watchful night; on this they dwell as he rises in the morning. Now this is an exact description of what God requires of the children of light, in order to obtain a far more important, an infinitely greater, and more noble object, and that is, to root out of the heart the love of money, and of this world altogether. It requires constant thought and pains; it is an object never to be omitted, never to be forgotten or lost sight of; it is, like the other, an art to be learned; but nothing can exceed the blessedness of it, God Himself being our Helper. For of whom have we to learn this divine art? It is of the Blessed Comforter Himself. It is first of all by continual and earnest prayer that He will open our eyes more and more to see the vanity of all earthly things, and by labouring together by our prayers to co-operate with Him. There are many things to sacrifice, many things to suffer in this work, hard to flesh and blood, still harder to a heart that hath drunk deep the love of this world; but can He not make even this labour refreshing and light? for is He not called the Comforter? But still, it is a labour and a work, and may well be one of a whole life; for is it not so with the children of this world, to obtain the contrary? and can we expect to buy at less cost a pearl of so great price? Ask the worldly man what it is that makes him labour so, so eager and watchful? It is hope of success, ever increasing, ever renewed after every disappointment, and a love of the end he has in view, ever growing more and more within him, that is, the love of riches. This is the case with thousands around us. And shall we not have hope to quicken our exertions in labouring after poverty of spirit, when God Himself is with us? Shall we not have love sufficient to sustain us when we are daily drawing near to the time when we shall behold Him

Whose Name is Love? Oh! my Christian brethren, why is it we have so little active hope? why is it that our love is so weak? It is because we do not labour after it as the worldly man does after his objects. We allow so much to interfere with it without sorrow, or so much to interfere with that sorrow when it comes; we let our vision of things heavenly become daily more dim and languid, and yet we are not depressed, or we let that depression pass

away.

Our Lord would seem to say to us, Why need I say so much from Heaven? What if Prophets, and Apostles, and Saints, and God Himself, were silent; does not even this miserable and wicked world around, in every place, call upon you to look forward, and provide for that time when you will have to give up your stewardship? Only be as wise in your heavenly calling as the men of this world are in their generation, and the angels shall assuredly receive you into everlasting habitations, and you shall for ever dwell with God.

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SERMON LVII.

The Tenth Sunday after Trinity.

1 Cor. xii. 1—II. St. Luke xix. 41-47.

THE DAY OF VISITATION.

If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!-ST. LUKE xix. 42.

WE

HEN the Epistles and Gospels were ranged differently to what they now are, the Epistle for last Sunday attached to the Gospel for to-day added a peculiar force to it; for the Epistle gave warning of Israel in the wilderness not entering into God's rest, while this Gospel speaks of the Israel of a later time being in like manner wept over by their own Messiah, and by Him cast out of His temple; and both for the same reason, on account of God being forgotten in the love of this world. But our Epistle for to-day has for us in store another lesson of edification. Let us endeavour to read and ponder it with the light of God's Spirit, and may His holy guidance make it profitable to us.

Concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. St. Paul is here speaking of a state of things different to anything which we now experience;

for when the Gospel was first being planted in the world, the Holy Spirit made His Presence known by many visible tokens; and when by Baptism He was received, being Himself invisible, He thus by sensible signs gave evidence of His power, such as the weakness of men in the infancy of the Church required. And first of all, St. Paul tells these Christians at Corinth how they shall distinguish these manifestations of the good Spirit from those possessions of devils, to which, as Gentiles, they were accustomed; and he points out this distinction to consist at that time in this, whether or no they confessed Christ. Ye know, he says, that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols even as ye were led. When ye were possessed by those evil spirits, ye were forcibly dragged away to the idols without having any will of your own but not so with Christians; they are influenced by the sweet compulsion of a gracious Spirit leading them gently on with the love of Christ; and the acknowledgment of Christ is the test, for this the evil spirit will not allow his votaries to make. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed; that is, can deny Christ in the manner that the heathens require men to do. And that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, no one is able to make this good confession, under such circumstances of persecution and martyrdom, but by the Holy Ghost. St. John says the same: "Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God."

And again, there is another point; these miraculous gifts are of many kinds, but you must take care not on that account to confound them with the many false gods of the heathen; for in the Church all is union and harmony, arising from the Divine unity, the Three Persons

in One God. Now there are diversities of gifts, which He bestows in this manifestation of His Presence, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, by which we serve Christ in His Church, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations; the ways by which God worketh in this His kingdom of the Spirit are many and manifold; but it is the same God Who worketh all in all. Whether they be gifts, or administrations, or operations; though differing in name, yet all may be one in substance; they are by the same Spirit, for the same Lord, of the same God; and These being Three are yet One.

There is, further, another consideration; what is the end and object of these miraculous tokens of the Spirit? It is one and the same in all,—the diversity of them all, their measure and degree, is for what is profitable. But the manifestation of the Spirit, by these outward and sensible signs of His Presence, is given to every man to profit withal; they are dispensed according to what is good for each to receive, both for his own spiritual well-being, and for promoting that of others. And here St. Paul affords a very interesting mention of what those miraculous powers were, which God was then using in His Church for the conversion of the world; they were not like graces of the Spirit, and the gifts of righteousness which adorn the saints; but they were like natural powers, and endowments of mind and body, such as did not necessarily make men better, but were lent them by God as stewards of His gifts, which they might use for good, or abuse. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, such as St. Paul and St. John were so wonderfully gifted with. We "speak wisdom," says St. Paul, "among them that are perfect." To another the word of knowledge by the