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upon a fellowship established with himself in the person of his Son; and this kingdom ruled over all; and this communion involved the principle of all rule and all subjection between rulers and people, masters and servants, fathers and children, redeemed every sovereign injunction out of the circle of tyrannous acts; caused, that dutiful homage should never be confounded with slavish fear; drew, with exquisite subtilty, the lines which distinguish the law, which knows no relaxation or mercy, from the Sovereign Mind, which is the seat of reason and equity, yet upheld each as necessary to the other; qualified the strict order of the state with the gracious order of the family, without abating the strength or consistency of either; offered, finally, the only realization of that dream of a family love, for the sake of which the raving fanatics of Munster in the 16th, and of Amsterdam in the 17th century, would have rent society in pieces, and driven meekness, charity, and religion out of the world.

The last remark suggests another, which I have hinted at already, but which has not been brought out as its importance deserves. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, thus explained, presents us with a view of moral evil, as awful as ever overwhelmed the mind of the most wretched speculator, more awful than such a man ever conceived, because far more practical, and yet one that can never create a moment's hopelessness. The horror of thick darkness which comes over the spirit when we contemplate a black

ground of sin, relieved, or rather made more frightful by a few specks and spots of sunshine, is surely something very unlike that feeling to which God is seeking to awaken us, when we look upon the disorders and miseries of the universe. If you know any person in whom that habit of mind is very predominant, I think you will agree with me, that though it may have grown up among the kindliest and most generous sympathies, and may even have been fostered by the indulgence of them, yet is it continually interfering with their wholesome and comfortable exercise, is fatal to all sustained benevolence, and threatens ultimately to create a perfectly heartless character, for heart and hope never have been, and I suppose never can be long severed from each other. If it be so, there must be some radical error in such persons. It cannot be merely that they dwell too fixedly on a painful object. Who could recommend them to wink and close their eyes for a little while at a truth to which they must at last awaken? But is it a truth,-is not their chief hypothesis a lie? Does not God from first to last teach us to look upon sin as the violation of an order? And is not this the view of it which every Christian, in every earnest moment of practical life and meditation, inevitably adopts? But so deeply is Manicheeism rooted in the corrupt nature; so readily is it deduced from every examination of the mere facts of the world's history, unassisted by illumination from above respecting its principles, that men fall into a habit

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of speaking of the constitution of things around us as evil, thus actually justifying that constant tendency of every man to violate this constitution, which is the great sign and symptom of our depravity and fall. To illustrate this habit and its effects, would be to make an exposure of half our modern philosophy, politics, and divinity; but to show how it may be avoided, would be a far more mighty task, if it were not for the help which this grand ordinance, as expounded in our Communion Service affords us. There we find sin presented to us as the setting up of the self-will which separates man from God, and separates man from man,—this sin, as put away by a divine and perfect sacrifice, uniting God to man, binding men to each other; participation in this sacrifice, as the destruction of that self-will in each man, which is his own curse and the plague of society; the final extinction of it as the triumph of God over Satan; of order over anarchy; of life over death. And out of this great political truth another is instantly evolved, that a Christian's conflict is with a power which is striving to separate him from a happiness already won for him; that a Christian's prayer is, that himself and all the creatures of God may not resist that will which is striving to bless them.

If I am not mistaken, the more you meditate upon our Communion Service, and upon the observances connected with it, taking the few inadequate hints I have thrown out for your guide, the more you will be convinced that the principles

EXPOUNDS CHRISTIANITY.

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of Christianity, cannot be expounded fully or satisfactorily, except, if I may so express myself, in the terms of this Sacrament. The truths of Christianity are deep, practical, universal. That which expresses them should combine all these characteristics. Does a theory or a book of dogmas combine them? Can a hortatory address combine them? Can a mystical rapture combine them? No; if you would have dogmas useful, if you would have sermons useful, if you would have raptures useful, you must find some language more comprehensive, more expressive than any of them. Does any one say, "The Bible is such an expression," I hope I shall by and bye prove that I am not second to that objector in my reverence for the Bible. But before I can set up the Bible against ordinances, or speak of it as superseding them, I must be sure that the Bible does not speak of ordinances, and presume those whom it addresses to be partakers of them. It would be a poor way of showing our reverence for a book, to set aside its very words. Ask yourself then solemnly and seriously,- Can I find Christianity, the Christianity I want,—a Christianity of acts, not words, a Christianity of power and life, a divine, human, Catholic Christianity for men of all countries and periods, all tastes and endowments, all temperaments and necessities so exhibited as I find it in this Sacrament. And if so, have I not an à priori evidence of its divine original and truth, which it must take a mighty array of positive proofs against it to overturn?

That I have carefully abstained from setting

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forth anything of my own on this subject, you will allow; but you may think that I have somewhat too much magnified the forms of the Anglican Church. Do you mean, some one may ask, that these forms are above all forms; that the Anglican Church is identical with the Universal Church? This is a question which I am not careful to answer; because when the terms of it are understood, it answers itself. I am setting before your friends what I believe is a safe refuge from the confusion and divisions of the sects. I am endeavouring to convince them that this refuge is the Catholic Church. The moment such a proposition is stated, the cry is raised,-" The Catholic Church, forsooth! And what and where is that? A dream! A nonentity! It is anything, everything, nothing. All the sects are the Catholic Church; all believers are the Catholic Church. If you are an honest man, tell us what you mean? Give your idea a local habitation and a name." Well, I will endeavour to comply with your wish; and, as it seems the more regular and customary course not to examine the distant till we have considered the near-as it seems time enough to look at the condition of things a thousand miles off, when we have fully sifted and been thoroughly dissatisfied with that in the midst of which we are dwelling, I thought it would be as wise first of all to see whether the forms which are used in every parish of the land four times a-year, and much oftener, I hope, in most, do or do not embody anything like the