We pray

pray for in our Collects; and wonderfully has God granted it for very many years past. daily that God would "give peace in our time." We pray three times a week that "those evils, which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us, be brought to nought;" and "that, being hurt by no persecutions, we may evermore give thanks unto God in His Holy Church." We pray yearly that "the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by His governance, that His Church may joyfully serve Him in all godly quietness ;" and that He may "keep His household, the Church, in continual godliness, that through His protection it may be free from all adversities, and devoutly given to serve Him in good works, to the glory of His Name." Now all this is most wonderfully fulfilled to us at this day,-praised be His great mercy! You will ask, perhaps, whether too much prosperity is not undesirable for the Church? -It is so; but I am speaking, not of the Church, but of ourselves as individuals: what is dangerous to the body, may be a blessing to the separate members. As to ourselves, one by one, God has His own secret chastisements for us, which, if He loves us, He will apply when we need them; but, if we know how to use the blessing duly, it is, I say, a great gift, that we are allowed to serve God with such freedom and in such peace as are now Vouchsafed us. Great mercy indeed, which we

forget because we are used to it; which many prophets and righteous men in the first ages of the Gospel had not, yet which we have had from our youth up. We from our youth up have lived in peace; with no persecution, no terror, no hindrance in serving God. The utmost we have had to endure, is what is almost too trifling for a Christian to mention,-cold looks, or contempt, or ridicule, from those who have not the heart themselves to attempt the narrow way.

5. Lastly, and very briefly, my brethren, let us remind ourselves of our own privileges here in this place. How great is our privilege, my brethren!— every one of us enjoys the great privilege of daily Worship and weekly Communion. This great privilege God has given to me and to you,-let us enjoy it while we have it. Not any of us all knows how long it may be his own. Perhaps there is no one among us all, who can reckon upon it for a continuance. Perchance, or rather probably, it is a bright spot in our lives. Perhaps we shall look upon these days or years, time hence; and then reflect, when all is over, how pleasant they were; how pleasant to come, day after day, quietly and calmly, to kneel before our Maker,—week after week, to meet our Lord and Saviour. How soothing will then be the remembrance of His past gifts! we shall remember how we got up early in the morning, and how all things, light or darkness, sun or air, cold or fresh

ness, breathed of Him,-of Him, the Lord of glory, who stood over us, and came down upon us, and gave Himself to us, and poured forth milk and honey for our sustenance, though we saw Him not.

Surely we have all, and abound; we are full.

VOL. V.

Y

SERMON XX.

ENDURANCE, THE CHRISTIAN'S PORTION.

GEN. xlii. 36.

"All these things are against me."

So spoke the Patriarch Jacob, when Joseph had been made away with, Simeon was detained in Egypt, Benjamin threatened, and his remaining sons suspected by him and distrusted; when out of doors, nay, at his door, was a grievous famine, enemies or strangers round about, evil in prospect, and in memory a number of sad remembrances to pain, not to cheer him,-the dreadful misconduct of his own family and its consequences, and, further back, the wrath of Esau, his separation from his father's house, his wanderings, and his ill-usage by Laban. From his youth upwards he had been full of sorrows, and he bore them with a troubled mind. His first words are, If God will be with me . . then shall the Lord be

66

my God." His next, "Deliver me, I pray Thee."

His next, "Ye have troubled me." His next, "I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning." His next, "All these things are against me." And his next, "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been1." Blow after blow, stroke after stroke, trouble came like hail. That one hailstone falls is a proof, not that no more will come, but that others are coming surely; when we feel the first, we say, "It begins to hail,”—we do not argue that it is over, but that it is to come. Thus was it with Jacob; the storm muttered around him, and heavy drops fell while he was in his father's house; it drove him abroad. It did not cease because he was out in it; it did not end because it had begun. It continued, because it had begun; its beginning marked its presence; it began upon a law, which was extended over him in manhood also and old age, as in early youth. It was his calling to be in the storm; it was his very life to be a pilgrimage; it was the very thread of the days of his years to be few and evil.

And what Jacob was all his life, that was his son Joseph at least in the early part of it; for thirteen years, from seventeen to thirty, he was in trouble far greater than Jacob's;-in captivity, in slavery, in prison, in bonds so tight, that the iron is said to have entered into his soul. And what Joseph was

1 Gen. xxviii. 20, 21; xxxii. 11; xxxiv. 30; xxxvii. 35 ; xlii. 36; xlvii. 9.