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turning that creation into blasphemy and sin? and yet we pray the words, Thy kingdom come?" How is it that thousands and ten thousands of children are begotten in the most abandoned vice, and bred in the most ruthless ignorance, wandering at large without school and without instruction, either civil or religious, and yet we pray the words, Thy kingdom come?" How is it that, on the Lord's day, the rich are found at the festive place of meeting, while the poor are found buying and selling, and getting gain; the house of God neglected, and the day of rest, the Sabbath of the Lord our God, polluted: and yet we pray the words, "Thy kingdom come?" Why, surely, this must be the reason-that we only pray the words, and not the thought; that we who profess to be within the pale of the Christian Church do not think and act according to our professions, and that we are therefore looked upon from those without the pale with suspicion and with distrust. Our servants, our tenants, our children, behold us as men professing the gospel, yet not obeying it; as reading therein, among other things, a most especially marked command-the Eucharist; and yet ever abstaining from it, as professing to be of the church, yet ever keeping aloof from the closest tie, and intercourse by which the church can draw us unto Christ.

You say, these things cannot be known;

the ignorant and the vulgar do not heed them; the vicious and the profligate do not regard them: it is not true; they do regard them. The ignorant and the vulgar wonder; the vicious and the profligate mock and rejoice. Is not the kingdom of God as "leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened?" Does not the spiritual character begin slowly, gradually, imperceptibly? It ascends from a small beginning,a seed sown in the earth, until it expands into blade, and ear, and fruit; and this ordinance being neglected, checks the seed; being observed, germinates the seed. It penetrates with its spiritual gifts into all portions of our character, makes us speak, and think, and act, as though remembering Christ; makes us look upon men with charity, and God with love; influences all around us, soothes and tranquillizes the moments of anger, induces forgiveness of injuries, benevolence to the oppressed, courage against the oppressor, patience, meekness, forbearance.

Shall a man be of this character, and not be marked? Yes, men will look to him, and say, "This is a righteous man; behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." They will watch him, they will follow him, and when they find him, sabbath after sabbath, at the altar of his Redeemer, they will know whence he has this wisdom. They will follow him not

as professing, but as doing. They will imitate him, and hold sweet counsel with him; and, haply, with God's grace working in secret, they will be brought themselves into the light of the glorious gospel of Christ.

Surely if our worship is sincere, if we are members of the church in heart, and not only in words, if our souls are joined together with our brethren, and with our God, in that holy bond of union which Christianity teaches as essential to salvation, then should we be lights and patterns to those who might be removed by accidental circumstances from the knowledge of God. Here, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, is the greatest strength, and stability of our church. He who feels an evangelical desire to exercise and perpetuate the blessings of Christ, cannot find a surer method than this. The communicant beholds the church a compact body, in all the strength and energy which must be produced by the union of many in a great and good design. Without this, Christians are feeble, because they are solitary; without this, they are easily broken down, because they are destitute of mutual support; they stumble and fall, because they have no mutual example; but with it they look upon one another as members of the same great Head, as trusting in the same redemption, as bought by the same price. Those that have the knowledge induce the ignorant; they that

have the high places induce those who are the lowly of the earth. The master persuades the servant, the servant the master; the husband the wife, the wife the husband; and hence are those practical never-ending blessings which must arise in every domestic and political relation, from union in faith, and union in sentiment; and thus a firm and steady phalanx is arrayed against God's enemies; and the faith of Christ crucified becomes less and less a stumbling-block to the worldly, and its precepts more and more observed by the weak and the unstable. It works throughout the general character of the community greater zeal towards God, and greater love towards man, until finally, the whole building, "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head cornerstone," and, being fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple of the Lord."

It was this ordinance, the sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, that bound the primitive teachers of our religion in that unbroken chain of Christian fellowship by which they overcame the world. It was this ordinance, the meeting together day after day, in love, and peace, and charity, reminding each other of their high and spiritual calling, exhorting one another, by mutual encouragements of faith, and patience, and endurance. It was this ordinance that sent

forth the martyrs to die for the proof of Christ's truth. It was this that bade the apostles lay down the world, and its glory, and its pleasures, for the cross of Jesus; which bade them meet at first in an upper room, a counted few, and then amid the rocks and caverns of the earth, in secret, as persecuted and forlorn, and yet not forlorn, for God was with them. Here would they meet to break bread. No Lord's day found them without this holy feast. No week passed by but their faith and their courage were stimulated by this remembrance of their divine Master, until the gospel was made known to people after people, and they themselves, in the strength of this remembrance, were content to die.

And this it is which bids the Christian of the present day, if we would continue Christ's kingdom upon earth, and fulfil the prophecy that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church;" this it is that bids us constantly and faithfully to pledge ourselves, our souls, and bodies, as living sacrifices unto God: which bids us here be followers of his most holy life, "who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth;" so that being found with him in that holy fellowship on earth, we may also be joined with him in the eternal glories of his Father's kingdom.