to us who are in the vigour of life, we know by this time what can be made of our bodies and of our minds; we know that little further advancement can be looked for in the powers of either. I do not say that we should therefore neglect them, or let them fall to decay; but that being arrived at our prime, as far as they are concerned, nature itself should teach us to bestow more care on that other part of us which is capable of an almost infinite improvement, whose highest perfection is yet far distant from us. Then, again, if we look back twenty years even in our own lives, how soon does the time seem to have hurried away; if we look at them as forming a part of history, and of the public transactions of the country, they seem almost dwindled into nothing: yet looking onwards to another such period, whose flight however will seem far more rapid, as the changes in our ordinary life in manhood are less strongly marked than those from boyhood to youth, and from youth to manhood; looking onwards twenty years more, and what will be our remaining interest in the worldly objects that now most delight us? We shall have reached the evening of our life, and the slanting shadows and the softer light will tell us how many hours have passed since the sun was in his noonday strength. The body then will have certainly lost much of its vigour; the mind, perhaps, will have suffered something also; there will be manifest

signs that their day of work will soon be over. But how will it be with the spirit, and with the spiritual desires and interests? They will be looking forward with a more lively hope to the first faint streaks of the dawn of the everlasting day; while the body and mind, like those who have spent the night in revelling, regard the coming light as a signal that their time of enjoyment is over. Twenty years yet again, and our bodies will be mouldering amongst those whom we pass by to enter these walls; and our minds and earthly schemes will be no more than those of the merest madman. And where shall our spirits then be, my brethren? With Christ, or with the devil; in the first opening spring of an eternity of joy, or in the beginning of such an endless death as is too dreadful to be regarded for an instant ?

If this, however, were no more than an awful picture to awaken our feelings, it would have no place here it is rather a sober truth, and it leads to the soberest and most peaceful wisdom. Let us anticipate the feelings of forty years hence it sounds no longer period when we mention it; and hope and fear, and love and act, as we shall then wish to have done. All may do this equally the cultivation of our spirits, the character to fit us for heaven, may be learned under all circumstances. In this respect we are all equal; the rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick, those with great

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means of doing good, and those with no more than the widow's mite, in influence, and station, and ability: yet all may work the work of God equally for his work is to believe on him whom he hath sent, to crucify with Christ every evil and corrupt affection, to be renewed after his image. His image is shown forth as much in the patient love and resignation of those who are sick, and old, and poor, as in the active love and wide-spreading usefulness of the strong and the wealthy; nay, it is often shown forth so much the more truly, as it is then most united with a meek and lowly spirit, throwing itself with a more childlike confidence upon the bosom of its heavenly Father. For Christ does not call upon us to imitate him in his mighty works, but to learn of him, for he is meek and lowly in heart, and so we shall find rest to our souls. Thus cultivating our spirits, thus growing up to our immortal life, what are twenty years past away, but twenty years that divided us from our eternal rest? what are forty, but the end of our journey through the wilderness-the entrance into Canaan at last vouchsafed to us? Our bodies and our minds will then be laid aside, not with dishonour nor with a vain regret; it is time for the blossom to shed when the fruit is set and though we would not be unclothed, we may yet desire to be clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life.

SERMON XXVIII.

JOHN xvi. 31, 32.

Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone.

THIS answer was made to a sort of burst of entire confidence in our Lord, which had just been drawn forth from his Disciples. "Now we are sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God." They seemed at last to have been entirely convinced of their Master's power and knowledge, and to be satisfied that he was the Son of God. But he who knew what was in their hearts better than they did themselves, saw that this faith was not strong enough to overcome the world; and although it now seemed so lively, yet within two or three short hours it would become as dead; that they would all desert him when they saw him in the power of his enemies, although they now felt so sure that he came out from God.

And so it happened: St. Matthew tells the story of his own weakness, and that of his fellowdisciples; as soon as the soldiers had laid hold on Jesus, he says that all the Disciples forsook him and fled. They thought no longer that he was the Redeemer whom they had expected; and their feelings were well expressed by the confession of the two who walked with Christ towards Emmaus, after his resurrection; "We trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel; as if they had said, "We did trust so once, but his death has shown us that our hope deceived us.'

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But if we turn on a few pages of the Scripture, and look at the feelings and conduct of these same men seven weeks afterwards, how strikingly different a picture is presented to us. Instead of saying, "We trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel," their language now is, "Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ." Instead of forsaking their Master, and not daring to share his danger, they now answer to the chief priests and elders, who had commanded them not to speak or teach in his name; "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye: for we cannot but speak the things which we have