and practically reject the rule of life which God hath revealed; but it is not our own, but God's tribunal before which we stand or fall. "That servant who knew not his Lord's will, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few; but that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to that will," upon him the heavy punishment falls.

And men I think sometimes seek out difficulties to strengthen themselves in their doubts, not perchance to sap the faith of others, which excites only their marvel or their pity, but to justify to their own minds the misgivings of their own feelings, and their own alienation from the holy laws of the Redeemer. For if God be false, unbelief is sanctioned: if the law be abrogated, licence is allowed: if sin be warranted, if His service, or neglect of that service, be at our own option, then is faith, folly; and repentance, weakness; but repentance, we say, stands or falls with the whole truth of God's revealed will.

Repentance is one of the vital and necessary conditions of our being followers of Jesus Christ: it was the one great enjoined act of the mind, the first command of the forerunner of our Lord. On the sincerity and soundness of this

foundation was the fabric of the Christian's faith to be raised and realized. Without repentance no hope dawns, no promise is made to man, no sin is forgiven, no service is accepted, and no prayer is heard. By repentance all the evil deeds of the past are blotted out, and remembered no more; and by repentance is the future hallowed and devoted to God. The sacraments of the Lord summon forth this feeling, and strengthen its renewal; his worship is its continual acknowledgment. It is the offering of the soul, the great sacrifice of life, the atonement of the heart.

C

SERMON II.

PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY.

JOHN ix. 4.

"I must work the works of him that sent me."

THE value of any theory may be fairly adjudged, according as its adoption is practicable, and its effects are good. So likewise the nature of any doctrine may be discerned, by the conduct to which a belief in it leads, and the influence which it exercises upon the life. Such, however, is not the connection between the teacher and his teaching; we may trust, and charitably anticipate the character from the doctrine, and we may generally be right, but the two are not necessarily blended. The word spoken, and the life led, ought to reflect each other, but to say the least, the acts of a man supply a far safer criterion of his principles, than his avowed prin

ciples do of his acts. A succession of humane acts, yields me sound premises from whence to infer humanity in him who performed them; but even from the reiterated professions of humanity, I cannot safely infer the act: chiefly indeed, because our nature is prone to say well, and perhaps mean well, and yet does not so frequently realize its professions in action. On this account I think our Redeemer did not address his strong appeal to the words which he spake, but to the works which he did, "the same works which I do, bear witness of me,""believe me for the very works' sake."

From the life and the works of Jesus Christ, his immediate followers claimed their highest authority. They could not dilate on his worldly glory, but they could on his goodness; they could not tell of his earthly power, but they could of his unearthly purity; he ever mingled with mankind, yet was he never sullied; an exaltation above all moral corruption, more lofty than that when "his soul was not left in hell, neither did that holy one see corruption." This shed over the individual character of the Redeemer an undying lustre, before which suspicion vanishes, and rolls away as the mist of the morning. When we view his life, we

must feel, he is not such an one as would deceive us.

He

The authority of the works which the Redeemer wrought, is urged by St. Peter upon the remembrance of those who witnessed them; he had just been stating the surpassing power with which Jesus Christ had asserted his higher nature. I mean, when the apostle uttered that remarkable address :-" Ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God, among you, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him, in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know." recounted events that had actually come to pass in their own day, what they had themselves seen and known, but which perhaps from being witnessed singly, had awakened but a momentary awe, and then floated from their minds and were forgotten. Still, when the memory of the miracle, and the wonder, and the sign, were called up by the apostle, in the fulness of their collective power, and the records of prophecy compared with facts, done in the midst of them, conviction rushed upon them. From the thousands who that day owned their Redeemer, it would seem that every ear that caught those words, every heart upon which that appeal fell,