to God, which springs up in proportion to the loyalty of the heart to the thing that is right. It is not, therefore, to be compared to the fabled image of Diana that fell down from Jupiter, but rather to the unfolding of a flower under the genial warmth and light of the material sun; for it is even thus that the spiritual faculties of those who long after God, and listen for the sound of His voice among the ordinary events of their daily lives, expand and increase in power under the growing sense of His all-embracing love. You may be sure that a sense of that love will not be shed abroad in your heart by looking on this side or that, but it will spring up in that inner sanctuary just in proportion as your life is consecrated to Christlike principles and loyal service.

The very fact that such a Being as the Lord Jesus Christ once trod this earth-nay, that a man like one of ourselves could write such a work as St. John's Gospel about Him-affords the strongest evidence that God has all along been present with His children; that His word or thought is ever seeking to embody itself in their lives, and that those who are able to recognize how it was once especially embodied in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, so as to behold "the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,' will be able to understand that they have before them the picture of One Whose life is indeed "a hiding-place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, as the

shadow of a great rock in a weary land." For the very manifestation of Christ is an evidence that the nature of the great Father of mankind is in His offspring, and that what the well-beloved Son was, all of us may one day be, for we read, "He took not on Himself the nature of angels, but the nature of man; and whatever man has done, we may all in time learn to do. Who can say, then, what joy and happiness may not be ours, if we will only be content to imitate His loyal trust?

Let me ask you, in conclusion, to take to heart the words of His final prayer: "Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have declared unto them Thy Name, and will declare it that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

XX.

Duietness and Confidence.

"In quietness and confidence shall be your strength."-ISA, xxx. 15.

I NEED scarcely remind you that in the Sundays from Advent to Trinity our Church was careful to lay before us all the great leading incidents in the history of our religion, together with all the great cardinal doctrines which are most important for the education of a Christian man. She has told us what is the best way of thinking of the great Being Whom no man hath ever seen or can see, what is the proper attitude in which we should endeavour to stand before Him, and what is the great purpose to which we should consecrate our lives. During the Sundays after Trinity, no special doctrine or article of belief is prominently brought before us, and we are invited rather to dwell on the result that should be manifested in the lives of those who profess to have digested the instruction they have received in the Christian faith. Our Church seems to say by her services, and more especially by the collects which are at this time suggested to our use, " You have

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already had clearly explained to you what the relation is in which the Almighty may be said to stand towards the creatures He has made, and that He wishes to be regarded as your Father and Friend. You know that He has given you an example in the Person of His well-beloved Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, of what a true Son of God ought to be. And you also know that He has assured us that the same formative and lifegiving power' which dwelt in the Lord Jesus Christ, and which enabled one human being in His Person to grow up to such perfection of manhood, is the same which lies at the source of every human being born into the world, and is ready to enable all who yield themselves to its influence to grow up in time towards the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. You know, in short, what to think of God, and what He desires you to be. Your business now is to apply your knowledge to your daily lives and conversation. In the first half of the year you have given your attention to the doctrine of the Christian faith. It is now time to give your attention to the practice of it, and consider what should be the even tenor of the life of a disciple of the Son of God." Accordingly, if you glance at the collects which are appointed for the Sundays after Trinity, to see whether there is any special characteristic for which they may be said to be distinguished-any keynote which may be more or less heard in them all-I think you will find that

there is one tone in them with which it is almost impossible to avoid being struck, and that is the tone of calm and trustful confidence which they breathe in the good providence of God, and in the righteous and orderly government of all things in heaven and earth. And when I speak of calm and trustful confidence in the providence of God, and in the righteous government of the world in which we live, I do not mean an unintelligent and indolent trust that something good may always be expected to turn up for the benefit of religious men, still less that everything that happens may be regarded as specially sent to each individual Christian, but a calm and trustful confidence that, as the object of the Christian faith is the education of man in the Divine nature, or, in other words, to teach men to grow up towards the noblest and most perfect manhood; so, by those who keep this great object before them, almost everything that happens may be used as a means of growth in holiness, and of discipline in the character which the great Father of all best loves to see. Though we cannot pretend to understand all the counsels of the Most High, or to speak as if we were able to explain all the incidents of His government, we are certainly warranted in trusting that there is a righteous order by which we are bound, and in dedicating ourselves to which we shall find rest and peace. There is no man so ignorant as not to know that it is his duty to try and become a good man.