and sometimes no intercession will avail. (See Outline for Seventh Sunday after Trinity, II. 9.) 1 S. John v. 16. "Let none despair of himself, though he has been remiss: let him, however, have no hope, next to the mercy of GOD, save in personal virtue.1 For if they [the LORD's brethren] had no benefits from such kindred and family, from a common origin with CHRIST, till they exhibited virtue, what forgiveness can we enjoy by putting forward righteous kinsmen and brethren, if we be not ourselves eminently gentle, and living in virtue ? This the prophet intimates, when he says, 'A brother redeems not; shall a man redeem ?' " [The cases of Moses, Samuel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, forbidden to pray, are set forth: then follows:] "Let us then by no means go expectant (KEXnVOTES) to others. The prayers of the saints have indeed the greatest power; but it is when we also repent and amend." (S. Chrysostom's 'Houkov to the fifth Homily on S. Matthew. Profound and eloquent— worthy of entire transcription, if it were here possible.) Nevertheless,

IV. Individual holiness will not be unrewarded. If its contact have power to heal, what must be its abiding? It must be that seed, the fruit of which is everlasting life! Though the world raise clouds, and permit not the light of the saints to shine before men,

1 That is, let him not rest in the intercession of another. The antithesis, of course, is not between CHRIST's work and man's, but between a man's own work, and the work of others for him. 2 The allusion is to S. John vii. 5. They disbelieved at first; but afterwards lived and died for the truth.

3 The LXX version of Ps. xlix. 6.

no clouds can impair the light, much less extinguish it. Shine it will, and progressively, till the perfect day. (Prov. iv. 18.) Nay, they will transfer worldly sorrows and oppositions to their FATHER's treasury, to wait till their works shall follow them. Amid doubts, dangers, vicissitudes, they will look hopefully to Him Who has delivered them and will deliver (2 Tim. iv. 17, 18); and, whatever the aspect of things, they will remember Who rules, and silence all anxieties. They will be comforted in the hope, till they shall rejoice in the fulfilment of the promise, Prov. xii. 28.

LVII.

Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity.

Subject. The lilies of the field.

Text. S. Matt. vi. 28, 29.

"Consider the lilies of the field,

how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all bis glory was not arrayed like one of these."

Parallel Text. S. Luke xii. 27. '

Principal Words. καταμάθετε τὰ κρίνα.

THIS world is a wreck-but the wreck of Eden. As the image of GOD exists, though marred and dimmed, in fallen man, so does the image of Eden exist in fallen nature. The wreck of perfect beauty is still beautiful. What GOD pronounced "very good" He hath not altogether cast away. Earth is His footstool (Isa. lxvi. 1; S. Matt. v. 35); that contact preserves it from total malediction. Like some old minster, profaned and stript of its sanctities, yet preserving in its remains its holy beauty, is earth in her ruin. Roofless nave and altarless chancel retain much of their solemnity, and much from whence fancy can restore the structure; so in the flowers of earth we have

remnants of Paradise,1 whence we can, in a degree, reconstruct it in the mind. The melancholy, too, which is a property and beauty of a ruin, is largely diffused on our earth, and leads us to contemplation of the

cause.

This beauty of earth is by many unperceived. In the crowded city, amid high walls, and beneath a speck of scarcely visible sky, they are as happy as in the most glorious pageantry of creation; perhaps, more so. The country, God's land, is as wearisome to them, as the Sabbath, GOD's day, was to the Israelites, (Amos viii. 5.) Others live in the country, and prefer country life, yet with no eye or heart for Nature. But this is surely an unhealthy state. We could not say that Religion could find no entrance save through the love of Nature, yet surely this is one divinely appointed entrance. Rom. i. 20. Nature is the earliest revelation. We do not cast away the Old Testament because we have the New; neither may we cast away Nature because we have Scripture. Scripture itself testifies against this. Job xii. 7—10; xxxviii.—xli.; Ps. xix.; Prov. vi. 6-8; xxx. 24-31.

But though the love of nature is favourable to Religion, it is not the thing itself. A well tempered eye, a certain refinement of mind or development of imagination may produce this pleasure in the works of GOD, without any thought of their Author. Even

1 "Relics ye are of Eden's bowers,

As pure, as fragrant, and as fair,

As when ye crown'd the sunshine hours

Of happy wanderers there."

....

Christian Year, for this day: a study for this subject.

་

Holy Scripture affords this kind of pleasure to people who enjoy poetry, eloquence, or simple grandeur, without any reference to the matter or the author. And this is a fruitless study whether of Nature or Revelation. Very different, however, the teaching of the text, that the humblest. productions of GOD, rightly contemplated, do more than charm our eyes; they purify our hearts-even save our souls.

Much lies in that word “consider." You admire a beautiful field-flower a moment-then pass it, or cast it away. But this is not learning from it like a disciple, Perhaps you dissect it, and can name its parts, with their functions and distinctions. Still this is not the consideration meant in the text. Scientific contemplation of Nature raises our admiration of the Creator; but it is not what is meant in the text. Our LORD was not preaching to sages; His charge was what might be performed by all.

Let us then endeavour to obey the text-to come to the lily of the field, as the scholar to the teacher, to consider it. It will teach us,

"How is it that

I. The Divinity of its Creator. our LORD continues not here the example of the birds, and mentions not here to us the peacock or the swan? . . . . . because He would show the superabundance of God's care both from the worthlessness of the objects partaking of so much splendour, and from the emulative beauty conferred on the lilies. Hence He names them not 'lilies' again, but ' grass of the field;' and, not content with this name, He adds another circumstance of vileness, which today is;' and not even does He say 'which to-morrow