living in disregard of GOD, they have shut themselves out from His mercy, and cut themselves off from the inheritance of His people. They will find out that the one only way of peace for man they have wilfully rejected, and they will see too late that the way they chose for themselves leads eventually to the bitterness of remorse, even to the misery of an existence without hope.

Oh! be not faithless, then, but believing. Put not yourselves away from the sphere of God's love. CHRIST, in great mercy to our souls, has died for our salvation. The gates of Heaven have been opened for our return to happiness. We may be blessed— blessed for ever; but not if we go on questioning, and objecting, and arguing-if we go on for ever finding fault with the evidence which has been given to us, having been brought to this unhappy state of uncertainty by making our own will our law. Remember, while men are thus keeping aloof from their SAVIOUR, indulging their spirit of independence by refusing to believe, the LORD, Whose love and authority they reject, is present in the midst of them. He sees how their hearts are affected by what He has done for them, and His coming judgment will proceed upon the principle, that those that honour HIM HE will honour, and those who despise HIM shall be lightly esteemed.

Let us learn, then, my Brethren, to live more and more by faith. Let us study to have a tender heart, like the youthful Josiah—a heart sensitively alive to every indication of our SAVIOUR'S Will. Let us meditate with reverence on the recorded fact, that St. Thomas did after the Resurrection of our LORD, See and feel the very wounds which He received, when HE

was crucified for us. Let us call to mind how our Blessed LORD appeared to His disciples when they were met together full of love to His Name, and how He blessed them with the blessing of peace. And, remembering this, let us now, in His Holy Temple, recognize in the Sacred Ordinance of His own appointment the Presence of HIM of Whom St. Thomas testified that He was his LORD and his GOD. It will not be given us, indeed, to behold HIM with the outward sense. Our eyes will not as yet see the wounds with which for our sake HE was wounded. Nor will our ears hear HIм saying to us, "Peace be unto you." But if we have faith in His Word, we shall believe in the reality of all this; we shall spiritually eat His Body and drink His Blood. By the power of faith we shall know that He is in the midst of us; and oh! may we not-if the desire of our souls be to the remembrance of HIM-believe, to our great comfort, that His thoughts towards us are thoughts of love, and that He will lift up the light of His countenance upon us, and bless us !

And if we thus realize by faith the Presence and love of our SAVIOUR, we are making preparation for that day and hour when we shall all see HIM coming in the clouds of Heaven. We are making preparation for beholding HIм then in peace. At His glorious Appearing we know that every eye shall see HIM; yea, even those who by their sins have pierced Him. HE manifests HIMSELF now to the hearts of those that love HIM; hereafter He will be manifest to all. Let us then so strive to live, so look to HIM, so keep ourselves unspotted from the world, so abound in every good word and work, that when, according to His promise, He shall come in His glorious majesty to judge

the world, we may be found of HIM not doubting and disputing, but believing and obeying; not waiting for more evidence, but acting up to the evidence we have; not living in ungrateful indifference to our Heavenly MASTER, but by every means in our power endeavouring to keep HIм always in remembrance. Then will not our faith be reproved in His sight. Then shall we be enabled to rejoice in His Presence. Then will our feelings be like theirs, of whom it is written, "Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the LORD." Then shall we meet-Oh blissful thought!-not as strangers to each other, but as friends; not as those, between whom no previous intercourse has existed, but as those whose thoughts have been occupied, His in doing us good, ours in giving HIM praise. Then after having faithfully and dutifully shown forth His Death continually in the Holy Communion of His Body and Blood, after having in prayer and praise and holy meditation, and every devout exercise, remembered Him in a world in which few are disposed to believe His Word or love His ways, we shall be remembered by HIM in the abundance of His mercy, we shall be confessed by HIM in the presence of His angels, we shall see HIM face to face, and hear HIM saying to us, "Come ye blessed of My FATHer, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world."

And in that happy, blessed state, shall we not feel more strongly than ever we have done yet, the truth of that solemn, thrilling exclamation, "O LORD GOD of hosts, blessed is the man that putteth his trust in THEE!"

G. W. W.

SERMON VII.

THE JOYFUL SOUND OF THE NEW CREATION.

Christmas Day.

PSALM LXXxix. 15.

BLESSED IS THE PEOPLE THAT KNOW THE JOYFUL SOUND; THEY SHALL WALK, O LORD, IN THE LIGHT OF THY

COUNTENANCE.

THIS joyful sound is the voice of the Church of GOD, which has been raised from age to age, and shall be raised while time shall last, to proclaim the glory of her King. Blessed are they that know it-blessed are they who love to hear, who delight to swell that sound, who walk in the light of the LORD. The Saints of old rejoiced in it. Abraham rejoiced to see the Day of the SAVIOUR; and he saw it, and was glad.' They saw afar off; but now the Glory of the LORD has been more clearly seen among men: their joy should be greater they should delight yet more in ascribing all glory, honour, worship, and power to the LORD Jesus, their King.

1 St. John viii. 56.

Yet how little do most men know of this joy; how little do they know or care what song, from time to time, the Church is singing-what Psalms we here recite to the praise and glory of GoD, and what they mean. How few are here every Sunday to employ the rest God gives in His work—that is rest to the soul; and on every holy Festival, to mark the steps of our Blessed LORD on earth, or to acknowledge His glory shining forth in His Saints, fit subjects of so great a King. And when here, how little do we know of what we hear, or join in saying and in singing to His praise. Would we possess the blessing the Psalmist speaks of, we must give our minds to these things. We must give time and thought to them, and strive to know all that is told us about CHRIST, and about His Coming into the world, once as He has come to suffer for our sins, and again as He shall come to judge the world in Righteousness. We must think on these things, and do according to them, and pray to be made partakers of them, till we can sing with joy of the coming of our LORD to judge the world in Righteousness,' and have our place among those who love His appearing.2

On this happy day, most of those who are here must have thought something of the voice of joy which we have endeavoured to raise in thankfulness for the Birth of our SAVIOUR. Let us return to the words we have heard and said, and think again of them, and of HIM of whom they speak.

Whenever we meet in the House of GOD, we always repeat a joyful thanksgiving for His mercy to us in CHRIST. But to-day, even more than on other days, our thoughts are called to fix themselves on HIM, and 1 Ps. xcviii. 9. 2 2 Tim. iv. 8.