turies ago, the Lady Margaret Mainard, daughter of the then Earl of Dysart; of whom the good Bishop Ken testified, in the sermon which he preached upon the occasion of her funeral,' that, although she had passed nine of her earlier years in that furnace of temptation, the Court of Charles the Second, yet, through every period of her life, she presented the perfect pattern of a gracious woman retaining honour' 2-gracious, because the gifts and graces of God's Holy Spirit shone conspicuously in all her actions; retaining honour, because, as Solomon characterises a virtuous woman, she opened her mouth in wisdom, and in her tongue was the law of kindness' (Prov. xxxi. 26).

Or mounting higher, and appealing to the testimony of Scripture itself, I might point to Daniel, as the same Bishop Ken has depicted him, in a sermon to which there is none superior in the English language, and which was preached in the Chapel Royal at Whitehall, shortly before the Revolution of 1688.3 I might point, I say, to Daniel, the courtier, the favourite, the prime minister of five great monarchs in succession-and yet all

See Bishop Ken's Prose Works, pp. 111-144.

2 Prov. xi. 16, the text of the Sermon.

3 See Bishop Ken, pp. 145–173.

the while the Prophet and the Saint; maintaining his ascendency amid the change of dynasties and the fall of empires, and yet the very type and model of 'a man greatly beloved'—it was the address the Angel gave to him '-greatly beloved both of God and men. And what was the secret by which he so used the world? By temperance and selfdenial he was preserved safe amidst allurements more formidable than the ravening lions in their den; by dependence upon his God and by constant prayer to Him-even when such prayer was forbidden under pain of the most cruel death by the despot who had promoted him to great honour-he drew down upon himself the Divine favour; and, loving much, he was much beloved. On the other hand, for examples of those who have abused the world we need not go back into the past; we have seen, alas, too many even in our own day. We have seen, moreover, how they have fulfilled the saying of the Psalmist 'suddenly did they consume, perish, and come to a fearful end' (Ps. lxxiii. 18), leaving no memorials behind them but of sin and folly, of calamity and disgrace.

Let us then, my brethren, through the grace of God, set ourselves seriously to profit by the warn

'Dan. x. 11, the text of the Sermon.

ings which such examples give. Let us not presume that we may not fall away as Demas did, if, while the practice of duty is habitually sacrificed to the pursuit of self-indulgence, the love of this present world is allowed to occupy in our hearts the place which is due to God alone; or if we do not, like S. Luke, remain in the service of Him Who hath called us, steadfast and faithful unto the end. In the words of the noble lady to whom I have before referred: The kingdom of heaven is a prize that is worth striving for, though it cost us dear.' 1 In that kingdom, even while we remain on earth, all that is solid, all that is stable, all that can lead to our true happiness and contentment, must be sought, if we would escape the bitter disappointment of misdirected hopes. In that kingdom, when it shall be set up hereafter (according to the inspired assurance of the prophet Daniel), while they that have been foolish shall awake out of the dust only unto shame and everlasting contempt, 'they that have been wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that have turned many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever' (Dan. xii. 3).

'Bishop Ken's Prose Works, p. 133.

Witness of the Jews at the Present Day

Even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.. -2 Corinthians iii. 15.

OUR Lord's first coming in the flesh had been foreshown and marked by miraculous manifestations of Divine power. Such was the appearance of the star to the Wise Men in the East, the birth of His forerunner, John the Baptist, and His own birth, both announced previously by Angels; and, in ages long before, the miracles which were wrought by Moses and the Prophets, who foretold that He would come.

Is there, then, no sign, no wonder by which we may be assured of His second coming? Yes, my brethren, there is the present condition of the whole Jewish race; which is not only the accomplishment of ancient prophecy, as in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, but in itself a perpetual, standing Unto this day, whensoever Moses is read, a veil lieth upon their heart.' R.V.

miracle.

What, indeed, can be more miraculous than that a people should have gone on, as the Jews have done, dispersed and mixing with all nations, yet not identified with any; retaining still the same distinct characteristics both of body and mind as though they had dwelt apart; exposed to every variety of influence which is caused by difference of climate, or of social and political condition, yet absorbed and naturalised by none? Go where he may, the Jew is still a Jew; a citizen of the world in the most unenviable sense; a countryman of no country, but a foreigner of all; like the weed which the ocean waves, in every quarter of the world, cast up upon the shore, as though it belonged neither to sea nor land.

ment.

But the particular point in the miraculous condition of the Jewish people, to which I would desire now to draw your attention, is, their blindness in not understanding the Scriptures of the Old TestaWhat was true of them in this respect in the time of S. Paul, is no less true, after the lapse of eighteen centuries, in our own time. Speaking of them in this chapter, the Apostle writes: 'We use great plainness of speech: and are not as Moses who' (when he came down from the

1 Gr. Tappnola. R.V. 'boldness of speech.'