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SERMON XXIII.*

JOHN, XXI. 17.

"JESUS SAITH UNTO HIM, FEED MY SHEEP."

As I have been appointed to address you, my reverend brethren, on this important occasion, I shall endeavour to do so with as much fidelity as I can. Nor shall I employ your time by asserting the claims of that church of which we are ministers, to the high position which, by God's providence, she occupies in this country. "There is a time for all things." And surely it cannot be necessary to prove to you what, it is to be presumed, you had fully examined before you took upon you the responsibilities which you hold. I take it for granted that you all encompassed our Jerusalem, and walked about our Zion; that you marked well her bulwarks, and surveyed her towers, before you enlisted amongst her defenders; and undertook to guard her fortresses, to line her

*Preached in the Cathedral Church of Cashel, on Friday, July 14, 1843, at the Primary Visitation of Robert Daly, D.D. Lord Bishop of Cashel, &c., and published by his lordship's desire, and at the request of the clergy.

battlements, and to man her walls. I take it for granted that you believe the Church to which you belong to be Scriptural in her doctrine, Catholic in her spirit, primitive in her polity, and Apostolic in her constitution. To dwell on these subjects, therefore, would not be a wise economy of our present time, because unnecessary. But I confess I have additional reasons for calling your attention rather to other matters: one of them I shall just mention.

These visitation sermons are heard by many besides the ministers of the Church. And, amongst the rest, they are heard, perhaps, by some who, though her professing members, have not been early taught to love and value her services as they justly merit. Their hearts and their affections were not engaged. If it be so, is it clear that her ministers were free from blame? And should we, as a body, take no shame to ourselves that the lambs were not fed in sweet and pleasant pastures -that the little ones were not brought to Christ, that he should draw their youthful hearts with cords of love-that no cheering recollections, no tender associations were early formed, no remembrances of days when they "called the Sabbath a delight," and were "glad when it was said unto them, Let us go into the house of the Lord?" Besides, there may be some here who are of a

different communion from ourselves; and who, with a liberality which does them credit, have come to witness this interesting sight. Surely, then, it is our wisdom and our duty, not hastily to repel, but sweetly to attract, such hearers to us. When these persons return to their several homes, and are asked, as is natural, what the sermon was about; will it make a favourable impression upon their families and friends, to be told that the sermon was an encomium on the Church—that it sounded forth the exclusive powers and high prerogatives of her ministers-that it unfurled the standard of defiance to all who refused obedience to her mandates, or dared to venture beyond the magic circle of her pale? Is this the way to heal the wounds which, it may be, her past neglects have inflicted on the tender conscience or too sensitive spirit; and to charm away the prejudices of those who have been taught to view her with jealousy and suspicion ?

But, independently of this considerationdeeply as we may and ought to be attached to our own establishment-yet surely its worth consists in this, that she is an instrument fitted to draw those who come within the sphere of her operations, not to herself, but to that "God, whose she is, and whom she serves." All things are right when in their right place. The Church is a

means and not an end; and I will confess that, where the tastes and tendencies run so much in the stream of outward ceremonies, symbolical rites, and positive institutions, that they become the ruling passion—I am afraid that the Church is put in the place, if not of God himself, at least of God's religion. I am not here pointing your attention to any individuals, nor even to any party or set of men in the present day. The error is as old as the fall of man. Nor is it hard to account for this propensity in man's nature thus greatly to err upon this cardinal point. Religion has, as it were, a body and a soul. The body of the Church, like our own bodies, is visible to all; but the soul of the Church is invisible to mortal eyes. It is that kingdom of heaven which, except a man be born again, he cannot see: it is the secret of the Lord which is with them that fear him. Its essential elements are, as the Apostle speaks, not cognizable, nor apprehensible by mere human faculties; "for the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." there is no truth from which the carnal mind is more shut out than the fact of its own ignorance. So far from admitting that religion is something which it cannot see; it confidently denies that

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any thing can be real or substantial which it does not see. Religion, it is clear," such a one will say, "must be something; and it must be something which I can see. Well, then, what do I see? I see ancient buildings, Gothic arches, comely dresses, men of grave and dignified deportment, walking in procession, performing solemn ceremonies, exhibiting certain signs, and distributing certain symbols-this, then, is religion. This is no airy fancy, no thin abstraction, no flighty imagination, but something positive, solid, and substantial, which a man in his senses, and with his senses, can take firm hold of." Mr. Locke informs us of a certain person born blind, who conceived that scarlet was like the sound of a trumpet. Need I point out to you the closeness of this analogy?*

But it will, perhaps, be said that, in spite of

* There is another case not less parallel, namely, that of the followers of Pythagoras. That great philosopher enjoined upon his disciples to beware of beans; meaning, by that emblematical precept, that they should decline those high offices of state to which the aspirants were admitted by beans—a mode of balloting common in those times, as it is, indeed, at the present day. But these disciples did not take his meaning. They learned no lessons of humility; but they scrupulously abstained, and doubtless thought it a most meritorious fast, from eating beans.

VOL. II.

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