one were going to promise the other had promised already, and what was said to urge the one to keep it when he had promised it, would apply no less to the other, either as an encouragement or a reproof.

What would be true of baptism is true of confirmation. What those who are going to be confirmed a few weeks hence will promise then, the younger members of our congregation will promise hereafter, the older members have promised before. Nay, even the members of another church, who neither have been nor ever will be confirmed according to our ordinance, would yet be concerned in the subject no less; because what we either have promised or will promise in confirmation openly in the presence of other men, they did virtually promise in their baptism, and if they are Christians at all, it must be with them no less than with us the business of their lives to keep it.

Let no one think, therefore, that if what I am going to say has reference to the approaching confirmation, it is therefore only the concern of those who are then to be confirmed. It is no less the concern of us all, old and young alike. In this as in all the other occasional services of the church, those for whom they are immediately performed do but stand forward in a manner to represent their brethren; what is said or done to one belongs not to one but to many. I gladly therefore seize

the opportunity of the approaching confirmation to put into something of a regular form those truths which indeed concern us all alike; for though many of us may know them well enough, yet who is there who does them so perfectly as not to need to have his mind stirred up by them again in the way of remembrance.

On the day of the confirmation the Bishop puts this question to all that are to be confirmed: "Do ye here in the presence of God and of this congregation renew the solemn promise and vow that was made in your name at your baptism: ratifying and confirming the same in your own persons, and acknowledging yourselves bound to believe and to do all those things which your godfathers and godmothers then undertook for you?" And when they have answered each, "I do," then after a few short prayers, the Bishop lays his hand upon the head of each of them and says, "Defend, O Lord, this thy servant, with thy heavenly grace, that he may continue thine for ever, and daily increase in thy Holy Spirit more and more, until he come unto thy everlasting kingdom." Here we have, in this short question and answer, and in the laying on of the Bishop's hand and his prayer, the whole substance of the rite of confirmation. And we see at once that the question thus put, although to be answered aloud by those only who are then to be confirmed, is yet one really which it concerns

us to answer in our hearts to God every day, and that prayer which the Bishop offers for those then confirmed, when he lays his hand upon their heads, is the prayer which we all also need daily, and the fulfilment of which would be the greatest blessing that we could enjoy upon earth. And as that prayer would not be offered for one who were to refuse to renew the promise required of him just before, so neither can it be offered effectually for us, whenever we also refuse in heart to renew the very same promise. God's grace will not defend us, nor shall we continue His for ever, nor increase in His Holy Spirit more and more, nor ever come to His everlasting kingdom, except so far as we do in heart continually renew that promise, and in our lives continually perform it. Let us see, then, what that promise is which we all have given once in our baptism, which we all have to renew in our hearts every day as long as we live, and which some of us will renew with their lips also in the sight not of God only but of men.

66

We promise to keep our vow made in baptism and the vow made in our names at our baptism is as follows. "I renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the carnal desires of the flesh, so that I will not follow nor be led by them."-"I believe in God's holy word which declares to us all the articles of

the Christian faith, and I believe those articles of the Christian faith."-"And I will obediently keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of my life." This is our baptismal vow, made then in our names, and spoken by the lips of others, renewed or to be renewed by us at our confirmation with our own lips, renewed and to be renewed by us all in our hearts every day to the end of our lives, unless we would undo the work of our baptism, and having been once brought near to God, refuse to abide with Him for ever.

This, then, is our baptismal vow, consisting, as we have heard, of three parts. First, we promise to renounce or give up evil things; next we declare that we believe true things; and lastly, we promise to do good things. We cast away the evil, that we may learn the truth and do the good. We cast away the evil which else would hinder us from seeing the truth and from doing the good. We learn the truth, because without the truths so taught us, we never could do the good. We do the good, because that is the great end of all, unless we do that, the evil which we have cast away will return sevenfold; and the truths which we have learnt will be no blessing to us, but our condemnation.

But in our hearts and lives, the evil which we cast away is for ever returning: the truths which

we have learnt, we are for ever forgetting; the good which we should do we are continually leaving undone. Wherefore, as I said, our baptismal promise requires to be renewed not once only at our confirmation, but continually all our lives. We never can hear another renewing it with his lips without having great cause to renew it ourselves also, for his need of renewing it is not greater than ours. And as the three parts of our vow, although distinct, are yet all renewed together at our confirmation, so do they need to be also by us all. We do not at one time need to renew one part, and at another time another part. If we kept one, we should keep all; breaking one, we break and have need to renew all. Repentance, faith, and holiness are joined inseparably in all our earthly life; it is only by keeping them so joined that we shall come to that blessed division of them when, there being no more sin, there will be no more repentance; when sight will leave no place for faith, and holiness shall then be all in all for

ever.

Every day we need repentance. Our baptismal vow promised to renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the carnal desires of the flesh, so that we would not follow or be led by them. We promised to resist all those temptations which our Lord Himself, who in all