outward exercises of devotion, than it is to bring the heart to a saintly purity, and to keep it ever with God, much more is it easier to take the one side of our Lord's teaching, and to leave out the other, than honestly to obey both.

"We may live in the world," we say to ourselves, "God does not require us to renounce anything but its sins, its pomps and vanities. The common Christian life is a life in the world, and we have our Lord's own sanction for it." And here we are but too apt to stop, forgetting that He taught us no less clearly to live above the world, both by His words and by His practice. He that "came eating and drinking," yet could fast and be an hungred when it was the time for fasting—He could labour till faint and weary, and even then hold it for His meat and drink to do the will of Him that sent Him. He could suffer, yea, more painfully than did S. John in his martyrdom. To use the world in His way is not to cleave to it in our way, but to sit as loose to it as did S. John himself, in his dwelling in the wilderness, even while its comforts and its allurements are around us. It is to keep

e

the heart awake to God's work and to His

• S. John iv. 34.

word, to our calling, our duties, our opportunities of doing good, just as if we had no pleasure, no personal interests, no desire in this world.

The servants of God tell you, Holy Scripture tells you, that such a life is truly blessed; the examples of saints cry aloud in your ears that it is blessed. But there ceases not to be occasion for our Lords complaint; and this generation is but too much like that other generation with which He met. Each has his line of earthly interest, earthly joy, earthly sorrow, and has but little of his thoughts to give to the call of spiritual duty, or of spiritual joy. "We have piped to you and ye have not danced, we have mourned to you and ye have not wept."

Now then, if you would not be like these heedless scorners, attend first to the call of God for your own life, and so repent that not one sin may remain unconfessed, or, so far as you are able, uncorrected. And then, further, listen to Him when He calls you away from minding the things of sense to the study of His word, to the thankful remembrance of the examples of His saints, to the holy ordering of your lives and households, to seeking His presence in His House, in prayers and in sacraments, to sorrow for

the sins and miseries of your fellow-creatures, aud to whatever exertions He puts in your power for the relief of the distressed, the instruction of the ignorant, the conversion of the sinful.

f

Feel for the whole body of Christ, pray for the whole, and both in holy zeal and in kindly sympathy" rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep." But remember that your first work is always the nearest home. And as the strict Baptist bade men attend to their common duties, while our merciful Saviour, the Giver of free grace and forgiveness, said "If thou wilt be perfect, sell that thou hast and give to the poor;" remember that the law of liberty, if duly obeyed, will carry you even further than the law of fear; and that, although "the Son of Man came eating and drinking," yet all the virtues of all the saints, whether gentle or severe, are summed up in His perfect holiness.

f Rom. xii. 15.

e S. Mark x. 21.

SERMON XXXI.

SAINT ANDREW'S DAY.

S. John i. 40, 41.

"One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeih his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias."

If the things contained in the Old Testament were written for our example, much more may we suppose the same of the things that are written in the New. Both are from God, and therefore both are equally true in themselves; but the examples of the New Testament are nearer to the point than those of the Old. Those often want translating, as it were, into another language, before we can apply them; while these are in our own mother tongue, the Heavenly language of Jerusalem that is above. She, while she sojourns upon earth, still uses, even in songs of praise, the language of her earthly infancy, for she forgets not the mercies of old time, and sees in them the types of present, and the pledges

of future blessings. But, in the regeneration, she speaks a new tongue, the language of the Spirit and the Truth, and in it are told the deeds of Apostles and Evangelists, of Saints and Martyrs, yea, of the King of Saints Himself, the Father of the New Creation, Who hath given new names to all things in the new Heavens and the new Earth. The Scribe that is made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven has treasure of things new and old. Each have their proper virtues and uses, but we that are of the people that was to be born, ourselves created anew unto righteousness, ought at least to be able to use and profit by the new. If we

a

can do so, we shall learn the use and value of the old; for they are not contrary to one another.

In the New Testament we see first the Apostles, and then their converts, passing from the old state to the new, and the truths and blessings of the New Covenant are presented to them one after another, and accepted, and, by degrees, understood. And even in the very few words and actions we have recorded of S. Andrew, we may trace several useful lessons for ourselves. They must not be taken singly and alone,

» S. Matt. xv. 32.