The Epistle. 1 St. Pet. v. 5.

LL of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your care

upon him, for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

The Gospel. St. Luke xv. 1.

HEN drew near unto him all the Publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in

THE EPISTLE.-The quiet virtues of the Christian are derived immediately from the view which he takes of his religion. For that view of the Gospel he is indebted to the Holy Spirit; but it is to him in the place of a mighty and universal argument, embracing reasons and sanctions which appeal with equal force to his moral and intellectual nature. Mutual kindness and forbearance ;the absence of pride and envy ;- a readiness to forego many private claims for the general good, -and the willing acknowledgment of the superiority of others, and their right to our respect ;these are the proper characteristics of a Christian society: they belong as qualities to the peculiar people of God; and where they are not, there, we may conclude, the power of the Gospel has never

the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, That likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

been known. But the Apostle suggests a solemn consideration respecting this subject which ought to weigh deeply with those who, looking for salvation through Christ, yet allow pride and thoughtlessness to keep them from the practice of evangelical humility. The mighty hand of God is stretched out for our preservation. Ought we not to humble ourselves at the contemplation of this interference in our favour? The devil, as a roaring lion, is awaiting to destroy us. Shall we not be cautious and sober-minded, having to resist such an adversary? Our forerunners in the Gospel have suffered many afflictions in the work of salvation. Ought we to expect to complete the same work without imitating any of their virtues? But while we are bound to resign ourselves willingly to the dispensations of God, and bear with cheerful submissiveness the trials to which He may put us, there is this consolation: the afflictions will endure but for a while;-the glory that is to follow will be eternal. It is the joy of the Christian to know, that he is being daily prepared for this glory by the Holy Spirit; and that, having been perfected in holiness, he will be admitted to the seats where happiness is perfected also.

THE GOSPEL.-How strange it is that men should ever wish to limit the operations of God's mercy, or endeavour to make themselves believe that they are the better off the more exclusively their privileges and enjoyments are confined to the circle in which they move! The Pharisees and Scribes reproved Jesus for His mercy: our churches and sects still do the same. They may have faith, but they have not charity; and religion suffers, as if its members and sinews were torn asunder. The angels in heaven reprove us for this. They take an interest in our fate, and in that of the most miserable of our brethren. The Founder of our religion reproves us; and in every thing which He has done for the recovery of a lost world, a judgment is passed upon our want of kindness, humility, and charity. Exquisitely tender are the illustrations which He employs to defend His desire and His right to save the poorest of sinners. But we must not suppose that any thing which He says implies the equalizing of a late repentance with long-enduring and true perfection in holiness. He appeals but to human feeling as affording an illustration of the charity of heaven when it rejoices over the returning penitent more than over those who are already safe. The joy refers but to the moment of recovery;-and what circle of loving children would suppose that they were failing in love for each other, if they did for the moment let every other feeling be lost in the glad congratulations which they heap on a supposed perished, but now recovered, brother? The other comparisons employed by our Lord serve to guard the one alluded to from any wrong interpretation; for though the finding of the lost piece of money, or the strayed sheep, gives more joy for the moment than the possession of all the rest, it would manifestly be folly to suppose that this feeling is other than temporary.

The Fourth Sunday after Trinity.

GOD, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal: Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ's sake our Lord. Amen.

THE COLLECT.-God, as the source of power, is, under the Christian system, the source of good and happiness to His creatures. Frail and miserable in themselves, He replenishes them with internal strength; and by the ordinances of His providence, and often by special interferences, protects them against every enemy and betrayer. But though His mercy is over all His works, it is to those only who put their trust in Him that the promise of protection is fully and distinctly made. In their safety the glory of Christ and His kingdom is concerned. "They shall be mine," He says, "in the day when I make up my jewels." Without the strength which God gives for this purpose, the mightiest power of men and the most splendid of their glories are but as things of nought.

The Epistle. Rom. viii. 18.

RECKON that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope: because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

THE EPISTLE. It is the prospect of a restoration to primeval happiness and perfection which sheds the brightest of the rays that beautify the present state of things. Without this hope, the sun would lose its splendour in the natural, and virtue its energy and cheerful loveliness in the moral, world. Blank discontent and weariness would be everywhere visible; and the race of man, wanting the impulse which is given by the ingrafted expectation of a higher and nobler condition, would stop far short of the efforts which it now makes after enlightenment and wisdom. The present is a period of travail. Nature in all its provinces has been made subject to vanity; that word comprehending the power of sin, the power of death, of folly, and whatever can employ itself in perverting the great and good purposes of creation. And this state of things is rendered more and more conspicuous by the light of the Gospel. The antagonist of good rages against the progress towards recovery; suffering thence follows to those who stand foremost in the sublime struggle for emancipation. But a glory shall in the end be revealed in them which will fully reward them for all their toils, and Creation in its renovated beauty will rise to salute them as the victorious soldiers of its Deliverer. The word "creature" is used with a various extent of signification in Scripture. Sometimes, and most commonly, it is employed to signify all created beings in contradistinction to the Creator. At others, it means all things inferior to man, and especially the inanimate universe. In a few cases it is applied to the Gentile, or unsanctified portion of mankind, as separate from the people of God. But these meanings are not in opposition to each other: and the word vanity describes the condition to which any being is reduced when rendered perishable, when divested of the excellence which it originally possessed,-when put to purposes inferior to its proper destiny, or shut out from the prospects to which it might have aspired. Bearing this in view, it will not be difficult for the ingenious inquirer to discover how the language of the Apostle may be applied. He will see that nature in general was made subject to vanity by sin;-that all inferior things shared in man's loss of glory and perfection;-that the body suffered in correspondence with the soul;-and that the mass of mankind, considered in every relation, became subject to vanity through the condemnation of sin. But it was "not willingly" that either nature, or any class of beings, or man in any relation, became subject to vanity. It is the essential property of every thing to resist change which tends to pain or injury.

The Gospel. St. Luke vi. 36.

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ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned forgive, and ye shall be forgiven give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again. And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? The disciple is not above his master; but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.

The sun unwillingly allows his beams to be clouded; decay is resisted long and obstinately; the voice of gladness only ceases when checked by stern necessity; and death, which consummates the work of vanity, is universally regarded as a foe. Man himself, the conscious, reasoning victim of vanity, yields not willingly: whatever his blindness and corruption, he wars against the necessity of his state. Though bringing in death by sin, he would not die ;-though loving corruption, he would fain not be himself corruptible;-though borrowing the veil of darkness to hide his evil deeds, he would not be dark in heart and spirit;-though wishing others-even God-to be blind, he would wish to be himself all-seeing.

THE GOSPEL.-The subtlest moralists have fallen far short of our Lord in detecting the corruptions of human character, or prescribing rules for their correction. Pride and self-esteem are fruitful in error. The judgments which they pass are usually grossly false, and he who would really do good, is bound to cultivate humility as well as generosity; and a meek and gentle spirit, not less than the more active virtues which may prompt him to become a teacher of his kind. Self-knowledge is the best guide we can have to a knowledge of the world; but that is a poor acquaintance with ourselves which only brings before us an exaggerated catalogue of merits, the greater part, perhaps, factitious, and which leaves out of sight the follies and the meannesses-the pride, voluptuousness, and wrathfulness which, in various proportions, probably form the larger portion of our active principles. Mercy, such as the Gospel teaches us to cultivate, will, in all cases, present a noble barrier to the invasion of these enemies, and prepare us to judge rightly both of ourselves and others.