves to His gracious SPIRIT, come down in His absence to bring you nearer and nearer to HIM. Then by the course of the Services after Trinity Sunday, even to this time next year (should it please HIM that any of us live so long), HE will instruct you what fruit of good works He expects of those who have been so highly favoured. It rests with yourselves, my Christian brethren, to resolve whether this course of divine instruction shall pass away unimproved by you, and you remain as barren as in other seasons, or no. But be assured of this, that you cannot remain where you are. Every day that you do not mend, with such helps to amendment offered you, in the sight of GOD you become worse.

Above all, beware of neglecting these blessings out of the foolish and profane notion (the ruin, alas! 'of too many) that they are always within your reach, that you may avail yourselves of them to repent when you will. You cannot insure your life nor your reason for one hour; how then can you reckon on any future repentance? The great Advent is coming on your time is short, your work exceeding hard; a day lost, may be the loss of Eternity. One way only is safe: "Behold, Now is the accepted time: behold, Now is the day of salvation."

VOL. VI.

U

SERMON CC.

CHRISTIAN ENERGY.

1 COR. xvi. 13.

"Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong."

THESE words are addressed to Christians, as the soldiers of JESUS CHRIST. They are such as one might imagine a wise commander speaking to his men on the night before a battle, that they might rise up in the morning full of considerate courage, and steadily resolved to do all their duty, cost what it might. "Watch ye,

stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong."

Every one must feel, on merely reading or hearing this, how truly great and noble the character is which St. Paul here recommends us to imitate; how a person, who should diligently practise this rule, would, as it were, walk on high, and though he lived in the world, would be above the reach of its storms and temptations.

And we shall feel this yet more strongly, when we recollect, besides, what sort of a person it was who wrote these words, and how completely all his life was spent, after he became a Christian, in practising the lesson they teach. It was the Apostle St. Paul; of whom it might be said, more truly perhaps than of any other Saint either in the Old or New Testament, that his whole life, after GOD had once called him, was a life of continual watchfulness. He never seems to have forgotten, for

a moment, that he was a Christian. Whatever he did and suffered, was done and suffered quite in a different way, and with a different mind, from what it would have been if he had not been a disciple of JESUS CHRIST. When any thing happened to him, whether pleasant or unpleasant, the first question in his mind seems always to have been, not "how can I make this turn to my own profit, or my own enjoyment?" but "how must I act, to make the most of it for the glory of my MASTER and SAVIOUR, and the good of the souls committed to my charge?" You cannot doubt, upon a little consideration, that such a man had found out the true secret of happiness, as far as it is to be had in this life.

Now then, if there be any truth in the Bible, it is in the power of every one of us, to be this great and noble character; to be like St. Paul, if he will. His example is not set before us merely like a beautiful picture, for us to look at and admire, and wish we were like it. But it is the very pattern which our Blessed LORD has set before us, to help us in copying His own divine example. We are to be followers of HIм, as he was of CHRIST.

This is not the less true, because the generality of Christian people seem to think so little of it. The world, they seem to take it for granted, is so altered since St. Paul's time, that the rules by which he conducted himself will no more do for us. We praise and admire him, but excuse ourselves, though we follow examples and indulge desires most completely opposite to his.

He tells us, for example, that it made little difference to him whether he was rich or poor. "I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." How many of us have heard and read these words over and over again, and have admired St. Paul, and praised him, for the temper of mind he shows in them, without a single thought of practising the same; without once considering, that if St. Paul was thus careless about money, it little becomes them to be so anxious about it, as they allow themselves to be every day, and all day long!

It is indeed a shameful and painful recollection, how continually we live in the midst of noble and good examples, yet how little we profit by them. Our only comfort should be, that it is not yet, by God's mercy, too late to amend. We may this

very day, if we will, begin accustoming ourselves, from time to time, to remember in our daily doings the high thoughts and rules of conduct which we read of in the Bible.

We have all of us, I suppose, at times, had pious thoughts and good resolutions in our minds. We have wished to serve GOD as faithfully as St. Paul: to be as contented and cheerful as he was, and to care as little for the world. Perhaps we have even tried, for a time, to live in earnest by his rule: to make the most of ourselves, and all that we had, for the honour and service of our God. Although we are too soon tired of such steady and devout purposes, yet if we have ever fairly tried, I am sure we must feel and own, that we were never so happy as in those hours. We may have been more gay and mirthful, but we were never so happy; for we never were, we never could be, so sure that God approved of our enjoyments, and that they would not leave a sting behind them when they were gone.

What hinders us from recalling those happy hours? from lengthening them to days and weeks and months and years? from keeping them by us all our lives long, to store us with pleasant recollections for ever and ever? It is only making up our minds to live steadily by faith in things not seen; to deny our wandering thoughts resolutely and manfully; and our happiness is in our power. We may, by God's grace and mercy, begin it any hour, any minute, we choose.

Any hour, any minute, we may begin "watching ourselves," considering our own words, purposes, and actions, like men who are awake and alive to what is passing around them; who know they cannot stay where they are, and are desirous to make sure of going the right way.

I do not say that this will be altogether pleasant, or, for a long time, easy. Most men have lived, hitherto, so much at random, that it must cost them some trouble to rouse themselves, and reflect in earnest on what they are doing, and where their journey will end. They are like persons only half awake, who can hardly, for a while, be brought to attend even to their most necessary cares and employments. But to go on thus in spite of warning, is indeed both childish and unchristian. It is childish carelessness of what ought to be dearest to them-the happy place which God offers them in Heaven, and which they are throwing