on the one hand, all that is flat, tame, and cold in devotion; and it condemns, on the other hand, all the clamour, weakness, and crudity, that originate in excited feelings and wild imaginations. We learn from St. Paul, as we learn from our blessed Lord, that prayer should be spiritual, earnest, and fervent ; but that it should be also wise, dignified, and humble.

We may, therefore, here learn many lessons respecting prayer; and if there be one soul in this congregation who forms the pious resolution, "I will thus pray for myself and for others," blessed is that soul. Then from one closet in this district will there daily ascend to the throne of grace a prayer to this effect, or of this sort;-"O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named! I bow my knees unto Thee, and I pray that I, and that all Christians, may be strengthened in our souls by Thy Holy Spirit for all the sufferings and duties of life. Grant that Christ may dwell in us, and we in Him, by a living and true faith; and may our love of Thee and of our fellow-creatures be in us a firm and flourishing principle. Give us right apprehensions of the love of Christ; and may we be filled with all the fulness of God, with knowledge, with holiness, and with all the fruits of the Spirit. Grant that we may prove the truth and excellence of our principles by sobriety, godliness, and righteousness in the whole of our conversation. Increase in us true religion; may patience have in us its perfect work amidst the tribulations of this world; and may we abound in thankfulness and praise to Thee for the blessings

which we enjoy, and for the prospect of eternal blessedness which thou hast put before us. And unto Thee, Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be all glory ascribed both now and Amen."

evermore.

May such, through the whole of this mortal life, be the prayer not of one only, but of every one of you!

CHRIST TURNETH WATER INTO

WINE.

ST. JOHN ii, 11.

"This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him."

Ir must strike every reflecting reader of the New Testament as a remarkable circumstance, that our blessed Lord wrought His first miracle at a marriagefeast. We may very properly ask, Are we able to assign any probable reason for His having chosen to "manifest forth His glory," for His having shown His wonderful power, in such a manner on such an occasion? In the utter silence of Scripture, we are not warranted to advance any positive assertions : but the question is one which we may humbly and piously examine; and one to which we may give a reply, provided only that we give it with becoming diffidence and modesty.

Reference is frequently made by some persons to the marriage-feast at Cana, to the entertainment given by Levi, and to the table of the Pharisee,*, with a *St. John ii. St. Luke v. 29, and xi. 37.

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view to convince us that Jesus, by His own example, sanctioned the social and innocent enjoyments and pleasures of human life. We must acknowledge, that we seldom read or hear such reference with much satisfaction it seems to us to have something suspicious about it. Man is, undoubtedly, a social being His condition in the world is that of

in his nature.

a social being. The holy religion of Jesus is essentially a social religion; hostile alike to moroseness and asceticism; full of benevolence and warmth in its spirit and in its rules. We know also that Jesus Himself was not a morose recluse; for "The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." But it may be asked, Did the holy Jesus frequent feasts and amusements ? Can it be said of Him, that He made Himself a man of the world, and that He copied the manners of the world? It is needless, however, to dwell on this subject: it may be enough to observe, that if we retire as He retired, and pray as He prayed, and converse and act in company as He conversed and acted, we can scarcely mix too much with the world. we look to His example, we ought to look to the whole, and not to a part of it.

If

We readily admit, that the presence of Jesus at a marriage-feast was a proof of a social spirit: but this, we think, is a very subordinate matter for our consideration when we meditate on this miracle. The scene of the miracle, the miracle itself, and the design of both, are the topics about which the serious Christian will wish to form the best notions that he

can. It is our aim in the present discourse to advance a view of the transaction which we account just, satisfactory, and edifying. May we be led by the Holy Spirit into the knowledge and enjoyment of the Relation and Blessings which form the subject of our present meditation!

I. The Scene of the miracle is to be first examined. It was a marriage-feast.-And here, we think, we may be reminded of that relation which subsists between Christ and His Church. "Matrimony," as we read in our book of Common Prayer, "is an honourable estate, instituted of God in the time of man's innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and His Church; which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with His presence, and the first miracle that He wrought, in Cana of Galilee." It has been very justly observed, that "the covenant relation in which we stand (as Christians), which is the source of so many comforts, and which is indeed the ground of all our hopes, includes a connexion with God which bears on every part of it the stamp of love." We find different passages in the Old Testament which show us, that the marriage-union shadows out to us the relation that subsists between the Lord and His people ;;-a union, a relation, of which love forms an essential element. Thus we read in Isaiah, liv. 5. "Thy Maker is thy Husband: the Lord of hosts is His name.' And we read thus in Jeremiah, iii. 14.: "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married to you." In the prophet Hosea, ii. 19, 20, we read thus: "And I will betroth thee unto