no forfeiture of all things to endure. We should suffer rather, were we to forsake His service. All the prescriptions of nearly two thousand years, and all the unwritten customs of life, constrain us to follow Him. We were made His servants by no will of our own; we may seem to abide with Him, and yet have no clinging of our moral nature to His holy fellowship. Our Christianity is indistinguishably blended with the unconscious habits of our passive life. We have never been tested, never in peril for our hope's sake, never forced to choose between suffering and apostacy. And therefore, under the fairest outside, there may lurk a fearful, variable temper, which, in the day of trial, would betray our Lord, and forfeit the crown of life. We have little opportunity of knowing whether we could endure hardness, except by putting ourselves upon some trying rule. Perhaps many live and die unknown to themselves, fully persuaded that they are what indeed they are not: many think themselves to be His, who will not be found among "Christ's at His coming." And there is still a further reason, and that is, because the Church imposes on her members no private and particular discipline. Their self-denial, therefore, is the individual act of each. The framing of our own private order of religion is, for the most part, left to the individual conscience. And for minds

of a devoted cast, it may be, this is well. From them it may elicit higher forms of a more conscious self-oblation. But we have need to look to it, that what the Church does not peremptorily require, we do not forget to practise. For the health of the moral character, it is absolutely necessary that we have some definite rule; and we have no need to strain after great occasions-for our every-day life abounds in manifold opportunities of self-discipline we shall find them in the hours of prayer, in the practice of charity, in alms-deeds, in fasting, in abstinence, in straitening our ease, in abstaining from lawful, and to ourselves expedient, things for others' sakes, in curbing our pleasures, in bearing slander, in forgiving injuries, in obeying our superiors, in yielding to our equals, in giving up our liberty for the good of others, in crossing the daily intentions of our will. In these inward and hidden motions of the mind we may keep clear both from excitement and from eccentricity, and yet live a life mortified and separate from the world we see, and in sympathy with the world unseen. And the man thus purged of self is drawn ever more and more within the veil; the realities of faith stand out ever more and more before his eyes in awful majesty; and he lives no longer unto himself, but unto Christ his Lord. He is ever drawing nearer to His throne; and his lot shall

be calm on earth, and his destiny high in heaven, even as that servant's who said, "Henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus ;" and in the clear foresight of his departure, when the toil and the cross were almost ended, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day."

1 Gal. vi. 17.

2 2 Tim. iv. 8.

SERMON VIII.

CHRIST OUR ONLY REST.

ST. MATTHEW Xi. 28-30.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

WITH these gracious promises our blessed Lord drew to Him the people who were toiling and struggling with the burdens of this saddened and sinful world. He beheld not only sinners, but many a good man wearying himself in vain.

Among those to whom He spoke, He saw, besides those that were heavy laden with their own sins, many who were burdened with evil traditions and unmeaning customs; who were fainting under the yoke which had been laid upon them as a schoolmaster to bring them unto Christ. He promised them rest, if they would come, and learn, and take on them His yoke, that is, if they would obey and follow Him, if they would believe and be like Him. Many there were, as Andrew and Levi,

who gave up their former ways, and all that they had, and made the trial, and found the promise true. They found rest in forgiveness and a quiet mind, in a heart chastened to a holy calm, and in the hope of their Master's kingdom. Now what He promised them when He was seen of men on earth, He has both promised and fulfilled ever since from heaven. By His unseen Spirit He has ever been in the world-pleading, drawing, persuading men to take His easy yoke. This He has done by His Church in all the earth. Among all nations He has gone, offering rest to every weary soul. Who can tell what has ever been the ineffable yearning of the heathen world; what tumultuous cries of spiritual sorrow have been heard in the ears of God? There has ever been among them the voice of conscience, and the sting of guilt, and the fears of defenceless purity, and the remorse of conscious sin. Without a doubt, among the myriads of eternal beings who thronged the face of the earth at Christ's coming, there were tens of thousands who felt higher and purer aspirations, who sighed and strove for light and truth in the dark and stifling bondage of heathenism. And to these, in due season, Christ in His Church went preaching, as "to spirits in prison," bringing the balm of meekness,

and the peace of a lowly heart.

When they heard

Him, they were drawn to Him by an irresistible