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S. Philip was earnest and diligent to bring others to CHRIST. He sought Nathanael, and was blessed with success. His zeal in this respect was so well known, that the Greeks who sought our LORD sought through S. Philip. (S. John xii. 20, 21.) Do we follow Him herein? What are we doing to bring souls to CHRIST, to extend the kingdom of GOD? How are we training children and dependents? Are we, by example, per suasion, salutary reproof, as opportunity admits, bringing our neighbours to their SAVIOUR ? Are we, by supporting the Church societies, extending the blessings of religious knowledge to our own people and to the heathen? S. Philip is said to have obtained by his prayers the destruction of a serpent worshipped by the Hierapolitans; and S. James is said, in like manner, to have procured a supply of rain during a famine, (Epiph. Hæres. 78,) as he has reminded the Church that Elijah did. (S. James v. 18.) Are we diligent and fervent in prayer? Whatever may be the truth of these traditions, prayer, we know, will repel the assaults of the great serpent, and - bring the dews of heavenly grace upon our hearts.

Both these saints laid down their lives for the truth: would we be their true followers, we must at least dedicate our lives to its service. And as we cannot doubt that S. James set before himself the truths which the HOLY SPIRIT taught him, and walked in them, his Epistle will show us, as in a mirror, what we are, and what we ought to be. (S. James i 22-27.)

V. The blessedness of following CHRIST's saints is infinite: for by thus doing, we shall, like them, "stand

by the LORD of the whole earth." If we tread their road, we shall arrive at their goal. before us JESUS as "the way, the truth, and the life.”

(S. John xiv. 6.)

The Collect sets

He is the root, we the branches; (S. John xv. 5;) He the true olive-tree; we the wild, grafted into Him. (Rom. xi. 17.) Apart from that root, the branches can have no oil to supply to the candlestick. (Rom. xi. 18.) The goodliest olive

= branches will be broken off, if unfruitful. (Jer. xi. = 16, 17; Rom. xi. 17, 20.) We honour His saints in Him and for Him; we glorify Him in them; (Gal. i. 24; 2 Thess. i. 10;) and we must aim to glorify Him in ourselves, by working out the Psalmist's contemplation and resolution, Ps. lii. 8.

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Neither will it be discordant with the Scripture mode of teaching, and that of our LORD especially, to advert to the calendar day on which this festival falls. There is nothing without a purpose and a meaning: Providence, Nature, Scripture, all harmonize, and are each other's expositors. As the commemoration of martyrdom mingles with the angelic carols and domestic exultations of Christmas, that we may rejoice with trembling, and amid festivity remember mortification and self-denial; so here too does it cast its solemn shadow across the brightness of the day on which Nature, and hearts that exult in her beauty, hold festival for the promised summer. (Gen. viii. 22.) Surely no pleasures can be more innocent than those which were formed for man in the condition of innocence! (Gen. ii. 8, 9, 15.) No contemplations more unstained than those in which the New Adam delighted, and whence He loved to draw instruction for

fallen yet redeemed man! (S. Matt. vi. 28-31) No joys more pure than those to which, from the everlasting summer above, He still invites His Chure with words of conjugal tenderness, as the best earthly types of His glorious Eden! (Cant. ii. 10-13. Happy they for whom these undefiled delights retai their attraction! Likest theirs to the mind of little children, whose is the kingdom of heaven! Let Ms Day be welcomed ever, as in simpler times, with all its due joys and honours! Only let it still be welcome in the LORD, the Maker of all our days. (Ps. cxvi. 24.) Let the beautiful but corruptible garland remind us of that incorruptible crown which is the reward of the martyr spirit. Let not reviving earth seem to us the garden of the Sadducee, a pleasure to be enjoyed with the eagerness of intoxication, because we must soon resign it; but rather the fair but transient symbol of a far more glorious resurrection, in which we may have part, if we live in the spirit of those holy martyrs who despised even the purest pleasures of earth when the price of unfaithfulness, and if we regard even the loveliest aspects of Nature, according to her LORD's own teaching, as tokens of awful dis pensations to come. (S. Matt. xxiv. 32.)

XV.

S. Barnabas' Day.

Subject. The character of S. Barnabas.1

Text. Acts xi. 24. "He was a good man, and full of the HOLY GHOST and of faith."

Scripture, historical, mention of S. Barnabas. Acts iv. 36, 37; ix. 26, 27; xi.-xv.; Gal. ii.

Principal Words. ἀγαθὸς, Πνεύματος ἁγίου, πίστεως.

THE text describes the character of S. Barnabas, and is as complete a description as can be found in Holy Scripture; so comprehensive, that no single discourse could exhaust it. Let us take the more prominent parts as commended to our study by Holy Scripture and the meditations of the Church this day. Consider

He

I. What S. Barnabas was. A good man-one who had regard to the divine law in its integrity-not, however, without sin, or insensible of his sinfulness. acknowledged himself a man of like passions with the idolatrous Lycaonians. (Acts xiv. 15.) He knew that grace alone made him differ. None is literally good but GOD (S. Matt. xix. 17,) but they who strive to imitate His perfections are called in Holy Scripture

1

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is very exactly translated by υἱὸς παρακλήσεως, the same ambiguity being inherent in both expressions. A man eminent for his powers of exhortation, consolation, intercession. (See Outline for fourth Sunday after Easter.)

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"good" and "perfect."

This is when the heart is right, (S. Luke viii. 15,) and the glory of GoD is the object of life. (Gen. vi. 9; Job i. 1; S. Luke i. 5, 6. Sins of infirmity will remain; sins even, which watchfulness might have prevented; sins from which Noah and Job were not exempt. There are recorded eve of S. Barnabas two instances, or at the least one, which he was not free from censure: (Acts xv. 36– 41; Gal. ii. 13;) as though to show us that one er ample alone is perfect; all others, steps only to assis and encourage us. Still, a good man is stedfastly se: to do right in all things.. He does not despise forms on the ground of superior spirituality-because there can be no spiritual service where GOD is not obeye -nor does he neglect the heart while offering the formalities of devotion-for this is the leaven of the Pharisees-hypocrisy. (S. Luke xii. 1.) He does not think liberality will atone for indolence and licentiousness-or severe morals for covetousness and want of compassion. He does not content himself with be lieving the Gospel and not following it-nor does he think belief unimportant, if conduct be irreprehensible by man. He does not make his own selection of things to be believed and done: he takes the Word as he finds it-believes all, obeys all; takes no coun sel of his own dispositions. The unwelcome commands, the difficult doctrines, he accepts as readily as their opposites. He desires to consecrate spirit, soul, and body, to the glory of GoD. Such is the scriptural good man-such was Barnabas-this is the goodness which leads on to glory. Such be the goodness at which we aim-guided by what antiquity be

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