thoughts; when spiritual sloth creeps over us; when we pray without thought or earnestness, and live many hours of every day without any sense of God's presence.

I fear, dear brethren, that many of us are satisfied with something short of victory. Many a man is self-complacent and secure, because he is free from gross and open sins such as he sees other men committing, and because he observes some religious duties; and yet his whole life is passed in continued subjection to evil. Some one, or two, or three sinful habits have established a dominion of which he is

wholly unconscious. Every time the temptation which has especial power occurs, he yields, and forgets that it is sin, because he has been so long accustomed to yield. And perhaps for this very reason Satan spares him temptation to grosser transgressions, lest his eyes should be opened to the degraded state in which he is living. For "Satan," you know, "is" sometimes "transformed into an angel of light;" and it is well for us that we should not be "ignorant of his devices.” 8

Be sure, then, my brethren, it is quite possible for a man to be constant at Church, to be regular in his habits, to use private prayer, and even to come to the Holy Communion, and yet secretly be the slave of sin, either consciously so, or unconsciously. I say it is possible for a man to do all those good things which I have mentioned, and yet be the willing slave of some enticing lust. But the more common state, perhaps, is to be tied and bound with the 8 2 Cor. xi. 14, and ii. 11.

many invisible and insensible chains of evil habits. Yet to submit to such habits willingly, and without an earnest effort, nay, many and continued earnest efforts to get free, is a deadly sin. In other words, while some men will openly, and others secretly, yet knowingly, bind their hands and feet with the chains of deadly sin, others are slothfully allowing theinselves to be entangled in the snares and nets of Satan. Some men will cherish the serpent till he bite them, while some will walk carelessly and unguarded near his haunts, neither fearing the bite of his poisonous tooth, nor prepared to resist his fierce attacks; but Christ crushed the serpent's head. He did not parley with sin; He did not listen with complacency to the tempter; but at once rebuked him in the words of inspiration, and thus drove him far away. And in His daily life He went about continually doing good, and working the work of Him that sent Him; and more than this, He seasoned all His work with heavenly contemplations and with prayer, retiring for whole nights unto the mountain top, or withdrawing to the garden where He was wont to pray, or seeking solitude in some desert place.

Thus, dear brethren, He has left us an example that we should follow His steps. He carried on a real warfare, and worked a real work; He fasted, and prayed, loved holiness, and bowed Himself to His Father's will; and thus He accomplished the vast work of our salvation, and obtained a real victory therefore was He rewarded with a real triumph, and earned a glorious reward, which He

then graciously and bountifully distributed to those for whom He had worked, and conquered, and died, and risen.

And if, beloved, we do a real work after His example, fight a real fight, and earn a real victory, we too shall have a real triumph, and a sure reward.

His triumph is the pledge of ours; and His gift the earnest of gifts still greater, which they that receive them shall never lose, for they are the waters of life that flow from the Throne of God; the joys of heaven that never pall; the flowers of heaven that never wither; a purity never sullied; a love never deprived and never wearied of its object; the sweet songs of the ever-blessed; the company of angels; and the face of Christ ever beaming upon them.

No humble earnest soul shall lose its share in that most glorious triumph, for He that hath overcome the sharpness of death has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. There shall the little babe be found that died in its innocence after being washed in the pure waters. There shall the gentle, loving, and obedient child be carried for ever in the arms of the Good Shepherd. There shall the patient, laborious, much-enduring mother find rest, who loved her children's souls, and trained them up for God. There shall the poor find consolation, who was poor in spirit; and there shall the rich find boundless treasure, who has laid up treasure there by works of mercy for Christ's sake. There shall the faithful minister of Christ, who has not grudged to "spend

and be spent "9 for the souls over whom he had charge, find his sure reward, and a sweet welcome from those whom he has turned to righteousness.

All these shall triumph in Christ when He shall come again and receive them to Himself. Not one who, abiding in Christ, has earnestly contended for the faith, or kept under his body and brought it into subjection, or striven to enter in at the strait gate, or borne patiently the burden and heat of the day, or converted sinners from the error of their ways, or visited the sick or the prisoner, or ministered to Christ in His poor,10 shall then be wanting to His triumph, who shall rejoice in the salvation of His elect, and receive them unto Himself for ever, that where He is, there they may be also.1

10 St. Jude, 3;

12; St. James, v.

11

92 Cor. xii. 15.

11

1 Cor. ix. 27; St. Luke, xiii. 24; St. Matt. xx. 20; St. Matt. xxv. 36; St. Mark, xiv. 7.

Isaiah, liii. 11; St. John, xiv. 3.

187

SERMON XVI.

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT BROUGHT NIGH BY THE

SPIRIT.

DEUT. XXX. 11-14.

"For this commandment, which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it ? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it."

It is not simply as memorials that the Church has set apart such holy seasons as Christmas, Easter, or Whitsuntide, but because she really expects to receive of God the very same blessings which were originally bestowed upon the Church by the events, or at the times, which we commemorate.

We believe, therefore, that God will pour out of His Spirit more abundantly at this season, as He poured it out on the Day of Pentecost, when the saying of the Psalmist was fulfilled in a spiritual sense, "Thou, O God, sentest a gracious rain upon