in earnest; to consider what else we can do besides our immediate and necessary business; to hallow that by devoting it consciously to God's service, which before was never hallowed at all, even when the work in which it was spent was in itself good? One day of such Christian watchfulness, even with respect to one single known fault, whether of omission or commission, will undoubtedly bring with it enough of effort, and enough of pain, to show us that the death of sin is no easy and unconscious process, no mere walking on the way which we are in, as if it would of itself lead us right at the last.

But now suppose farther, that any one while so watching against one particular fault, and so praying, were to have his eyes opened more generally; were to see his faults, not in one point or points only, but as running through his whole nature; were to look at the commands of God's law, which bid us to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul, and our neighbour as ourselves. This is very often the crisis of a man's whole state; the view thus opened may be too much for him, the contest which he sees before him may be too great; he may shrink from it, and resolutely shut his eyes upon it, and comfort himself with the old charm of unbelief, whispering to the sinner that he shall not surely die.

Many, I believe, struggle successfully against

one marked fault, but fly back from the prospect of having to overcome a whole sinful nature, and having to become made anew after God's image. The evil spirit which was cast out returns with seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and the man is lost for ever. So it is but too often, but so it is not always. Let us suppose, then, that we bear this sight of our general sinfulness, not with a cowardly despair, but with a Christian resolution; that feeling as St. Paul did, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death," we may add his other words no less, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Then indeed there begins that struggle which may be truly called the death of sin. Then sin is looked for and hunted out, as it were, of every thought, and word, and deed, and then it appears, to our amazement, how deeply it had possessed us. Then our old nature begins to die sensibly, in no part without pain. What a multitude of evil thoughts possess us, what a multitude of evil words we utter, what a multitude of evil deeds we do, when they are all seen by the light of God's grace, kindling in our own hearts an answering fire of holy resolution, which leaves no part within us unenlightened! Do I say that such a work could be accomplished in a fortnight? Nay, rather it will be the work of our lives; it will not be finished, we may be well assured, till Christ calls us to Himself.

But it may be begun in a fortnight, or in less time; it may be begun truly and consciously. We may feel, not that we have conquered sin within us, but that we have discovered it and are struggling against it; we may feel that it has begun to die; we may feel, at least, that it has died in our purposes, that we are set against it utterly, that we have learnt to know it, to watch for it, to renounce it. This may be done by any of us, before the next fourteen days be over. And by

whomsoever it shall be done, whoever he is who, resolving first to watch for and to resist some one or more known faults, has thus learnt to see into himself far more deeply, has seen the sin which has dominion over his whole nature, and has cried out for Christ's help to conquer it, he, when he comes to the confirmation or to the communion, will come as one needing and seeking strength in those ordinances, and therefore sure to find it; he will derive from them a greater grace for the time to come, and will go on dying to sin more and more, and living more and more to God.

May 16, 1841.

SERMON X.

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT.

1 CORINTHIANS, vi. 15, 19, 20.

Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? What! Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price.

I Do not know that any words could be more suitable than these for our consideration this day. I said some time since that all church ordinances, such as confirmation and the holy communion, had their side of death no less than their side of life; that along with their blessing if used aright, lay their danger if abused. And now as the prospect of our receiving these ordinances is nearer, I would have the sense of this to be present to us more strongly; but I would have us consider also that this double aspect of good and of harm belongs not to particular church ordinances only, but to our

whole condition; that the words of the text, which apply to us all, whether we be confirmed next Sunday or no, whether we mean to receive the communion next Sunday or no, yet involve in them the very same truths; we are all the members of Christ, we are all the temples of the Holy Ghost; we are all of us no longer our own, but bought with a price; and those things cannot be true of us for nothing.

Even then, if there were any amongst us who in the carelessness of an evil heart were rejoicing in himself, saying, as it were, "I am not to be confirmed next week,-I am not going to receive the communion, what is said of the danger of abusing these ordinances does not concern me;" if, I say, there were any one amongst us who in his own evil heart did in secret breathe such a thought as this; yet let him be told that his rejoicing, as it is most wicked, so is it also most foolish. For though he may not be going to be confirmed, though he may turn his back upon the Lord's table, either wilfully, or because he is too young to approach it, yet still his body is a member of Christ;-still he is a part of the Holy Ghost's temple, still he is not his own, but bought with a price; so that Christ's hand is upon him still, and it is in vain that he would in a manner stand aside amongst mere spectators, as if he did in no sort belong to Him. Let him deny