things the mind and purpose of the Almighty and All-loving Creator! He has been pleased to shew us so much of Himself and of His ways, in His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, that we have the opportunity of learning to know Him, and of tracing and imitating His Works. And not only this, but of having perpetual supplies of strengthening aid and guiding instruction from Him; in the perpetual succession of His sacraments and ordinances; in timely encouragements and warnings; in His recorded Words, applied to us through His providence and grace; in the holy examples that He has manifested from age to age, and that He still manifests, and in them manifests Himself; in the ministrations and teaching of those who bear His commission, and who, though fallible mortals like ourselves, are yet enabled to give us what the spiritual mind can discern as tokens from Him; in the wonderful course of His daily providence, by which He speaks audibly, constantly, and lovingly to those who will listen for His gracious whispers in the silence of their inmost hearts. In Him "we live, and move, and have our being," even in that we are His creatures; a new life to hold our being, and

x Acts xvii. 28.

X

and it is

life, and

powers as from Him, to see and know Him in all our life, and in Him to feel that we are immortal. Taken in themselves our doings pass away, like our mortal bodies. Our flesh turns to dust, our works are swept away, our words are forgotten, and our place knows us no more. But in the world of spirits the effect of our doings runs on, never to cease; immortal souls are and ever will be the better or the worse for them. In God whatsoever is well done abides for ever. With Him it is laid up, and with Him our spirit lives, to receive in eternity the fruit of the things done in the body; and our true life even here is in knowing Him, and doing all our works in Him. And as we do more, we know more, and as we know more, our life is extended and enlarged.

It was said of Israel, when he had sojourned in Egypt, that he "knew the heart of a stranger;" and so it is when a man has laboured in good works, he knows the heart and mind of a good man; yea, in some measure, the mind of Christ, Who spent His life on earth in doing good. We know the things we live in in a different manner from those which we only hear of. And we may very well let the ungodly world glory

J Exod. xxiii. 9.

great art and skill of life, the discipline and power of well-doing, of carrying out in all over us, and say we do not know its pleasures, for we do know that they are vanity, and we know also that the world does not and cannot know the blessings of the City of God. We do not know, we will not know, their vain and sinful joys; let them go! We know that we have better things, the knowledge of God our Father, and of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. The knowledge not only of His greatness and holiness, but of His infinite mercy and love toward us in the Son of His love, through Whom He gives us the remission of sins, and free access to Him, "and the gift of His Spirit crying in our hearts Abba! Father!"2 Let this be our knowledge, let this be our life, in this let us live, and in this die, knowing that then even in death we live for in Christ all things are ours, even death is ours, to bring us nearer to Him, to turn our faith into sight, to add to our life full liberty and endless glory. The world is ours, for our exercise, and to work in by love and obedience. This life is ours, to live in Christ, to live unto God.

The eternal Father is ours, to be our

z Gal. iv 6.

Father and our God for everlasting, and to manifest Himself to us, and communicate Himself to us, so far as our created nature can receive Him. His Holy Spirit is ours, to dwell within us, and to keep us for ever His children, and bear us ever more and more toward Him. His Blessed Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is doubly ours,—our God and our Incarnate Head. Ours to believe in, to remember, and to love, in His past humiliation, suffering, and sacrifice; ours hereafter to behold in the eternal glory of Godhead, beaming through the renewed and glorified Manhood, in which He has clothed Himself for us, that we, too, may, in Him, he glorified, and in Him may live for ever in the glory of the Father.

N

SERMON XIX.

S. Matt. vi. 25.

"Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment."

I Have taken these words out of the Gospel for the day because there is something more in them than most people take notice of in reading or hearing them, and it is not well that we should lose any part of the precious meaning of the sayings of our Blessed Lord. Most readers pass over these words as though they only meant that man requires something more to live by than meat, even God's blessing; and that the body does not depend entirely on its clothing for its well-being. And perhaps, at first sight, this view of the text may appear to be supported by a comparison of the answer of our Lord to the tempter—" Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God."a And it is true that one may learn this doctrine from the text, and that those other words likewise point to it. Nevertheless there is a more

• S. Matt. iv. i.