joy. And it is thus in the daily history of the Church of Christ. With "the joy of the Christian," the "stranger intermeddleth not." None can share his happiness, who are strangers to his Lord: none can unite in his song of gratitude, who do not unite in his prayer of lowliness and contrition to "Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." Give no heed, therefore, my brethren, to those calumniators of the Gospel, who would treat it as the natural source of disquietude and gloom. "The secret of the Lord is with the righteous;" and they have a joy which "the world can neither give nor take away." I know it is said, " Blessed are they who mourn" for sin; but, then, this mourning is prescribed only as a means to joy. To know our guilt, indeed, without knowing the Saviour of the guilty, is a source of the keenest disquietude; but, let the " Sun of Righteousness arise" upon us, and he rises with "healing on his wings." It is for those who have sought and found mercy through this compassionate Redeemer, to change the "spirit of heaviness," for the "garments of praise" and joy. It ill becomes you, if thus accepted of God, to carry about with you a dejected heart or troubled countenane. Released from bondage, it is not for you, if I may so speak, to wear the prison suit. You are to bear witness to the value of religion by your calmness, and cheerfulness, and joy. You are to win others to religion, "not merely by telling them "what you shall be," but by showing them what you" are." You are to rejoice as men "receiving the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls." 2. In conclusion: My Christian brethren, how strong a motive is supplied by the text for a devout participation in that holy feast to which we are invited to-day! * If a superiority may be claimed for one means of grace over another, as to its fitness for bringing us to Christ, surely that claim may be confidently advanced for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. If ever we may expect the Saviour to be present, it surely is when we are fulfilling his dying injunction, and "doing this in remembrance of him." O what blessings are those wasting, whose habits of life will not allow them to come to this holy feast, or who come in a wrong state and spirit! And what privileges are those enjoying, who approach this table as the Lord of the feast would have them! "I have no greater joy," says the disciple whom Jesus especially loved, "than to hear that my children walk in truth." And may not 1, my brethren, be permitted, with much humility, to adopt language something like his, and to say, I have few greater joys, than to see you, to whom God has so intimately allied me, come to that table contrite, and believing, and rejoicing? Would to God that we had as many lowly, devout, and affectionate communicants as there are individuals among us-that not a member of this congregation should arise to turn his back upon this sacred feast to-day-that every person thus communicating, might imbibe, with the sacramental food, the spirit of him whose body and blood is the symbol! Unite with me in fervent prayer, my brethren, that our love to God may deepen and brighten every hour: that * The holy Sacrament. our charity and tenderness to each other may take a wider scope and a deeper root in our nature. May we be enabled to nail every lust, and passion, and temper, to the cross of the Saviour. May" mercy and truth" descend on the lot of our inheritance, and make it their temple and throne, and the "joy of the whole earth." And, finally, may "the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect ni every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever." SERMON XXIII. THE CONFLICT AND THE TRIUMPH OF THE CHRISTIAN. REV. iii. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God; and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God and I will write upon him my new name. : Ir is often our duty, in order to obtain a more familiar acquaintance with the habits and dispositions of the true servant of God, to follow him through the various stages of his earthly pilgrimage. But these are not the only circumstances in which we are allowed to contemplate his course. It is our privilege, and a privilege of the highest value, in those moments especially when the heart is in danger of fainting under the trials of life, to follow the servant of the Redeemer from earth to heaven: to enter with him, as far as the light of Scripture will enable us, behind the veil, and survey the regions of his rest and glory. Such is my wish on the present occasion. And, in order to approach this lofty contemplation in a suitable frame of mind, let us earnestly supplicate the presence and aid of that Spirit, who alone can "take of Christ, and shew them" to the soul. It is my intention, in examining the striking passages of Scripture before us, to consider, I. THE QUALIFICATION FOR HEAVEN INSISTED II. THE PROMISES TO THOSE POSSESSED OF I. In the first place, we are to consider THE QUALIFICATION INSISTED UPON IN THE TEXT. It is stated in that single expression, "Him that overcometh." In proceeding to examine the force of this expression, it is scarcely necessary to premise, that the word "overcoming" is not here employed in the sense of the complete defeat and extirpation of every infirmity of our fallen nature. If the final destiny of a fallen world were dependent upon a victory thus entire, our present portion must be despair, and our future inheritance unchangeable misery. But both fact and Scripture appear to warrant the persuasion that infirmity: clings to us in every stage of our earthly existence. Such is the testimony of fact; for na examiner has yet discovered the faultless man. And a simple passage of Scripture, found in the mouth of the man to whom, if to any fallen creature, the epithets of "holy, harmless, and undefiled," might seem to belong, appears to me decisive of the question: "I count not myself," says St. Paul, "to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." And then he adds remarkably; "Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded;" whence, surely, it is reasonable to infer, that the perfection of the Christian in the present world consists, not in " sinlessness," but in a strong sense of his present defects, and an earnest and indefatigable pursuit of higher attainments-of the love, the faith, the lowliness, the obedience, which are the living and essential elements of the Christian character.-I have adverted to this point, my Christian brethren, not from a desire to provoke controversy, and still less to give any warrant to coldness and remissness in duty; but in order to cheer those lowly and afflicted servants of God who refuse all the consolations of the Gospel till they shall reach some point of theoretical and visionary perfection. "The infection of our nature," say the Articles, "doth remain, yea, even in them that are regenerated." "If we say we have no sin,” says that Holy Volume, of which the formularies of our Church are so close a transcript, "we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." The privilege of the children of God, therefore, is not to be "sinless," but to be washed in the "blood which |