wisely said and kindly said, for he was | longer appear with a frown on his now proving her and trying her, and putting that faith into the fire, that it might come forth a vessel meet for the Master's service, that it might be found unto praise and honor and glory,

and so it was.

self.

brow. What is the reply that the
"Truth Lord," I
woman makes?
contend not with thee. I am a poor
Gentile, a dog, well aware that the
Jews considered all other nations as
dogs quite unworthy of their notice.
"Truth Lord," I contend not with
thee. Mark the ingenuity of faith.
Never was there in the world any thing
more ingenious. She actually turns
round the very arguments which the
Saviour brought against her to bear on
his own mercy, and she carries the
point, and that with Omnipotence it-
O, my brethren, look at the
omnipotence of faith,
"Truth Lord;
yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from their Master's table." As if
she had said, I do not ask for any
great thing which that chosen and
favoured Israel may ask for. I am a
poor woman in sorrow and in trouble.
I only ask, that while the Israelites
have the bread, I may be allowed the
crumbs. Only give me one single
crumb for my poor dying daughter
and I ask no more. This woman puts
us all to shame, clergy, people, and
all. Her faith deserves to be men-
tioned through the whole world and it
shall be so. It shall be told to her
credit and to her honor when you and
I and every one of us shall be sleeping

in the dust.

Now at this time when it seemed impossible to add any thing more, what does she say? what would some of you say? The Preacher would have acted just as foolish and unbelieving a part as the weakest of you. We should probably have said, or rather not perhaps have dared to have said, we should probably have gone away and said in our hearts, I will never apply there again I was never so treated in all my experience before. I have heard of his goodness to others but now I can speak from experience of his cruelty to me. I will go to my poor sick child and we will mourn and we will die together, for Jesus of Nazareth has no pity, no tenderness. If we had said so, we should have talked the language of blasphemy as well as the language of falsehood; and yet I do not scruple to say it, that this supernatural faith was not half so much to the credit of the woman as to the credit of our Lord and Master, who all the while supported this soul which would otherwise have sunk in the water. For

is there faith in the human heart? it is
the gift of sovereign grace. There is
not a single particle of it in the na-
tural man.
It is a spiritual gift; and
it is a strong thing to say, yet it is the
truth nevertheless, God Almighty gives
the grace, and then rewards it as if it
were our own. He gives us power to
please him, to do his will, to bear up
under all discouragements, and then he
rewards it as if forsooth, it was our
own, and while the good that is done
has been of his own operation.

Now mark it well, the Saviour-I speak it with reverence-the Saviour could hold out no longer, he could no

"He

But I come now TO THE Saviour. I have dwelt long upon the woman, The her faith, and her sufferings. First point that I have to notice concerning Christ is his silence where we should not have expected it. answered her not a word." When we are listening to the words of Christ, watching his sacred lips, hoping for some kind expression, how it cuts one to the heart not to hear a single word! It was so here-" He answered her not a word."

The Second point about your Lord and Master is, that he seems to plead

that his commission had been exclu- | He can do what I cannot. I have no

sively to Israel: not that he intended it to be so always. Blessed be God, “He is a light to lighten the Gentiles as well as the glory of his people Israel." But he here pleads that "He is not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Mark how he speaks of that house. Heaven knows that he cared for them-and I | would you all cared for them. "To the lost sheep of the house of Israel he was sent," and he pleads this his commission why he should do nothing.

But the Third point is, he appears to add insult and cruelty to all his indifference. His conduct appears to be insulting and cruel, but it only appears so. It appears so in two ways-to our ignorance and our pride. Our ignorance of God's dealings, of what is wise and what is best-and our pride, that does not like a rebuff, that does not like to be put back when we wish to approach and draw nigh.

power, I have told you so a thousand times, and if I live I will tell you so many times more. Others will tell me, some of one relative, and some of another. Go and take them to Christ. O, but you say Sir, we have done so often-we have done it. O, says the father, his poor mother prayed for him for years, and she died with his name on her lips, asking God to save her boy. And shall she pray in vain? No, my friends, she shall not.

Learn that Jesus can do helpless sinners good, and that he will. Go then, first for yourselves, and then for your families and friends. Take every family burthen to your Lord and Master, let not one be left behind. Some could tell of their partners, others of their children, others of their brethren or their sisters. O, go and take them to the blessed Redeemer, and bear up under all discouragements; and although you do not now see an answer to your prayers, and although every thing seems against you, onward, onward with the prayer of faith, and the prayer of faith shall, by and by, be found never to have been offered in vain.

But observe, Lastly, he suffers himself to be conquered by faith. Faith positively wins the day, even when it is contesting with Omnipotence. Do you doubt it? Take the words of your Saviour himself. O woman, great is thy faith be it unto thee as thou In conclusion, let ministers and wilt." It is added, "And her daugh- people pray each for one another. ter was made whole from that very There are many of your families before hour." me, and were it proper I could say of Now what does THIS SAY TO YOU?such a one, there is a youth that I It says first, you may go to Christ for yourselves; and it says, secondly, that you may go to Christ for your relatives and your friends. And if I knew❘ the history of every family now before me to night, what should I learn? The father in some cases would say, "O, Sir, I have brought my poor boy to hear you I have often wept over him -I have often admonished him-he has already broken his poor mother's heart-I can do nothing for him-I have brought him here." Go, my friend, and take him to the Saviour.

have often prayed for-there is the father of a family that I have often brought before God that he may be converted. O, this would be a happy night, one of the happiest of my life, if some poor thoughtless prodigal, who never prayed for himself before, were to go out of the church door to-night, with the cry from his heart, "What shall I do to be saved."

My brethren, we do not meet in vain, we do not meet to amuse one another; we meet to edify one another, we meet to wait upon our God. And

A Sermon

DELIVERED BY THE REV. EDWARD RICE,

AT TRINITY CHURCH, TRINITY SQUARE, BLACKMAN STREET, FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE ST. ANN'S SOCIETY, FEB. 20, 1831.

1 Corinthians, xiii. 13.—" And now abideth faith, hope, charity; but the greatest of these is charity."

obtained the favour of God, was his believing the declaration which God made to him, in opposition to Sarah his wife, who disbelieved. St. James, in one of his epistles, speaking of the comparative merits of faith and works, asks, "Can faith save us?" evidently implying mere belief; and, accordingly, he proceeds to direct his readers to show their belief of the Christian covenant by their works.

This is the original meaning of the word faith; but, as applied to the Christian in most parts of the New Testament, and in the service of our church, it has obtained a more extended signification. So that it appears in itself not merely an act of believing in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, but also, of embracing the offers of mercy made to us in the Gospel; and applying our understandings to ascertain the will of heaven, with a deep and heart-felt desire for performing that will to the best of our power. This is the faith which St. Paul speaks of as justifying a sinner; and this, doubtless, is the faith which is alluded to in the chapter under contemplation.

If, however, my brethren, you are really and sincerely anxious about the great business of your salvation-if you are humbly and heartily desirous of treading that path which the Scriptures point out to you as leading to heaven, you will not stop to cavil about the meaning of the word, or endanger your own salvation, and perhaps that of others, by discussions useless at the best, and generally injurious. Your Saviour has given you a rule, by which you may always discover, whether or not you have the true faith

in you.
"ye shall know them."

"By their fruits," says he,

Judge, therefore, yourselves by this infallible criterion, looking to your own minds, observe, what is the state of your feelings with regard to eter

nity, weigh well your outward actions, and, particularly, examine the motives that influence your conduct. Ask yourselves a few such questions as the following-Do I believe that one all-good, all-wise, and Almighty Being, created me and placed me in this world? That the same Being still protects me with a father's care, preserving me and guiding me in my progress through life? Do I believe that the only Son of this Almighty Being came down from heaven, and dwelt amongst men, and died upon the cross, as an atonement for my sin, as well as those of my fellow sinners? Do I believe that the Spirit of God hovers over me unceasingly, strengthing my weakness, comforting my despair, infusing into me good desires, and confirming me in holy resolutions? Am I truly grateful to this Father who protects me-this Son who died for me-and this Holy Spirit which sanctifies me? Am I determined to improve these inestimable advantages to the glory of God, and the salvation of my own soul? If your conscience returns you a favourable answer to these enquiries, you may rest assured that you have that faith in you which St. Paul laboured to excite, and which, if you persevere in the pursuit, will finally lead you to the kingdom of God.

But, if there are any amongst you, who feel that you have not this substantial, this productive, this unquestionable faith within you, let me advise you to lose not an instant in applying yourselves to the acquisition of it. There will be a time when you will find that nothing in this world was equivalent to it-when your Saviour's words will appear to you too true, that if you should gain the whole world and lose your own soul it will profit you nothing. Hasten, then, to cultivate those pious affections which are comprized in the faith of Christ. Be earnest in this your day to learn the

things which pertain to your peace, remembering that the night is fast coming upon each of you, when it will be too late to begin to work.

pretended friends, or the loss, the bitter loss, of real ones, unless you felt an inward and unspeakable comfort from the consideration, that these are but the troubles of a moment, that they are the affectionate chastenings of your heavenly Father, and that they will procure for you a crown of glory?

The Second grace, which the Apostle mentions is that of HOPE; and he has very properly mentioned it after faith, as it arises from it, and depends entirely upon it. No sooner does the It was the want of this cheering soul embrace and adopt, through faith, hope that rendered the life of many an the great truths of the Gospel, than it enlightened heathen, before the times feels itself expanded with hope, the of the Gospel, a dreary and desolate blessed hope of life and immortality. | wilderness. Their judgment was too Rescued from the shackles of infidelity, enlarged, and their taste too refined, or the darkness of ignorance, it now to allow of their participating in the breathes freely the delightful atmos- low and senseless gratifications of their phere of Christian confidence and fellow mortals. They looked for enChristian love. It now sees clearly joyments more worthy of the immortal its own nature, and its future destina- spirit, but, alas, they could find none. tion. Eternity opens to its view, it They attempted to dive into futurity, sees the way that leadeth to it, and but they could not. Before them all learns to tread that way, with humi- was dark and impenetrable; and lity indeed, and with fear, but yet with around them was nothing that could hope. Delightful indeed is the pros- clear the obscurity from the scene. pect of the Christian, and sweet the Thus they lived in uncertainty, and expectation that illumines his heart. they died without hope. Some of No dreary anticipations, no dark and them, indeed, when sated with the awful uncertainties, spread a gloom follies, or harassed with the troubles around him. He sees the goal in the of life, hesitated not to throw off an distance before him, and he knows that existence with which they felt themhe can reach that gaol because his God selves dissatisfied, which, in ignorance has told him so. of their immortal destination, they did not conceive themselves bound to preserve after it had become disagreeable to them. Not knowing who it was that placed them at their post of life, they thought themselves justified in abandoning that post whenever it became tiresome or dangerous; and they rushed, therefore, into eternity unbidden and uninvited, little imagining whither their desperation was carrying them. How thankful, my brethren, ought we to be, when we think of these things, for the life that we enjoy, and the hope that we are permitted to cherish. Ours is no desart journey, our God accompanies us, and points to us the road. Do we faint? he supports us. Do we fear? he re

But we shall perceive more distinctly the full value of this hope, if we consider, for a moment, what this life would be without it. How could you endure the vain and restless bustle which surrounds you the empty vanities which the cares of this world oblige you to pursue the unsubstantial and unsatisfactory enjoyments with which your better judgment is often disgusted, unless you knew, that all these are but the noxious weeds that disfigure the path to a real and an eternal happiness? Or how would you bear the sufferings which so often oppress you, the pangs of disease, the anxieties of business, the failure of your dearest hopes, the ingratitude of