such as belonged to an inspired Apostle, must cease and vanish away. St. John possessed also that spirit of love which never faileth. And he whose latest exhortation was, "Little children, love one another," was and is an example of the truth of his own words, that "he who dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him."

BRATHAY CHAPEL,

December 29, 1839.

SERMON XXXVIII.

ALL SOULS.

HEBREWS, xiii. 7.

Whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.

It is probably known to many of us that, in the Roman Catholic calendar, every day in the year is a Saint's day; that is, there is no single day to which the name and remembrance of some persons or events connected with our common faith are not associated. And it is known also, perhaps, to many of us, that some Protestant churches keep no anniversaries at all; not even those of our Lord's birth, crucifixion, and ascension. The Sunday is their only day set apart for religious worship, with the exception of such particular fasts or solemn days as may be appointed by the Church from time to time on particular occasions. Our own Church, as we know, keeps several anniversaries, while it has discontinued the greater number of those formerly observed.

Among the rest so discontinued, is that one which used to be kept on this day. Yesterday, which was All Saints' Day, is still observed. But All Saints' Day was followed immediately by what was called All Souls' Day, or the Day of the Dead, a day which was, indeed, made to serve to very superstitious purposes, on account of the fables which were invented about the state of the dead, but which, as soon as those fables are forgotten, is capable of being made a truly Christian solemnity no less so than the day of All Saints, immediately preceding it, and which our Church still observes.

The notion of All Souls' Day was to keep up the remembrance of those of our Christian brethren, who, having finished their course on earth, are kept in peace till the day of the resurrection. Undoubtedly, as I said before, very gross superstitions were mixed up with it, which it would be most unedifying to dwell on, even for a moment. Still the state of the Christian dead, both in what we know of it, and in what we do not know, is itself a very useful subject of reflection. In the celebration of All Saints' Day, we recall to mind our fellowship with God's servants in respect of their and our immortality. The Day of the Dead recalls to us our fellowship with God's servants, in so far as both they and we are mortal. In the former we include not only all Christ's earthly

servants, but those also who are in heaven. The Communion of Saints extends to the holy angels themselves, and centres in Christ Himself, their Head and Lord, as well as ours. But the Day of

the Dead is, in a manner, of the earth, and earthly. The holy angels do not share in this communion with us; and though Christ Himself died unto sin once, yet He is alive for evermore, and entered already into the most holy place, to prepare an habitation there for us also when He shall come again. The Day of the Dead, then, is the day of those who are yet in some measure under Death's power, of our departed brethren who are yet so far under it, that they have not entered into their perfect and eternal life,―of ourselves, even more, over whose heads Death's dart is still hanging, who have not felt its stroke, but will surely feel it.

So far, then, our departed brethren and we are in the same condition;-to neither of us is the power of the last enemy as yet quite overcome. But if in this we are alike, there is another thing in which we are most different. The power of death is not wholly past from over them; but the sting of that power is past for ever. They have done with sin, if they have not yet done with death. But of us this cannot be said truly. have not yet done with sin, and therefore to us not only the power, but the worst sting of death may be yet remaining. How can we, then, be

We

come like in this great matter to our departed brethren? How can we bring ourselves to feel no more or worse portion of death's power than they now feel? To this question the words of the text afford the answer: "Consider the end of their conversation, the issue of their earthly life, and imitate their faith."

In speaking of our departed brethren, I wish the term to be confined to those who have died in Christ's faith and fear. We have nothing to do with any others than these. Now of some of these we must gain our knowledge from reading or hearing; of others our own experience may inform us. For among that number of persons whom we once knew on earth, and who have now finished their course, there must surely be many of whom we may pronounce at once quite confidently, with much more than the mere hope of charity, that they have died in Christ's faith and fear. For, as there must be many of whom we may hope not only charitably, but reasonably, yet of whom we cannot feel that their faith, as it were, is manifest, and goes before to judgment; so there must be many, I trust, of whom we feel that it was manifest; whom God's Spirit had sealed so visibly that none could mistake its impress. Now consider, for a moment, the state of any such person whom we have once known, and compare his case with ours. We knew him when he was as