fall again; temptation some day will prove too strong for you; why should you think to be so much better than others? you had best enjoy yourself while you can." Should Satan talk thus to our heart, again I bid you point to CHRIST, to CHRIST risen and ascended into Heaven, and offering to send His HOLY SPIRIT more and more into your heart. Say to the Tempter, Why should I fall wilfully away, either now, or by and by? IS GOD'S hand waxed short? Is the treasure of His grace exhausted? Is His mercy clean gone for ever, His promise come utterly to an end for evermore? Did HE not rise from the grave to-day, and hath HE not made me a member of HIMSELF, and so given me a part of the power of His Resurrection, that I should sin wilfully no more? that sin should no more get the dominion over me? And why should not this saving power, this good Spirit, be as strong in me next year, or any other year, as now? I will not so affront CHRIST, I will not believe that His grace is insufficient to keep me upright; I will not sin, knowing that I am counted His, and that He who forgave my old sins, can and will preserve me from new ones, if I try in earnest to keep myself pure."

And whereas the enemy varies his temptations according to our time of life, CHRIST in like manner varies His graces and the way of bestowing them, and is beforehand with Satan in every point. To some, for example, the thought comes, and we well know from whom, "You are too young yet to serve GoD: as for baptismal innocence, it is but a dream; men are all sinners, but you, like others, will live to repent." Here is a thought but too familiar with many of us; how shall we silence it, and put it away ? Go back in heart to Christmas. Remind yourself of CHRIST made a little child, and passing for our sake through youth, that time so dangerous to all; and say in heart, "Why did CHRIST rise again, and join me to HIMSELF? Was it not that I might be kept from sin, by the life and grace flowing from HIM, not only in infancy and old age, but also in the years between? I will not then listen to any, neither to bad men nor tempting spirits, who would persuade me that I must of course sin, and neglect CHRIST any time of my life; rather I will remember my CREATOR in the days of my youth; I will offer to HIM Who died for me the flower of my age, and not wait till it costs me in comparison nothing, till I have but the dregs of life to give."

To another sort the accuser will say, just on the contrary,

"You are too old, too far gone; it is no use, now, your trying to be a saint; your chance is lost; you may as well indulge yourself for the present:" well may you meet that wicked thought, and silence it for ever, with the remembrance of the mysteries of Lent, that favoured and sacred season, ordained for this especial purpose, that penitents might know how to become saints, how to make sure their salvation. Say to the Devil, "CHRIST is risen and gone into Heaven, and has sent His SPIRIT to join us to HIMSELF. By virtue of that SPIRIT given in baptism, GOD, I trust, is still my FATHER, and if I turn to HIM in true compunction of heart, as a man mourneth for his only son, He will receive me with tender fatherly love, as that returning prodigal, was received: I am sure of it, therefore I will not despair; away from me, all ye that vex

my soul."

Moreover, both in this case of saintly penitence in old age, and that other before mentioned, of youthful perseverance, we have the encouraging example of holy men and women, in all ages of the Church, keeping innocency, or repenting heartily. Why should it be accounted a thing impossible with us, to do that which our brethren have done before? If God be for us, to keep us pure, who shall be against us, to hinder our seeking His grace, to defile and corrupt us against our will? If God be for us, to make us deeply penitent, who shall be against us, to say that we never can be high in His favour? Of course, we never can be so high, as if we had never slipped back at all; never so bright, as if we had shone on without intermission more and more unto the perfect day. Still no one can tell positively, how high and bright we may be; no one can set a limit to God's loving-kindness, and our increase, if we are but careful to answer His calls. Therefore, let no penitent, however deeply he may have erred in times past, suffer the tempter to deprive him of his Easter joy; but, having earnestly bewailed our transgressions in the grave yesterday with JESUS CHRIST, let us to-day rise with Him to a new life of stricter holiness; and let us do HIM this honour, that we rise with HIM in joy and gladness. Let the bitterness of past sin remain for a little while quiet in the heart; let us not recall it, except when needed to resist temptation and vain confidence; let the glory and sweetness of our LORD's return be now the prevailing thought in our hearts. Observe His message to

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His erring disciples, "Go tell my brethren and Peter, that they shall soon see ME." O LORD, if we be penitent, THOU still callest us brethren, though we have shamefully forsaken THEE. How then can we choose but rejoice? how can our very compunction fail to be mingled with a kind of sweetness, when we think on Thy forgiving countenance? We will rejoice for the past, in all the FATHER'S good gifts; we will rejoice for the present, in the unspeakable hope that the Son, the forgiving and gracious Jesus, is still with us to be our SAVIOUR; we will rejoice for the future, soberly trusting that the Eternal SPIRIT of HIM Who raised up CHRIST from the dead, will dwell in us more and more, to quicken our mortal bodies to all good works, and resolving, by His grace, to keep the vows which we now solemnly renew. now we are going to receive at CHRIST's hand, the sure and awful pledge of all these blessings, and of more, infinitely more than these, such as eternity alone can measure—we are going to receive His own body and blood. If GOD the FATHER, the SON, and the HOLY GHOST, be for us, and with us, in that unspeakable mystery, who can be against us to do us harm? If CHRIST crucified and risen again be our meat indeed and our drink indeed, what shall hinder our portion in eternal life?

For

But be not disheartened, for I must speak one word more to those especially who have tried in simplicity and obedience to prepare themselves for those holy mysteries, and, it may be, are downcast at hearing so much more said than they seem to feel or understand or enter into. I say to such, Be not disheartened. The holy women by our LORD's grave knew not at first the full meaning, the full blessing, of their finding it empty; so you, though you try to keep Easter, and to communicate, in true faith and repentance, yet cannot quite go along with the great things you hear set forth of His Resurrection and His Holy Communion. Well, be of good cheer; it is not your understanding which JEsus requires, so much as your true good-will. Go on humbly doing right, keeping the Commandments, bearing crosses, for the love of your good SAVIOUR; and in the humble hope of pleasing HIM, come with that mind to His holy Altar. He will secretly bless you now, and in His good time will teach you all that remains for you to know, that you, with His Saints, may have the fulness of His Blessing.

SERMON CCLI.

STEPS TOWARDS HEAVEN.

FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

2 ST. PETER i. 5, 6.

"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance."

We have lately finished the solemn course of the Church's great days, beginning with Advent and ending on Trinity Sunday. Those days have brought before us, one after another, the great truths of the Creed, the several parts of that "Catholic faith, which except a man keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly."

If we have seriously turned our hearts to them as they came before us one by one; if we have earnestly tried to believe and love CHRIST, conceived by the HOLY GHOST, and born of the Virgin Mary, CHRIST suffering, crucified, dead and buried, CHRIST descending into hell, rising again the third day, ascending into Heaven, sitting at the Right Hand of the FATHER; CHRIST sending His HOLY SPIRIT to set up His Holy Catholic Church, and call us to partake therein of the Communion of Saints and the Forgiveness of Sins; finally, CHRIST coming at the end of the world to judge the quick and the dead,--raising our Bodies, and endowing Saints with Life Everlasting: if we have gone on believing and loving our LORD and SAVIOUR in all these manifestations of HIMSELF; so far it is well: we may hope we have the right faith; we have made a good beginning in the way of holiness.

We cannot be too thankful to HIM, who, without any works

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or deservings of ours, hath bestowed on us so great a gift; and the best way of showing our thankfulness will of course be this: not to stand waiting, but at once to set about doing whatever GOD would have us to do next.

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"My heart hath talked of Thee," says the Psalmist; and surely many a heart here must have sometimes talked deeply within itself, of the astonishing mercies which God made Man has wrought for us: My heart hath talked of Thee: seek ye My Face." We have felt His secret silent voice within us, entreating, urging, pressing us, by all His goodness, and by all our hopes, to look away from the world and to look after HIM; to turn away from the false, miserable delights which the Flesh and the Devil pretend to offer us, and to seek what He offers to His Saints, the Light of His Countenance, the ineffable joy of beholding HIM face to face.

Our heart hath talked of GoD: "Seek ye My Face;" let not us be slow to answer, "Thy Face, LORD, will I seek." Thou hast drawn us, and we will "run after Thee;" Thou hast called to us, as to Saul, from Heaven; we see the Light which is "above the brightness of the Sun." What other answer can we make than St. Paul's own?" LORD, what wilt Thou have me to do?"

Surely, if we have any spark of true love, we shall not be content merely to receive so great blessings, and admire God's mercy in giving them to so unworthy persons, and not try to do some little for His sake. We shall not surely rest, until we have done some little, towards the further coming of that glorious and blessed Kingdom, which we feel to be all the world to ourselves. There must be something added to our faith, else we shall be neither safe nor perfect.

What is that something? what must we do, to work out that glorious and holy work of GOD, which He hath begun in us, by causing us to believe in HIM Whom He hath sent ?

See how St. Peter addresses himself to beginners, such as the most part of us are: "to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of GoD and our SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST." He says: According as His Divine Power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto Life and Godliness . . . exceeding great and precious promises, that by these