go easy with them, it may be as smooth as a happy dream, all that they wish may come to their hand, and more than their hand can hold; all that they have may be spent foolishly, or even wickedly, more in opposition to Christ's word and worship than in upholding it; all this may be done in the sight of God, and He may hold His peace, and may keep back that man's condemnation.

But does the Lord in truth love these opposers and gainsayers? does He reckon them among His servants? Most assuredly not. There can be no doubt at all, to any one who knows the Word of the Lord, but that these are walking in "slippery places"," and are in courses wherein they may readily work out their own downfal.

Still the Lord God can make a use of these broken vessels. We look upon the sound and painted side of them, and by their seeming prosperity the Lord exercises and strengthens us in stedfastness. The Lord is trying whether we are still contented to follow God, while the reward seems to be given rather to those who desert Him or oppose Him. The Lord tries us whether we indeed love the Lord only for His own sake; because uprightness and peace of conscience are to be found in obedience to His will; because we have a sure trust that we shall find in humbleness and in constancy our pardon and acceptance through Jesus Christ, and whether we do indeed "love Him Who first loved us P."

• Ps. lxxiii. 18.

P 1 John iv. 19.

Let us not heed

Knowing, then, the way unto our Father's house, we will not go out of it. We may be told that the Lord may look cold upon us, and that He may bestow His favours upon those who are less dutiful, or who may wander at their will. these "words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams;" we know the way, and we know also that our feet have, by God's grace to us, been set therein. We will not leave it; we know that it will bring us to His gate, and we have a sure trust that when we come unto His mansions, the Lord our Redeemer will acknowledge us, that He will open to us when we "knock," because in quietness, in obedience, in patience, and in faith we looked unto the course laid down before our feet, and in prayer, in selfdenial, and in watchfulness stedfastly set our faces to follow Jesus Christ; "forgetting those things which are behind," and looking only to pass our days in serving the Lord, that so of His mercy, and for Christ's sake, we may serve Him hereafter in heaven, being made like His angels for ever.

These seem to me, then, my brethren, to be some of the beautiful lessons which the text, from the chapter ordered by the Church of Jesus to be read this day, brings home to our hearts.

As far as I have been able to lay before you any good out of the teaching which has been sent to you to-day in the Word of God, I trust that you will accept it with thankful hearts.

¶ Philip. iii. 13.

Remember, then, always, whenever you may see those in safety or prosperity who walk in paths which are not right in the sight of God, or which are not warranted or ordained of God, when you see these in prosperity and in this world's peace, remember then, that as far as you are concerned with them, besides your duty to pray for them, remember that they are proofs and exercises of your constancy; both to strengthen you in stedfastness, and also to let you be an example, "a light to lighten" others, who may not be so strong in the Lord as you are yourselves. Every instance of prosperous wickedness is a call on you to shew forth enduring uprightness. Remember Him who hath said, "The Lord God will help Me, therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed "." Stedfastly, therefore, "set the face to go to Jerusalem;" with an open and true heart follow the Lord in all His appointed ordinances; beseech Him to keep you stedfast therein; so that, whether in high or low estate, you may be found in obedience under every temptation, and thus may never lose the hope of the gracious redemption of His Son Jesus Christ, nor the humble trust that you are not shut out from the pardoning love of your Father which is in heaven.

r Isa. 1. 7.

s Luke ix. 51.

SERMON XXX.

Whit-Sunday.

ACTS xix. 9.

But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples.

HESE words shew perhaps the first appearance

THE

of dissent from the Church of the Lord Christ, and how St. Paul took his disciples and separated them from the gainsayers.

As we are directed by the Church to read these words specially on Whit-Sunday, in the Lessons for the day, we will first consider what the Church on this day commemorates, and will then return to consider more particularly the matter contained in the text.

On Whit-Sunday the Church commemorates in an especial manner the descent of the Holy Ghost on the apostles, who were the first bishops in the Church of Christ; and by whom her ordinances, rites, and customs were in the first instance established and set in order.

Our Lord Jesus Christ had stated, before He ascended up into heaven, that it was expedient for

Him to go away, and that He should now leave His apostles, but that He should send the Comforter unto thema. That He would send the Comforter unto them was a promise which He graciously made more than once. From the words which our Lord spake unto His followers, the apostles, just before He went up into heaven, and when He had commissioned His Church also to go forth into the world and teach all nations, it was easy to perceive that this Comforter was one Person in the same Everblessed and Eternal Being, the true and living God, in whom Christ also Himself in His Godhead is One. Now His words are, while He was leaving them, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." A promise by which the Lord Christ plainly shewed that He Himself, in the Comforter, would be the leader, the governing head, and the support of His Church, not only while the apostles themselves were alive, but that His Church should stand, in their successors, as long as the world endureth; and that He would be with it, until He should come again in judgment, into His vineyard, to reckon with His husbandmen, and to receive His fruits.

Now, then, as the Holy Ghost is one with Christ and with the Father in the holy and undivided Godhead, and as by receiving the Holy Spirit, the apostles became the very dwelling-places of the Comforter, and

a John xvi. 7.

b Matt. xxviii. 20.