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The Hidden Manna. The White Stone. [Serm over the devil, that He, for the first time, gave His Apostles His Flesh and Blood. In His Flesh and Blood He conquered; and we, feeding upon Them, must conquer too. For this reason it is, that in all straits and difficulties, before all great struggles, when about to enter into all danger, more especially before the greatest strait, the most fearful struggle, the most terrible danger, before the hour of death, God's people have with desire desired to eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. By this CHRIST's faithful servants have gone forth cheerfully to martyrdom: for they knew that carrying Him along with them, they must be more than conquerors. Strong men have known that, excepting for that, their strength would be weakness; women and children have felt that, with this, they were able to do all things. Therefore, receiving for the last time their LORD'S Body and Blood here, they have gone by a short rough passage to sit down at the Supper of the LAMB on high. And that Supper of the LAMB, that Marriage feast, whatever be the full meaning of that type, whatever be the pleasures which are set forth by it, all these are set forth by the hidden manna in the text: all are promised to him that overcometh. Hidden those pleasures are for the present: eye hath not seen them, nor ear heard them, but there they are, and depend upon it there they are only for the conqueror.

But the text goes on:-"I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written." Now we are told all the ground about Pergamos is even to this day covered with such white stones, and therefore the Christians of that city could not stir out without being reminded of the promise "to him that overcometh." And what is this white stone? The Church has

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rally believed that it means the body which CHRIST's true servants will receive at the resurrection day. For just as nothing is more lasting than a stone, as it cannot be destroyed, as it cannot be worn away, so our bodies will be raised incorruptible, and never more subject to sickness or decay. And a white stone, because they will be glorious and shining; just as the face of our LORD in His Transfiguration became white and shining, so as no fuller on earth can whiten. "I will give him a white stone," then, is the same thing as saying, "I will give him a new and glorious body, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, and the saying shall be brought to pass that is written, Death is swallowed. up in victory." And this, coming directly after the promise about the hidden manna, is just as our LORD said Himself, "He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up again at the Last Day."

"And in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." When we are born into this world, we are children of wrath and of the devil; but when we are born, so to speak, at the Resurrection, we shall be the children of GoD at our birth. That will be our new name; we shall have it with our new nature; "old things shall have passed away; behold all things shall have become new." And that is a name, indeed, the blessing of which none knoweth save he that receiveth. What it is to be so the children of GOD, as to serve Him without weariness, to love Him fully, to sin no more, to be entirely His, this who can tell, save those that stand before Him? And they not as yet fully-they have not yet received the

white stone of their Resurrection-bodies; they without us are not to be made perfect.

But, in part, they see God's glory; and they that have been martyrs see Him face to face, enjoying, as the Church believes, the Beatific Vision, that is, the immediate sight of GOD. Of this number was, and is, S. Blasius, an Armenian Bishop, whose feast we keep this day. He, after suffering great things for the name of CHRIST, was torn in pieces with wool-combs: and, accordingly, in those parts of England where they have to do with wool, they make much of his day even now. It is thus that he now eats of "the hidden manna," and that he will at the last day receive "the white stone.”

Which God grant that we also may do, for JESUS CHRIST's sake: to Whom, with the FATHER and the HOLY GHOST, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen.

SERMON IV.

THE PENITENT CLOTHED IN WHITE, AND NOT BLOTTED OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE.

S. Valentine. February 14.

"HE THAT OVERCOMETH, THE SAME SHALL BE CLOTHED IN WHITE RAIMENT; AND I WILL NOT BLOT OUT HIS NAME OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE, BUT I WILL CONFESS HIS NAME BEFORE MY FATHER AND BEFORE HIS ANGELS."-REV. III. 5.

They were all declarations that blessing; this is,—

THIS promise "to him that overcometh" differs from those that have gone before. that GOD would give this and "I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life." Now, if we look back, we shall see the reason. The verse I just read to you is taken from the Epistle to the Church at Sardis ;-a church that had grievously fallen away from its first love. "Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief."

And now notice, that GoD's threatenings are just as true as His promises. Sardis did not repent. And therefore, while all the other churches of which I have spoken, Ephesus, and Smyrna, and Pergamos, and

Thyatira, notwithstanding the persecutions of the cruel Turks, remain to this day; Sardis has been utterly swept away. There are now but a few Christians in all that city; and they have no priest, no sacraments, and no church.

The promise then is to those that overcome after having fallen away from GoD, and committed great sin. Therefore, it is a message to all of us.

In the first place, "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment." We have soiled the white robe of innocence which was given to us in our baptism; there are the dark and deadly stains of many sins, some more, some less grievous; some of longer, some of shorter, standing. Yet, even so, we are not left altogether without hope. If now we fight the fight of faith, if now we gird up ourselves to battle with the devil, if now we repent with all our hearts, and confess our sins, and that not lightly, and after the manner of those that would try to deceive GOD, but earnestly and steadily, and perseveringly, then the Prophet Isaiah says for our comfort, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool;" then the Apostle John also bears record, saying, "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, the Blood of JESUS CHRIST His SON cleanseth us from all sin." God did not give the power of absolving to His priests for nothing. It was the chief means He devised, whereby His banished ones should be brought back to Him. It is this power, which, on the true repentance of the sinner can cleanse away the stain of all past sins: and though here those that have fallen into grievous iniquities can never be as if they had not so fallen-yet the time will come when they