patient, what it is to deny ourselves, what it is to believe, and to hope, and to love. These are life, or the seeds of life, at any rate, they will be ripened when the sun is risen ; but they are quickened, they live under the dawn. Christ's Spirit is consciously within us, we are not perfectly but in some degree, not always, yet surely sometimes, spiritually minded. “At that day,” our Lord says further, “ At that

“ day, ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” You can see the words in the Bible; indeed they are there ;—this promise, all gracious as it is, rising it might seem beyond the portion of humanity ;-our blessed Lord did speak them, and His beloved disciple, St. John, who himself heard them, has recorded them. “ Ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” When we feel spiritual life within us, then our eyes are more and more opened, and we know where we are. When our first parents sinned, it is said that their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked; they whose eyes are opened by the growth of spiritual life within them, know that they are not naked, not forsaken, not poor, not miserable; but clothed upon, and redeemed, and rich, and happy; that God is around them on every side; that they are—it may be spoken in no other words than in Christ's ownthat “they are in Him, and He in them.” This they know with an assured belief, with what may be called an actual consciousness; the world is now possessed as it were by God, and filled by Him altogether; the world is filled by God, and so are their own hearts besides.

And where is danger then, or uncertain walking; whether we are to pass our days at home or abroad; in public life or in private, in one profession or in another; whether the voice of dispute is raging around us, or error reigns without dispute all but triumphant: is not our path plain and sure, and does it not lead straight to heaven? Therefore wait for Christ; not carelessly or as men asleep, but wait and watch. This day speaks of the first descent of the Holy Spirit, when He came as the Spirit of power to bear witness to Christ outwardly; but the text in the Gospel speaks also of another descent, and more abiding and more perfect; not of the Holy Spirit of power only, but of the Holy Spirit alike of power, and of wisdom, and of love. This is our great and precious promise ; in the certain hope of attaining to this, we are to watch and to wait. Therefore be of good courage, as many

of you as are waiting but have not yet seen the dawn; who pray, but pray with effort; who believe, yet are full of unbelief. Still pray, and still believe, and still watch ; turn not back; do not give up the point whereunto you have attained, but abide there with anxious patience. Watch

your lives carefully, weed out whatever sin you can observe; this is the proof that you are in earnest, and not liars to God and to yourselves; but wait and pray for Christ to appear, and to establish you with His righteousness, and to grant you to live consciously because He lives, and to know that He is in the Father, and you in Him, and He

in you.

May 15, 1842.

A PRAYER,

WRITTEN FOR THE EVENING OP WHIT-SUNDAY, MAY 15, 1842.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, in whom alone is man's strength, from whom all good things come to us, the will to please Thee, and the power to fulfil it; look down upon us Thy servants here assembled before Thee at the end of this Thy holy day, and suffer not that which we have heard with our ears, or read with our eyes this day, to have been heard or read in vain. O Lord Jesus Christ, of whose only grace it cometh that Thy outward ordinances are profitable to our souls, grant that Thy holy communion, of which some of us have been this day partakers, may be to them an abiding blessing : that through Thy Holy Spirit working in them and with them, it may become a real and lasting communion with Thee. Put it into our hearts to think of Thee sometimes amidst the stir of our daily life; and when the thought has come to us, O save us from the sin of turning away from it; but make us to follow it readily, and to cherish it, and by it to try what we are doing, whether we are doing it according to Thy will or no.

If we should wickedly put such good thoughts from us, and grieve Thy Holy Spirit; yet, O Lord ! of Thy great mercy do not leave us quite to ourselves, to take our own hard and careless way, but by any means whatever, yea, even by chastisements grievous to be borne, do Thou save us from the sleep of death, and let us hear Thy call once again.

And, O gracious Father, who willest not the death of a sinner, nor that any one who would turn to Thee should be driven to despair ; be pleased of Thy mercy, whenever Thou dost awaken us, to stand before us not as a God of judgment only, but as a God of salvation. Put it into our hearts that Thou art the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that Thou didst give Him for us all, that our sins might be blotted out for His sake.

Let the thought of Thy mercy to us in Thy beloved Son fill us with a true and living faith ; strong and victorious over all our sins and all our temptations. Grant, that keeping this faith we

may not turn from Thee in fear, but may come before Thee boldly, according to Thy will, crying Abba, Father.

To Thee are known all our weaknesses and all our dangers; more than any words of ours can speak, Thine eye seeth in us.

Have mercy upon us, and be with us each and all; be with old and young alike, strengthening each according to his need, and bringing us more and more into the faith and love of Thy holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.