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truth; and so we are in danger on either side of the narrow way that leadeth unto life; for in escaping from one snare we rush into another. The dangers are 'great;' involving our eternal safety, involving every individual every day in the possibility of a fall as great as that whereby sin first entered into the world, and death by sin. Blessed is he who takes refuge from himself in God; who instead of trying to dissemble and cloak his faults appeals to God's Omniscience to search them out; 'Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting;' 'Thou knowest us to be set in so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright.' This frailty of our nature is not offered as an excuse, but is brought before God as the disease to be healed; our acts of sin do not begin and end in themselves, but are symptoms of the radical evil of our nature, which is so frail that we cannot always stand upright; that we need pardoning mercy and sustaining grace at every step; and therefore we beseech Him to grant us such strength as may support us in all dangers, and such protection as may carry us through all temptations. We are not to linger in the ways of temptation, however pleasant; it is a mockery to offer this prayer unless we really wish to be carried out of it; and how carried? even as was asked for us at our baptism,

'embraced in the arms of His mercy,' and so borne through the waves of this troublesome world, whether of temptation or of sorrow.

FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY.

O Lord, we beseech Thee to keep Thy Church and household continually in Thy true religion; that they who do lean only upon the hope of Thy heavenly grace may evermore be defended by Thy mighty power; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE Christian Church is not a voluntary association, but a family, in which we have certain relationships, and their consequent privileges and duties as a birthright; we may neglect them and turn our privileges to our condemnation, but we cannot get rid of them as though they had never been; to the Christian, as to the Israelite, it is declared, 'That which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the earth, to serve wood and stone.' It is an awful thought that without any choice of our own, we are born or adopted into a family, in which we owe to One Father the love of children; into a kingdom in which we owe to One Sovereign the allegiance and fidelity of subjects; into a household in which we owe to 'Ezekiel, xx. 32.

One Master the obedience of servants; that we are placed under certain regulations, to which we owe adherence; but it is an awe full of blessedness, like that with which we awaken to the consciousness that we are created immortal! God did not wait for our consent to bring us within the fold; 'Ye have not chosen Me,' says the Saviour, but I have chosen you;' and it is there, in the place of children,' that He says to each individually, 'My son, give Me thine heart."'

In this His household, there are, alas! faithless children, rebellious subjects, disobedient servants, all the more guilty because of their high calling to be His loving sons, His loyal subjects, His willing servants: and not anyone can look into his own heart and say that he fulfils any of these relations toward God as he ought to do. Therefore, each one for himself, and each for all, and all for each, let us pray that the Church and Household of Christ may be kept continually in His true religion;' for false religion abounds almost as much as total carelessness; and let us lean with force of very helplessness'-upon His heavenly grace, as that which alone can enable us to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called.

6

SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY.

O God, whose blessed Son was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil, and make us the sons of God, and heirs of eternal life; Grant us, we beseech Thee, that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves, even as He is pure; that, when He shall appear again with power and great glory, we may be made like unto Him in His eternal and glorious kingdom; where with Thee, O Father, and Thee, O Holy Ghost, He liveth and reigneth, ever one God, world without end.

Amen.

THE Church in all her creeds and prayers recognizes the existence of evil in man as a fact she doubts not; and the power of Satan and his personal influence are considered as a reality to be guarded against, not as a theory to be argued. It were well if her children were actuated by the same wise and humble spirit, and instead of doubting and investigating why such things are permitted, or how they come to pass, would accept the existing state in which we find ourselves as a plain fact, whose right or wrong we question not;' exercising the vigour now wasted in profitless enquiry, in the effort to do our duty, things being as they actually are. We are told, and we see as a fact, that there is an evil, ever working against the good, both around us and within us; and of the origin of this evil we know

simply as much as God has been pleased to tell us, and no more. The first intimation of pardon and deliverance was given, not in the language of promise to man, but of denunciation against man's enemy, the devil: The Lord God said unto the serpent, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel; '1 and 'when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman;' 2 and 'for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil; ' that is, that in this planet, where the strange element of disobedience was exhibited in the sight of God's universe, the prince of evil should be vanquished; that by One wearing the nature which God created very good, the enemy who had tempted should be repelled; that on this earth where death came by sin, death should be overcome by righteousness. This planet is the battle-field between God and Satan, good and evil; men are not carrying on an independent warfare, either of rebellion against God, or resistance to Satan; the conflict is between those great antagonists; and men range themselves on one side or the other; either to fight the good fight of faith, and be partakers of the Master's triumph, or to league with the enemy of God and share his everlasting destruction. It is a war of spirits, and every human soul is 'Genesis, iii. 15. 2 Galatians, iv. 4.

engaged in it;

31 St. John, iii. 8.

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