whose awful presence I am now about to enter, and whom I am now going to worship and to serve? Quickly will conscience whisper the reply-It is the God who made me, redeemed me, and sanctifies me :-It is the Almighty Creator in whom alone I "live and move and have my being"*-who, compassionating the fallen condition of my race, gave up even his only Son to suffer death upon the cross, that he might wipe away my sinsand not mine only, but the sins of the whole world:It is that adorable Son who, though equal with and one with the Father, was content to leave all the majesty of Heaven, and take upon him my imperfect nature, that, suffering in that nature which had offended, he might obtain for it a restoration to the divine favour which it had lost :-It is that holy and comforting Spirit who is the author and Giver of life-whose gracious influences alone enable my heart to prompt or

* Acts xvii. 28.

my hands to execute one word or deed of goodness -and without whose heavenly light and guidance, this world would be to me a labyrinth of most perplexing subtleties, drawing me daily from my duty, and beguiling me to my destruction. Yes this is the great Being whom I go to worship, and I ought to feel myself bowed to the earth, when I reflect upon the power, majesty, and mercy of my God, and think I am going to offer him the imperfect services of my devotion :— I ought to feel deeply anxious that my conduct while in the house of prayer may be such as becomes a penitent and suppliant sinner-and that I may not be the means of driving as it were the holy Presence from his sanctuary, by any careless, irreverent, and unseemly behaviour.

As often as the opportunity may be presented to you, be ye, brethren, ever among those who esteem it their happy privilege to draw near unto their God,

and to "go into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise."*

The true Christian will scarcely need an admonition on this subject; with the piety of the Royal Psalmist, he will be "glad when they say unto him, let us go into the house of the Lord." Feeling that he is

placed like Israel of old, amid the toils and labours of an earthly wilderness, yet with the land of promised rest before him, he regards the seventh day and the services of the sanctuary as the Pisgah, from whose commanding top he can view the Canaan of his future inheritance. He descends again, it is true, to his tent in the desert, and the care and travail of his weary sojourn; but he carries with him the impression of that peaceful land, and the thoughts of it and the hopes of it are his solace. And ever as the day of rest and the hour of public prayer returns, so he resumes his steps, to refresh his soul with the prospect of its borders and

* Psalm c. 4.

* Psalm cxxii. 1.

to muse over the joy of its possession. With desire he gazes on the barrier stream which divides him from his heavenly rest, until the term of his appointed probation is fulfilled and he hears the glad summons to pass over."

249

SERMON XI.

PALM SUNDAY.

ST. MATTHEW xxi. 6—11.

1

"AND THE DISCIPLES WENT AND DID AS JESUS COM-
MANDED THEM, AND BROUGHT THE ASS AND THE
COLT, AND PUT ON THEM THEIR CLOTHES AND
THEY SET HIM THEREON. AND A VERY GREAT
MULTITUDE SPREAD THEIR GARMENTS IN THE
WAY; OTHERS CUT DOWN BRANCHES FROM THE
TREES AND STREWED THEM IN THE WAY, AND
THE MULTITUDES THAT WENT BEFORE AND THAT

FOLLOWED, CRIED, SAYING: HOSANNA TO THE SON
OF DAVID BLESSED IS HE THAT COMETH IN THE
NAME OF THE LORD; HOSANNA IN THE HIGhest.
AND WHEN HE WAS COME INTO JERUSALEM, ALL
THE CITY WAS MOVED, SAYING: WHO IS THIS?
AND THE MULTITUDE, SAID, THIS IS JESUS THE
PROPHET OF NAZARETH OF Galilee."

THE progress of the Christian year brings us this day to the Sunday next before Easter, and our thoughts are now invited