in his Church. Soon will " the whole family in heaven and earth" be collected; soon will God accomplish the number of his elect, and hasten his kingdom;" soon will the universal spiritual temple be completed, and the whole company and every individual be filled, first on earth and then in heaven, "with all the fulness of God."

What, then, can be THE ONE COMMANDING PRACTICAL CONCLUSION OF THIS WHOLE SERIES OF DISCOURSES, and especially of our present subject? Is it not that each one of us should learn to address fervent devotions to Almighty God, similar to those of the blessed apostle in the text, first for himself; and then for the universal Church?

This is, then, our grand inference. Every individual must pray for himself that he may have all these blessings if he would attain salvation. Every one must himself bow the knee to "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ;" must supplicate to be inwardly strengthened by the Holy Spirit; must seek that Christ may dwell in his heart by faith;" must implore personally to be "grounded in love." Every one must labor to measure for himself the dimensions of "the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge," and must desire after "the fulness" of the divine joy. Every one must render praises also, and glory for himself, to God for his all-sufficiency in surpassing all he asks or thinks; must implore of God to work in him according to his mighty power; and must in this manner pray to become a member for himself of the one whole "family in heaven and earth" gathered together in Christ; a stone in the one spiritual temple which stretches beyond all space, and which is now in part, and will at length completely, be replenished with all the fulness of God.

And he that thus supplicates and offers thanks

givings for himself, will labor and pray also for the progress of the universal Church.

What direction as to his petitions, or what motive for fervency in addressing them can he want, after the subject we have been considering? All we have noticed in the succession of sermons which we are now closing, is contained, and more than contained, in the apostle's supplications; whilst the fulfilment of all our remaining hopes and desires is more than secured in the topics of the apostle's praise.

Of the BENEFICIAL TENDENCIES OF CHRISTIANITY after such a subject, why should I farther speak? They are all summed up and accumulated in it. What indeed is so beneficial, what so comprehensive, what so amazing, what so obviously adapted to the state and wants of man, what so essential to his present and future well-being, what so eminently calculated to promote the glory of God, as this scheme of immeasurable love in Christ Jesus? We have been adverting to these tendencies of Christianity as we have gone on. We have traced them in the mysteries of redemption; in the application of those mysteries to the human heart; in their effects on the Christian life and conduct; in the consummation towards which every thing is advancing-the conversion of the world. *

1

4

2

3

But why should I remind you of these details? All, all is comprehended in the subject before us. What can so sublimely promote the highest good of man, as a religion which conveys to us this truth, GOD IS LOVE- -which is founded on the greatest act of love ever exhibited on earth; which breathes love in every part; which consists of a glorious edifice whose "depths and lengths and breadths and height"

1 Sermon I-VI.

3 Sermon XIII-XVIII.

2 Sermon VII-XII.
4 Sermon XIX-XXIV.

are love and which will terminate in reuniting all those bonds which were dissolved by man's transgression, and rendering "the whole family" of redeemed and pure intelligencies in heaven and earth, the never-ceasing habitation of the GOD OF LOVE throughout eternity.

Labor, then, and pray for the increase and prosperity of the universal Church. Next to your own salvation, let this be nearest to your heart. Honor your religion wherever you go. Cultivate the spirit of humility and devotion to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. AID IN EVERY LAUDABLE DESIGN, UNDER WHATEVER DISCOURAGEMENTS, FOR BUILDING UP THE UNIVERSAL SPIRITUAL TEMPLE. Let each do a little. When God is working, the least attempts may issue into the most unexpected results. It is not you, but God, who has laid the foundations and is rearing the vast surperstructure. Despair not. If the spirit of controversy and worldliness were but once to cease amongst us, and the Spirit of supplication and grace, after the manner of our text, to succeed, the face of things might soon be altered. Soon might instruments be raised up. Soon might the spiri.tual Temple rise in its goodly proportion. Soon might "the glory of God be revealed, and all flesh see it together." Soon might the family on earth be enlarged, till, comprehending Jew and Gentile throughout the whole world, it was united to that in heaven, and the entire spiritual Edifice expanded into the glorious City of God above, where "the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb will be the Temple of it; and there will be no need of the light of the sun,

neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God will lighten it, and THE LAMB WILL BE THE LIGHT THEREOF."

439

APPENDIX.

SERMON XXVI.'

HEBREWS XIII. 7, 8, 9.

Remember them that have the rule over you, who have spoken to you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace.

ALL India mourns. We have lost one of the gentlest, meekest, most exalted Christians that our Church has ever known. We have lost for the fifth time a chief pastor of our flocks, after a brief though most honorable and useful episcopate. We have lost him at the very instant when his presence was required for the solemn office of consecrating a brother Bishop, and thus settling for the first time our Anglican apostolical Church in India with her appointed pastors.

Delivered at the Cathedral, Calcutta, March 17, 1837, on occasion of the death of the Right Reverend Daniel Corrie, D. D., Lord Bishop of Madras, which took place on the 5th of February preceding, in the 60th year of his age, after a residence in India, as Chaplain and Archdeacon, of about thirty years, but an episcopacy of only fifteen months.

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