itself a grace! Nevertheless every one of us is also, to some extent or other, in sin; and in sin which, to the outside of our power, must be vanquished, must be forsaken, must be forgiven if we be to be saved; sin which, if there was no Redeemer, would destroy hope. This is the universal condition of the world. Therefore to suppose that because you have been called to be of the seed of Christ you are of course sure of the garner, is not at all a safe belief.

No doubt whenever calls are sent and grace is given-and this is, I believe, the case of every onethere a Christian perseverance will lead on to acceptance in Christ. But a Christian perseverance means a great deal. It means a strong and determined courage to follow wherever Christ leads, disregarding pains and exertions of the body, disregarding the sneers or derisions and oppositions offered to the spirit; it means a constant watchfulness to avoid temptation, a constant prayer for strength; it means the quickest self-charging, the most deep repentance for any failing of duty; it means the most prompt and full reparation where any injury has been done. All this can only be obtained by the help of God, and the means to obtain help has just been mentioned,-constant prayer for strength. This is a Christian's life, and wherever it is sincerely followed, in trust in God, there graces, and fresh calls, and new supports, and succeeding victories, all will come in; and this will be the course and the career of the soul till the end cometh, final acceptance in Christ,

and glory in the Lord, which are the promised fruit of this labouring together with God.

Finally, then, my brethren, Christ has been made an offering for sin; and He has seen His seed, He daily sees His seed, He sees mankind more and more widely called to the knowledge of His redemption, and to be His adopted children. When the Church ordered that this prophetical chapter should be read to you to-day, she meant that you should see that Christ's coming, Christ's death, Christ's character and graces to mankind, were all foretold by the Holy Ghost; she meant also that you should reflect that the fulfilment of all these prophecies should convince you of the truth of their origin in God. And next she meant that by this chapter you should try yourselves; that you should say, "Am I of the seed of Christ still? I have been; I was once; I was called; my soul was once tender; perhaps I was once living a pure life; I was just, I was full of prayer, I was full of hope; it may be that once I looked up to God with a warm and a confiding heart; at any rate, once I was called; I have been of the seed of Christ; what am I now ?"

These are the plain questions with which the Church to-day would have you to humble your hearts and to search your spirits.

You are of the seed, but there is bad seed as well as good, there is barren as well as fruitful. The Church would have you ask yourselves which you are.

Christ's seed you are, and seed not wholly dead,

but many a man with a canker about his heart. My brethren, what I say is yet another call placed in the lips of Christ's appointed but unworthy minister; a call sent to you by His own especial ordination and rule; and therefore in conclusion I would say, "Search yourselves! search closely!" Then will I answer for you, you will pray; you will pray earnestly, and in fear; continue "instant in prayer"" and hope will come in, and comfort will grow, strength will be granted, and so obedience will flourish. The seed will live; there will be a harvest in your days, and for the sake of the "offering for sin," God will husband it in peace!

1 Rom. xii. 12.

SERMON X.

Third Sunday after Epiphany.

ROMANS xii. 16-18.

Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

THAT part of St. Paul's Epistle which the Church

has read in the Communion Service to-day, con

tains sundry rules by which we are required to govern ourselves in our intercourse with our neighbours and fellow creatures in general. They are rules which tend to make us holy, pure, humble, and spiritually minded in our own persons, and therefore more "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." As this is their character, and as the Church, in her course of Sunday teaching, has deemed it right to bring them now especially before our notice, I will make them the subject of the present discourse.

"Be not wise in your own conceits," saith St. Paul. To many men these words are as much as to say, "Come out of yourselves altogether, change your

a Col. i. 12.

selves entirely, alter your opinion of yourselves from beginning to end." Many men are so much given to rely on their own judgment, that they believe everything must be wrong which they cannot see to be right. They cannot suppose, self-love will not suffer them to suppose, that their own minds are too ignorant to enable them to judge on nice and difficult questions, but the more unlearned they are the more are they often given to think that they only can be right, and that every one who differs from them must be wrong. A man has reason to believe he is "wise in his own conceit" when he receives advice unwillingly; a humble and a wise man listens readily, he knows that goodness and wisdom may be sent to him, even through the mouth of the foolish, and he is glad to hear all that can be said on any matter which concerns him. But especially a man has reason to think that he is "wise in his own conceit" when he dislikes to be taught by those who are older or wiser than himself, when he sets up his opinion against those who are practised in their profession, and when he finds himself disputing on any subjects with those who have long made those subjects their own calling, their study and their practice, while he is well aware that he has never really studied it at all, or is so ignorant that he is not able to make it his study.

The Apostle's caution is not a sentence to be passed by lightly, for such people are by no means scarce,