fragments which were gathered up had been allowed to fall by those who had once received them; and had not our Saviour commanded His disciples to collect them together, they would, as far as the multitude were concerned, have been lost to them for ever.

Surely, then, this may remind us, my brethren, of our past negligences, and teach us how great our loss will be unless we gather up again that which by our carelessness has been scattered: it may also encourage us to hope that if we earnestly endeavour to recover what we have lost, our efforts will be blessed by Him who made the produce of the disciples' labour in collecting, "twelve baskets full."

The Christian year, my brethren, is almost endedwill be ended in a few hours. The circle of our holy festivals has gone round, and we have now reached the last Sunday of the Christian year. Season after season has passed away, in each of which the good gifts of God's grace have been bestowed upon us. The heavenly bread has been from time to time distributed among us, and has seemed to suffice us for the time. But great blessings have no doubt been lost to us, through our carelessness and indifference; golden opportunities have passed away unimproved ; many sacred prayers have been said through thoughtlessly; God's holy word has been read and preached, while we have neither marked, learned, nor inwardly digested; holy Sacraments have been received coldly and faithlessly. Fitly, therefore, does the Church exhort us now to "Gather up the

fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." Let us look back upon the sacred year that has passed. Let us meditate upon the bounteous graces which Christ has bestowed upon us. Let us confess how unworthily we have profited by them; how much we have misused His gifts, and how many we have allowed to pass us by, while we have been thinking only of the meat which perisheth. Thus we shall be gathering up the fragments that remain. And if our penitence is true, our self-abasing confession full and honest, our prayers for pardon and renewal heartfelt, thus shall we obtain of our gracious Redeemer grace even more abundant than He at first bestowed. The "five barley loaves" will have become "twelve baskets full."

Now it seems to me, dear brethren, that these truths may suggest thoughts of comfort, and afford great encouragement to those persons who, finding their earthly life drawing to a close, look back with deep regret and shame to the many sins and shortcomings of their life past; and with them, to all of us who have any past years to look back upon, and who feel at this solemn season how decay is making its secret inroads on our constitutions, and death is drawing on. For the summer is past and gone. The spring with its green leaves, sweet flowers, bright sunshine, and lengthening days, came in its time, passed away, and ripened into summer: summer faded into autumn: and now the trees have all yielded their fruits; their leaves have fallen and are going fast to decay: the fruits of the earth have all been reaped and stored up in barns: the seed of wheat has been committed to the ground, and lies there, waiting the return of spring: life throughout a great portion of the creation is invisible: the juices of the plants have sunk down into the earth, and will rise no more till spring suns revive themas the Resurrection morn will one day revive those decayed bodies which have been committed to the ground in hope. Soon we may expect to see the earth itself bound with the iron band of frost, and a thick coating of snow upon the hills and vales. All this symbolizes, and suggests the thought of, the latter days of life, the weakly body, the failing breath, the stillness of a sick room, the sharp grasp of pain, the faint eye, the fading world, and the expectation of a future state.

And well it is for us, my brethren, that the close of sacred seasons, and the decay of nature, should suggest these solemn, soul-subduing thoughts. For all these fearful things, or others like them, must be endured: most expedient, therefore, it is for us that we should be led, by whatever means, to prepare ourselves by meditation on them, and by examination of our lives past, to go through these inevitable trials.

But who among us, my brethren, can look back upon the past, by penitential self-examination, without much shame and grief? For there we see blessed opportunities past away, never again to present themselves; graces once offered us, lost for ever, because we have despised or neglected them when we have had them. The purity, the innocence, the undefiled conscience, the simple faith, the cheerful contentedness which are the peculiar graces of childhood, how were they marred, spoiled, and lost by our waywardness, fretfulness, vain curiosity, and presumptuous self-confidence!

The nobleness, the courage, the strength, the earnest purpose of a holy and religious youth, how were they perverted, or wasted, by the eager pursuit of worldly pleasures, or honours, or enfeebled by luxury and self-pleasing!

The holy steadfastness and patience, which are the glory of a Christian manhood, how were they shaken and hindered, by distraction of worldly cares, by turmoil of spirit, and the wavering of an unsteadfast will!

Alas! my brethren, how grievously have the time, the opportunities, and the means of grace which God has already given us, been wasted and misused. Is there then no hope for those who have thus neglected or misapplied the good gifts of God? Is the grace of Christ exhausted? Is there no "place of repentance" left for those who have more or less wasted the ten long hours of their day of mortal life?

Dear brethren, let us not think thus unworthily of the grace and mercy of our Saviour. By His almighty, all-bountiful grace and mercy He can save us, even at the eleventh hour, from sin, too feebly resisted; can set us free from evil habits too long indulged; and deliver us from going down into the pit, being Himself the Ransom11 of our souls, and the Fountain of all renewing and invigorating graces. For all believers there is life, and more

abundant life 12 for those who, being furthest gone in death, seek life of Him with a single eye.

Doubt not, therefore, true-hearted penitents, doubt not you who fear that the feebleness of age is in you a symbol of the spiritual feebleness and deathliness within-doubt not, but earnestly believe in the Power of the ever-enduring grace of Christ; and seek earnestly and diligently the grace you need, by the means which still are left you; confiding in His gracious goodness, His certain willingness and able

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ness to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." 13 New self-denials, new hopes, a deeper love for Christ, a more earnest longing for the glories of heaven, a more rooted humility, a saintlier meekness of soul-these are the peculiar graces of the decline of life; these are the fruits which the saints of God bring forth more abundantly in their old age,1 to His glory who sanctifies them by His Spirit.