you, the adopted child, feeling your own helplessness, kneel not before the tribunal of an angry God, but at your Father's footstool. The Father listens. From the high heaven of His dwelling He descends, an unseen guest, into the still chambers of your soul, and breathes within this sweet assurance: "Fear not, doubt not, my son, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father!"

THE GOSPEL.

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven."-MATT. vii. 21.

Tis not profession, but practice, which evidences a

IT

saving faith. Those who heard Him might have called him Lord to His face, and we may address Him as such in our prayers, or psalm-singing, or other devotion, and even perform the same with much fluency and apparent spiritual perfection; but none of these things shall profit, should our practice be not correspondent. Nay, our profession may be even to a certain extent not without advantage to His cause; the contributions of our conversation, of our tongue, of our pen, may be of as active service in the interests of religion as were the miracu

lous gifts of those who cast out devils in His name. As they employed the word of His power, we may employ the power of His word; yet, if we be wanting in personal piety and the practice of His will, what doth it profit? Having preached to others, we shall ourselves be castaways. He only will find an entrance administered abundantly unto him who, through faith in Jesus Christ, doeth the will of His Father which is in heaven; and for this reason-because he embraces both the confession of His name and the practice of His law. Neither without the other will do, nor will the latter be attainable without the sincere adoption of the former; for this is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith. He who abideth in Him need not fear but that he will bring forth fruit enough, and that his fruit will remain, and the Father will purge him, that he may bring forth more fruit.

The Linth Sunday after Trinity.

THE COLLECT:

Grant to us, Lord, we beseech Thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without Thee; may by Thee be enabled to live according to Thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE EPISTLE.

"They drank of that spiritual Rock which followed them: and that Rock was Christ."-1 Cor. x. 4.

HOW

are summed up in Christ.

TOW blessed a thought, that the law and the Gospel The children of God, as they travelled through the desert to the land of Canaan, and believers, as they now journey through the land of heavenly promise, eat of the same sustenance and drink of the same spiritual drink. Christ

is the one Bond which holds together the Scripture leaves. Through law and prophets, proverb and psalm, gospel and epistle, we trace the name of Christ. The name of Christ is, as it were, a golden thread woven throughout all, from first to last. We open the Book of Genesis at the sad story of man's fall; sin has triumphed, the heaven is darkened, and the anger of God is ready to descend upon our world. The web of destiny seems woven with death and curses, and the foul trail of the serpent lies upon it, as he crawls away from Paradise-his work of ruin done. But even there the thread of gold appears. God preaches Christ to fallen man, "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." And thence we trace the name of Christ through promise after promise, through types and shadows, until the dawn. of the Gospel day. We then follow Him through the scenes of the New Testament until He dies, and rises again, and ascends to heaven. And so we look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and of the faith of those who went before us. He is the hope of all the ends of the earth, of believers of every age. May He be our guide through this wilderness; may the Rock which follows us be Christ!

THE GOSPEL.

"For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light."-LUKE xvi. 8.

H that we watched our eternal interests with the

OH

same anxiety with which we strive to secure the advantages of time. We see men toiling for earthly honours and riches which they may never win, and which, at best, must perish in the using; but they are careless about the things which make for their peace and last for ever; they are in earnest about the world, but not about eternity. The truth is, the heart of the natural man sleeps the sleep of death. Man lies beneath the fatal upas of the world, and death-slumber seals his eyes. What power can awake The Spirit of God alone.

him from his trance?

"You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." This should be the constant work of a Christian -to pray for those who are sleeping the sleep of death, those who are too dead in sin to pray. Lord, give sight to the blind; breathe into the spirit of the dead; unseal the closed eye. May the voice of Thy Spirit call,-"Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." Let us be encouraged thereto by the assurance, "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth