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may well conclude, from the preparation required, and the aid afforded,) are neither few nor easy. They are very properly explained to us, or rather those who undertake for us, at baptism,-the period when we pledge ourselves faithfully to perform them. Remembering always that baptism doth represent unto us our profession; which is, to follow the example of our Saviour Christ, and to be made like unto him; that as he died and rose again for us, so should we who are baptized die from sin, and rise again unto righteousness, continually mortifying all our evil and corrupt affections, and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living'." Such is our task, our vocation; it is to be unremitted, and it is never to be laid aside as ended. Our evil and corrupt affections are to be continually mortified, and daily are we to proceed in the path of virtue. We know, in the language of the book of Wisdom, that "God created man to be immortal and made him to be an

image of his own eternity 1;" and to regain this immortality, and restore this glorious image, is, in a few words, the work that is given us to do, the task that is set before us. To finish this work-to perform this task, which is indeed our proper vocation, we require all the helps, the training, and the strength, which we have seen to be so carefully provided for us by our religion. For let us not suppose that in religion, any more than in our daily employments, we can stand still or be negligent without risk or injury. Our evil and corrupt affections sit not so lightly upon us as to be shaken off with a passing effort; nor, when once subdued, are they banished for ever. They are deeply seated in the heart-they pervade our whole constitution; and we all know what it is to renounce a fixed and inveterate habit, or to subdue a passion which has long been permitted to lead us captive at its will; and when subdued for a time, like a weed which is natural to the soil,

1 Wisdom ii. 23.

they are still springing up afresh, and calling us to renewed labour in reducing them once more to subjection. Such is the difficulty of rooting out evil; the second part of our engagement-that of the cultivation of virtue by daily proceeding in all godliness of living-is also no easy task. Yet all this must be done, for we were sent into the world to do it; and he who quits this earthly scene without having in some good measure executed this his allotted task-he who appears at the bar of his Saviour without having, according to the means afforded him, subdued his evil passions-cultivated his better feelings and laboured to restore that image which sin had sullied at the Fall, will be cast off as an unprofitable servant, a faithless steward, a labourer in the vineyard who is not worthy of his hire. He will be treated as one who has shamefully failed in the execution of a task which he had deliberately undertaken to perform, and his portion will be with the unbelievers, and outer darkness his dwelling

Among the various points of view, then, in which our Christian duty may be justly regarded by us, the one which we have here enforced-that it is our proper vocation or calling-seems well calculated to place it in a just and clear light, and one that may be easily remembered by the thoughtful. "The children of this world are in their generation," says our Saviour, "wiser than the children of light1;" let us, therefore, take a lesson from them; and the very same principles which they apply to secure the success of their worldly schemes, let us use to obtain the one thing needful-the salvation of our own souls. Let us consider that we have, like them, a pursuit, in which our progress, like theirs, depends in a great measure on ourselves; and let us reflect that the very same industry, care, and caution, which so surely answer their purposes, will answer ours also. Let us, then, thus view our religious life as a vocation, and we are the more likely to

1 Luke xvi. 8.

walk worthy of it. We shall not then feel, as too many do, that we are now attending to religious affairs, and now to worldly matters, as if we bore two characters which could be separated and distinguished from each other, but that, under all circumstances, and in every situation of life, we have one character to support, one end to gain, and one vocation to follow-the vocation of a good Christian. We shall no more forget our spiritual calling than we do our worldly pursuits. We shall look upon our early introduction into the Church, upon the name which we bear, and upon the instruction which we have received, as all bearing upon this notion of a vocation which we have early taken up, and which we can never hereafter lay aside. We shall look, also, at the duties which this our profession lays upon us; and we shall see how similar they are to worldly duties, except that they are greater; and how similar are the means by which they are to be performed, except that they are holier. We shall