vances in it, the more perfect he will be, and the more desirous also to be more perfect still. Thus you see how necessary to our Christian well-being is a habit of watchfulness. You perceive that we cannot begin without it, for how else are we to attend to the voice of the Spirit? How else are we to receive his directions as to what is good and what is bad for us? How else are we to use his means, and make the best of his opportunities? And how can all this possibly be done amidst all that careless and uninquiring ease with which too many are content to regard their state in this world, as if they had nothing serious to learn, nothing dangerous to provide against; though they have to learn the way to heaven, and to provide against the way to hell? How often does a man reply to the warning of a prudent friend, "Why, I see no harm in it!" And is not this the reply which our heart is naturally inclined to return to the secret warnings of the all-discerning Spirit? Thus the misgiving which He has prompted, thus the reluctance which He has stirred up, are put down. But it is in instantly obeying these, against the persuasions and delusion of the world within and without us, that our lesson lies. Can we learn to read without learning the letters, and dividing a word into syllables; without this, can we tell one word from another? And yet syllables and letters are in themselves of no

meaning to us. So it is in those things in which our uninquiring heart sees no harm. They have no meaning, forsooth, either one way or another; but must they not be attended to before we can come to the practice of the word of God? assuredly they must. The Spirit insists upon their being learnt before He will teach us further. Does it not sometimes happen to a man that he does not feel comfortable about something that he is doing, or has been led to do? Here is a warning to look seriously and sincerely at the thing; to inquire of the Holy Spirit; to lay it before God in prayer; to compare it with his written word; and when all this has been done, has he not found that not only something was not right, but that all was wrong? and has he not thanked God in the name of Jesus Christ, and blessed his Holy Spirit, having found how he has been delivered from a dangerous delusion, and saved from a most perilous course of temptation?

Such is the spirit of watchfulness required from all that would be under the blessed guidance of the Lord and Giver of life, of the Spirit of God, which at the beginning moved upon the face of the waters, and is even at this day moving upon the face of the great deep of the human heart, quickening its things into life and light. We must watch, as being quickened and awakened from sleep; we must watch, as liable every moment to have some order or

warning from our Guide; and we must watch, as having an enemy, who tries continually to blind our eyes and deafen our ears to all that the Spirit shows or tells. And we must watch unto the end, that when He cometh, our Lord may find us watching.

SERMON XXVI.

SPIRITUAL COMPREHENSION.
(Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity.)

EPHESIANS iii. 18, 19.

"May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."

THERE is here presented to us the view which is enjoyed by the saints, or holy servants of the Lord. And it grows clearer and wider as they advance on their Christian course, from faith through the various degrees of increasing love, until they come to the fulness of the comprehension of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, and experience the fulness of his love in the full apprehension of the love of Christ, whom He gave to the world, that all that believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

He likens this Christian to a man who is beholding some immense and magnificent building. Such an one is, at first, bewildered by its

size, and distracted by its many and minute parts. The height is painful to his eye, the depth makes him dizzy, the length and the breadth seem without bounds. Pillars and buttresses, windows and doors, seem a heap of immense confusion. But in time he begins to apprehend the plan of the building, and as this becomes more and more clear, he sees the relations and bearing of the various parts; he estimates the height and the depth, and the length and the breadth, and ends in comprehending the whole building in his eye and mind, in all its fulness and harmony of proportion.

And have not all of us a building to look at, and that not of the hands of men, but of God? Is not the edifice of God's work of might and mercy, glory and love, before the eyes of the Christian, if he will but look? O! to what a spectacle indeed, to what a view of goodness and majesty, have we been admitted through the inestimable privilege of our profession. And shall we not use this privilege? Shall we not look upon such excellence? Only gaze for a while on that which is revealed to the eye of faith, and see how good and glorious the work of the Lord is.

Look upward, survey the height of his work. Is your eye faint at such stretching, confused at such extent? Yet have patience and faith, look upward and upward still. Even as your