to him the vision of the same gracious Lord in His glory? "I saw seven golden candlesticks," that is, the Holy Catholic Church; " and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle," that is, our Lord in His Priest's office; "His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars,"-the bishops and pastors of His Church;-"and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." Such was the vision: mark now, how that favoured disciple received it; "When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead."

In this respect, you see, the Saints, one and all, were just alike; that they fell down before Christ's glory with the very deepest dread and reverence. Whether He was coming in judgement or in mercy, whether they were penitents or no, whether they had seen Christ crucified or no, made no difference in that respect. All alike received Him with the deepest humiliation and reverence; all alike feared as they entered into the cloud.

Now the same cloud overshadows and covers us. As surely as ever we belong to Christ's Church, and as this time which we are keeping is the holy time of Lent, so surely is that same cloud now over us and around us, whether we choose to believe it, and think of it, or no. It hovers above us, it surrounds

us on every side, full charged with the dew of Heaven, with God's pardoning and strengthening grace; but it gives out that dew only to the dutiful, considerate, reverential heart. The blessing of the holy season will come only on those who try to pass it in the true fear of God; to mingle that fear in all their works, especially in all their religious exercises; not to say or do any thing, if they can help it, merely as a matter of course, but to remember all along Whose they are, and Whom they serve. The cloud of this penitential season will be a gracious rain to Christ's inheritance, and refresh it now in its fallen and weary times, if we strive, for our part, to think more and more of His Presence; to chasten ourselves more effectually, even in thought, not giving the reins to any pleasure, be it never so innocent; to understand more and more of our own deep unworthiness, and of His unspeakable love; and thankfully to accept His chastisements, bodily and spiritual, as the corrections of a loving Father.

SERMON II.

OF NOT RECEIVING THE GRACE OF GOD IN VAIN.

ASH WEDNESDAY.

ii. COR. vi. 1.

"We... beseech you that ye receive not the Grace of God in vain."

EVERY person who has read his prayer book with any degree of attention, knows that this season of Lent is appointed by the Church for the especial exercise of repentance; that she intends us to refrain for a while even from the innocent pleasures of the world, that our time and thoughts may be the freer to consider our past lives, to bewail and confess our sins, and so prepare ourselves, with thankful hearts, to acknowledge the infinite mercies of God in Christ Jesus on the great days of His Death and Resurrection.

Now labouring men and poor men are apt to imagine they have very little to do with such times as this: "Fasting and abstinence, humiliation and selfdenial, are very well for those who live in mirth and abundance, and, 'fare sumptuously every day;' but we, whose lives are all poverty and toil, had need take all the pleasure we can find, and divert ourselves

without fear or scruple, in Lent as well as at other times in the year." And, upon the strength of such excuses as this, too many go on, neglecting their God and Saviour, and burying themselves in thoughts of this world, throughout this holy season, with as little remorse or concern as they have done all the year

besides.

But what is the real worth and value of this apology for the neglect of so sacred and useful an ordinance? It comes, when you consider it, to neither more less than this: that they cannot, or will not, govern their own thoughts, and turn them more earnestly than usual towards eternal things, in order that they may be the readier to keep Good Friday and Easter as they ought to be kept. For the reason why fasting and abstinence is good at this season, is no merit or goodness in the fasting or abstinence themselves, but because they are useful helps to us in diverting our thoughts from vain cares and pleasures, and fixing them on eternal things. That is what the Church wants; that is the use of Lent, for which we shall be called to account at the last day: and if we be too sick or too poor to change our usual diet and mode of living, still we are not the less bound, at this holy season, to do that for the sake of which others are called to mortify their bodies. The poorest man is just as much bounden as the richest, to use Lent for his help, in repenting truly of his former sins. He may turn his thoughts that way more earnestly than he has been used to do; may spend a little more time in his prayers, and strive more incessantly to keep up his attention while he is praying. Surely no one can imagine that such discipline and self-denial as

this, carefully persisted in, all through the forty days of Lent, would be of no use in making a man a truer penitent, and a worthier communicant at Easter.

He who desires thus to improve himself, cannot begin better, than by deeply meditating on the weighty and overpowering call to repentance contained in the words of the text. "We," (i. e. the ministers of Jesus Christ) "as workers together with Him, beseech you also, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain."

These words are aweful enough in themselves, and calculated to go deep into every heart which has any sense of God, any natural piety within it. Consider: we stand in the presence of the great and unspeakable God, who fills Heaven and Earth; and not only do we, in common with all His creatures, stand in His presence, but we are likewise objects of His special care; His eye is upon us for our good; we have received favour and grace from Him; we know He means our happiness. Can anything be more startling than the thought, that, after all this, we fail and be miserable? And yet such we see is the case. Nay, not only is the thing possible, but it will surely take place if we are left to ourselves. We have need of exhortation; we want an Apostle to come and beseech us that we receive not the favour of the Almighty in vain.

All this surely ought to make a serious impression upon us, though we knew nothing of the way in which God's favour had been reached out to us. A Gentile might feel it on recollecting His natural mercies, His ways of providence and preservation; the rain He gives us from Heaven and the fruitful