the attack, and his army were all around him on one side and on the other, he stood forth in the midst, and with a loud voice began to make again the same prayer that he had made before. "I beseech Thee, O LORD," he said, "to give me a sign, whether the work that we are going about be pleasing to Thee; whether it be Thy will that mine eyes should behold this house of Baal," -so he wickedly called the cathedral,-" cast down to the ground."

GOD heard his prayer. There stood among others on the great middle tower of the cathedral, a man who was deaf and dumb from his birth. This man resting his gun on the battlement, took aim at Lord Brooke, who had just finished his prayer. The others tried to hinder him from firing:-a gun, they said, could not carry so far, much less could it do any harm at that distance. But, however, fire he would; and GoD directed the bullet. Lord Brooke, when he began his prayer, had raised the upper part of his helmet, so as to uncover his forehead. Just as he said Amen, the deaf and dumb man pulled the trigger. The bullet entered at Lord Brooke's eye; and stretched him dead on the ground. He had asked for a sign, and God gave it him. He had asked for a sign, and he had such a sign as he is like to be known by as long as English history is read. The bullet was guided to such a distance as good soldiers thought it impossible for it to reach it found out the only part of his body which was not armed; and it entered at the eye by which he had hoped to see the destruction of all cathedrals.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living GOD. And now, then, it is our place to beware lest we fall into the like condemnation. If we allow sin to

reign in those bodies which are temples of the HOLY GHOST, GOD'S vengeance may not come so suddenly on us as it did on this miserable man,-but it will be as certain, and it will be as fearful. We may not be marked to all ages with such a sign of God's punishment as Lord Brooke: but how shall we be the better for that, if, for our sins in the body, we are condemned to the worm that cannot die, and the fire that never shall be quenched? The use of speaking of such examples of God's vengeance is told us in the text,-" All Israel shall hear and fear, and shall do no more such wickedness as this is among you."

you what became after Although Lord Brooke and though they did not much, and for sixteen

But now let me go on to tell all of this church of S. Chad. was slain, his soldiers took it; destroy it, they hurt it very years it lay almost in ruins. Then the Church was again restored to this country, and a most holy man,his name was John Hacket,-was appointed Bishop of Lichfield. The cathedral had been turned into a stable ; heaps of filth and rubbish blocked it up, and it seemed almost hopeless to try to restore it again. But on the first morning, the Bishop set out for the building with his servants, and ordered his carriage horses to be brought also. And there they all laboured, day after day. All the money that came from his bishopric the bishop gave to the restoration of his church. He said, as David did of old, "I will not come within the tabernacle of mine house, nor climb up into my bed; I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep, nor mine eyelids to slumber, neither the temples of my head to take any rest: until I find out a place for the temple of the LORD, an habitation for the mighty GoD of Jacob." And at last,

exactly one thousand years after S. Chad's death, he had the joy of consecrating his church again, and so it stands to this day.

Now all this story ought to be a comfort to us. It shows us that "the LORD's arm is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear." It teaches us the fulness of meaning in which we may take the collect for this week: "Stretch forth the right hand of Thy Majesty to be our defence against all our enemies." We say the words-and yet how little we think what the prayer is! The right hand of GOD's Majesty! Why, how can we dare to be afraid of all that men or evil spirits can do, if that be on our side? The strongest forms of language too-not only the right hand of God, but the right hand of His Majesty,—that is, His power in its most glorious and fearful form. And, thinking of that, how can I end better than with the words of S. Paul: "If God be for us, who can be against us? I am persuaded"-he does not, you see, speak rashly, as it were, he has thought it over, and made up his mind-"I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of GoD which is in CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD."

To Him, with the FATHER, and the HOLY GHOST, be ascribed all honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

A

SERMON VII.

THE NEW WAY.

9. Alban. June 17.

"YE HAVE NOT PASSED THIS WAY HERETOFORE."-JOSHUA III. 4.

THIS day is very interesting to us for two reasons: first, because S. Alban was an English Martyr; and secondly, because he was the first English Martyr. He lived at a town in Hertfordshire, which was then called Verulam, but now has taken its name from him, and is called S. Alban's. A soldier he was, and a heathen; but, notwithstanding, when the persecution broke out, he took in and sheltered a Christian Priest, gave him food and lodging, and preserved him from his enemies. No doubt God was well pleased with this deed, even in a heathen. For although good works done before baptism cannot deserve favour, yet He sometimes is pleased to reward them. And so it was here. He gave Alban the grace to become a Christian; He gave him the grace not to fear them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do; and so his head was struck off, and he entered into the joy of his LORD.

The great church that they built over his tomb stands to this day, and you may still see the stone that lies on the very spot where he suffered.

But this, of all things, is his great glory-that what S. Stephen was to the whole Catholic Church, that S. Alban was to our own dear Church of England-its first Martyr. To be the first to do or to bear anything for God's sake is an honour which we shall not fully understand till that Great Day when the secrets of all hearts shall be opened. In the first place, it requires more faith. So you read in that chapter of the Book of Joshua where my text is, that when the children of Israel were about to pass over the river Jordan, where there was no bridge, where the water had overflowed all his banks, where they were to trust, simply and quietly, to God's word that He would bring them through; it was the priests, His more immediate servants, who had to go down to the bank, and as soon as their feet were dipped in the water, but not a moment before, then the waters stood up on one side on a heap, and left a dry passage for all the multitude. Those Priests had the more glorious part, they were the first to obey God's command, though it seemed to lead them to their certain destruction. And S. Alban's faith was like theirs. GOD called him to die for the True Faith. We have heard and read of multitudes that have done so; not men only, but women, girls, even infants, that out of weakness have been made strong. But Alban had no such examples before him. "Ye have not passed this way heretofore" was exactly true of him. There had then been no martyrdoms in this England of ours. But it was enough for him to follow where GOD led.

He was a soldier, and he