NATAL SERMONS. Second Series OF DISCOURSES PREACHED IN THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST PETER'S, MARITZBURG. BY THE RIGHT REV. JOHN WILLIAM COLENSO, D.D., BISHOP OF NATAL. LONDON: N. TRÜBNER & CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. SERMONS. I. ON THE PERSONALITY OF EVIL. PREACHED IN THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST PETER'S, MARITZBURG, ON SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 4, 1866. LUKE XI. 24. WHEN THE UNCLEAN SPIRIT IS GONE OUT OF A MAN, HE WALKETH THROUGH DRY PLACES, SEEKING REST; AND, FINDING NONE, HIE SAITH, I WILL RETURN UNTO MY HOUSE, WHENCE I CAME OUT. AND, WHEN HE COMETH, HE FINDETH IT SWEPT AND GARNISHED. THEN, GOETH HE, AND TAKETH TO HIM SEVEN OTHER SPIRITS MORE WICKED THAN HIMSELF, AND THEY ENTER IN, AND DWELL THERE; AND THE LAST STATE OF THAT MAN IS WORSE THAN THE FIRST.' WE read that, when our Lord had spoken these words, 'a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.' The words of the great Teacher had evidently reached the heart of that woman. She felt that they were true and living words, such as no common man could speak. They had told her of that which was passing within her; they had appealed to her own conscience,-perhaps, to her own experience, to her own sense of sin and of its bitter consequences; they had opened up to her the secrets of her own hidden spiritual life. Whether she gave heed to those words, or not, they had brought a message from God to her soul; and she breaks forth involuntarily into expressions of admiration for the wisdom and power of him who uttered them. Our Lord, however, who knew what was in man, soon checked such utterances. He sought not his own in the |