which unites those who are merely kinsmen after the flesh; there is a sympathy between them which is unknown to the worldly-minded; and as the same blood runs through the veins of all who have a common progenitor, so have all those who are begotten again of God, the same Spirit, which is the life-blood of their souls, dwelling within them, and giving vitality to their whole system. They thus are led to acknowledge each other as members of the same body; directed by commands from the same common head; subject to the influence of the same will; if one member suffer, all the members suffering together with it.

But, lastly and chiefly, will faith exhibit itself in love to Christ. For him does faith represent to the believer's soul as dear to it beyond all price or estimation. Faith gives him the assurance of the Saviour's love to himself, points to him who counted the glories of his Father's house as a thing of nought, so that he might "seek and save that which was lost," who accordingly forsook them all, and assuming for our

sakes the guise of a poor man, submitted meekly and patiently to want and hunger, to scorn and buffetings, to wounds and to death, bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, besides the pains which racked his body on the cross, enduring as a burden upon his sorrowing soul the weight of a world's guilt, becoming a curse for us, and thus redeeming us from the curse of the violated law.

Seeing then that love is, as the apostle describes it, the "fulfilling of the law," inasmuch as it answers the requirements both of the first and second table, in ensuring the performance of our duty to God, as well as to our neighbour; we need no longer wonder that faith, which is its parent, should be dignified by such precedence among the gifts and graces which are vouchsafed to the believer.

It only remains for each to examine how far it has its perfect work within himself, and is bringing forth fruit unto everlasting life. Be our progress in the Christian race what it may,

there is not one of us but may join with unaffected humility in the united prayer of the apostles, "Lord, increase our faith." Its inestimable value may perhaps not be duly appreciated while the objects of sight and sense divert us from those which ought to be the proper materials for our contemplation; but there is an hour which every moment, as it flies, brings nearer to each of us, wherein the trembling soul will acknowledge the all-sufficient and the alone-sufficient consolation which the faith I have described can bring. When the world is fast fading before the clouded eye into one misty blank, and the soul is beginning to be absorbed in the wonders that are breaking in upon it from afar,-when, stretched upon the bed of death, we shall feel ourselves loosing as it were from our moorings to this world, one tie after another fast dissolving, and discover that our disembodied spirit is about to be launched on the boundless ocean of eternity,-what then will be our stay and support while floating upon the dark waters of that gulph which separates the

living from the dead? Will it not be that simple and childlike reliance of an unhesitating faith, with which we shall throw ourselves into the outstretched arms of the Saviour, and cry "Lord, save us, or we perish"?

And so, Lord, at thy second coming to judge the world, when the earth shall mourn and languish, and its foundation shake exceedingly, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusted in thee." For "it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us; this is the Lord, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation."

SERMON II.

JESUS CHRIST THE RIGHTEOUS.

1. JOHN, ii. 1.

"Jesus Christ the righteous."

I address you as a minister of Jesus Christ; and of Jesus Christ the righteous I propose with reverence and great humility to speak. You are aware that there are some persons, heretics, who speak of him as if he were merely a man. And to refute such persons I would only exhort you to read the Scriptures attentively. You will there find that if you hold the Catholic faith, all the facts and doctrines of Scripture, like the two parts of a cloven tally, correspond: while, if you renounce the Catholic faith, the facts of Scripture become a mere mass of inconsistencies.