kind, submit ourselves to the chastisement of our Heavenly Father; that we do this now, and that we will, with His grace, continue to do so hereafter, when the first excitement of grief is over, and only the sense of our loss, and the dull, aching void occasioned by it, remain; that we desire to go on, though in the midst of tears, and bereavements, and desolation, to do His Will on earth, even as the pure and blessed angels do in heaven; that whatever He may see fit to lay on us, we would receive with thankfulness; that if He decrees it, we are willing (as evidence of our anxiety to surrender ourselves unto Him both in body and soul,) to linger on in this vale of tears, to see one after another of those who were dearest removed from us, to spend a protracted pilgrimage in loneliness, surviving all we have loved, living, it may be, in continual anxiety or sickness, in poverty or contempt; and yet patiently enduring, and only aiming at a state of mind in which God's Will shall be our will.

This, and much more than this, would be implied by us if we offered the petition we are considering as we ought to offer it! How

should such a reflection humble us, how should it teach us the immeasurable extent of our deficiencies! If we are unable to serve God aright in what seems easy to us, what shall we do in those things which are obviously and confessedly difficult? Blessed be His Holy Name, His grace is pledged to us, and that grace is all-sufficient. But oh, how earnestly must we watch over ourselves, how diligently must we strive, how zealously must we persevere in all the ways of obedience, lest we should fail even to perceive how much God requires of us, and so should go blindfold to perdition!

May He teach us how to pray aright! May He grant us earnestness and sincerity of purpose, faith unfeigned, and stedfastness unwearied! May He lead us forward by little and little, and support our tottering steps! May He save us from lukewarmness and backslidings; from despondency, and from self-confidence! May He so fill us with His holy love and fear, that to know no will but His may be our continual effort here, and to do it as it is done in heaven by the angels, and with the angels, may be our portion of bliss unspeakable hereafter!

LECTURE XIII.

ON THE FIRST OF THE TWO FINAL PRAYERS.

The Risen Saviour the Lord of Hell and of Death.

REVELATION i. 17, 18.

"I AM THE FIRST AND THE LAST: I AM HE THAT LIVETH, AND WAS DEAD; AND, BEHOLD, I AM ALIVE FOR EVERMORE, AMEN; AND HAVE THE KEYS OF HELL AND OF DEATH."

EVERY privilege which we have here, every blessing which we desire he reafter, has its source and origin in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. All we are, or have, or hope for, comes from Him, the Lord of all;-from Him, the Author and Giver of all good things;-from Him, the very and eternal Son of God,-from Him, very and perfect Man;the Incarnate Word;-the despised and rejected of Men, the adored of Angels ;—the

sinless Victim, the crucified Messiah ;-the Risen Saviour, the triumphant Conqueror of death and hell;-the ascended and glorified Head of the Church ;--the unwearied and allprevailing Mediator, Intercessor, and Advocate; the future Judge of quick and dead.

No grace, no favour, no mercy, is there, of which we are capable, but is bestowed on us by Him, or comes to us through Him. Do we desire to be admitted into covenant with Him, and to be received into His Church? The Apostle tells us that "after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, Which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Do we sincerely repent of our sins? It is the gift of Christ, Whom God hath " exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins."

Are our sins pardoned, cancelled, obliterated? It is because He hath "blotted out