join with His, and their bitter cries with His, and yet that is not the steady flame of a never-dying light and love; their heart for the most part is still cold. May be, GOD is trying them, and turning away His countenance in mercy, not in wrath. "Who is he among you that feareth the LORD and that obeyeth the voice of His servant; that walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the Name of the LORD and stay upon his GOD." Thus spake the Prophet Isaiah: but may be, this coldness, this blindness in the presence of CHRIST, more probably arises from some secret sin that we know not of, perhaps that Satan hath hid from us. We are proud, disobedient, covetous, self-indulgent, self-confident, self-willed, self-deceived: nothing but continued prayer and self-diligent examination of our hearts and conduct measured by CHRIST'S Cross, will find out the enemy. We must persevere, and He will send at last His angels to roll away the stone from the door of the heart, and we shall see CHRIST risen with Mary the penitent, and Peter the self-reproached.

The fifth appearance on that same day of His resurrection, was to the ten Apostles assembled together in the evening, Thomas being absent. The sixth was on the following Sunday to all the Apostles, when Thomas was present; and HE confirmed the doubting Apostle's faith, and inflamed the love of all, by bearing about in His Glorified Body the marks of His Passion. (Are we crucified to the world and able to say with Paul, "Henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the LORD JESUS "?) It was on this occasion that He bequeathed to His Disciples the precious legacy of Peace: "Peace be to you; as the FATHER hath sent ME, I also send you. "Receive ye the HOLY GHOST: whose sins you forgive,

they are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain, they are retained." So there is peace, and truth, and forgiveness of sins indwelling in the Church, and transmitted by the Apostles to their successors for ever. And yet we have thrown them aside almost and trampled them under.foot. Peace is, alas! certainly not the characteristic of the outward body of the Church, though the inner peace which passeth all understanding, has its resting-place in the heart and mind of individual Christians, making a heaven of earth. Truth is, as it was in the beginning and ever shall be; but men trust their own powers of discovering it for themselves, and fritter it into a thousand vain imaginations. Absolution at the mouth of the Priest, in the Name and power of the Blessed Trinity, to be given to the penitent sinner, is a thing scoffed at by some, treated indifferently by the many, cherished and heartily accepted by the few: and yet compare this passage of Scripture with the first exhortation to the Communion and the form of "The Ordering of Priests, and the Absolution in "the Visitation of the Sick "; and then how can we say we hear the Church, if we set ourselves to judge by mere worldly rules her solemn teaching?

Time would fail us, to meditate at present on the remaining appearances. The seventh, at the Sea of Tiberias to the seven Apostles (which St. John' calls "the Third," that is, to the assembled Disciples, and not the third in order, for he himself had mentioned three before it). The eighth to five hundred brethren at once, as mentioned by St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv. ninth also there recorded, to St. James, probably the Bishop of Jerusalem. The tenth at His Ascension, when He led them out as far as Bethany, and "HE

1 St. John xxi. 14.

The

lifted up His hands and blessed them; and it came to pass that as He blessed them, He was parted from them and carried up into Heaven: and they worshipped HIM and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the Temple, praising and blessing GOD. Amen." These latter words are a description applicable to the present state of the Church, now that she is waiting for her LORD's second coming. Blessed were those pure-hearted men who saw their GOD ascend more blessed are we, if we who have not seen shall believe-blessed, far more blessed, if we are ascended with HIM in heart. Such is the privilege of Faith. It is a higher state of calling than was vouchsafed to those that lived with our LORD in earth. It is indeed expedient for us that He went away, for the Comforter has come and dwelt in us, so that we now have two Comforters,' an ADVOCATE with the FATHER in Heaven, blessing and interceding for us-an INTerCESSOR within us, teaching us how to pray as we ought, uttering within us groans and cries we know not of.

Oh! let us follow His holy instigation, to pray that CHRIST may show HIMSELF to us "secretly" in our chambers," "among the faithful" Communion of Saints, "and in the great congregation" of the Catholic Church. Prayer, obedience, charity, these are the portals through which CHRIST will enter into the heart. All other doors and entrances are false deceptions, except those that are evidences of His Love shed abroad in our hearts; when we see Holiness within us, we see the Image of CHRIST, and CHRIST is the Image of GOD, for without Holiness no man shall see the LORD.

1

1 Bishop Andrewes' Devotions; Fifth Day.

C. J. A.

2 Psalm cxi. 1.

SERMON XLVII.

THE SPIRITUAL ADVANTAGE OF OBSERVING

HOLY TIMES.

St. Philip and St. James' Day.

1 COR. XI. 1.

BE YE FOLLOWERS OF ME, EVEN AS I ALSO AM OF CHRIST.

It is quite plain and certain that such is our duty with respect to all the Saints, that served GoD in patience and faith on earth, and now are at rest in Paradise. It is, beyond all doubt, our duty to follow them as they followed CHRIST. It is plain, too, that any one who does not well consider this duty, will lose the benefits of their example, and will thereby deprive himself of a very great help towards the saving of his soul. And one great reason why certain days have always been observed in the Church in remembrance of the Apostles and first Martyrs is, in order that we might be all, from time to time, reminded of our obligation to keep before us the pattern they have set us, and to pray and strive to follow our common SAVIOUR as closely as they did.

VOL. II.

M

SERIES II.

And that doctrine of the Communion of Saints which we profess in the Belief as a part of our faith, when rightly understood, both proves the wisdom and fitness of this appointment of Saints' Days, and also indicates to us the most urgent and sacred motives for closely copying the pattern the Saints have set us in their lives of faithfulness, holiness, and zeal.

The Communion of Saints means this ;-that all the true and accepted children of GoD, both in earth and Heaven, both in Grace and Glory, are knit together in one, in JESUS CHRIST Our LORD. CHRIST is all and in all,—all are one in CHRIST JESUS. So that little children, who have been brought into a state of Grace, in CHRIST's appointed way, by Baptism, and who have not yet fallen from it; and grown up Christians,—who, by faithful and earnest prayers and endeavours, have, in the power of the HOLY GHOST, continued in Grace, are all one, one with the Holiest Apostles and Martyrs,-one with those who are already secure of the highest place of glory and bliss in Heaven,-One with them in and with JESUS CHRIST Our LORD and SAVIOUR. And we ourselves also, unless we have fallen away from Grace, we are one with them ;-indeed, if we are not one with the Holiest Saints, we are reprobates. For there is but One Body in which we can be saved,-One true Vine in which we can be fruitful branches. If we are not members of the same body,—if we are not fruitful branches of the same vine, as the most Holy Apostles and Martyrs,-then we can be none of CHRIST'S, then are we reprobates,-are fallen away from CHRIST, and are without GOD in the world.

Our Baptism was our solemn and effectual engrafting into that Body,-that blessed Body, of which our LORD and SAVIOUR is the Head, and all they that