men your chief reward, and to be guided in consequence by the maxims of the world instead of the laws of God. They will tempt you again to the enjoyment of those pleasures which unfit for communion with God. Are you prepared to withstand them? These trials will surely come. The tempter of souls will paint on your imagination fairy scenes of worldly bliss, and enlarge on all the advantages which you must forego if you remain faithful to your vows, and he will easily find some method of persuading you that you may renounce or evade them, and that all the benefits of confirmation will be yours notwithstanding-that you may "walk after the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes," without being "called into judg ment" for it-that you may so serve mammon as to enjoy his wages now, and so serve God as to reap his rewards hereafter.

And again, there are the "lusts of the flesh," the sinful perversions of those pure desires which the holy God originally implanted in our hearts. Satan, the god of

* Eccles. xi. 9.

These

this world, has so corrupted us, through sin, that our once innocent desires are become burning lusts. The desire of marriage leads in our fallen nature to lasciviousness and adultery, the desire for food degenerates into gluttony, the desire of drink into intemperance and drunkenness, the desire of rest into sloth and idleness. And so with respect to our moral and intellectual desires. lusts may seem subdued for a season, but if not crucified by the cross of Christ, they will soon awake, as giants refreshed with wine, and drag you back "unto perdition.”+ Here, then, with the faithful Naomi, I would call upon you to pause and to consider that these are the things that you were pledged to renounce at your baptism, and that you will be called on to renew the pledge at confirmation. At your baptism it was demanded of those who stood forward in your stead, “Dost thou, in the name of this child, renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the

* Gal. v. 19-21.

+ Heb. x. 39.

carnal desires of the flesh, so that thou wilt not follow nor be led by them?" And the answer given was, "I renounce them all." You have yourself already been asked, "Dost thou not think that thou art bound to believe and to do as they have promised for thee?" And the answer you have been taught to give is, "Yes, verily, and by God's help, so I will."* At confirmation it will be solemnly put to you by the Bishop, "Do ye here, in the presence of God and of this congregation, renew the solemn promise and vow that was made in your name at your baptism, ratifying and confirming the same in your own persons, and acknowledging yourselves bound to believe and to do all those things which your godfathers and godmothers then undertook for you?" And the answer you will be expected to give is, a sincere, hearty, and audible, "I DO."

Church Catechism.

CHAPTER III.

THE FINAL APPEAL.

"And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister-in-law."-Ver. 15.

WE have seen that in this momentous crisis of her history Ruth was subjected to three several trials, which tested the strength of her resolution. Thrice did Naomi set before her in the plainest manner the reasons which existed for her return to her own home. First, that she might "find rest." And this is a consideration that should be presented to the minds of all who are preparing to take the vows of God upon them. When once they have entered fairly into the conflict with "the world, the flesh, and the devil," they must not expect to "find rest" from their attacks. They will have abundance, indeed,

D

to compensate them for the carnal ease which they forego-but forego it they must for ever.

In the next place, Naomi entered more at large upon the improbability of her meeting in the land of Israel with those worldly advantages which she might expect to find in her own country. The giving up the love of this present world is a second trial which they who will live godly in Christ Jesus have to undergo. They are ushered, indeed, into a new world, for "if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature; old things have passed away, behold all things have become new;"* and of the blessedness of this new world the Scripture saith, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him ;"+ but still "the pomps and vanities of this wicked world must be renounced," and this cannot be done without a painful wrench.

Orpah felt this, and the representations made by her mother-in-law so worked upon her mind, that though she felt bitterly the

* 2 Cor. v. 17.

+ 1 Cor. ii. 9.