God. But in very truth our faith is often very weak,-weak as the grain of mustard-seed,―it needs all the helps that it can have in order to rise and lay hold on Christ firmly. And it is this weak faith which our neighbour's faith would strengthen, which his indifference tends to quench. If we look around for an instant in this place, and see faces of listlessness, of weariness, of carelessness, perhaps for a moment actually irreverent, if we hear no sound of prayer or praise from any lips, but a general silence, as if we were unconcerned spectators or listeners to a worship that is not ours, how is it possible but that our own devotion should in some degree be checked also; when in this very place, what we see bears witness to the reality of the world and not to the reality of the things of God?

But let us proceed to other duties, and ask whether we help or hinder each other in them. And can we deny that we too often do greatly hinder, that we rarely help? We know full well that in your most direct duty of all, in diligence, namely, in the work of your education, you are often greatly and directly hindered; we know that to be diligent often exposes a boy to direct annoyance, often to ridicule. I have said before, what I believe to be strictly true, that this is a fault absolutely peculiar to schools; that I never heard of any other places where the especial business of

any society was made a matter of persecution among its members. I never heard that among soldiers a man became popular by awkwardness, laziness, or cowardice, or that he was annoyed if he tried to learn his exercises well, and to become what a soldier should be. But at schools, undoubtedly, he who endeavours to be what a scholar should be is apt to be more or less annoyed; he who wishes really to make use of his time, he who wishes to improve himself, and to do his work well, is likely to be opposed by those about him, rather than to be encouraged. Or, passing to other things, have we never heard of any one's being tempted to disobedience, tempted to extravagance, tempted to drinking? Have we never heard of any one being more or less laughed at or obstructed if he wished to be obedient, if he wished to be careful of his money, if he was resolved neither to be drunken nor to drink? Then in these things are we like Christ's church, or are we like a society of unbelievers? Do we help one another to welcome this great festival of Easter with exceeding joy, or do we rather hinder one another, and keep ourselves in that state that God's ordinances, like the pillar of the cloud of old, are to us nothing but darkness?

We are false to each other, and to our common Lord in the highest degree, when we do thus hinder one another. We are false to our covenant

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in baptism, we are false to our covenant renewed at Christ's holy table, as before so also renewed by many of us this day. I doubt not, I never do doubt, that those who meet us at that holy table meet us in all sincerity; I doubt not that they consider what it is that they are doing; that they pray and resolve to lead better lives, and to be what Christ would wish them to be. Only I would earnestly ask them to remember, that one of the greatest parts of their duty is their duty to their brethren; that they cannot please Christ if they take no thought for, much more if they in any way obstruct or make more difficult, the salvation of others. And I would say, farther, that it matters little if you do not hinder each other in your socalled religious duties, if you hinder each other from serving God in your lives. You may not interrupt a boy at his prayers, you may not in the slightest degree laugh at him or discourage him; if a young boy goes to the communion, you may not only not annoy him yourselves, but may restrain the annoyance of others. But of what avail is this either to you or him, if you taunt his diligence, if you laugh at his sobriety, if you despise him for his obedience. "Hath the Lord as great pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?" Does He care for the bended knee and the reverent face at certain moments, and in particular places, so much as for the ready

heart, and the obedient life, doing His will always in work and in play, resolved to follow Him in its moments of greatest freedom no less than in those of strictest observance? You do not hinder your brethren's prayers, but you hinder that for which God bids them pray; namely, the daily service of their hearts and lives. You would not deter any from coming to the communion, but you would crush the fruit of that communion the instant that it began to show itself in any one's daily practice. You know that I do not say this because I do not value reverence for sacred things. Glad indeed am I to see you attentive here, to believe that you respect God's worship, that you pray yourselves, and would wish others to pray also. But I am glad to see and to believe this, only because it affords a constant hope that it is, if not the sign, yet the forerunner of a real faith in you; that from reverent prayer you will rise to holy living. If this is not to be, then vain is the prayer, and the reverence is in God's sight but hypocrisy. We are not really Christ's, but shall be cast out of His kingdom with all things that offend, and with them that do iniquity; with all, that is, who attempt or encourage others in evil, or who do evil themselves. April 11, 1841.

SERMON VII.

THE BAPTISMAL VOW.

1 PETER, ii. 2, 3.

As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

It is the order of the Church, although frequently disregarded, that the baptism of our children should be celebrated in the midst of the church service, on Sundays or other holidays, when the most number of people come together; for this reason with others, that in the baptism of infants every man present may be put in remembrance of his own profession made to God in his baptism. And in the same way, if baptism were administered to grown up persons, whatever addresses were made to them to prepare them for that sacrament, might be made no less usefully to others who had been already baptized; inasmuch as what the