tors, as the lambs of Christ. They brought you to this Christian fold. For months and years, they kept you, in its gracious shelter, and beneath its sacred shadow. If your hearts have not resisted heavenly grace, and rejected holy opportunities, and hardened themselves against divine influences, you are in the good path. Your eyes have learned to know it. Your feet have learned to walk in it. Your hearts have learned to love it. Is it so ? Dear children of my love, lambs of my Saviour's flock, baptized and bathed in His most precious blood, is it, is it so? The trial, if it is, is to begin, to-day. From this day, new temptations will beset you. From this day, new hindrances will befal you. From this day, new dangers will surround you. Can you hold fast "the beginning of your confidence?" Can you say to Satan, "Get behind me?" Can you say to the world, I am crucified to you, with Christ? Can you say, to the flesh, Be subdued and subjected to the Spirit? "To be carnally minded, is death; but, to be spiritually minded, is life and peace." To go the good path; to go on in it, faithfully, and constantly, unto the end; this, my beloved children, is your duty, and your difficulty; and this is what I mean, when I say

in

III. But I mean more than this. You cannot do it of yourselves. You cannot go on in the good path, and go on in it faithfully, unless it be with God's favour and acceptance. Therefore, is Farewell a prayer as well as an exhortation. And therefore, when I say Farewell,

I commit you, and commend you to His grace, without which no good thing is done, or is. Remember those sweet, tender words of your true Catechism: "My good child, know this, that thou art not able to do these things, of thyself, nor to walk in the commandments of God, and serve Him, without His special grace; which thou must learn at all times, to call for, by diligent prayer. Let me hear therefore, if thou canst say the Lord's Prayer." Be diligent in prayer. Let the Lord's prayer, be ever with your daily bread. Live in it. Live by it. Be children of God; that He may be your Father, in Heaven. He will keep you. He will guide you. He will bless you. You will grow nearer to Him. You will grow more like Him. You will have Him with you here. You will be with Him, where He is, hereafter, forever;

In such a world where no farewells are spoken;

Where hearts that truly love, love on, and are not broken!

VI.

THE SIXTH ADDRESS

* TO THE GRADUATING CLASS AT ST. MARY'S HALL.

THE CROSS, THE ONLY HOPE.

BELOVED CHILDREN:-Your feet have reached the line, to which your eyes have looked so long. A moment, more; and it is passed. Another step; and you are in the world. It is a world of trial. It is a world of trouble. It is a world of sin. It is a world of death. Have you laid hold of that, which can alone support you in it? Have you embraced the Cross?

I. It is a world of trial. Oh, how soon, you are to find it so! It will try your feelings. You have been sheltered here. It is a little, peaceful haven, where the winds of life are scarcely felt. Once, out at sea, and they will beat upon you, with relentless fury. Winds of unkindness. Winds of disappointment. Winds of adversity. Winds of destruction. Shoals. Sunken rocks. Breakers. A lee shore. No canvass, but will

March, A. D. 1850.

split. No plank, that will not yawn. No anchor that will hold. Or, only one, that blessed, bleeding Cross. It will try your tempers. Here, few conflicting interests. Here, few disturbing forces. Here, scarce the thought of rivalry. There, fiercest competition. There, unrelenting opposition. There, "war unto the knife." To enter that arena, with natures, wild, ungoverned, and unsanctified, is to go, a wild beast, among wild beasts; to strife, to struggle, and to death. Only the lamb-like can have peace. Only the Cross can yield the lamb. It will try your principles. Here, you have lived by rule. Here, you have stood, with help. Here, you have walked with guides. There, you must be a rule unto yourselves. You must stand, in your own strength. You must walk, in your own light. What, but the Cross, can guide, support, direct? Have you embraced the Cross?

II. It is a world of trouble. It has found you, even here. For we are born, to trouble, "as the sparks fly upward." We breathe it, as we breathe the air. But, in the world, and as the way of life grows longer, troubles will multiply and thicken; as, in the summer noon, the clouds are blackest and most frequent, and the bolts most fierce and fatal. In what shape, they may come, God knows. Sickness, poverty, persecution. The eye of envy, the tongue of slander, the hand of violence. Loneliness, dependence, destitution. Hopes deferred. Peace invaded. Love betrayed. The failure of plans, the disappointment of purposes, the death of

friends. Have you secured a shelter, my beloved? Have you embraced the Cross?

III. It is a world of sin. We have, always, sinful hearts; and, everywhere. And, even here, the struggle, for the mastery, is sharp and fierce. But, in the world, temptations multiply. In the world, evil examples throng. In the world, the opportunities of prayers, the means of grace, the helps of holiness, are few and far between. It is a downward, slippery, path. You walk alone in it. Or, you are urged forward, by the impulse of the crowd. Or, you are jostled, by the struggling. Or, you are overthrown by the falling, or the fallen. The eye has come to look on sinful practices, till they lose half their ugliness. The heart has been in contact with evil influences, till it has ceased to shudder. Familiarity takes the grossness from impurity. Company lends confidence to impiety. The attraction of the earthly increases. The charm of the heavenly is lost. The whispers of conscience grow faint. The memories of childhood are faded. The Heavenly Dove has been resisted; till It wings Itself, for flight. God has been disregarded, till His mercy is kindling into wrath. There is but a single refuge. In a moment more, the hope of rescue may be lost. Have you an advocate, with the Father? Have you laid hold of the sole hope for sinners? Have you embraced the Cross?

IV. It is a world of death. Not an instant, that some do not fall. The knell is never silent. The funeral train is never out of sight. The ground is full of graves.

VOL. IV.-8.