Parochial and Plain Sermons

" Whcrefore seeig u'e also are coralgassed about wlth so great a clvud of itnesses, let us lay aside every veigltt, and the sin wldch doth $o eaily beset us, and let ts run with 19atience tlte race that is set belote us."

HE warning and consolation given by the Apostle to the Hebrews, amid their sufferings for the truth's sake, were as follows: they were to guard against unbelief, tlmt easily-besetting sin under teint)ration, chiefly, and above all, by "looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith;" but., besides this, a secondary stay was added. So glorious and holy is our Lord, though viewed in His human nature, so perfect when He was tempted, so heavenly even upon earth, that sinners, such as we are, ca.nnot endure the sight of Him at first. Like the blessed Apostle in the book of Revelation, we "' fall at His feet as dead." So, in mercy to us, without withdrawing His presence, He bas included within it, His Saints and Angels, a great company of created beings, nay, of those who once were sinners, and subjects of His kingdom uport earth; that thus we may be encouraged by the example of others before us to look unto Him and live. St. Paul, in the foregoing chapter, enumerates nmny of the Ancient Saints who had nn the course of faith; and then he says in the text, "Wherefore, let us also, being compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." And presently he speaks in still more high and glowing language of the Christian Church, that august assemblage which Christ had formed of all that was holy in lleaven and earth. "Ye are corne unto hIount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of Angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, and to the sph'its of the just ruade perfect, and to Jesus the hIediator of the New Covenant." And much is needed, in every age, as a remedy against unbelief, that support which St. t'alfl suggested to the Hebrews in persecution, the vision of the Saints of God, and of the Kingdora of Heaven. hIuch is it needed, in every age, by those who have set their hearts to serve God, because they are few, and faint for company. We are to]d, expressly, "]3road is the way that leadeth fo destruction, and nmny there be which go in thereat." On the other hand, "Strait is the gare, and narrow is the way, wlfich leadeth tmto life, and few there be tlmt find if." l Alas! is if hot discouragement enough to walk in a path of self-denia], to combat  lIatt, vil. 13, 14.

our natural lusts and high imaginations, to bave the war of the flesh, that the war with the world must be added to it? Is it not euough to be pilgrims and soldiers all our doEys, but we must hear the mutual greetings, and exulting voices of tl,ose who choose the way of death, and must walk hot only in pain but in solitude? Where is the blessiug upon the righteous, where the joy of faith, the comfort of love, the triumph of self-mastery, in such dreariness and desolateness? Who are to sympathize with us in our joys aud sorrows, who are to SlUr us on by the example of their own success? St. Paul answers us—the cloud of witnesses of former days. Let us then eonsider our need and its remedy. 1. CeoEainly it eannot be denied that, if we surrender out hearts to Christ and obey God, we shall be in the number of the few. So it bas been in every age, so i vill be to the end of rime. It is hard, indeed, to find  man who gives himself Ul honestly to his Saviour. In spire of all the mercies poured upon us, yet in one way or other we are in danger of being betrayed by our own hearts, and ta-king up with a pretence of religion instead of the substance. Hence, in a country ealled Christian, the moEny live to the world. Nay, it would seem tlmt as Christianity spreads, its fruit becomes less; or, at least, does hot increase with its growth. It seems (some have said) as if a certain portion of truth were in the world, a certain number of the elect in the Church, and, as you increased its territory, you seattered this remnant to and fro, and ruade them seem fewer, and ruade them feel more desolate.

"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the lnidst «tf wolves;"l what out Lord addressed to His Apostles is fiflfilled to this day in all those who obey Him. They are sprinkled up aud down the world; they are separated the one ri'oto the other, they are bid quit each other's dear society, and sent afar off to those who are differently minded. Their choice of profession and employmelit is hot their own. Outward circumstanees, over which they bave no eontrol, deterlnine their line of lire; accidents bring them to this place or that place, hot knowing whither they go; hot knowing the persons to whom they unite themselves, they find, almost blindly, their home and their eompany. And in this, moreover, differing from the Apostles, and very painfully; that the Apostles knew each other, and could communicate one with anot.her, and eould form, nay, were bound to form one body; but now, those honest and truc hearts, in which the good seed has profitab]y fallen, do hot even know each other; nay, even when they think they ean singte out their fellows, yet are they hot allowed to form a separate soeiety with them. They do no know each ot.her; they do hot kllOW themselves; they do hot date take to themselves the future titles of God's elect, though they be really reserved for them; and the nearer they are towards heaven, so much the more lowly do they think of thelnselves. "Lord, I ara hot worthy t.hat Thou shouldest eome under my roof, ''e was the language of him who had greater faith than any in Israel. ])oubtless, th.ey do hot know their own blessedness, nor ean they single  Iat. x. 16.  latt, viii. 8.

out those who Lre their fellows in blessedness. God alone sees the heart; now and then, as they walk their wa.y, they see glimpses of God's work in others; they take hold of them awhile in the dark, but soon lose them; they hear their voices, but cannot find them. Some few, indeed, are revealed to them in  measure. Among those with whom their lot is cast, whom they see continually, one or two, perha.ps, are given them to rejoice in, but hot ma.uy even of these. For so it has pleased the Dresser of the Vineyard, who seems to lmve purposed that His own should hot grow too thick together; and if they seem to do so, He prunes I-Iis vine, that, seeming to ber less, it may bear better. He plucks off some of the promise of the vintage; and they who are left, mourn over their brethren whom God lins tken to I-Iimself, hot understanding that it is no strange providence, but the very rule of His governmeut, to leave I-Iis servants few and solitry. And, even when they know ech other (as far as nan can know man), still, as I bave said, they may hot fonn an exclusive communion together. Of course, every one will naturally live most with those whom he likes most; but it is one thing to have a preference, and quite another fo draw a line of exclusion, and fo form a select company vithin the Church. The Visible Church of God is that one only company which Christians know as yet; it w«s set up at Pentecost, with the Apostles for fouude, their successors for nflers, and all professing Christian people for members. In this Visible Church the Church Invisible is gradually moulded and matured. It is formed slowly and vari- an Ezcouragcmozt go Faith.

ously by the Blessed Spirit of God, in the instance of this man and that, who belong to the general body. But all these blessed hdfilments of God's grace are as yet but pa.rts of the Visfl»le Church; they grow from if; thèy depend upon it; they do hot hang upon each other; they do uot form a body together; there is no Invisible Church yet formed; it is but a naine as yet; a naine given fo those who a.re l,idden, a.nd known to God only, and as yet but ha.lf formed, the unripe and gradually ripening fruit which grows on the stem f the Church Visible. As well might we attempt to foretell t.he blossoms which will at length turn fo account aud ripen for the gathering, and theu counting up all these and joining them together in out minds, call them by the naine of a tree, as attempt now to associate in one the true elèct of God. They are scattered about amid the leaves of tlmtMystical Vine which is seen, and receive their uurture froln ifs trunk axd branches. They live on ifs Sacralnents and its Ministw; they gain light and salvatiou frolll ifs rites and ordinances; thèy COmlnunicate with each other through it; they obey ifs rtflers; they walk together with ifs members; they do hot dare fo judge of this man or that nmn, on their right hand or their left, whether or hOt he is absolutely of the number of those who shall be saved; they aceept all a.s their brethren in Christ, as lartukers of the saine general promises, who huve hot openly cust off Christas really brethren, till death cornes, us those are who flflfil their calling most strictly. Yet, at the saine time, while in faith they love those, all around theln, who are called by Christ's naine, a.nd forbear to judge about their real state in God's sight, they eannot but sec lnueh in many of them to hurt and offend them; they eannot but feel, most painfitlly, the 1)resenee of that vorldly atnmsphere whieh, however origiflating, eneireles theln; they feel the suffocation of those vapours in whieh the many are content to remain; and while they cannot trace the evil to its real authors individnally, tlmy are sure t.hat it is a.n evil to be avoided and 1)ointed out, and originating some- Mere or other in the Chnreh. Henee, in their spheres, whether high or low, the faithN1 few are witnesses; they are witnesses for Goal and Christ, in their lires, and by their protestations, without judging others, or exalting t.hemselves. They are witnesses in various degrees, fo various persons, more or less, as eaeh needs it—differing ri'oto the mfititude variously, as eaeh of that rnultitllde, before whom they witness, is better or worse, and as they themselves are more or less advaneed in the truth; still, on the whole, they are witnesses, as light witnesses against dm'kness by the eontrast;—giving good ànd reeeiving baek evil; reeeiving baek on themselves the eontempt, the ridicule, and the opposition of the world, mixed, indeed, with some praise and reverenee, reverenee whieh does hot last long, but soon beeomes fear and hatred. And henee it is that religions men need some consolation to support theln, whieh the Visible Chureh seems, at first sight, hot to supply, when the overflowings of ungodliness make them afraid. 2. Now then, seeondly, in sueh eireumstanees what shall we say? Are they but solitary witnesses, each in his place? Is the Church which they see really no consolation fo them at all, except as contemplated by faith in respect of its invisible gifts? or does it, after all, really afford them sonm sensible stay, a vision of Heaven, of peace and purity, antagonist to the world that now is, in spite of the evil which abounds in it, and overlays it? Throug'h God's great mercy, it is actually, iii no small degxee, a present and a sensible consolation, as I proceed to show. In truth, do v'hat he v-ill, Satan cannot quench or da.rken the light of the Church. He may incrust it with his own evil creations, but even opaque bodies transmit rays, and Truth shines with ifs oa heavenly lustre, though "under a bushel." The Holy Spirit has vouchsafed to take np His abode in the Church, and the Church will ever bear, on its ff'ont, the visible signs of ifs hidden privflege. ¥iewed af a little distance, ifs whole surface will be i]luminated, though the light really streams from a.pertures which might be numbered. The scattered witnesses thus become, in the language of the text, "a cloud," like the Milk 7 Wa.y in the heavens. We bave, in Scripture, the records of those who lived and died by faith in the old time, and nothing can deprive us of them. The strength of Satan lies in his being seen to bave the Inany on his side; but, when we read the Bible, this argument loses its hold over us. There we find that we are hot solitary; that others, before us, bave been in our very condition, bave had out feelings, undergone out trials, and laboured for the prize which we are seeking.:No.thing more elevates the mind than the consciousness of being one of a eat and victorious company. Does hot the soldier extflt in his commander, and consider his triumph as his own? He is but one, yet he identifies himself with the army, and the cause in which he serves, and dwells lpon the thought of victories, and those who win them, more than on casuel losses and defeats. Does not a native of a powerful count W feel if  joy and boast to be so? ]o we hot heur men glory in being born Englishmen? And they go to md fro, gazing on the works of their own dys, nd the monuments of their forefathers, and sy to themselves that their race is a noble one. Much more fllly, much more reasonably is this the boast of a Christian, and without aught of arrogant or earnl feeling. He knows, from God's Word, that he is "citizen of no men city." tIe feels that his is no upstart line, but very ancient; Almighty God lmving I»urposed to bring many sons unto glory through His Son, d begetting them again, in their separate ages, to do tIim service, tIe is one of a host, and ail those blessed Saints he reads of are his brethren in the faith. He finds, in the history of the past,  peculiar kind of consol,tion, counteracting tbe influence of the world that is seen. He cannot teil who the Saints are now on earth; those yet unborn are known to God only; but the Saints of former rimes are sealed for heaven and re in their degree revealed to him. The spirits of the just ruade perfect encourage him to foLlow them. This is why it is a Christian's characteristic to look back on former rimes. The man of this world lives in the present, or speculates about the future; but faith tests upon the past and is content. It makes the past the mirror of the fitture. It recounts the list of faithful servants of God, to whom St.. Paul refers in the text, and no longer feels sad as if it were alone. Abraham and the l'atriarchs, Moses, Samuel, and the l'rophets, David and the kings who walked in his steps, these are the Cristian's forefathers. By de'ees he learns fo bave them as familiar images before his mind, to unit, e his cause with theirs, and, since their history comforts him, to defend them in his owu day. l[ence he feels jealous for their honour, and when they are attacked he answers eagerly, so as to surprise those who are contented with things as they are; but, truly, he is too grateful, too affectionate, too nmch interested in the nmtter, fo be complimentary and generous towards their assailants. He had raflmr the prescrit day should be" proved captious, than a former day mistaken. But fo return: what a world of sympathy and comfort is thus opened fo us in the Communion of Saints! The heathen, who sought truth most earnestly, fainted for want of companions; every one stood by himself. They were tempted fo think that all their best feelings were but an empty naine, and that if mattered hot whether they served God or disobeyed Him. But Christ bas "gathered together the chfldren of God that were scattered abroad," and brought them near to each other in every rime and place. Are we young, and in temptation or trial? we cannot be in worse circmnstances than Joseph. Are we in sickness? Job wfll surpass us in sufferings as in patience. Are we in perplexities and aneties, with conflicting duties and a bewildered mind, h,nving to please unkind superiors, yet without offending God; so grievous a trial as David's we cannot have, when Saul persecuted hiln. Is it out duty to witness for the truth alnong sinners? lqo Christian can af this day be so hardly circumstanced as Jeremiah. Have we domestic trials? Job, Jacob, and David, were aff]icted in their children. It is easy indeed fo say all this, and many a man may hear it said, and hot feel moved by it, and conceive it is a mere marrer of words, easy and titting indeed to say, but a cold consoltion in actual suffering. And I will own that a lnan cannot profit by these considerations all at once. A man, who bas never thought of the history of the Saints, will gain little benefit from it on first taking up the subject vhen he cornes into trouble. He will turn from it disal»pointed. "He may say, "My pain or my trial is hot the less because mmther had it a thousand years since." But the consolation in question cornes hot in the way of argument but by habit. A tedious journey seems shorter when gone in company, yet, be the travellers nlany or few, each goes over the saine ground. Such is the Christian's feeling tovards all Saints, but it is especially excited by the Church of Christ and by all that belong to it. For what is that Church but a pledge and 1)roof of God's never-dying love and power ti'oln age to age? He set it up in mercy to mankind, and its presence among us is a proof that in spire of out sins He bas hot yet forsaken us;—" Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." He set it up on the foundation of His Twelve Apostles, and i)romised that the gares of hell shofld not prevail against it; and its presence among us is a proof of His power. He set it up fo succeed to the four monster kingdoms which then were; and if lived to see those kingdoms of the earth crumble into dust and corne to nought. It livcd to see society new formed upon the model of the governments which last to this day. It lires sri]l, and it is older than them all. hluch md rightly as we reverence old lineage, noble birth, and illustrious ancestry, yet the royal dynasty of the Apostles is far older than all the kingly families which are nov on the earth. Every Bishop of the Church whom ve behold, is a lineal descendant of St. Peter and St. Paul after the order of a sphàtual birth; —a noble thought, if we could realize it! True it is tlmt at various rimes the ]3ishops have forgotten their high rank and acted unworthily of if. So lmve 16ags and princes, yet noble they were by blood in spire of their personal errors, and the line of their family is not broken or degraded thereby. And in like malmer, truc though it be that the descendants of the Apostles have before now lived to this world, bave f,ncied thelnselves of this world, have thought their office secular and civil, or if religious, yet at least "of men and by lnan," not "by Jesus Christ," bave judged it much to have riches, or to sit in high places, or to lmve tank and consideration, or fo ha'ce the faine of letters, or fo be king's counsellors, or to live in cotu'ts—yet, granting the utmost, for all this they are hot the less inspiring an object to a believing mind, which sees in each of them the earnest of His promise, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." He said, He wodd be with His

Church: He bas continued it alive to this day. He bas continued the line of His Aposfles onwards through every age and all troubles and perils of the world. Here tben, surely, is somewhat of encouragement for us amid out loncliness and weakness. The presence of every Bishop suggests a long history of conflicts and trials, suftrings and victories, hopes and fears, through many centm'ies. His presence at this day is the fruit of tbem all. IIc is the living monument of those who are dead. ]le is the promise of a bold fight and a good confession and a cheerfifl martyMom now, if needful, as was instanced in those of old rime. We sec their figures on our walls, and iheir tombs are under our feet; and we trust, nay, we are sure, that God will be to us in onr day what I[e was fo them. In the words of the Psahnist, "The Lord bath been mindful of us; He will bless us; I-Ie will bless the house of Israel; I-Ie will bless the house of Aaron." x And more especially does the sight of our living Apostles bring before our thoughts the more favoured of their line, who, at different rimes, bave fought the good fight of faith valiantly and gloriously. Blessed be God, He has given us to know them as if we had lived in their day and enjoyed their pattern and instructions. Alas! in spire of the variety of books now circulated among all classes of the community, how little is known about the Saints of past times! IIow is this? bas Christ's Church failed in any age? or have His witnesses betrayed their trust? are they hOt our boue and out flesh? IIave they hOt lomoEaken the saine spiritual  Psalm cxv. 12.

food as ourselves and the saine spiritual drink, used the saine pra.yers, and confessed the sa.me creed? If a ma.n merely looks into the l'rayer-Book, he will meet there with names, about which, perhaps, he knows and cares nothing at all. A pra.yer we read daily is called the prayer of St. Chrysostom;  creed is called le Creed of St. Athana.sius; another creed is called the Nicene Creed; in the Articles we read of St.. Augustine and St. Jerome; in the Homilies of nmny other such besides. What do these names mean? Sad if is, you bave no hea't to inquire af'ter or celebrate those who are fellow-citizens with you, and your great beneçctors! Men of this world spread each other's fame—they vaunt loudly;you see in every street the names and the statues of the children of men, you hear of their exploits in speeches and histories; yet you care hot to know concerning those to whom you are indebted for the light of Gospel truth. Tnfiy they were in their day men of God; they -ere rtlers and teachers in the Jhurch; they had received by succession of hands the power first given to the Apostles and now to us. They laboured and suffered and fainted hot, and their a'it - ings remain to this day. Now a person who cultivates this thought, finds therein, through God's mercy, great encouragement. Say he is alone, his faith counted a dream, and his efforts to do good a folly, what then? He knows flere have been times when his opinions were hose of the reveïed and infiuential, and the opinions now in repute only hot reprobated because they were hOt heard o£ He knows that present opinions are the accident of the day, and th,t they will fall as they have risen. They will surely fall even though af a distant date! He labours for that rime; he labours for rive hundred years to corne. He can bear in faith to wait rive hundred years, fo wait for an era long, long after he bas mouldered into dust. The Apostles lived eighteen hundred years since; and as far as the Christian looks back, so far can he afford to look tbrwaM. There is one LoM, one fith, one baptism, one Goal and Father of all, fi'om tiret to last. I referred just now to our Sacred Services; these, again, may be ruade to furnish a suppo to our faith and ]ml»e. He who cornes to Church to worship God, be he high or low, enters into that heavenly world of Saints of which I lmve been spe-ldng.:For in the Services of worship we elicit and realize the invisible. I know, indeed, that Christ is then especially l»resent, and vouchsafes to bless us; but I ara speaking all along of the help given to us by sensible objects, and, eveu in this lower view, doubtless m_ch is done for us in the coure of divine worship. We read ri'oto the Bible of the Saints who have gone before us, and we make mention of them in our prayers. We thank God for them, we praise Goal with them, we lray God to visit us in mercy as He visited them. _And eve3z earthly thought or principle is excluded. The world no longer rnles as if does abroad; no longer teaches, praises, blames, scoffs, wonders, according to its own ilse standard. I is merely spoken of as one of the three 'eat enemies whom we are sworn to resist; if holds its prol)er place; and its doom is confidently predicted, the final victory of the Church over if. And, further, it is nmeh more impressive to hear and to see, than to read in a book. When we read the Bible and reIigious books in private, there is great comfort; but out minds are commonly more rous6d and encouraged in Church, vhen ve see those great truths displayed and represented which Scriptm'e speaks of. There we see "Jesus Christ, evidently set forth, crucified among us." The ordinances which we behold, force the unseen truth upon our senses. The very disposition of the buihling, the subdued light, the aisles, the Altar, with its pious adornments, are figares of things unseen, and stimulate our fainting faith. Wê seem to see the heavenly courts, with Angels chanting, and Apostles and Prophets listening, as we read their writings in due course. And thus, even attendance on a Sunday may, through God's mercy, avafl even in the case of those who have hot given themselves up to Him hot to their salvation (for no one can be saved by one or two observances merely, or svithout a life of faith), but so t:ar as to break in upon their dream of sin, and give them thoughts and notions which may be the germ of future good. Even to those, I say, vho live to the world, the mere Sunday attendance at Church is a continual memento on their conscience, giving them a glimpse of things unseen, and rescuing them in a measure from the servitude of Mammon or of Belial. And therefore it is, that Satan's first attempt, when he would ruin a soul, is to prevail upon him to desecrate the Lord's Day. And if such is the effect of coming to Church once a week, even to an undecided or carnal mind, how much more impressive and invigorating are

the Services to serious men who corne daily or frequently! Surely such attendance is a safeguard, such as a.mulets were said tobe, a small thing to all appearance, but effectual. I say if with confidence, he who observes if, will grow in rime a different man from what he was, God worldng in him. His heart will be nmre heavenly and aSlfiring; the world will lie under his feet; he will be 1)roof a.gainst its opinions, threats, blandishments, ridicule, tlis very mode of viewing things, his very voice, his manner, gait., and countenance, will speak of ]Ieaven to those who know him well, though the nmny sec nothing in him. The tny understand him hot, and even in St. Paul or St.. Jo]m would sec but ordinary nmn. Yet at rimes such a one will speak effectually even to the many. In seasons of unusual distress or alarm, when men's minds faint for fear, then he will have a natural power over the world, and vill seem to speak, hot as an individua.1, but as if in him was concentmted all the virtue and the grace of those many Saints who have been his life-long companions. He has lived with those who are dead, and he will seem to the world as one coming from the dead, speaking in the naine of the dead, using the language of souls dead to things that are seen, revealing the mysteries of the heavenly world, and aweing and controlling those who are wedded to this. What slight account did the centurion and the crew make of St. Paul, till a tempest had long rime "lain oa them," and "all hope that they should be saved was thea taken awa.y!":But then, though he had donc no miracle, "he stood forth in the midst," exhorted and encouraged them, bade them take meat, acted as their lriest, giving thanks fo God and breaking bread in the lresence of them all, and so ruade them "of good cheer." Such is the gift, deel»ly lodged and displayed af rimes, of those who have ascended into the third heaven. One living Saint, though there be but one, is a pledge of the whole Church Invisible. Let this thought console us as if ought fo do; let if have its full influence in us and possess us. Let us "lift up our hearts," let us, "lift them up unto the Lord!"