life-his desires, thoughts, affections—all at variance with the love of God; all requiring to be converted, cleansed and purified, ere his eye can behold HIM, into Whose presence there “shall in no wise enter anything that defileth !" 1 How would he feel that he must come, as it were, from the uttermost parts of the earth, ere his heart can understand the wisdom of HIM, Who is greater than Solomon! and Whose Word it is, "Verily, I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." 2

3

But, lastly, the pure in heart shall behold their MAKER as HE is in HIMSELF hereafter: face to face in His Heavenly Kingdom, they shall see GOD. This is the consummation of the blessing; this is the fulfilment of the mystery. The day is at hand when there shall fall as it were scales from our eyes 3; when “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, ," the great invisible world-angels and principalities and powers-shall become visible; when this gross, material world shall disappear, and that which is now visionary and as nothingness, shall be seen, as it is, the only real. Then shall Purity be fully blessed. Then her eyes shall "see the King, the LORD of Hosts."5 But what tongue shall express - what stretch of imagination shall portray the beauty and the joy of that beatific vision, which Moses, the man of GOD, might not see and live; which the Apostle, caught up into Paradise, to the third Heaven' — whether in the body or out of the body, he could not tell-could neither see, nor conceive.

We behold the

3 Acts ix. 18. "Ex. xxxiii. 20.

81 Cor. ii. 9.

1

sun, the Lord of Day, "rise up and bathe the world in light." The natural sunshine, and the moral sunshine; the sunshine of the breast, the sunshine of home, the sunshine, above all, of the SPIRIT; these we may, even now, see and perceive; and in proportion as we are pure, we shall see and rejoice, yea, and shall bask in them: but the LORD of the Lord of Day, of Whom the light, and the conscience, and the life are but as the shadow, from Whom the SPIRIT proceedeth, and in Whose glory the Son of Man shall come with the Holy Angels, "HIM, Who is over all, God blessed for ever," another eye shall behold in another world." That is, the eye of them, to whom it is promised: for the impure there is another portion, another vision; the worm and, outer darkness-darkness rendered blacker and more terrible by the ever-present, personal manifestation of the Prince of Darkness; when they also shall see their Judge, only to hear the irreversible sentence, "Depart from ME, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels. "They that are filthy, let them be filthy still."5

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Thus, my Brethren, I have endeavoured to lay before you the full meaning of our LORD's words, so far as our limited faculties are able to comprehend it. And of the admonition to be drawn from them this is the sum; this is the account, which we have now to cast. Renounce all uncleanness, or relinquish the favour of Almighty GoD. Be shut out from His Presence here and hereafter. Put the beam into thine own eye. Forego the sight and enjoyment of all that is beautiful in Nature, lovely in virtue, sublime in wisdom, mysterious in grace. Be content to live

1 Mark viii. 38. 4 Matt. xxv. 41.

2 Matt. xvi. 27.

5 Rev. xxii. 2.

3 Rom. ix. 5.

without natural affection. Bid adieu to love, which is of GOD; quench his Holy SPIRIT; welcome unholy thoughts, dark desires, the unclean Spirit. Be dead to God, and alive only to sensuality in this world, and to torment in the next. Or, on the other hand, follow after purity, and be the favourite of GOD. Enter into His Presence, now and for evermore. Seek His face in the beauty of Nature, in the excellency of Truth, in the ties and endearments of family and friends, in the beauty of Holiness, in the inconceivable glory of the vision that shall be hereafter. My Brethren, if you have any sense, or value for these blessings-and as rational Beings you cannot but perceive and value them-if you value these blessings, you will follow after purity; you will "flee youthful lusts;" you will shun all contamination of evil company; you will keep a strict watch over your thoughts; you will defile your lips with no word that is unbecoming the sanctity of a child of GOD; you will read no books that may inflame, or defile you rather you will cast them into the fire and burn them. Far better is it that your soul and body

they should perish, and not that should be cast into Hell. Remember, if you are contracting habits of impurity, you are dealing most fearfully with spiritual things when you least perceive it. You know not what you do. Remember, if these temptations are among the greatest to which our corrupt nature is liable, so also is the reward; there is none greater. And alas! (let it not be denied) the temptations are indeed sore and grievous. The duty is most difficult. The evil is never far from us. We carry it about with us in the body, with which we are clothed. It is Satan's deadliest weapon against us, more especially in our youth. It mars the enjoyment

of the present. It poisons the remembrance of the past. With the weaker sex, in the opinion even of the world, it is utter, hopeless ruin: with us, who are the stronger, what shall it be, in the just and unerring Judgment of an all-pure GOD?

Once more, therefore, I adjure you in the Name of GOD, and of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, abstain from every appearance of this fearful evil. Shun every approach every incentive-all thoughts-all wordsall books-all places-all companions, that may entice you to it. Once more, I bid you to remember the gracious goodness of Almighty GoD, Who, in proportion as the temptation is grievous, and the ruin desperate, has proposed to us a reward, to wean us from the evil, and to cheer us to the victory, the greatest, and most glorious which it was possible for HIM to bestow : a reward, to begin in this world, and to be perfected hereafter in the world to come. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see GOD." "Their eyes shall see the KING in His beauty." They shall behold His face in righteousness, and when they awake up after His likeness, they shall be satisfied with it."

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C. W.

SERMON XX.

THE WHEAT AND THE TARES.

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany.

ST. MATT. XIII. 24.

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKENED UNTO A MAN, WHICH

SOWED GOOD SEED IN HIS FIELD.

THE Parable of the Tares in the field, which begins with the words chosen for the text, is read for the Gospel of this day.

We are still in the Season of Epiphany: we have contemplated the Manifestation of our LORD's Person to the Gentiles by a Star: we have contemplated the Manifestation of His Divine Wisdom to the Jewish Doctors and of His Divine Power, in the Miracle at Cana of Galilee in His healing the Leper, saving the Servant of the Centurion at Capernaum, and stilling the Storm on the Sea of Galilee: and now we are called upon to contemplate HIM in His Prophetic Office, and to behold and admire the power of His teaching, Who "spake as never man spake.'

:

The Parable is taken from the midst of many others. On the day of its delivery, "HE spake many things to

1

Gospel for The Epiphany.

2

Gospel for the first Sunday after The Epiphany.

3

Gospels for the second, third, and fourth Sundays after The Epiphany.