things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.'

How, in any particular instance, godly Sorrow shall be turned into Joy, we know not; nor what is the nature of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory which affliction is intended to work for the children of GOD. We do but know that He is faithful who promised; and that He will assuredly bring it to pass. It may be, that to have done lowly offices of Love upon Earth; to have tended the sick, to have taught the ignorant, to have protected the weak, to have upheld the fainting; these acts and the like of these, done through life at the cost of much privation, and no little self-denial, may prove a training necessary to be gone through by those who are to be ministering Angels hereafter; whose glorious privilege it will be to stand before GOD; whose glorious office it will be to receive His orders, and execute His will, in far parts of the Earth, in remote worlds: aye, and why not to minister to those who bear their name, or share their blood, or owned their friendship, and are yet in the flesh ?—It may be, again, that as many as laboured most to keep themselves from any thing that might

defile,' will find their surpassing Bliss in being thereby enabled to receive into themselves a truer image of the Eternal GOD. They were sorrowful; for they sought to cultivate that particular Christian grace which perhaps demands the largest sacrifices: but immense will be the reward.-In like manner, those who have striven most to live a life of Righteousness,who have hungered after it, and felt the grief and pain of every hindrance which kept them back, these persons will from that very circumstance be capable hereafter of being filled the fuller.—In some such ways, then, will the Sorrow of GOD's Saints be hereafter turned into Joy.

And what remains but to impress ourselves deeply with the greatness of the reward, the largeness of the Joy, thus set before us; and to seek to regard every pang of the threatened Sorrow as a previous pledge and reward of the promised Joy?

The Fourth Sunday after Easter.

OUR BODIES, TEMPLES OF THE HOLY GHOST.

1 CORINTHIANS vi. 19.

What? know ye not that your body is the Temple of the HOLY GHOST which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

To ask a question in this manner, is the strongest way of making an assertion. The Apostle declares it as no new truth, but appeals to it as something received and allowed by all, that the bodies of baptized persons are Temples of the HOLY GHOST. And this declaration of his we shall do well to consider at this season. The services of the sanctuary guide our thoughts in the direction of the text; for Whitsuntide, which is now fast approaching, is the season when we call to mind God's great gift to the Church; the gift, namely, of His Indwelling SPIRIT; and there is perhaps no one doctrine which conduces more to personal holiness,-no one truth which grows more readily into a constraining motive for purity of life,-than this

which the text contains. It states (1st) that the HOLY GHOST dwells within us; resides in our very Bodies and (2ndly) declares it to be a truth, known and received of all men, that our bodies are Temples. On either of these two heads a few words shall be offered on this occasion.

1. Now, it is certain that every one of us, at Holy Baptism, received this marvellous gift of the HOLY SPIRIT. To explain how His personal inhabitation takes place, is manifestly above us. Let it content us to know that it is He who moves us to holy actions; puts into our minds high and holy thoughts; gives us effectual repentance for sins committed; fills the soul with heavenly peace and holy joy. He it is who, day by day, pleads with the sinful man; reproves; reproaches; is grieved by his hardness and impenitence; and even yet, while there remains a ray of hope, will not forsake him quite. He it is who comforts the afflicted, and sustains the desponding, and strengthens the weak. He sheds abroad the Love of GOD in the heart, and fills the soul of Man with that Peace which passeth all understanding. Not least is it His office to make men of one mind in a House: to make the husband loving and kind; the wife amiable and complying; the children dutiful and obedient.

His work it is, if the members of a Household come constantly to Church: if the study of GOD'S Word becomes a privilege and a delight: if Prayer is a comfort and a pleasure. No better test could perhaps be suggested as to our state in respect of this Divine guest than the love we feel towards our neighbour, and the appetite with which we engage in Prayer.

Let it suffice us further to remember that if resisted and refused, the Indwelling SPIRIT will plead less and less forcibly, less and less often. He is declared to be grieved by sin: by hardened wickedness, to be quenched altogether. Here, then, we read our danger. To be by Him forsaken, is surely the most terrible calamity which can possibly befal a living man. Hence that passionate cry of the Psalmist,-Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy HOLY SPIRIT from mea !'

This great doctrine of the Indwelling SPIRIT it is which makes the sins forbidden under the Seventh Commandment so grievously offensive to the Holy GOD. Fornication and all uncleanness, drunkenness and gluttony, are hence declared by St. Peter to be things which war against the soul.' In proportion as the advantage is great

Psalm li. 11.

1 St. Pet. ii. 11.