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from evil without us, and still more from evil within our own hearts;-a rest of happiness, because it is a rest of holiness. And the same was the higher object of the Jews' Sabbath,--and is the express and direct purpose of the Christian Sunday. Such, too, were those rests of our Lord,-such as that mentioned in the text; not, of course, that our Lord had in his own heart any sin to rest from, but that his rests were used spiritually; were spent in prayer and communion with God, that his human nature might be the more abundantly strengthened for his work as a prophet. For this purpose it is most useful that you should go for a time to a place which, generally speaking, is more favourable to your moral improvement than school is, where you may not only leave off for a while your daily work, but much more may be removed from many daily temptations to evil; where you may not only enjoy more pleasure, but may get more good. You know full well in how many different ways opportunities are given you at home in a greater degree than here; how all good is, in a manner, made more easy to you. There you have no temptations to lie, and swear, and indulge in offensive language: on the contrary, the

influence of other company makes itself felt immediately; and it is extraordinary how seldom a boy is betrayed, when at home, into a single instance of the same bad language, which here may be quite habitual to him. There you have no temptation to unkindness, and little or none to bad company; but are amongst those whose behaviour to you is a continual provoking to love, and whose example, even though I well know how deficient the best human examples always are, is yet generally, as far as you are concerned, likely to be profitable. There too, you have great opportunity for learning that duty on which I have lately dwelt so much-the duty of personal intercourse with the poor. And there too, your religious exercises and feelings have far less to impede and thwart them, far more to encourage and cherish them. Here, if for a moment, whilst assembled in this place, a solemn impression is made on your minds, how apt is it to be dissipated so soon as you leave the chapel, by the very different society and language which immediately surround you. And, let us do what we will, how can we render the Sunday evening here, such as you find it in a well-ordered family at home: when all the good thoughts that the public worship

may have awakened in the morning are confirmed by the family worship in the evening; when the Lord's day proceeds from beginning to end in one consistent tenor, and pours its whole influence upon the mind unmixed with any alloy of evil! Surely, to such of you as have such homes, this approaching time may be, indeed, a season of Christ-like rest- -a season in which you may draw in strength of soul, much more than of body, for the time of your return here. And even those whose home is far different from this picture, nay, if there be any so unhappy as even in your own household to have none to help you forward in the knowledge and love of God, yet even you will have some opportunities more than you enjoy here,-greater leisure with less of rude interruption; and even if you have no encouragement in good, you can, at least, dread no persecution for it. And remember too, that this is a matter of life and death; and though, if your homes be so unhappily situated, your task is undoubtedly harder, yet still your salvation depends upon it; and the question is, not whether the path of good is easy or not, but whether we do tread it or no: this is the real question for this world, and for eternity.

And now briefly for all of us here assembled, who are going so soon to part, never to be all again here united, may we, if we are enjoying the prospect of our approaching rest, in the common sense of the word, take care to make it a spiritual rest also; to use it for our good, as well as for our refreshment. We expect that it will be pleasant, but that does not rest with us to determine; we may at any rate make it profitable, for that, through Christ, we can do if we will. Those of us who return here, may return with a spirit strengthened and purified, to do God's will at school. Those who are going to enter on another sphere of duty may well need some such interval of Christian rest, to prepare for a new line of Christian labour. These intervals will not always come so readily and so free from care in more advanced life, even though we may need them more. Would that we may feel God's goodness in granting such to us in our peculiar line of life here; and let us all pray earnestly, that he will give us grace to avoid the double condemnation which awaits those to whom much is given, and at whose hands their Lord, when he comes to reckon, finds no return.

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SERMON XXVI.

EPHESIANS v. 17.

Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

It is plain, that when the Apostle bade the Ephesians not to be unwise, he spoke of a want of wisdom which they might remove if they would; when he told them to be understanding, he spoke of something which they might get if they would: and we also can get it, unless we can show that our case is different from that of the Ephesians, and that what was within their power is, for some reason or other, not in ours. I do not suppose that any grown-up person, at least among the richer classes, would venture to plead such an excuse: they, at least, cannot pretend to have less means of understanding what the will of the Lord is, than were possessed by the Ephesians. But young

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