tine to me, that I should call my church after his name? It is a church for the worship of the true and living God. Trinity church, if you like, or Christchurch; but not after any of the saints, some of whom probably did not exist, and the best of whom were flawed with a thousand imperfections. But all these names, even the names of the best of them, must one day be merged. The Church must be known but by one name, which is the echo of God's name,-Christ; it will be "the Christian Church." That name which was given by inspiration, I believe, at Antioch-for the Greek word implies that it was a divine communication ·will outlive the names of Calvin, and Luther, and Whitfield, and Wesley, and every other name by which the churches of man are characterized upon earth. And therefore our earnest prayer should be, not to be churchmen, not to be dissenters, not to be Calvinists, not to be Arminians, not to be Wesleyans, or any other name by which sects are known and distinguished, but to be what is worth them all together-Christians. You may depend upon it, if you are a Christian, you will not go to a wrong church; and if you are not a Christian, it does not much matter where you go. when you have settled that upon the surest and the strongest foundations, I leave you with perfect repose to go and settle to which section of the Church you shall belong.

And

I ask, then, do you belong to that Church, whose members alone are believers- I mean, the Christian Church? I ask you to come to the Lord's Table, leaning upon no arm but that of Christ Jesus. I ask you not to come as Scotch churchmen, or as English churchmen, but as Christians. And if there be one spot sacred to Christianity, it is the communion table. It ought to be like the Delos of the ancient Greek-an island, on which no soldier was allowed to tread, and no weapon allowed to be seen. A communion table ought to be that spot at which we should gather together as brethren with each other, as children of the same

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blessed Father, refreshing ourselves, with our loins girt and our lamps burning, in the midst of the wilderness, and waiting for the rest that remaineth for the people of God. Therefore, I invite you to that table as Christians. And I repeat what I have stated before, that, small as our space is, it rejoices me to see members of other sections of the Church come to that communion. It is catholic in the holiest sense; it is Christian in the purest sense; and therefore I invite men as Christians. But you ask, perhaps, what is Christianity? It is the life of God in the soul; it is the peace of God in the conscience. It is not uniformity; it is not a cross upon the breast, or a coarse robe upon the shoulder, or a sandal upon the feet; it is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." It is not an exhibition for a holiday; it is not a fine display upon an anniversary; it is not religious meeting; it is not religious conversation-very often, as I have told you, the least religious of all. But to be a Christian is to be in Christ as the living branch is in the living vine, not having our own righteousness, but his. It is to be born again; it is to be new creatures; it is to be made alive unto God through Jesus Christ. And it is not something, as we are all so prone to think, for a Sunday, or something for a sacrament. Men put on their Christianity for sacraments, and speak then in another tongue, and seem to think that Christianity is made for special occasions. Such is not Christianity, or the religion of the Bible. is to be as devoted in things earthly as in things divine; it is to walk on the common floor of everyday life with as solemn a step and tread as that with which you walk upon the consecrated aisles of the grandest cathedral. It is to seat yourselves at your desks in your counting-houses with as deep a sense of your responsibility to God, as that with which you seat yourselves at the communion table. It is not to be sacred at sacred places, but it is to be Christian

It

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everywhere; and it is to carry all the weight and splendour of living religion into every nook and winding and calling of human life, till all days become to you as Lord's days, and all places become to you consecrated, and the whole stream of life sparkles and shines in the light and splendours of immortality and glory; it is to meet with an abiding sense, Thou, God, seest me." And you come to the communion table, not to be Christians there, and leave Christianity behind, but to refresh your wearied strength, and to go forth into the world again with stout hearts to serve God there, in spite of all obstructions to the contrary, and to make the light that you saw struck in the sanctuary so shine before men, that others, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father who is in heaven. Then, come to the house of God, not as to a place where it will be a weariness to remain, but as to a joyous meeting; and come to the communion table, not as to a mere formality, but as to a place where bread, and meat, and blessings are promised; and go forth into the world, there to show how you are made different, and the world will notice it. The world judges, I do not say properly, but they do judge of our religion and our Bibles just by what they see us to be. We should be a chosen generation. We should not have anything pompous about us, or any pride; but most certainly we ought to show that our religion makes us differ from the world. I am not pronouncing upon the playhouse-there is a doubt about it-and wherever there is a doubt, there is a side that conscience takes, and that is the safe side. At all events, we are coming into days when we ought to be Christ's witnesses to demonstrate to the world that we can be happy without the world's follies, that we can be happy without the world's indulgences, living not as Stoics, nor as hermits, but as Christians. And there is in a Christian's heart-not logic- but a tact, a delicate sense: just as in the real gentleman there is what the

Greeks called Tо πρεжоν, a perfect perception of what becomes the place and time, which no other man has, so in the Christian there is a sense of what is delicate, a sense of what is right and proper; and that delicate sense, if you are a Christian, will be as a lamp to you, shining in a dark place.

LECTURE XXXI.

THE COMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE OF EUROPE.

We read in the Apocalypse that under the seventh vial :

"There were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and the great city" (papal decem-regal Europe)" was divided into three parts and the city of the nations fell."-REV. xvi. 18.

WHAT griefs and gladness, what gains and losses, have sparkled and disappeared in succession on the currents of the last ten years! Let us recall a few. In 1850 the ecclesiatical seizure of England by Pio Nono, and the appointment of his proconsul, Cardinal Wiseman, to take possession of the land, and to hold it as St Peter's, roused the whole population to a sense of impending mischief, and evoked a protest that still rings in the Vatican. In 1851 that beautiful creation, the Crystal Palace, in Hyde Park, to which the "kings of the earth brought their glory," and the nations their most exquisite creations, absorbed all thoughts, and exceeded all expectations. It was supposed by the sanguine that the Millennium was come, and that the nations were about to turn their camps into crystal palaces and their swords into ploughshares. It passed away like a fairy vision, and with it the enthusiastic predictions of 1851. In 1852 England's great captain died, full of honours and laden with years, and was borne to his tomb amid the tears and deep farewells of a nation" sitting under its vine and fig tree," secured