believed not? "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." Therefore it is not the simple endurance of suffering, but the patient abiding of faith, which will inherit the promise, for "the just shall live by faith;" and however severe his present affliction may seem for the moment, it worketh for him a "more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" and the suf ferings of his present time are "not worthy to be compared with the glory" which shall follow.

In what confusion earth appears!—
God's dearest children bathed in tears;
While they who heaven itself deride,
Riot in luxury and pride.

But patient let my soul attend,
And, ere I censure, view the end;
That end, how different! who can tell
The wide extremes of heaven and hell?

See the red flames around him twine
Who did in gold and purple shine:
Nor can his tongue one drop obtain
T'allay the scorching of his pain.

While round the saint, so poor below,
Full rivers of salvation flow;

On Abraham's breast he leans his head,
And banquets on celestial bread.

Jesus, my Saviour, let me share
The meanest of Thy servants' fare;
May I approach at last to taste
The blessings of Thy marriage-feast.

The Second Sunday after Trinity.

THE COLLECT.

O LORD, who never failest to help and govern them whom Thou dost bring up in Thy stedfast fear and love; Keep us, we beseech Thee, under the protection of Thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of Thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE EPISTLE.

"We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren."-1 JOHN iii. 14.

DROOPING believer!

you have long renounced your own pretensions, because you have found them vain, and learned to fix your hopes of eternal joy on a surer pedestal, which cannot be moved. Whence, then, arise those doubts? Whence come those dark, uneasy fears? It is not because you fear the Rock of Ages

will sink, or that the foundation which is placed in sin will not abide the storm; but it is because you fear your feet are not fixed upon it, and that when the rain descends and the floods come, your foundation will seem to have been laid in the sands. Pause for a moment and dwell upon the language of our text. You have here a sign, certain, infallible, from the lips of the Holy Ghost Himself. You know what love is, for you have experienced a sense of the pardoning love of Jesus. But if you will know how far it is reciprocated on your part, you will be prepared to answer how sincere is your affection for those for whom Jesus died. Yours may not be in degree a love like His; for who can love as long, as broad, as deep as Love itself? But if your love has been sincere, no barren motive, fruitful in specious language, but in fact deficient, and however immeasurably below in degree, the same in kind as the love which toiled, was weary, suffered hunger, thirst, and reproach, and finally for you laid down its life, that by death it might destroy the power of death, and pluck from the burning the brand which it ransomed,-should this token be yours, then ask you no farther. You need not turn up the archives of Heaven. He who hath sealed your pardon hath furnished the articles of your forgiveness, and made your soul the tablet on which He has recorded the gracious designs He formed con

cerning you before the world began. "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee; go in peace."

THE GOSPEL.

"Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled."-LUKE xiv. 23.

ARK the anxiety of the Lord Jesus that His

MARK

kingdom should be filled. His servants are directed not only to request, but to compel acceptance of the invitation; as we ourselves say, when we receive an invitation peculiarly pressing, "I am compelled to accept it." This may convey a practical lesson to the ministers of the Gospel, as touching the manner and style of the delivery of their message, and the importunity with which it should be applied. Let them not be discouraged, but rather the contrary, should they occasionally acquire the character of obtrusiveness and indiscretion; for the very nature of warm invitation and overdone hospitality in secular matters has procured the character of vulgar and troublesome goodnature. A Christian minister should be troublesome; he should be ill-bred in this respect; he should discompose with his inquiries those who would excuse his attentions; for the vanity of the simple will destroy them, and no alternative is left. Who can see the dying patient waive his medicines from his

bed-side, and not beseech, if he cannot compel, him

to take them against his will?

Father of mercies, bow Thine ear,
Attentive to our earnest prayer;

We plead for those who plead for Thee;
Successful pleaders may they be!

How great their work, how vast their charge!
Do Thou their anxious souls enlarge;
Their best acquirements are our gain,
We share the blessings they obtain.

Clothe, then, with energy divine

Their words, and let those words be Thine;

To them Thy sacred truth reveal,

Suppress their fear, inflame their zeal.

Teach them to sow the precious seed;
Teach them Thy chosen flock to feed;
Teach them immortal souls to gain-
Souls that will well reward their pain.

Let thronging multitudes around
Hear from their lips the joyful sound,
In humble strains Thy grace implore,
And feel Thy new-creating power.