Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?* And again, "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Since then, my love, we find preaching is one of those appointed means from which, if rightly used, we may expect a blessing, let us take heed "how we hear." that heareth you," said our Lord, when he sent his disciples to preach "into every city and every place," "heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me." We are told that the Lord opened the heart of Lydia, "that she attended unto the things that were spoken of Paul." Pray, therefore, my dear child,

* Rom. x. 13, 14.

Luke x. 1, 16.

"He

when you kneel

+1 Cor. i. 21.

§ Acts xvi. 14.

down before the sermon, that God would open your heart, and cause you to attend, that the words spoken may profit you, and do not fear but that you will learn some lesson that shall be for your good. As the excellent George Herbert says, "If the sermon should be really so dull and tedious that you can learn nothing, then it takes a text and preaches patience." But this saying can hardly be applicable to a child; for it can surely scarcely be that any sermon can be preached from which an attentive, humble-minded, teachable child, may not receive instruction. The text must be the Word of God, and that may be laid up in the memory and pondered upon in the heart. Carefully watch against the very first temptation, to listen in a temper of mind to look for faults, to criticise words, tone of voice, or gestures; and as you may remember your excellent pastor once said, to think more "what manner of

man was it that told you these words, than to attend to the message he brings. To such the words of the Lord, spoken to his prophet, are applicable; the preacher is to them only "as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument;" and I fear, too often we may add the remainder of the verse,-" They hear the words, but they do them not.”† Listen, my child, with an anxious desire to learn and to bring home some truth from the Word of God which shall profit yourself, and doubt not but you shall receive a blessing. After the sermon is ended, it is usual in some churches to rise when the clergyman ascribes glory to the Holy Trinity, and to kneel when he says, "Let us pray." In others, all the congregation kneel immediately. The former would say, that it is the usual custom to rise at the offering of * 2 Kings i. 7. † Ezek. xxxiii. 22.

praise as prescribed by the Rubric; while the latter would plead, perhaps, the example of the angels. St. John tells us," And all the angels stood round about the throne, and fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, Amen blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto Our God for ever and ever. Amen."* But in all cases where, like this, it can only be considered as a non-essential ceremony, it is better, I think, to conform to what appears to be the usual custom of the congregation, so that "all things may be done decently and in order."† Do you remember, my dear child, that hymn we sometimes sing in church ?

"Lord of the Sabbath! hear us pray,
In this thy house, on this thy day.
Accept as grateful sacrifice

The songs which from thy temple rise.
Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love;
But there's a nobler rest above."

*Rev. vii. 11, 12. † 1 Cor. xiv. 40.

As it is said of the "earthly Sabbaths," so may it be of the worship of God in earthly temples; for though even here we may exclaim, "A day in thy courts is better than a thousand," and may rejoice when we are called to "go up unto the house of the Lord," a time is coming, and by all the "signs of the times," we may hope will come quickly,"* when in the "new heaven and the "new earth" we shall “join in a nobler worship," and be found, I humbly trust, through the merits of our Saviour, worthy to serve him where there will be no more temple; for we are told, "And I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are THE TEMPLE of it; and the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."t

*Rev. xxii. 20.

+ Rev. xxi. 22, 23.

Macintosh, Printer, Great New Street, London.