hope also that when the season of Lent shall return again, the improvement in us may be still greater.

Therefore I would repeat in substance what I said twelve months since, about the manner of keeping Lent, to our own benefit and that of our brethren. There is a kind of fasting which can be nothing but good for us to practise. We all know that in our daily eating and drinking we eat and drink many things which we do not need, but which merely give us pleasure. I do not mean that we sin against temperance in so eating and drinking; I do not think that we do: in this as in other things, it is God's gracious will to give us not only enough for necessity, but for pleasure also. But surely if there be such a thing as selfdenial in the world, here is the fit place for its exercise; it is here that, as a discipline, it is most complete, while it cannot be carried into absurd excesses for of course when we speak of selfdenial, we do not mean the denial of our highest self, nor yet of such things as ought to be no part of ourselves at all. For we do not call it self-denial not to commit a great crime, even though it may cost us an effort not to commit it, because the love of wickedness is no part of our proper self at all. Nor, on the other hand, is it self-denial to deny our highest self: as, for example, he whose pleasure it was to do God's will could not be said

to practise self-denial, if he were to abstain from doing it. But self-denial relates to something which does belong to ourselves, but yet is not our highest property; and this especially applies to our pleasure in bodily enjoyments. This pleasure is really natural, but it does not belong to our highest nature, and it is apt to overgrow that higher nature if not restrained. This restraining it is, then, the exact business of what we call selfdenial.

Now it is the manifest effect of self-denial thus understood, to increase the pleasures of the higher part of our nature. I mean as thus :-Suppose any one of us, to take the most trifling instance, denies himself some pleasure in eating and drinking, for the sake of following Christ after his measure, and doing some little good to his neighbour. We know that along with the restraint of one sort of pleasure there comes the enjoyment of a pleasure of another sort—the pleasure of feeling that, so far as that one action goes, Christ approves of us; that we are so far the children of God and at peace with God. I speak of this pleasure quite confidently as of a thing which all understand, and feel to be more delightful than any other. Beforehand, I grant, it is not so tempting as other pleasures are; and therefore, as we live so much by sight and so little by faith, we too often take the other pleasures and pass by this. But whenever,

by God's grace, we have known what it is to enjoy this, whenever, I mean, we have denied ourselves for the sake of pleasing Christ or our brethren,—we are all agreed that no pleasure is so delightful; we never are sorry that we have chosen it; and if we do choose it often, then the sense of its happiness begins to possess us afterwards in memory, and we are led to make choice of it again. But he who never denies himself never allows himself to feel it; he knows not what it is, and does not believe in its delightfulness.

Only observe, that this highest pleasure only comes when we deny ourselves really on right motives. If any one denies himself any indulgence for the sake of gaining credit for it from men, there cannot be in him that delightful sense of being approved of by God, and having so far followed Christ; because he knows that God does not approve such a motive, nor is he following Christ when acting upon it. So it was said in the Epistle of this day, that a man might give all his goods to feed the poor, and yet be without charity. He could not give away so largely without in some sense denying himself; he must cut off some of his pleasures by doing it; but if he does it for the sake of gaining credit for his liberality, he cannot gain that highest pleasure of which I have spoken, the pleasure of having pleased God, and therefore being loved by Him. And it is my earnest wish

that Lent should give you a taste of this pleasure. Therefore I do not speak of the distress which exists around us, as I might well do, because I am not asking you to give in order to procure a large sum of money for the relief of the bodily wants of our neighbours, but in order to let you know and feel what it is to deny yourselves for Christ's sake. I will explain what I mean more clearly if my main object was to obtain money from you for the relief of some of the poor around us, I should be glad of course to see a large sum collected, and I should not be sorry that some of you should write home to your friends to ask them to send you money for your subscription. This would be reasonable in that case, because then my chief object would be the bodily relief of the poor, and not your spiritual improvement. But now it is quite different; I ask you to give for your own sakes, that you may practise self-denial, for the sake of pleasing Christ. Therefore if any one writes home for money either beforehand in order to enable him to subscribe, or afterwards to make up to him what he has subscribed, his gift is wholly worthless; I would many times rather that it were not given. Whatever is given is absolutely thrown away for the purpose for which I desire it, if it is not so much fairly and honestly taken from your own indulgences and given to Christ. It is of no use if it be not truly your own gift, and given in

the spirit of charity. Therefore let every one give as he is disposed in his heart, for God loveth a cheerful giver. Those who did give in this cheerful and self-denying spirit last year, will, I am sure, enter into what I have been saying: they will know what it was that alone made their gift of value. Most earnestly do I hope that what is given may be given in this spirit only; and then, be it much or little, I shall think that for those who have given it, it has been at least a source of blessing.

Lent was,

Yet one thing more must be added. by its institution, a season of discipline; it was to make us fit to rejoice with Christ, when we celebrate His resurrection. He who magnifies himself for having adopted the discipline of selfdenial, who dwells on his act with satisfaction, as a thing done, and on the strength of which he may afterwards live the more freely, he too makes his gift, and the self-denial that may have accompanied it, not only to be of no good to himself, but to be a positive evil. The self-denial in that case is a mere cheat upon his own conscience; he has not practised it in order to learn what it is to please God and to be loved by Him, but in order to purchase, as he thinks, the right of not trying to please God afterwards: he denies his lower pleasure only for the sake of indulging it hereafter with less scruple, not at all that he may deny it again

K