come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!'

And if Scripture thus speaks, how did they, from whose lips Scripture came forth, act? What are the dictates, the silent eloquence, of their lives and their deaths? Do we gather thence that it is a foolish and a vain thing, and uncharitable, and unchristian to act and to suffer, to live and to die for the righteous cause, to be given up, heart, and soul, and thought to it? What says the Holy Prophet? Did he fall down and worship Baal, when, thinking that not only were the altars torn down and the prophets slain, but that, with them, every worshipper too had perished, he uttered that piercing complaint, Behold I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away?? What says the Holy Apostle? When 'no man stood with him but all forsook him,' did he give up the cause? Nay! he kept the faith,' and knew that 'the Lord would stand with him' and strengthen him. What above all saith the Author and finisher of our faith? When He, by His eternal wisdom, knew the bitternessof the cup of trembling to be so terrible, that if it had been possible for man to be redeemed by any struggle less fearful, He would have desired that it should pass away from Him, did He not drink of that cup of unspeakable anguish for our sake? Does He not from His silent cross, speak with a voice with which human voice never spake, and command us to take up our cross, and offer as far as our little power reaches, like him to suffer for the cause of good, of man, of God?

From whatever cause then they may proceed, whether from ignorance which dictates the semblance of charity, from carelessness as to the distinction between good and evil both in the abstract or in individuals, from a fear of the reproachful names of intolerance and bigotry, feelings like these are not charity. Well indeed has it been said, "That those persons should tolerate all opinions, who think none to be of estimation, is a matter of small merit. Equal neglect is not impartial kindness. The species of benevolence which arises from contempt, is not true charity1. In a word it is indifference, and from indifference cometh no good thing! Come anything but that! Come the wild dreams of superstition, come the savage excesses of the enthusiast, come the stern rigours of the fanatic, which with all their evils, still leave the heart something to love and reverence, still leave it unabated trust in good and the Author of good, but come not the withering, palsying, hand of indifference upon the Christian's heart! Where that flourishes and abounds, nothing else will, for it dries up every source of fertility, the gushing spring of human affections, the gentle dew of grace from heaven. There will be no love, no love of man, no love of God. There will be no shame, no sense of sin, no fear of punishment, no gratitude for deliverance, no love of the deliverer, no zeal for His Gospel, no desire and no readiness to act or to suffer for it, or for the good of man.

Be wiser ye, my brethren.

Be assured that as

your first, and last, and greatest duty in this world,

Burke.

is to glorify God, so the only way in which you can glorify Him effectually is by promoting His cause, the cause of godliness, of truth, of right, of virtue. Be assured that you can never promote that cause unless you set yourselves with all your talents, all your hearts and minds, accurately to know what godliness, and truth, and right, and virtue are, and what they require of you, unless you love them, unless you are ready to act and to suffer for them. To you much is given, from you much will be required. On some of you nature hath poured forth her choicest gifts. To all, a fostering care, and time, and opportunities are given to enable you to mature and fit for God's service, whatever talents He has given. And, far above these earthly advantages, to all there has been vouchsafed a knowledge of God's saving grace, an offer of God's assisting and enlightening Spirit, to enable you to shine like lights in the world.' Much has indeed been given! To whom then if not to you, is your Master to look for the promotion of that cause which by man's care and courage, under His grace, is to be promoted? To whom, if not to you, are godliness, and truth, and right, and virtue, to look for support and succour ? Whither shall these illustrious suppliants turn for the aid which they require, if you reject their suit, and how shall that rejection be excused before the judgment seat of God? If from indolence you neglect to know the truth and to recognize its heavy claims on you, if, knowing, you are indifferent and careless in discharging them, if, in a spirit of false philosophy, you behold in calm contempt the struggle between good

and evil, if from the fear of reproach you dare not be valiant for the truth, and with manly vigour resist and repress evil, if, in a word, you never come to that age when you shall learn to refuse the evil and chuse the good,' what can be your comfort on earth, or your hope in heaven? When weighed in the balance, you will be found wanting, wanting in the best and the brightest, wanting to that cause for which a Saviour lived, wanting to that cause for which a Saviour died, wanting to the cause of man, wanting to the cause of God.

Be not deceived then, deceive not your ownselves. Believe not that indifference is charity. Believe not that Christ Jesus, when He calls on you to love your brethren, calls on you to behold with calmness, with patience, and with indifference, the progress of evil. Far other is His call, far other His exhortation. He bids you by His apostle, 'go forth to the warfare;' He bids you for that warfare, 'put on the whole armour of God, to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.' That good fight must inIf the heathen knew that

deed be fought in charity. it was his best wisdom to join gentleness to firmness of purpose, how much more must it be your bounden duty, as the disciples of Jesus Christ, to be kind though firm, gentle though bold, patient though strong, to quit you indeed like men, but to do all with charity,' to show your good will, as brethren and heirs of the same sin and corruption, to those whose thoughts you cannot approve, and whose deeds you must oppose; yea! to win them to you and to Christ, by the ornament of

a quiet though courageous spirit. So only can you be Christ's faithful soldier and servant, for His servant must not strive. So only can you look to Him in whom alone is strength and victory, to give you the victory over evil, the victory in His cause. So only may you hope, when the fight is fought, the warfare accomplished, the victory won, to have a spirit meet for His presence, who died for sinners though the foe of sin, and to receive the crown reserved for them that love Him at that day.