Of the things most conducive and requisite to this desirable end, the first is, evidently, a firm and lively faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the redemption which He has wrought for us. That you are, at present, actuated by such a faith, that you are persuaded that the things contained in the Gospel are true, and that relying on their truth, you have come hither to ask a blessing, I should grieve if I were not persuaded. But be it borne in mind that a faith which is to save us must be in our recollection as well as in our knowledge; that it must be positively as well as potentially in our minds; that we cannot be said to believe in the God of whom we are not thinking, inasmuch as faith necessarily implies thought exercised upon an unseen object. And this may show the manner in which our faith may fail, and fail most ruinously for ourselves, without our ever actually entertaining a doubt of the truth of those things in which we have been instructed, inasmuch as if we do not believe them, or, which amounts to the same thing, do not think of them when the time of temptation arrives, it is of very little use that in Church, or when by some similar circumstance they are brought back to our memory, we again receive them with unabated conviction. Accordingly, not only the absolutely wicked are turned into hell, but the people who forget God lie under the same aweful menace1. And we have the authority of God's

1 Psalm ix. 17.

holy word for maintaining that all the errours, all the superstition, all the hateful and hideous idolatry which the world has seen, arose from this single source, inasmuch as because men did not like to retain God in their thoughts, He gave them up to a strong delusion that they should believe a lie! So necessary is it by daily recollections of God, by daily study of the Holy Scriptures, and by a frequent reference to those works of devotion and instruction which the Church supplies, to avoid this dangerous and deadly downfall, and to keep the blessed Trinity in our minds, if we would have God to dwell in our hearts for ever.

The next thing requisite to a constant faith in God is a total dependance on Him, through the merits of His Son. This is, indeed, implied in a right faith, but it is a particular part of our faith which many are apt to feel and cherish but imperfectly. By a total dependance on God I mean a perfect sense of our own weakness; an entire renunciation of our own merits; a childlike leaning on the hand and help of the Most High, which claims to receive nothing but from free mercy, and hopes to perform nothing but in His name and by His power alone. So long as we resolve in our own strength, our resolutions will be worse than idle; so long as we are not daily and continually sensible of our own utter weakness, God will not help us and our prayers will be rendered vain.

Be careful, then, to accustom yourselves to this lowliness of heart; and that you may feel your own

weakness the more readily as it respects your Maker, be the more careful to bear yourself humbly and meekly towards those who are your fellowsinners and fellow-servants. If we love not our brother whom we have seen, we know who has told us that we cannot love God whom we have not seen; and he, in like manner, who indulges himself in haughtiness towards those with whom he dwells, will seldom, if ever, be able to feel sufficient meekness towards Him who is visible by the eye of faith alone.

A third and a still more important instrument in preparing our hearts for the reception of the Holy Ghost, is a habit of prayer. "Ask and ye shall have," "Seek and ye shall find," is the constant language of Scripture. Without asking we shall not obtain; without continuing to ask, what we have obtained will not be prolonged to us. hearts, as we trust, are now the temple of the Holy Ghost. But a temple is a house of prayer; and if we omit to serve the Deity we cannot hope that He will continue in His shrine.

Your

But woe be to us, then, when He, the Spirit of God, forsakes us! Woe be to our wretched souls when that voice is heard concerning them, which, when the measure of Israel's guilt was full, in the dead of night resounded through the courts of their sanctuary, "Let us depart hence," as from our polluted dwelling. The Spirit of God, I re

St. Matt. vii. 7.

peat, will not always strive with man; and if His accepted time is despised or suffered to pass by unimproved, the time may come in the which we shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and it shall not be shown unto us1!

A neglect of prayer, then, of morning and evening prayer, (I name these times because a short prayer, at least, is then in every body's power, and because no times are so proper, none so natural for devotion as the moments at which we are about to commit ourselves to a temporary death, or at which we have just undergone a lively image of the resurrection,) a neglect of morning and evening prayer, as it is always one of the earliest symptoms of our falling away from God, so it is the certain means of estranging ourselves entirely from Him, and provoking Him to give us up to still farther guilt, and to withdraw from us, it may be, even the opportunity and power of repentance.

But even this daily prayer will of itself be insufficient, unless we honour the Lord our God in public as well as in private, and on those solemn and stated Sabbaths above all, which the practice of the whole Church, the authority of the inspired apostles, the sanction of the Lord Jesus Himself, when risen from the dead, and after His reception into glory, have combined to consecrate from worldly and ordinary purposes to the examination of our hearts, the improvement of our minds, the rest of

St. Luke xvii. 22.

1

those who toil for us, and a union with our brethren and fellow-servants in a more solemn and conspicuous piety. I am but too well aware of the difficulties which, in India, under many circumstances of life, oppose themselves to the due observation of Sunday. I know but too well the influence exerted by the surrounding heathen; I know but too well the necessities which are sometimes felt, but oftener fancied, for invading the sanctity and repose of an institution which, even if it were a political institution only, would, from its wisdom and mercy, well deserve the imitation of every lawgiver, and the observation of every friend to mankind. I know but too well that the habits of the country are against us, and that of some of those who hear me, the time may really not be altogether at their own disposal. But in India there are many hours in every day which are at the disposal of every one of us. These at least, if no more can be obtained, let the servant, the soldier, and the mariner hallow from each succeeding Sunday to the service of Him who only can prosper or forgive his labours; and let all others, even the busiest, but make the trial, and they will find, or I am greatly mistaken, that they need leave no lawful business undone by resting one day in seven; and that it is amusement after all, not duty, which leaves them no time to spare for private and public devotion.

Sir Matthew Hale, himself no less a rare model of successful diligence in a laborious profession, than of exalted talents and distinguished attach