regular reference to the law of our God. "Thou shalt talk of them when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."

Consider, brethren, lastly, how seriously these words of the great Prophet Moses, which we have been considering, apply to Christians! It is evident that our Church means us so to apply them, by appointing them to be used every year in the Lessons for the Sundays at this season. After having brought before our notice, in her public services, the birth, the temptation, the death and passion, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Church bids us all apply to ourselves the grave and earnest admonition." These words, which command thee this day, shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." We hear in

this the voice of the great

I

Lord of the

Christian Church, bidding all of us who have vowed to be "his soldiers and servants to our lives' end," take heed to the solemn vow, promise, and profession, which we have all made. In Himself, as shown forth in his conduct and example when upon earth, we see all this practically taught. We learn that "God's law was within his heart." We know how diligently He taught those who were strictly his children-how He gave them "line upon line, here a little, and there a little, as they were able to bear it: bearing with their infirmities, gathering the lambs in his arms, and carrying them in his bosom." We see that his talk was ever of God's laws, and that He turned every little circumstance during the day into an occasion of good, and improved every event to every event to the glory of his God, and the edification of those who heard Him. We see how, morning, and evening, and noon-day, He sought converse with his Father, and how He hallowed every walk, every meal, every

:

miracle, by holy acts of prayer and conversation, which caused the hearts of those who heard it "to burn within them." Let us, my christian friends, study his example more closely and earnestly desire a more abundant share of that Holy Spirit which dwelt in Him in all his fulness, that in all our conduct and conversation, at home or abroad, in private and in public, in all our undertakings, in all our circumstances, we may glorify Him; and strive to begin, continue, and end all our schemes and occupations in his name-trusting to his grace, and looking for a share at length in his kingdom above, through the merits and for the sake of that one full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice which He hath offered for us. To Him, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, three persons and one God, be glory and honour for ever. Amen.

30

SERMON II.

MALACHI iii. 16.

"Then they that feared the Lord, spoke often one to another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name."

It appears to be without question the intention of Almighty God, that man should be dependent upon his fellow-men for much of the comfort and happiness of his life; and it is as clearly our duty not to shun intercourse and communication with others, but to consider ourselves as members of a community, and bound by certain well-understood and established laws of society to contribute our

* Preached to the Chiddingfold Benefit Club, May 18, 1838.

assistance to the common good; while this very action brings with it its own reward to ourselves, in the increased security of our own property, and closer bond of union, both in prosperity and adversity, with our fellow-creatures. St. Paul, when wishing to show the strict union and fellowship which should subsist in the church of Christ, and between each individual of that church and the rest of its members, alludes, as an example and pattern of that union, to the mode in which it hath pleased Almighty God to make the human body-composed as it is of many members-dependent for its health and comfort upon the harmony and utility of each in its proper duties.

God," he saith,*"hath set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him, and if they were all one member, where were the body? but now they are many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the head, I have no need of thee: nor

* 1 Cor. xii. 18-27.