to obtain or keep the grace of Christ's Sacraments, if we neglect what is required on our part. See how it was in this miraculous feast on the mountain; Christ could have cured the people's hunger at once, without any loaves or fishes at all, if He had pleased; and so if it pleased Him, He could give us grace without Sacraments. But as He then employed the meat which was ready to His Hand, so it commonly pleases Him to give us His grace by the outward forms, first water, then bread and wine. He could have commanded the people to help themselves, as in Moses' time they helped themselves to the Manna, but it pleased Him that they should sit down and wait to have it given them. He might have given it with His own Hands, but He chose to do it by the hands of His disciples. So it is with His Sacraments now; we are brought to His ministers for Holy Baptism, we come to them for Holy Communion; the grace is given in each case through His ministers. When our Lord said to His disciples "make the men sit down," it was as if He should say, "You, the Apostles and Elders of My Church, and you, Bishops and Priests who are to come after, see that you do your best to bring all to My Holy Table, and to make all come decently and in order. Shew them the way, help them to prepare themselves; warn them how dangerous it is either to forsake Communion or to receive unworthily." And whereas S. Mark says, "they sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties;" this seems to tell us something of the admirable order of Christ's Sacraments; and also how it depends upon us whether that order be observed or no; as those men had they chosen, might have refused to sit down, or might

have sat down irregularly; and then, I suppose, they would have missed their portion of the feast. See too how careful our Blessed Lord was to order His doings in such a way as the disciples would be sure to remember, when about a year after He should appoint the Holy Sacrament itself. He took the bread, and blessed and brake it, and gave to His disciples to set before the multitude. The very act of Consecration, as some here know, was represented bodily by our Lord on that occasion. You cannot read the miracle without thinking of the Sacrament. And as you read, you feel more and more that our Lord meant us to think on It. It becomes plainer and plainer to us, that even as those men, had they churlishly refused to wait and be prepared for the meal, must have gone without any refreshment; so, if men neglect the Lord's Supper, if they will not join in offering to God the appointed memorial of His Death;-there is no help for it, you must do without His Intercession.

But I am persuaded better things of you, beloved brethren, I know there are some among you who have serious thoughts about their own past neglect of Holy Communion. I would say to them, "take care of these your good thoughts: value them highly; do not let them waste in mere thoughts. Take your thoughts about Communion with you when you kneel down to say your prayers; remember it when you come to speak of "our daily bread." That you may come worthily and in order, come to those whom our Lord has appointed to marshal His guests at this His wedding banquet; report yourselves to the Priest, let him judge of your fitness to come.

Do this before Easter; let not the holy time find you still negligent. Lastly, take especial care, having come once, to come again, and that often; not for the loaves' sake, but for the miracles; not for what you can get in this world, as comfort, credit, inward satisfaction; but for Christ's sake and His Blessed Body's sake, because you know that your souls cannot live without Him. Come to Him, not for earthly but for heavenly reasons; so will you come prepared, and depart with a blessing.

SERMON XXXII.

TIMES OF PENANCE, TIMES OF REFRESHING.

FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT.

ACTS iii. 19, 20, 21.

"Times of refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord, and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, Whom the Heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things."

HITHERTO We have had to consider the dark and aweful side of the Great Day, for which our selfexamination in Lent, and all God's discipline over us, were intended to prepare us. We have regarded it as coming suddenly as a day of separation, a day of darkness. And it is well for us ever to remember that we have such a serious time, such a time of dread and amazement before us. We must come to it: we are daily and hourly drawing near it: our turning away our minds and refusing to think of it does not in the least keep it back from us; it only keeps us unprepared and unready to meet it. Therefore it is well on every account that we should think of that Day continually with fear and trembling; that we should look our true condition, as it

were, in the face. But at the same time God would not have us altogether taken up with these dismal and overwhelming thoughts. The Day has a bright aspect as well as a dark one; unutterably inconceivably bright, as on the other side it will prove dark beyond all words and thoughts of ours. In one sense it will be a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of wrath, a day of vengeance. But no less certainly will it be also a day of Redemption, a day of Salvation, a day of Restitution of all things. And now, as we come nearer Easter, the Holy Church instructs us to think of the more hopeful and merciful sayings which we find in the Bible concerning our Lord's second Coming. For Easter is the time of love; Easter Day coming after Good Friday is love sealed by unspeakable suffering: and however unworthy we know ourselves to be, and how fearful soever the Day may appear to us when we look on to it, yet when we really think of Christ crucified and risen again for us, we must feel that all is not lost: by God's mercy we have yet a chance: in our bitterest humiliation He invites us to thank Him and take courage.

So, this very day, this Mid-Lent Sunday, as it is called, we are invited as it were to keep a time of refreshing, one of those times which the Apostle in the text speaks of. "Times of refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord, and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, Whom the Heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things." You see here are two sorts of times mentioned: times of refreshing and times of restitution the one occurring, when it pleases God,