warmly and to offer sincerely this spiritual worship! Who can do this with so much energy and devotion as a Christian upon principle? as one whose heart is fixed upon his Saviour and animated with a spark of the celestial fire? We are permitted to call God our Father. Do not our hearts burn within us when we are assured that this permission alone arises from the Son of his love. "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons1."

It is impossible to conceive a more perfect state of mental happiness than when we deeply contemplate the revelation which God has been pleased to make of himself; and particularly of the distinctive personal qualities of the Godhead. That all the faculties of man may be absorbed in so deep a contemplation may be imagined, because the result is infinitely important to him. But how greatly will every feeling be heightened by a communication of such properties as are strictly accordant with the wants and necessities of our nature; personal properties, if I may be allowed the expression, which bring man nearer to his Maker; when we behold Jesus, the Son of his love, a willing sacrifice for our sin, and the blessed Spirit helping our infirmities! Each property of the divinity seems, by these means, to reach our comprehension, and we

1 Gal. iv. 4.

66

are suddenly involved in the rapture of the once doubting Thomas, "My Lord! and my God!" The assurance of this Faith is established by the apostle Paul when he declares that he can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth him" and who can doubt the precious promise of our Lord and Saviour "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another COMFORTER, that he may abide with you for ever?" Help us, O good Lord, to do thy will, that we may know the Scriptures to be of God, and may have the witness in ourselves; and may perceive the divinity of thy word, by the power and efficacy of it upon our lives. And though now we see but darkly as in a glass, and know but in part; and cannot by searching find out the Almighty to perfection; yet help us still more and better to know our God, so as we can know; till hereafter we shall know as we are known, and see face to face, in that blessed presence of thine, where is fulness of joy for evermore. Amen 3."

V.-The end of the Christian and ecclesiastical year.

Ir the conclusion of a year in the ordinary course of time be productive of serious thought, how much more powerful should be the reflection which terminates

1 Phil. iii. 13. 2 John xiv. 10.

3 Jenks' Prayers and Devotions.

the Christian and ecclesiastical year: for "if the righteous scarcely be saved"-hardly escape the snares and temptations laid for them in an insidious world"where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear1?" Indeed, caution should follow the steps even of the most righteous, treading the thorny path of life. We have now attained, it may be, the end of the Christian and ecclesiastical year. The true union of these principles, when it has accomplished its purpose, constitutes the whole life and being of a believer in the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and offers a clear evidence, that the one is given by a kind Providence as the salutary help of the other.

The Church of Christ, which I here consider as a collective body, though dispersed into various regions; yet holding the doctrines and preserving the primitive apostolic discipline, wherever settled, is a treasurehouse of salvation. The spiritual unity of this body is essential to its utility and prosperity. But as it is too obvious that, even in members professing Christianity, there is a great disparity in their profession, the caution I refer to, is peculiarly necessary; for it is clear that there may be the observance of an ecclesiastical, and yet not of a Christian year. It is with pain I make this distinction. But I do it with the intention that every man, who, as a member of this invaluable Church, has brought within his view the several holy

11 Pet. iv. 18.

steps which lead to the beautiful gate of the temple, who has counted them diligently as he has ascended to the holy place, and expected that he was gaining ground by every step in his religious Faith, should deliberate well in his progress, and inquire from time to time how far his heart is truly interested, and whether he is taking care for the eternal welfare of his soul? Whether he has not been amusing himself with delusive hopes; and delights rather in the beauty of the structure than in the cause of its erection?. "The hill of Sion is a fair place, and the joy of the whole earth," but if we climb the hill, and see neither its beauty nor its fertility, our labour will have been bestowed in vain; we shall dolefully descend into the vale of misery and sin, and be involved in the culpable darkness of our original depravity.

I need not now enumerate the gradations of the Christian life. Its rise and progress are before us in the interesting narrative of our Gospel history: and there is, in the ecclesiastical order of our invaluable Church, every facility of attaining the high character of a Christian. From the holy water at our birth to the closing service on our grave, the whole interval is filled with the most spiritual suggestions. All is holy if our heart be holy. Not one moment is left unemployed in enforcing upon degenerate man the necessity of rising above his nature, the sure and certain hope of an improved condition, by accepting from his Saviour the "unspeakable gift" of salvation.

At the same time all this is so mixed up with the ordinary occupations of life, that if his mind be right, every action, in a certain degree, becomes spiritual, and tends to give dignity to that station which wants only this to speak its value.

It is not for me to describe man otherwise than he is in his earthly state; but surely it is no ignoble attempt to raise his eyes towards a better prospect, to accompany him into a clearer region, to anticipate pleasures which cannot be defined, to "walk by faith and not by sight;" and that we, "who have taken sweet counsel together, and walked in the house of God as friends "" on earth, as friends may associate together in heaven; and, at the end of our eventful life, "come unto Mount Sion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant:-wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear "."

2

"O Almighty God, who hast built thy Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head corner-stone;

1 Ps. lv. 14.

2 Heb. xii. 22, &c.