your Saviour, and have duly armed yourselves for the battle against your spiritual enemies, whilst they have shrunk like cowards from the contest.

Fighting, therefore, in this manner, not as men that beat the air in struggling with an unknown foe, but against sins which you have ascertained, and temptations before which you have hitherto fallen, with what anxiety and interest will you look forward to each succeeding Sacrament, as an opportunity of duly estimating the progress which you have made in the ways of Christian holiness! On these occasions, you will look back to the resolutions which on the last partaking of the Sacrament you had formed, and consider in what respects you have succeeded in the contest, and when and to what degree you have failed. You will be thus advancing daily in the knowledge of your own heart-its strength and its weakness; your petitions for grace will become more distinct and earnest, because your wants will be more strongly felt and better understood; and if you

that your struggles have not been entirely unsuccessful, that you have not only been pressing but advancing towards the mark for the prize of your high calling; surely the satisfaction, tempered as it will be by an ever-present sense of your own unworthiness, will far outweigh any vain gratifications which the world can afford; attended, as such gratifications must be, with a feeling of duties neglected, and the thoughts of a coming judgment. But at the same time recollect, that this is no time for pausing or looking back; every additional gift calls for additional exertion; and though no man shakes off his responsibility by neglecting to acquire the faculties which are within his reach, yet to whom much hath been given, of him will be much required; and he who quenches the light within him, either intentionally or by neglect, is adding to his sum of evil, at the same time that he is destroying his only means of resisting it. Stand, therefore, having your loins girded about, and your lamps burning, so that when you next assemble around the holy

table of your Lord, you may each bring with you the testimony of a good conscience, that when you last partook of your heavenly Father's bounty, it was not bestowed upon rebellious or unprofitable servants, but upon those who," in an honest and good heart," are bringing forth fruit, "some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some an hundred!"

SERMON XXI.

THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY TO IMITATE HIS

MASTER.

1 PETER ii. 21.

Leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.

DURING the solemn season which has just passed over us, we have been naturally led to the consideration of some of the most important articles of our faith. The period of Lent, during which the Church is continually pressing on our attention. the existence, the prevalence, and the universality of sin, brought with it an inquiry into the fall of man, and the possibility and duty of repentance. Then came the great day of atonement-the crucifixion of our blessed Saviour; by

which we are assured that a sacrifice for sin was offered to the Divine Majesty, and a door of forgiveness opened to every child of Adam. After this followed the feast of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead-an event which opened to our consideration another, and most important doctrine-the general resurrection at the last day. And the certainty of this last day brought us to the anticipation of the day of judgment-a time when all present inequalities shall be made equal, and this "mortality shall be swallowed up of life1!"

All these doctrines are of the most momentous importance; and if well understood, firmly received, and habitually reflected on, elevate our minds above present and earthly things, and raise us to a higher station in the scale of intelligent beings. But, what is of most consequence, all these doctrines are of a practical tendency, and have, or ought to have, a visible and abiding effect on every thought