good and lowly disciples, to be "taking thought" in poverty, from a fear that such wants may not be supplied. But the very contrary to this is the design and desire of our merciful God towards us. He wishes us to rest in none of His gifts, but to be led by them to seek for rest in Himself only. For be assured, my brethren, let Him give us the whole world, yet unless He gives unto us Himself we are poor indeed.

But, alas! such is the frailty of our nature, that the more He bestows upon us of outward gifts, the more danger we are in of resting in them, and thereby of forgetting Him. For He gives, and in giving withdraws Himself; yet it is Himself that He would have us to seek, to love, to rest in, and then we shall care for nothing else, for in having Him we have everything. He would have us to seek Him, because He loves us and pities us, and knows that He is Himself our only true happiness.

But it is not in harvests and fruits of the earth only that He indicates His superintending compassionate Providence, wishing us at the same time not to care for such things, but only for Himself the Giver. But in all the circumstances of our earthly life, in which He has shown His watchful regard to our wishes, our comforts, and desires of all kinds, from our birth all along unto this day; His affording us many means of temporal good,— friends it may be, some share of reputation, wealth, learning. Most men are at times sensibly affected by a review of these blessings in their own lives, as indications of God's tender goodness towards them. But in all these things it is to be feared that we afford to our merciful God matter of complaint and sorrow, because we value and love His gifts more than Himself.

Compassionate Saviour, do Thou Thyself teach us the

lesson Thou wouldst have us to learn, and write it by Thy Spirit on our hearts and lives. Let us not grieve Thee by letting it pass from us, or by taking it amiss, as they did of old who partook of those Thy miraculous mercies.

Alas, O my God, I know no greater occasion than this for sorrow, and pain, and tears, that we should forget and dishonour Thee, because Thou art good!

It is such reflections as these, dear Christians, which I think the Church would call to our minds on this Sunday, by the key which the Collect seems to furnish to the intentions of the Gospel; for in that we pray that He Who is "the Author and Giver of all good things," would "graft in our hearts the love of" His "name, increase in us true religion," and "nourish us with all goodness." And I hope that during this week this Collect may be very frequently repeated by us, both night and day, with such thoughts of humiliation as become us, on account of our want of love to our merciful God for all His benefits.

SERMON LV.

The Eighth Sunday after Trinity.

Rom. viii. 12-17. St. Matt. vii. 15-21.

BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM.

For as many as are led by the SPIRIT of GOD, they are the sons o GOD.-ROM. viii. 14.

N the Epistle for Sunday last St. Paul had been con

he touches on the same subject again to-day, but immediately passes from it to dwell in glowing language, as he ever delights to do, on the blessed privileges of being in Christ.

Brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. How great, therefore, he was about to say, is the debt we owe to Christ; but in speaking of debt, as if carried away by that expression, he passes on to say we are under no debt to the flesh. It sometimes seems implied that we are under a sort of debt or obligation to society, to nature, to the world; but we have seen what all this comes to-we are delivered from that bondage

which only leads to death. Nature, and the world, and all things human, have no other end but death; whe eas to overcome them through the Spirit is life.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we ery, Abba, Father. For this being "led by the Spirit" to mortify the flesh is the very proof of our sonship. I say "sonship;" for though I have been speaking of the "service" of God as contrasted with that of sin, yet our state as Christians is not in fact a service, as was that of the Jews, but a sonship. The spirit which we have received does not teach us to approach God with servile fear, but with the spirit of adoption and the name of Father. For the Jews are described as being under a state of bondage to the law, the full meaning of which they understood not; but to His disciples our Blessed Saviour says, "Henceforth I call you not servants, but I call you friends, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth." And no sooner had He paid the ransom for us than He says to Mary Magdalene, "Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father;" fulfilling His saying in the Psalm, "I will declare Thy Name unto My brethren." Hence St. Paul says in like manner to the Galatians, "And because ye are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son." And that this spirit of adoption is to influence and characterize all our daily lives, our Lord Himself has taught us, by commanding us to be continually coming to God with the words, "Our Father Which art in heaven." For as we ought always to be using this prayer, so ought we always to be looking to

God as our Father. And confirming all that encouragement which the name suggests, our Lord says, "If ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask Him?"

This temper, then, this spirit of adoption influencing our lives, is to us the proof that we are of the number of God's children, as the Apostle adds: The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. "Joint-heirs with Christ," "if we suffer with Him." Thus He Himself says, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, as I overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne." Thus as this loving spirit of filial obedience is the evidence of our sonship, with that sonship is connected an inheritance not earthly but heavenly. As in our Prayer, to the Name "our Father" is added "Which art in Heaven." The home, the inheritance, the Father's house, is in Heaven. For the earthly promise connected with that sonship is that of suffering, from its being united with the Sonship of Christ, the Captain of our salvation, made perfect through sufferings.

From hence it is evident, that so far as we value an earthly inheritance more than an heavenly; esteem riches, honour, or learning, more than holiness; despise the poor; shrink from suffering and obscurity; think more of the great in this world than of the sons of God; we have "our portion in this life," we are under bondage to

1 Rev. iii. 21.