declares,―edifieth, and this Charity is the great characteristic of our Church. Now when the Church of England is said to be regulated in all things by the Divine and everlasting rule of charity, speaking the truth in love, it is not as a society possessing this attribute by accident, or finding it convenient, to adopt and maintain the rule of charity: but as being a portion of the very true Church, which had impressed upon it the stamp of CHRIST's approval, and had breathed over it the SAVIOUR's prayer for unity and peace, and into it the spirit of His Love: as that Body which His love called into existence, and which that Love still sustains, and which must continue to the end of time to bear, however imperfectly, His resemblance in the charity of all her doings. The Church among us, as the channel whereby GOD has chosen from the first to pour forth His loving kindness upon a sinful world, is and must be marked by the charity of her system, and to be true to her office and character, must send forth the sweet waters of Christian love to refresh and edify the whole body and all the members of it, and to draw all men towards it.

The system of the Church some men find it convenient to call stern and uncharitable, and some from not knowing her character, neither the Scriptures nor the power of GOD, really think it so; but it will, as I have said before, appear to be the reverse of this upon examination. Let us now consider this; and first let us see what her spirit and feeling are towards those that are without. What does she say to those who are not of her number?

As regards those who make no profession of Christianity, who are literally heathen, she feels for them a tender anxiety, and earnestly desires that they may be

brought to the knowledge of JESUS CHRIST. She prays for them-labours for their conversion-laments over their condition of ignorance and sin, but she judges them not. Knowing the privileged state of such as have embraced the Gospel, and have thus been brought out of darkness into a marvellous light, she cannot look with complacency upon any state of ignorance and sin, however unavoidable, and therefore can speak only of that which has the promise of GOD, and bless only whom the LORD hath blessed: but still she does not judge; she may even think a careless Christian in more peril than a good Heathen she says with the Apostle, What have I to do to judge them that are without ? Them that are without GOD will judge: what the LORD saith that I will speak, I cannot go beyond to say less or more. JESUS said, "he that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned." And the Church finds sufficient in these words to be most assiduous and earnest in bringing men to the knowledge of the only true God, and JESUS CHRIST Whom He hath sent.

And that the Church has ever had a charitable regard for the heathen, is clear from the simple fact that it has been from the first one of the standing works of the Christian Church to carry the Gospel into heathen lands. To go on continually bringing in the forces of the Gentiles, lengthening her cords and strengthening her stakes, stretching forth her branches beyond the sea and her boughs beyond the river, having no less object in view than the accomplishment of that saying, that "the knowledge of the LORD shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." This has been and this is the Church's work, and in this is seen her charity. And it is because of her love for the

souls of men, as well as of her care for the glory of the LORD, that she prays, as in the Collect for Good Friday, that day on which JESUS was lifted up that He might, as He said, draw all men unto HIM, that it would please the merciful GOD Who hath made all men, and hateth nothing that He hath made, and would not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live, to have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, infidels, and heretics, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of His Word, and so fetch them home to His flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made

one fold under one Shepherd, JESUS CHRIST our LORD." Such is her charity towards those that are in strict sense without the Church.

Let us now see what it is towards those that are within, and how it tends to edification.

Upon this as upon other points treated of on former occasions, I would direct your attention to the proofs of charity which every page of the Service Book of the Church discloses.

From the hour of our Baptism, when she tenderly receives us into her bosom, to the time when she gives up her sacred trust, and the body returns to the dust as it was, and the spirit returns to GOD Who gave it, she ceases not to love us and to show that she loves us, and desires of all things that our souls should prosper. The Church in charity deals with the baptized as belonging to CHRIST, and believes them anxious for their souls' health, until they prove that they are not; and if they fall from their steadfastness, she still seeks to restore them in a spirit of meekness, and proves her love by the very care she takes to reduce them to obedience. Throughout the Prayer Book you

will notice the charity of the Church, in believing every worshipper to be what he professes to be: she speaks to them as dearly beloved brethren, and calls them to prayer and thanksgiving with the anxiety of an affectionate parent. In her beautiful Collects she puts up her prayers as the prayers of an united Body, having one LORD, One Faith, one Baptism. She will not suppose any to be hypocrites who take part in her services, because charity hopeth all things, and even in the Commination Service, or denouncing of God's anger and judgments against sinners, are the plainest demonstrations of Christian love. It is that their souls may be saved in the day of the LORD, and that others may be the more afraid to offend. She reminds them of the dreadful consequences of sin, points them to the Atoning Blood and prevailing advocacy of the SAVIOUR, calls them anxiously to repentance, and prays most earnestly for their forgiveness and salvation.

And as the Church deals charitably with all who belong to her, so she earnestly and unceasingly inculcates the practice of charity amongst themselves. She continually invites them to the Feast of Love in the Holy Eucharist, and reproves them when they would separate from their brethren, who come to feed on the banquet of that most heavenly food; because she considers it a violation of charity, and a breach of unity, inasmuch as we being many are one bread and one body.' She teaches them to pray for one another in the Litany, under every circumstance that can call forth love and sympathy, not forgetting prayer for their enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, that God may turn their hearts; that they may be enabled to love and bless their persecutors.

2

1 1 Cor. x. 17.

2 St. Stephen's Day.

And in the Collect for the next Sunday before Lent she beseeches GOD, Who has taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth, that He would send His HOLY GHOST and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which, whosoever liveth is counted dead before HIM.

If

Instances might be multiplied, but this is enough to show something of the charity of the Church in her Holy Services-her charity towards her own and strangers, and the mutual love she urges upon her members. The Church rightly considers every baptized person to be subject to her authority and entitled to her care. any forsake her and cut themselves off from the means of grace and the unity of the Church, she is not released from her duty to them; and that duty is both to blame and love them-to blame, because she loves them so that with regard to such as separate themselves, the Church still retains her charity towards them. She looks upon them indeed as having sinned, but desires their repentance and reconciliation, and prays to GOD for them, that it may please HIM to bring into the way of truth such as have erred and are deceived, and to deliver His people from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism. She boldly maintains the ground on which the LORD placed her but in her boldness she is humble; and she carefully abstains from all harsh or opprobrious language. True language and strong she is compelled to use in very charity, for she must call sin by the name of sin; but she deals tenderly with the sinner, desiring only that his soul may be saved in the day of the LORD Jesus; and, brethren, be sure this charity edifieth.

It is this charity on the part of the Church, which