its helm, he is ever in danger of being "tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine:" now with the Antinomian, glorying in the privilege of sinning; now with the Socinian, denying "the Lord that bought" him; and now with the Deist, making "shipwreck of his faith."

Such was not the character of him whose example we have now to consider. His mind had its "loins girt about," in the strictest sense, with all necessary and saving "truth." His religious sentiments were carefully collected, and securely fixed in the sound principles of our venerable Church. Convinced that she was the authorised and faithful interpreter of the Sacred Oracles, he received her doctrines, not, indeed, with the blind attachment of a bigot, but with the unaffected reverence, rational humility, and heart-felt gratitude of one who delighted to know "the truth as it is in Jesus." Feeling, therefore, that any deviation from her doctrines and discipline must be as dangerous as it was needless, he shunned, with a pious dread, every attempt at religious innovation, perfectly content to "worship the God of" his " fathers" in the same pure and orthodox faith in which the

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glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets," and " the noble army. of martyrs," had lived and died.

- A man thus alive to the paramount claims of religion, and thus attached to the sacred forms

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which it assumed in the earliest and purest ages of the Church, was not likely to waste much time in canvassing new opinions, and to risque the salvation of his soul in a maze of futile speculations. It was enough for him to know that the Church, of which he was so sound a member, was in all its essential properties, a constituent part of the "Catholic and Apostolic Church;" and that every individual in it, whose faith was evidenced by a holy, just, and charitable life, would, by the grace of God in Christ Jesus, undoubtedly be saved. Why, then," he would often argue," why should we let our minds wander over the wide ocean of controversy, in doubt and uncertainty, while the truth is to be found in the ark of Christ's Church?". I do not say, indeed, that we are to hold the doctrines of our venerable Establishment for no other reason than because the Church says so. It is an apostolical injunction, that we should " prove all things;" but we are not therefore to keep our judgment for ever in suspense, seeking, like the Athenians of old, to "hear some new thing." The doctrines of our Church are plain and intelligible; they are the result of the most learned and pious labours of all preceding ages, are easily applied to the test of the inspired Scriptures, and as easily proved agreeable to them. When once then we are satisfied that they are so, let not disputed points, confessedly non-essential, distract

our thoughts from the main business of" our sojourning here." Let us, regardless of the vain cavils and objections of the sceptic, "hold fast that which is good." "Let us hold fast the

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fession of our faith without wavering:" and while others are occupied in thinking, let us "arise and be doing, and the Lord will be with us."

Such singleness of heart, such firmness of resolution, and steadfastness of purpose, as our lamented friend uniformly exhibited, might probably make him appear, in the eyes of worldly wisdom, too rigid and uncompromising for the present state of society; but those who knew him best had the best reasons for believing, that, in maintaining through "evil report and good," those principles which he deemed the soundest, he was as free as any man from the bitterness of party-spirit, and was actuated only by the deepest convictions of a wellregulated understanding. In him they could, with heartfelt satisfaction, recognise "an Israelite indeed, in whom" was "no guile ;" who, having embraced the truth, was too honest to use any ambiguous or equivocal expressions in declaring his sentiments, and too candid to have recourse to bye-ways or plausible artifices in discharging his duty. This open and manly conduct, while it. secured the confidence of friends, afforded no just ground for the resentment of enemies. Indeed, among those who most materially differed from

him in principle, there were few, I believe, who did not regard him as a generous and upright Christian, whose character was entitled to the respect of every one.

Having his "loins" thus "girded about," he was well prepared to perform the other part of the precept in my text, which directs us to have our "lights burning."

2. This figure of speech is so frequently used in Scripture to denote the practice of all Christian virtues, that a formal explication to that effect, appears altogether needless. When our Lord commanded his disciples, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works," he fixed the meaning of the phrase beyond all doubt or dispute.

Since, then, the practice of good works is thus declared by our heavenly Master to be essential to a due readiness for his coming, it follows, from the acknowledged uncertainty of the time, that such practice, to be of any avail, must not be confined to stated periods and seasons, but daily, habitual, unremitted. This might be proved by many weighty arguments, if time would permit ; but our Divine Teacher has, in the parable of the ten virgins, superseded the necessity of such arguments for there we perceive, at once, the extreme folly of not providing for a constant and unceasing light. The difference between the wise

and foolish virgins was, that the wise, though surprised in an hour of slumber, had their lamps burning, and, at a moment's notice, arose, and trimmed them; but the foolish found, to their utter confusion, that, through their former negligence, their lamps had gone out, and left them to irreparable darkness, and final exclusion from the "joy of their Lord."

Seeing, therefore, that all are alike prone, through infirmity, to slumber, and all alike liable to a sudden call, they only can hope to be in a state of readiness, who have taken prompt and effectual means to keep their lights always burning; who, by making religion the habitual spring of all their actions, have so "stirred up" the spiritual gift that is in them, that, "whether they eat or drink, or whatsoever" they do," they "do all to the glory of God." This, I say, is the only way to ensure that kind of preparation for eternity which will avail in the hour of sudden necessity.

The temporary glare of a splendid act of Christian charity, issuing from an extraordinary excitement of religious affections, however captivating in the eyes of the world, or gratifying to the reflections of the individual, is not always to be relied on as the genuine light of a truly Christian spirit. Unless fed by the fuel of heartfelt devotion, it may prove no better than the meteor in the sky, transient and deceptive, and leave us,