own word, the sacred Scriptures, the fountain head of all divine knowledge. We need the firm confidence

that we have God's own and enduring testimony as the warrant and foundation of all that we hold. Nor need true ministers of the Church of England fear any part of God's word; their Church in its Articles, Homilies, and Formularies, is a scriptural church.

Such an assurance makes us bold before all men : as the apostle says, We are bold in our God to speak unto you the Gospel of God with much contention. It realizes sacred truth not merely as written in the letter of Scripture, but as a blessing that has been brought home personally to our hearts, our lives, and our daily experience; and is constantly enjoyed by us. We live by faith and not by sight, and such an inwrought belief of God's word, the effectual work of his Spirit in our hearts, fills us with power to confess his truth before all men, and to be bold and decided in his service. I believed and therefore have I spoken.

4. STEDFAST CONTINUANCE TO THE END in these things, is one further requisite which I would notice.

After every revival of religion, there is a danger of decay. Truth is less heartily embraced by those who receive it without difficulty, and confess it with little sacrifice, and then it becomes despised. The manna of God's free promises when it becomes common and ordinary food, grows loathsome. Hence when the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is known more by hearsay and

by education, than by a true and living faith, men are in danger of turning to heretical novelties, as Hymenæus and Alexander, who put away faith and a good conscience. Or they are in danger of turning to superstitious corruptions, fables, and endless genealogies, instead of walking in faith and love; of going back to the yoke of the law, instead of continuing in the grace of Christ. 1 Tim. i. 3, 14.

We have seen this in the Church of Christ at large, and in our own country. There has been an ebb and a flow of the revived truth of the Reformation from age to age; one angel messenger has had to succeed another, to sustain a continued and enlarged testimony to God's truth; (Rev. xiv.) but we are sure the kingdom of Christ must increase, and he shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth.

Now in contrast to that natural tendency to decay, which, through our corruptions, adheres to all human efforts, the true minister of Christ is here exhorted to continue in the things which he has learned and been assured of. By growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, and by deepening acquaintance with the living power of the Gospel, we must maintain, and enlarge, and confirm our faith and assurance. We must, like the wise virgins, have fresh supplies of truth, like sacred oil in our vessels, for all the lengthened waiting. We must, like that exemplary racer, St. Paul, be following on, forgetting those things which are

behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before. In these perilous times of the last days it will be wholly unworthy of our high calling to sink into mere ease and worldly enjoyment, or refined literary pleasures and indulgence, instead of going forth with all the ardent earnestness, the patient perseverance, and the severe struggle of the soldier of Christ fighting the good fight of faith; like Moses standing in the breach before the Lord, to turn away his wrath from a sinful people.

The laborious, faithful, and continued instruction of the people of our charge not only at the appointed public services, but in season and out of season, and especially in that very interesting and profitable season of confirmation, is to be our daily employment. The system of the Church of England, founded on the word of God, gives us admirable help. Our people are baptized in infancy, and if trained up in schools, instructed for confirmation, and admitted fully to the Church and its privileges, by that edifying ordinance, what a preparation has been made for their profiting by the future ministry of the word! When baptized they were admitted into a covenant standing before God as members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven; involving corresponding duties.* We have then vast advantages thus given us for urging

* See the Author's Treatise on Baptism, designed as a help to the due improvement of that Holy Ordinance, as administered in the Church of England.

them to a consistent course and beseeching them to believe all this early and tender love of their heavenly Father, to act worthy of their high calling, and thus exercise that repentance and faith to which they are already pledged, and which can alone assure us that the spiritual and heavenly blessings are really communicated to them. For never let us lose sight of the distinction, so much insisted upon in the New Testament, between the name to live and the real life; the form and the power of godliness; the tares and the wheat; the fruitless and the fruitful branches in the same vine. The fostering of all good works among them and by them, the making of our zealous people a blessing to others and an honour to their Church, and the nourishing of Societies which give them opportunities of greater personal comfort, or of increased knowledge, or of enlarged usefulness, require on our part much practical wisdom and patient continuance in well doing, amongst many hindrances and difficulties within and without. The constant visiting of all orders of our people by ourselves, or through those who assist us (and St. Paul had those who laboured with him in the Gospel), is greatly promoted through the formation of a Parochial District Visiting Society. The gathering toge

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See the Author's Sermon preached before the General District Visiting Society, May 6, 1841, reprinted in the last Edition of The Chief concerns of Man,' and for particulars respecting the Society, apply to the Secretary, 19, Exeter Hall, London. The

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ther the different classes such as those of communicants ; of old or of young; as also of men, or of women, or children; and giving them suitable instruction in these classes enables us more easily and effectually to accomplish the work of our ministry. A Bible class of poor men meeting weekly on Sunday morning before service, has been found much to interest that class of labourers which it is so difficult otherwise to reach.*

Let our parishes also take their full share in being a blessing to their fellow-men far and wide. Our people should have a lively interest in the truly Christian work now carrying forward whether in the Establishment of our Church in its full order in our Colonies; its increased efficiency at home; or by the great religious Societies of our day; such as the elder Societies,

valuable Society of Lay Scripture Readers, formed under the patronage of the Bishops of London and Winchester, furnishes great help in the metropolis.

*Nothing can be more simple than this Bible class meeting. The labourers of the parish may come together in the chancel an hour before the morning service. Commence with calling over the names, reading a hymn and a prayer for God's blessing. Then take one of the Lessons appointed by the Church for the day, and let those who can read join in reading ten or twelve verses, which after they have read, endeavour to make plain and easy to them. Then read ten or more verses, which are explained in a similar manner. It occupies about forty minutes, and will leave a body of worshippers in a much better prepared state of mind for our Church service. Such a meeting may be adapted also on other days, and in other forms, to the more educated classes in the parish, as some have found with some advantage. A Friday evening meeting of the communicants may also be very profitable to them.