with him. Perhaps you bear no malice at present: but did you forgive, did you try in earnest to forgive as soon as ever you were stung with a sense of wrong done to you? Joseph had forgiven his brethren long before he declared his forgiveness of them; and our Lord's prayer, "Father, forgive," went up at the very moment that His murderers were nailing Him to the Cross. And the rule of Christian forgiveness is, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, " tread out the spark of anger as soon as you perceive it. Remember, my brethren, that however entirely we may have forgiven by this time, we have need to humble ourselves before God for every moment that we ever put off our forgiving. Again, in forgiving we should try at least to forget. I do not say we always sin in not forgetting any wrong that may have been done to us: sometimes we cannot, sometimes we ought not, even for the offender's sake. We must watch him, perhaps, that he do not repeat the offence: but never let us permit ourselves to dwell on any wrong thing that may have been done, as a wrong or an affront to ourselves; let us not feed an illnatured fancy with dwelling on other men's bad behaviour, and keeping ourselves in anger because of it: it is just giving place to the devil, making room for it in our hearts. Joseph, when he suddenly saw his brethren, looked upon them as his brethren, not as those who betrayed and all but murdered him. Again, you say you have forgiven: but are you in all brotherly kindness watching to do good, as God may enable you, to those whom you had to forgive? If not, your forgiveness is unlike Joseph's: for he, f Eph. iv. 26.

when his brethren were once again brought within his reach, never tired of doing them good, and making them as happy as he could. And this, not only by substantial gifts, but by his extreme and most touching sweetness in his manner of dealing with them. "Be not grieved nor angry with yourselves." "Fear not, I will nourish you and your little ones." It highly concerns us to remember this: for, as a wise man says, "Is not a word better than a gift?" Sweetness and good temper towards those who may seem to have affronted you is often a sure sign of loving and forgiving charity, when greater things are not needed, or are beyond our reach. Finally, if we would really follow the blessed example set before us in Joseph, we must accustom ourselves, as often as we are, or seem to be ill-used, to call up in our minds the remembrance of the Presence of God, of Him to Whom alone vengeance belongeth: as Joseph when he first saw his brethren after their selling him for a slave, remembered his dreams, remembered it was all God's doing. We should say to ourselves, when revenge and anger are tempting, when unkind thoughts are swelling in our hearts, and unkind words are rushing to our lips, "Am I in the place of God?" Above all we should remember our own Elder Brother, Him Who made Himself such, that our wrongs done to Him might be pardoned. Did we really and in earnest think of Him, and pray in His Name, our saying "we bear no malice" would not be a mere word of course. We should truly forgive, and truly try to love, in hope of His love and forgiveness.

SERMON XXX.

ISHMAEL'S MOCKING A TYPE OF THE WORLD'S TREATMENT OF CHRIST AND HIS PEOPLE.

FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT.

GAL. iv. 29.

"As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now."

THE Church sets before us to-day a parable from the history of Abraham: and wonderful it is to see how in the good Providence of God the things which happened so many years ago among the men of the East so many thousand miles off, are made to signify the greatest counsels of the Almighty, and to help us and all Christians in our daily duties to God and to one another. Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid and the other by a freewoman, the Law of God at that time allowing, as you know, of more than one wife. Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman Hagar, was born in a natural way, without any thing strange or miraculous. After him was born Isaac, the son of the freewoman Sarah, in a wonderful manner, by miracle, his father being a hundred years old, and his mother past age: and this in fulfilment of a special covenant which God had made with Abraham a great many years before, during all which

time he had been waiting for it in faith. This difference between the two sons the Apostle explains by saying, "Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman, was born after the flesh, but Isaac the son of the freewoman was by promise." And then he goes on to explain that this whole matter was an allegory or parable. Abraham represents Almighty God, the Father of us all; Ishmael represents mankind in general, who are the children of God born after the natural way; Isaac represents the Christian people, God's children by adoption and grace; God's children, because by a heavenly and spiritual union they are made members of His Only Begotten Son; born again of God, born of water and of the Spirit. The elder son is in bondage, because until people are mystically united to Jesus Christ they are in slavery under sin, death, and the devil; they are not free to obey God's holy commandments; even if they have misgivings, and some sense of what is right, they must confess as one did of old, "The good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not, that I do." But the younger son Isaac, is free, because the children of Christ and of His Church have power given them by His Holy Spirit to keep His commandments if they will. Those then, who choose to go on as if they could not help sinning, are in fact making themselves slaves, when God has made them free: those only are free indeed, who stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ "hath made them free," and do not suffer themselves to be again entangled with the yoke of the world, the flesh and the devil. The children of the bondwoman, like the heathens who know not God, are content to be in slavery to their sins; the

children of the freewoman are free to serve God, and try with all their might to do so. With one sort or the other you and I and all of us must take our place. Which shall it be, my brethren? On which side shall we be found? It is no small matter: it is for our life. And we have but a short time to choose in. Very quickly the time is passing, at the end of which it will be too late for us to think of having any choice at all. And if any man say,

Well, I do not wish to choose; I had rather not have any thought about the matter; I will take my chance, as so many others have done: " the Word of God tells that man loudly and plainly, "it cannot be so with you: you must make your choice; if you go on thinking to have no care about your soul, know that there is one close at hand who is all the while busy in destroying that soul, winding his net about it, that it cannot escape. To say, you will not care for your soul, comes to just the same as if you said, I will give my soul up to the hands of the devil."

Look to it well therefore, my brethren, that you are really behaving as children of the freewoman. Why should you of your own accord invite the Evil One to put his chains on you again? And Holy Scripture gives you many signs, whereby you may know on which side you are at present. One of these signs is, whether or no you are going on in a way to hurt and distress the people of God. You heard just now what the Apostle says of persecution, "As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." He that was born after the flesh, in Abraham's family, was Ishmael: he that was born after the Spirit is