ally? Much and rightly as thou thinkest of thy sins, hast thou no thought, I do not say of gratitude, but of wonder, of admiration, of amazement, of awful and overpowering transport, at what thou art through grace? When Jacob woke in the morning, his first thought was not about his sins or his danger, though he rightly felt both, but about God;-he said, "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven '." Contemplate then thyself, not in thyself, but as thou art in the Eternal God. Fall down in astonishment at the glories which are around thee and in thee, poured to and fro in such a wonderful way that thou art (as it were) dissolved into the kingdom of God, and art as if thou hadst nought to do but to contemplate and feed upon that great vision. This surely is the state of mind the Apostle speaks of in the text, when he reminds us who are justified and at peace with God, that we have access to His royal courts, and stand in His grace, and rejoice in hope of His glory. All the trouble which the world inflicts upon us, and which flesh cannot but feel, sorrow, pain, care, bereavement, these avail not to disturb the tranquillity and the intensity with which faith gazes upon the Divine Majesty. All the necessary exactness of our obedience, the anxiety about failing, the pain of self-denial, the watchfulness, the zeal,

1 Gen. xxviii. 17.

the self-chastisements which we practise, no more interfere with this vision of faith, than if they were practised by another, not by ourselves. We are two or three selves at once, in the wonderful structure of our minds, and can weep while we smile, and labour while we meditate.-And if so much is given us by the first Sacrament of the Church, what, think we, is given us in the second? O, my brethren, let us raise and enlarge our notions of Christ's Presence in that mysterious ordinance, and we shall understand how it is that the Christian, in spite of his infirmities, and not forgetting them, still may rejoice here "with joy unspeakable and full of glory." For what is it that is vouchsafed to us at the Holy Table, when we commemorate the Lord's death? It is, "Jesus Christ before our eyes evidently set forth, crucified among us 1." Not before our bodily eyes; so far, every thing remains at the end of that Heavenly Communion as it did at the beginning. What was bread remains bread, and what was wine remains wine. We need no carnal, earthly, visible miracle to convince us of the Presence of the Lord Incarnate. We have, we trust, more faith than to need to see the heavens open, or the Holy Ghost descend in bodily shape,-more faith than to attempt, in default of sight, to indulge our reason, and to confine our notion of the Sacrament to some

1

1 Gal. iii. 1.

We

clear assemblage of words of our own framing. We have faith and love, in St. Paul's words, to "discern the Lord's Body." He who is at the right hand of God, manifests Himself in that Holy Sacrament as really and fully as if He were visibly there. are allowed to draw near, to "give, take, and eat" His sacred Body and Blood, as truly as though like Thomas we could touch His hands and thrust our hand into His side. When He ascended into the Mount, "His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light 1." Such is the glorious presence which faith sees in the Holy Communion, though every thing looks as usual to the natural man. Not gold or precious stones, pearls of great price or gold of Ophir, are to the eye of faith so radiant as those lowly elements which He, the Highest, is pleased to make the means of conveying to our hearts and bodies His own gracious self. Not the light of the sun sevenfold is so awfully bright and overpowering, if we could see as the Angels do, as that seed of eternal life, which by eating and drinking we lay up in our hearts against the day of His coming. In spite then of all recollections of the past or fear for the future, we have a present source of rejoicing; whatever comes, weal or woe, however stands our account as yet in the books against the Last Day, this we have

Matt. xvii. 2.

and this we may glory in, the present power and grace of God in us and over us, and the good hope thence flowing of victory in the end.

Such are the thoughts which both fill the heart with joy, yet without tending thereby to relax our obedience, for a reason already mentioned, viz. that strictness of life, exact conscientiousness, is the tenure of these privileges. They are ours to possess, that is our glory; they are ours to lose, that is our solicitude. We can keep them, we have not to gain them,--but we shall not keep them without fear and trembling; still we have them, and there is nothing to hinder our rejoicing in them while we have them. For fear is of the future; and that we may lose them to-morrow, (which God forbid,) but supposing it, is no reason why we should not rejoice in them to-day.

SERMON X.

THE VISIBLE CHURCH FOR THE SAKE
OF THE ELECT.

2 TIM. ii. 10.

"I endure all things for the elect's sakes; that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."

If we were asked what was the object of Christian preaching, teaching, and instruction, what the office of the Church, considered as the dispenser of the word of God, I suppose we should not all return the same answer. Perhaps we might say that the object of Revelation was to enlighten and enlarge the mind, to make us act by reason and to expand and strengthen our powers;-or to impart knowledge about religious truth, knowledge being power directly it was given, and at once enabling us to think, judge, and act for ourselves;-or to make us good members of the community, loyal subjects, orderly and useful in our station, whatever it be ;—