people, the sanctification of their hearts, and the saving their souls alive, so does he encourage us to hope that, through our prayers, this great and most blessed work may be expedited, not merely as it concerns our own salvation who pray, but the salvation of others, also, for whom we pray. The Christian knows that the privilege of intercession, by prayer, for his fellow-labourers in the same vineyard, is one of the distinguishing marks of Divine favour to which he is, by the covenant of mercy, admitted; aud he entertains a confidence, founded upon the constant truth of the Most High, that by this prayer of faith the work of man's salvation is promoted. Hence it is that, in all ages of the world, the true servants of the Lord have been, also, the most devoted to prayer: not that prayer only in which their personal salvation is made the subject, but that more catholic and most Christian kind, which embraces within the scope of its pure influence the salvation of all other men, This fundamental principle

that to our intercessions in behalf of our fellow men a weight and influence are conceded, such as of ourselves we could not have even imagined the possibility, must never be lost sight of, when we propose to consider the relation in which we

stand, through prayer, with respect to God. Without taking this into account, a multitude of passages in Holy Writ would convey no adequate meaning to our minds, and exhortations without number in the works of the inspired teachers of the Gospel, would meet our eyes in vain. In what sense, for example, could we utter in our daily services of devotion, the words of the text, "Thy kingdom come," unless the inheritance, in that blessed kingdom, of our fellow men formed part of our conception of it? How could we speak or think of that vast and comprehensive theme, the kingdom of Christ and of God, and shut up our desires within the narrow bound of our personal interest therein? Oh! no, my brethren; the dullest eye must see, the dullest heart must feel, that something beyond expression more belongs to the glorious reality of such a kingdom as this: however limited the faculty, or narrowed the comprehension, or isolated the charity of him who utters these words of his Lord, he cannot fail to perceive that in the petition he offers up, "Thy kingdom come," more than his solitary self is included. The love and the condescending mercy of his God are not thus limited; and if he would pray at all, he must

pray for those to whom the promise of that love is vouchsafed.

It is with a recollection of this universal and Christian spirit of prayer, that I wish you now, my brethren, to reflect upon the meaning of those words of our Saviour which you have this day so often used. And of the two distinct ideas they convey, that of the Church militant upon earth, and the Church triumphant in heaven, I desire to confine myself, now, to the former. The subject upon which it is my duty to speak to-day leads us of necessity to consider this; and if I show you, as is indeed most evident, that what you daily pray for, you are now called upon to promote, I shall not need any further argument, (and I am sure I cannot use any more convincing one) to move you zealously to contribute.

It will not, I think, be necessary to explain at any length the object, the essential object, for the promotion of which your liberality is confidently appealed to this day. The letter of his Majesty which has just been read to you, and by the authority of which this application is now made, has explained very fully the chief matters upon which it is founded. But there is one particular to which I must, for a moment, refer, because it

is right that the proper character of such an application as the present should not be lost sight of. I am not now speaking of the object to be promoted by the contributions sought to be obtained; this cannot, surely, require to be enforced by any weight of evidence or argument; for if any one occasion for the bestowal of your liberality more than another pressing in itself, or more exactly in accordance with the Christian's character and the Christian's prayer had been to be sought out, it would, undoubtedly, have been this. I wish, however, that you should not omit to notice the form in which the appeal comes before you. It is not that a new or strange method has been devised, of bringing the deep and crying wants of our national Church to your knowledge; it is not that an exercise of power, not hitherto put into practice, has been invoked, in obtaining his Majesty's gracious authority for a collection such as the present: rather, it is the bringing back to a healthy and useful condition the ancient, and much-abused method, of soliciting the aid of the benevolent. I have read to you, already, in his Majesty's letter, that this application comes before you at distant intervals in the place of those continual appeals to your

benevolence which, under the name of Church brief, used, till within these few years, to be made. Of the sums which were collected by means of those briefs but a very small part ever found its way to the relief of the sufferers on whose behalf, or for whatever other purpose, they had been obtained; and thus was your good-will rendered unprofitable, and your benevolence turned aside, and the object for which your assistance had been sought, remained unattained. By a wise provision of the legislature, however, this injurious and wasteful system has been suppressed, and in lieu of it the present and similar applications have been authorised; and it will, I am confident, further your cheerful desire to communicate, to know that not one single contribution will fail to find its way to the general funds of the Society for whose benefit you intend it.

Turning, now, to the Society itself in whose behalf this appeal is made, the name by which it is known and incorporated, at once defines its aim and objects. In a Society for Promoting the Enlargement and Building of Churches and Chapels, it is clear but one object can be pursued, and that must be the extension of churches and