the meridian of life, into the vault opened in the floor of the Church he had been instrumental in rebuilding, as if to be his tombstone. The sacred edifice was crowded with the sorrowing parishioners. There were present some thirty or forty clergymen in their robes, as mourners, and one in his winding sheet. The pulpit was empty, for the preacher occupied the grave. The venerable Archdeacon read the impressive service, but the voice the people seemed to hear the voice that found an echo in every heart, rose in awful and piercing energy from the minister that slept sweetly in his shroud. "I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living."

Brethren, "blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." "Absent from the body," is "present with the Lord." Do not cleave to this earth; do not feel toward it as your rest. "Weep as though you wept not, rejoice as though you rejoiced not." Let not its glare blind you, nor its din stun you, nor its passions and its lusts creep and curl around your heart, and chill it to eternal joys. See you not amid its palaces and halls "the house appointed for all living?" Hear you not amid the blending voices of the daughters of music, "I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living?"

Make sure of an interest in the precious sacrifice and meritorious passion of Jesus. In His righteousness you can meet death with joy. Through Him you will be more than conqueror. Death has no

advantage whether he come as a friend or as a foe, for in the one capacity you are prepared to welcome him, and in the other to vanquish him. It is only when death comes as a stranger, that his stroke is dreadful. By you, I trust, he is duly estimated— stingless, sinless, curseless, because to you Christ is precious—the eternal Spirit your comforter, the everlasting God your Father, and unutterable glory your home.

SERMON II.

THE INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL

PROGRESS OF THE CHRISTIAN.

BY THE

REV. ROBERT GILLAN,

MINISTER OF ABBOTSHALL.

1 CORINTHIANS Xiii. 11.

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

If we examine those material arrangements of which we ourselves form a part, soon shall we find that all things are carried forward by gradual advancement, and that nothing springs forth in the full maturity of its being. Not by an overpowering flood of solar

beams do the ardours of summer glow over our plains, but by the imperceptible openings of the spring-not by a sudden depressure, but step by step do we descend to the temperature of autumn, and the freezing chilness of the year's decline. As in the cause so have we the effect in the vegetable kingdom-there, in all its products, "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." The same dictate of the Creator has been given to every creature in whose nostril is the breath of life, from the first faint rudiments up to the completion of its state. And who may deny that a similar ordination exists in reference at once to the physical, the intellectual, the moral, and the spiritual condition of man? Yes, for in each and in all of these we progress from the faintness of the dawn to the ample effulgence of noon-from its faltering utterance to the ready fluency of the tongue-from the simple perception of outward objects to the highest processes of reason and understanding. Or, regard us as beings destined for an acquaintanceship with God, for an intercourse with spirits eternal, for a knowledge of the mysteries of redemption, and the book of our creed has determined that, in this view of our growth, we go forward from youth to our prime, from the diminutive aspect of childhood to the perfect strength and perfect stature of men in Christ Jesus.

And thus obnoxious to change, it wisely follows that every separate state is attended with its own peculiar demands that each brings along with it impulses and instincts which secure its sustenance and enjoyment ;so that the appetencies requisite for one will not be

requisite for another stage of our being; and what may now be sought for with avidity, and cherished with fondness, will, in a few years, at once be abandoned and forgotten. And restrict it to one of its forms, or regard it in one of its phases, and this is the law that is implied with the outgoing of it, expressed in that language of the apostle, which has led to these opening remarks. The distinctions between childhood and maturity being many and palpable, are they adduced by St. Paul figuratively to illustrate the difference that will be found to obtain between our present and our future knowledge in grace, and our loftier attainments in glory? And this, were we strictly textual, we should proceed to illustrate and confirm. desirous of a wider range, let us engage this passage to show us the various stages of spiritual enlightenment attainable by man, as these stand contrasted

I. Between the Gentile and the Jew.

II. Between the Jew and the Christian.

But

III. Between the youthful and the advanced disciple.

IV. Between the believer on earth, and the saint in heaven. And,

Lastly, Between what we are at our entrance into Paradise, and what we shall be there even at the close

of ages.

This, though a circuitous one, I trust will prove no tedious journey, since it will acquaint us more largely with the privileges we enjoy, and more rapturously