the will of God should be revealed on this side the grave. And, lastly, he is appointed to ease the bed of sickness, to smooth the pillow of death, to assist the lingering spirit as it "shuffles off its mortal coil," and to gild with the rays of penitential hope its first flight to immortality.

(4.) Such, brethren, is a faithful steward of the mysteries of God. But who shall be equal to all these things? What mortal man, conscious of his frailness, shall embark in so high an undertaking, and not feel his need, use what efforts he may, of the indulgence of his hearers, and of the pardon of his God? And how awfully, under that conviction, must the weight and burden of responsibility press at this moment on him who, in the heart of this enormous Babylon, surrounded by Dissenters on one side, by large and opulent Churches on the other, first addresses that little flock which he is to feed with the manna of eternal life, and on this, the first day of the Ecclesiastical year, re-opens for their worship this ancient temple, small but classical relic of our forefathers' piety!

(5.) There is, in the example and preaching of the Apostles, and especially of St. Paul, something calculated at first sight to make their successors despair of their mission, and shrink abashed from any attempt at emulating the days of old. For who, in this dark degenerate age, shall presume upon that Spirit which was poured upon him with

all the flame and vigor of inspiration--with all "the pomp and prodigality of heaven!" When I think of that marvellous man-when I first behold him, a Roman officer, persecuting the Church of Christ unto the death-when I look anon, and see him prostrate on the earth, and quailing before the burning eye of God, as it flashes through the clouds athwart the thunder and the firewhen I see him contemning the powers he had worshipped, and yearning for the honour of the God he had despised-when I follow him over that vast track of sea and land, through those unparalleled perils that he so touchingly describeswhen, in spite of all obstacles, I see him founding Churches, overthrowing idols, and everywhere measuring his steps by his conquests—when I study his Epistles, and see the visible traces of inspiration in their simple majesty, in their occasional bursts of unrivalled sublimity, in that close reasoning, which is not the less connected for defying all ordinary rules of logic-I feel bewildered, and overpowered, and lost in admiration, and my heart sinks within me as I whisper to myself— Who now shall catch the mantle of the Apostle? What radiant feet shall tread in the luminous track he left behind?

(6.) But when, on the other hand, I recollect that it was not of himself alone, nor only of the Apostles and their immediate successors, but of

the whole future race of those who should follow sacred functions, that he said, Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God—and when, encouraged by this, I look upward to that great Spirit, without whose aid we are nothing, but with whom everything, who can shed where He will the dews of his grace, and turn the barren rock into a fruitful field-when I look around me, and see how many ministers, in this vast metropolis, are still accounting themselves worthy to be stewards of His mysteries, and are gloriously advocating His sacred cause when I call to mind the splendid proof of attachment to that cause which so many in this noble city have lately given by the funds which have sprung up, as it were by magic, to serve for the foundation of new temples to the Lord-I feel that as is my fear, so should also be my hope ; that as is my peril, so should also be my zeal; and that as is my weakness, so, by His grace, may be my strength.

(7.) With such convictions, the ministers of this, and of every age, however hopeless to rival St. Paul's perfection, are bound, albeit at an humble distance, to be followers of him, even as he was a follower of Christ:" for, whether we examine his doctrines, his manner of presenting them, or the high moral qualities, by which he so powerfully acted on men's minds, and caused those doc

trines to be universally received,-in each of those three points of view he may be proposed as a perfect model to every steward of the mysteries of God.

(8.) I. In the first place, however beautifully the other books of the Sacred Canon may help to enforce or to illustrate them, the great fundamental doctrines of Christianity are allowed, by the unanimous voice of all theologians, to be nowhere so completely, or so argumentatively embodied, as they are in the writings of St. Paul. More particularly, in the letters to the Romans, to the Corinthians, and to the Hebrews, we find the most admirable and well-reasoned digests of the great subject matter of a Christian's faith. Well had it been, if a hungry host of obscure commentators had not obtruded their pigmy minds upon the giant intellect of the Apostle, making plain things crooked, while they vainly strove to make the crooked plain! From these ever streaming fountains, that flow freely for whoever is athirst, let the divine unceasingly draw; remembering that, after all, the best commentator on Paul is no other than Paul himself, if we interpret one hard passage by a similar one that is more easy, and so follow his own advice, of " comparing spiritual things with spiritual." We shall there find on what great points our discourses must chiefly turn if we would be accounted faithful

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stewards. We shall find where to cast our anchor, and where to fix our hopes. We shall find how he spurns the mock-wisdom of those philosophers who waste their hearers' time in abstract disquisitions, and metaphysical subtilties that lead to no tangible result. We shall find how little they partake of his spirit, who are satisfied with dry essays on mere morality, that never can be binding, because they give the rule without the motive, the law without the authority of the Lawgiver. We shall find that it is not left to human invention or ingenuity to decide what to take or what to leave, as God forbid it should, for then would every preacher follow his own wayward fancy, and every congregation would constitute a sect! We shall find that the main work is ready done to hand for us, and that, although we may vary the details without end, yet, whatever superstructure we wish to build, other FOUNDATION can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ whose advent the Church on this day celebrates―Jesus Christ, the Son of Jehovah, the copartner of His eternity-Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of fallen man, who, as at this time, left the abodes of the blessed, and veiled his glory in the garments of mortality, taking, not the high nature of angels, but the lowly seed of Abraham-Jesus Christ, the man of sorrows, who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification-Jesus Christ, the Lord