fort to their broken spirits, declaring the perfect law of love, and announcing peace and forgiveness to all; demanding of them in return only that they should worship their God in spirit and in truth,—that at home and with their families, in all their business and in all their pleasure, in all their conversation and actions, and in all the events of their existence, they should recollect that they were in the presence of God, and so live on earth as was becoming to the heirs of an immortal life. They should live strictly according to the laws of nature, enjoy all natural pleasure; they need not sacrifice the body to save the soul, or make the present miserable in order to ensure future happiness; but when trials come in the course of duty, when temptations allured them from the cause of truth, when persecutions followed them in every land and through every scene of life, then they should bear all for the love of God, should not repine even at suffering or death, but receive it as a part of God's providence, a trust of great price, which they were to hold sacred and pure for the salvation of the whole world. As he taught, he lived-and as he bade his followers die, he died; and gave his seal to the highest and purest and the only true revelation of God's will to man. The light which came with him into the world was the true light, in and through which all nations shall yet live in perfect freedom and perfect love.

These two stages of religious feeling seem equally healthy and natural in their tone. It is not possible to return from spiritual death to spiritual life without the deep contrition and agony of remorse. Like the first efforts of a drowned man to recover the lost power of the senses, the present suffering seems so great as to counterbalance any amount of prospective happiness. But little by little the body resumes all its wonted functions; and when the quiet, healthy pulse of life beats again through the veins, the terror of the remedy is forgotten in the joy of the perfect recovery. The danger of the first stage lies not in the pain, but in the physical or mental

stupor which comes over the system and speedy death.

When the natural order of things is reversed, and men, partially convinced of the truth, flatter themselves that they can proceed at once from a state of self-indulgence to one of obedience and love,-when, in fact, they attempt to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the true Christian without sincere repentance for their past misdeeds,-they invert the natural sequence, and for a time at least shut themselves out from the possibility of even the knowledge of the truth as it is in God. They continue in all their old habits, are grasping or sordid or uncharitable or immoral as they were before. They have merely taken upon themselves another name, the very meaning of which they do not understand; they imitate the outward devotion of the true Christian, but their spirits have no sympathy or love towards their great Master. Not less danger also arises from the reverse of this-the continuance of the outward forms of humiliation and repentance, instead of moving onward to the more perfect state of Christian life and Christian love. Many persons truly acknowledge and repent of their sinful and worldly dispositions; but they cannot accept as right that peaceful and joyous life which, after the first great trial, should reward their labours. They have listened so eagerly to the stern voice of John, have drank so deep of his ascetic spirit, that they cannot hear the gentle voice of the Saviour, and cannot appreciate the value of the quiet, unostentatious goodness and love to which he would lead them. In the first case, men attempt to snatch the harvest without sowing the seed or preparing the ground, and they grasp only the dead stubble of their own misdeeds. In the second, they destroy all prospect of harvest by constantly preparing the ground for fresh crops of righteousness before the first have come to maturity, thus uprooting by their own anxious folly the germs of a more perfect and holy faith.

Thus far we have regarded the characters of John the Baptist, and of our Saviour, and of their various followers, in regard to each other. We must not forget that the greater number of people adhered to neither; not the sternness of the one nor the love of the other could arouse them from the depth of selfishness into which they had fallen. Wise and quicksighted as regards their worldly interest and their present pleasure, but indifferent to or utterly faithless of the future, they deemed the austerities of John little better than a pious folly. The harsh treated him with contempt, the more merciful with mere pity, as one who had lost the use of his intellects. And when Christ came among them, eating and drinking as other men, and teaching the doctrines of the kingdom of heaven, they would not listen to him. Unconscious of the inconsistency of their conduct, the same men who condemned John for his asceticism, attempted to destroy the force of our Saviour's teaching by saying that in all the common things of life he was like the rest of the world. Behold, said they, a man gluttonous and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!

Alas! how easy it is to find fault with the teacher when the doctrine is unpalatable! How readily will men find plausible excuses for not listening to anything that is at variance with their habits of life, anything which demands a temporary sacrifice, even though the future gain may be inestimable! How little faith is there in the spiritual realities of our existencehow little care for the purity and integrity of the immortal soul!

When at the present day we say that we are all Christians, -members of churches, towns and kingdoms, all of them directly under the influence of the Christian dispensation,we state a fact which is capable of bearing two very different aspects. If we mean that the whole of European life at the present time is vitally and deeply impressed with the stamp of Christianity, we state what would, were it true, be the most

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glorious phenomenon of all history. When, however, we look to the state of war among the great nations, the despotism and treachery of some most powerful governments, the vice and infamy of the large towns, the ignorance and brutality of our country populations, and the practical scepticism which governs the conduct of many, we are obliged to acknowledge that, though every parish has its church and every man a Bible, we are very, very far from deserving the title of a Christian and God-fearing nation. As a whole, we are in the state of those who attempt to gain the peace and tranquillity of the higher stage of religious discipline, without having passed through the trials and purifications of the lower. We continue our evil deeds under a holy name, and so deceive one another as to the truth; and we daily see the result in crime and degradation which, were it not real, visible in all the trades, professions, occupations and even pleasures of our time, we should regard as a gross calumny upon the human race,- -a malignant invention of those who desired to shew that we were children of the devil and not sons of God and disciples of the Saviour. When we speak of the Christianity of our time, we ought to qualify our language and distinctly express what we really mean, which is, that Christian knowledge is open to all, that all men profess belief therein, but that only a limited number have prepared themselves for the reception of the truth, have been enabled to appreciate its real value. Multitudes grasp the shadow for the substance, and live in the darkness and fear of the outer court, instead of the light and peace of the sanctuary. Greater multitudes still are ready with their quick-witted objections to everything-this form of worship is too severe, another form too lax, and a third too intellectual. They will have neither the teaching of John nor of Christ; the one came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil; the other came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous and a winebibber, a friend

of publicans and sinners; but, remarks the evangelist, Wisdom is justified of her children.

In such a state of society as this, we may well be doubtful of our true position. Let us wisely endeavour to justify ourselves, not by petulant fault-finding with everything that does not seem to us perfectly desirable, but let us see truly if we have not need of much repentance and self-denial-whether we have not much real work to do, many great sacrifices to make, before we dare to think of passing from the lower state of discipline to the higher state of liberty; and may we all ultimately attain to that degree of self-control which shall enable us to leave the stern self-mortification of John in the wilderness, for the gentleness and peace and love of a truly Christian and God-fearing community! Amen.