to follow. They proclaim the truth of our Lord's seeming paradox,-" Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospel, the same shall preserve it."

Let not one of us set at nought the lesson. Let us not say, it is a lesson suitable only for persons of a high religious temperament, but out of place when addressed to ourselves; rather let us be sure, that it is a lesson good for us all, and one we can, none of us, with safety set aside.

A life that never goes beyond the level of common practice, that is never quickened by any effort of unusual charity, or unusual self-denial; a life that even in its religion is a selfish life, that seeks its own, and not the things which are Jesus Christ's; that knows nothing of His constraining love; that never contemplates the giving up of field, or house, or ease, or pleasure, or natural inclination, or party views, the better to advance His cause in the world ;-such a life is not, surely, the life that we can be content to lead; certainly it is not the life exhibited for our pattern in the Gospel.

Should such be our life, oh, let us not rest. satisfied in it. Let us awake, and pray Him to awaken us, to a truer sense of what we owe to our Redeemer. Let us fix in our minds the thought, that all we have, is His; all we hope for,

rests on what He has done, and suffered for us; and let the thought push us forward to work heartily for Him, to keep back nothing of our possessions, nothing of what we hold the dearest, from Him, to spend, and be spent gladly in His service.

It may be, that the utmost we can accomplish will be small; it may be, that our poor efforts to serve the Lord Christ, will show as nothing, compared with what some of our kind have wroughtbut this need not dishearten us; the judgment on our work, will be passed by One Who judges by a just measure, Who can have compassion, and make a difference; and if we have done our best"what we could" we shall have the seal of His approval; we shall have been faithful in our few things, and that fidelity—we have His word for it will gain for us admission into the joy of our Lord.

Shiplake, 1856.

SERMON XI.

WATCHFULNESS.

ST. MARK, xiii. 35, 36.

"Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning. Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping."

FOUR times, brethren, within the short space of seven weeks, have we been called upon to read the service for the dead, in this church. Once it was for a comparative stranger. The other three times, for persons well known amongst us, who lived and died in our own parish.

Of these, the first who went was a little child; taken after a short illness to his Saviour's restcalled in his innocence, and early spring, to a better and happier lot-transplanted from this rough world, to flourish, we believe, in the courts of the house of our God.

The other two were aged men. One of them so advanced in years, as to have over-stepped the limit, which the Psalmist sets as only to be reached

by the strong. The other falling short of this, yet he, too, well stricken in years.

Now, I am not going to speak to you about the lives and characters of these our departed brethren. They lived among you here, and you were witnesses how they lived. You saw their good, and you saw their evil. You will probably have your own judgment of them. All I would say is, Judge them charitably; or, what is better, keep from judging them altogether. Remember the Lord's word, "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned."

But while I refrain from any comment upon the manner of life, and conversation of those we have so lately lost-while, as a rule, I would eschew what are called funeral sermons, I see no impropriety, but rather the contrary, in taking occasion from their deaths, to address you on a subject that concerns us all, viz. the necessity of so living, that we may be prepared to die; that when the Master calls we may be ready; that if He come at any hourat the first watch, as was the case with that little boy; or at the second watch, when we have reached manhood; or if He come at the third watch, when life is far spent-as with those two last summoned - He may not come to our confusion-may not take us by surprise, but may find us watching.

This, then, is our subject to-day- Watchfulness;

for in that one word is summed up the preparation of a Christian.

What, then, does the term mean, as used in the Holy Scripture? It means, being on the lookout-living in expectation of Jesus Christ -doing His work-attending to His charge-occupying ourselves so as to improve the talents, one or more, He has entrusted to us-trying to do the best with our Lord's money, that He may receive His own with interest. In short, watchfulness means leading that sort of life, which, were it to be broken off to-morrow, would turn to our great gain—that sort of life which would warrant our friends in reckoning us "blessed,"-not because they must naturally wish it—not because it would be pain, and grief to them, to think anything else of us— but because they had good ground for their conclusion; because they had seen us, while still with them, to be men of this stamp,-" always abounding in the work of the Lord."

Such is watchfulness-the watchfulness commanded us in the Gospel. I have described it in a few words. Let us draw out more at length what has been said. And let us do this with a view to practice, trying ourselves, as we go on, by the measure here made ready to our hands.

First, then, watchfulness implies that we are looking for Christ-living in expectation of His