God of means as well as of ends; and the laws of the spiritual are as inflexible as those of the natural world. Those who are committed to Providence may be saved by the care of Providence; but if they be saved not by our means, but in spite of our neglect, God's is the glory, and ours the accountability.

THE GOSPEL.

"God so loved the world, that He gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."-JOHN iii. 16.

OW pleasing the reflection that He who has the

HOW

disposal of all things, and in whose hands our hopes and fears depend, loves us so well and sacrificed so much for us. An intelligent observer might conclude, from the scope and design of the created system, that goodness and happiness are the rule, and pain the exception, and consequently that love is the disposition of the Author of nature. But His benevolent intentions toward us would, after all, be considerably darkened by the foreboding of punishment due to sin, combined with the exceptional traces of evil and sorrow in the world. In this position of things, how relieving the information that the intentions of the Creator are toward us nothing but love

and good. He spared not His own Son, the sinless, the beloved. He gave Him to a rebel world. He gave Him to die. No stronger tide of love could issue from God's heart, or bear upon its surface a costlier ark. And so, above all the sorrows of this world and wrecks of time, the Cross of Christ stands a sublime memorial pillar that man is pardoned and God is love! The timid conscience now can find repose upon the tidings of a pardon which is rendered credible by the knowledge of a satisfaction supplied through a Saviour's death; nay, indeed, still more credible by the identity of the Saviour with the Judge. For the Judge of the whole earth, who supported His word by His oath of absolution could seal the reprieve by no more unequivocal pledge than that which He has offered, -His only-begotten Son. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Ye humble souls, approach your God
With songs of sacred praise,
For He is good, immensely good,
And kind are are all His ways.

All nature owns His guardian care,
In Him we live and move;
But nobler benefits declare

The wonders of His love.

He gave His Son, His only Son,

To ransom rebel worms;

"T is here He makes His goodness known In its diviner forms.

To this dear refuge, Lord, we come;
"T is here our hope relies;

A safe defence, a peaceful home,
When storms of trouble rise.

Thine eye beholds, with kind regard,
Their souls who trust in Thee;
Their humble hope Thou wilt reward
With bliss divinely free.

Great God, to Thy almighty love,

What honours shall we raise ? Not all the raptured songs above Can render equal praise.

Tuesday in Whitsun-week.

THE COLLECT:

GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of Thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of Thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

THE EPISTLE.

"Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost."-ACTS viii. 15.

HE sick, the dying, and the dead, as they are

THE

necessarily unable to perform any offices for themselves, are allowed to possess an indisputable claim on the sympathy of those who are united to them by relationship or friendship. Most persons evince no

backwardness in the discharge of such sacred duties; and those who are wanting in them are reckoned by all to be lost to the commonest feelings of humanity. How different is the general view of our responsibility respecting the spiritual condition of our brethren! There are few of whom it can be said, "Behold he prayeth !" Nay how many are there who may be considered literally dying, if not "dead in trespasses and sins!" These are necessarily helpless and unable to perform the most necessary spiritual offices for themselves. They lie, like the wounded traveller in the parable, weltering in their blood, by the roadside; while too many, alas! of us, who call ourselves Christians-though sensitively alive to their temporal interests-pass by, like the priest and Levite, on the other side, without an offered petition for the influence of that Spirit which we believe it to be in our power to draw down from above. Oh, how different was the conduct of the mother of Augustin! How it shames the coldness of the generality of professed believers ! When the earnestness of her importunities tired the patience of the bishop whom she consulted again and again, she was at length dismissed with the words, "Go to, woman, the son of such prayers cannot possibly perish." And did not the event prove the truth of what he said? "The fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much;" but the efficacy