To conclude: there is one blessing in the church of God, by which, more than by all others, his providence would guard every one of us against these and the like dangers. It is the holy sacrament of the Lord's supper; which, whoever duly attends, Jesus Christ has pledged his word to receive that man into nearer communion with himself, than he could any how else be received, remaining in this imperfect world. Jesus Christ has promised to all who have been made whole by his blessed baptism, the strengthening and refreshing of their souls by his own saving body and blood, to help them to sin no more, and to keep them from that worst of all things, which is sure to come on them if they sin wilfully. Why, if men do not intend to sin again, why should they refuse to trust their Redeemer, affectionately inviting them so very near to himself. Why not depend on his love, which is able to protect us against ourselves, more than fear your own future backslidings? against which, if you resolve sincerely, this very sacrament will enable you to guard. That very dread of relapsing, by which so many would excuse themselves from partaking of Christ, is the reason, if you will believe Christ himself, why you should make haste and come to his table. He only should stay away who means to go on in his sins, who cares not for the grace of his Savior, and thinks he can do well enough without it. But if there be truth in the word of God, such an one must make up his mind to stay out of heaven also.

SERMON XII.

CHRISTIAN HOPE OF IMPROVEMENT.

ST. MARK V. 35, 36.

"While he yet spake, there came certain from the ruler of the synagogue's house which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the master any farther? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe."

THE day on which these words were spoken was one of the most remarkable days in our Lord's ministry-a day on which he seems to have permitted the rays of his essential unspeakable Godhead to break forth with more than usual majesty through the veil of his flesh. The evening before, wearied with long teaching of the multitude by his divine parables, he had crossed the lake with his disciples, and having fallen asleep on his pas sage, had been awakened by them in alarm at a sudden storm, and had vouchsafed to them a kind of glimpse of his divine majesty, rebuking the winds, and saying to the sea, "Peace; be still." Presently, on landing on the opposite coast, he showed no less marvellous power over the invisible world of spirits, commanding a legion of devils to depart out of the soul and body of one whom they had possessed, and to enter into a herd of swine, which miserably perished accordingly, before he ordered them away to their place of punishment. And now straightway returning again to Capernaum, he is met by a distressed father, Jairus, who beseeches him to lay his hand on his daughter, then at the point of death. On his way to Jairus's house, the people thronged him, and one woman in particular, who had an issue of blood twelve years, by her simple faith gave occasion to another manifestation of his divine power and mercy: she just touched the hem of his garment, and virtue went out

of him, and she was whole of her plague. During the delay occasioned by her approach, even while he was yet speaking words of comfort to her, came one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, and said, "Thy daughter is dead; why troublest thou the Master any farther?" In his all-wise providence he had permitted this to happen, just as in an after instance he permitted Lazarus to die, before he could come near to help him. He himself has told us that in the case of Lazarus he permitted this for his disciples' sake: "I am glad for your sake that I was not there, to the intent ye might believe." In like manner, we may well suppose that he ordered matters on purpose, so as not to arrive at Jairus' house in time to find his daughter alive; in this way trying more effectually the faith of the parents themselves, and of all who were concerned, and preparing the way for a more signal manifestation of himself as the Lord of life and death.

He had tried the faith of Jairus, in the first instance, as he did the faith of almost all whom he healed by miracle, in this respect: that he waited for a prayer from him, before he set out upon his message of mercy. To him were thoroughly known beforehand all the circumstances of that young person's sickness and he needed not that any one should tell him; yet he did wait till her father had fallen at his feet, and related her case to him, before he said, "I will come and heal her." Even so he knows beforehand all that happens to all his children and subjects, yet in some mysterious way he makes prayer on their part necessary to the descent of his heavenly blessings upon them.

We are, by God's blessing, so used to connect the thought of prayer with the thought of mercies from above, that it seems to us a matter of course to say that prayer is a condition of God's favor: but if we will think twice on it, we must perceive that it is a great mystery, a thing which we could never have known had it not pleased the Almighty himself to tell us. We cannot at all understand how it is that our prayers draw down a blessing from on high, seeing that he to whom

we speak knows our necessities before we ask. But we thankfully own that so it is.

Again, from our Lord's demeanor in this affair of Jairus's daughter, we may learn to have reverential believing thoughts of another part of his ordinary dealings with us: his will, namely, to confer spiritual grace in an ordinary way, only by sacramental signs. He could have healed her as he did the centurion's servant, or the nobleman's son, or the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman, by a mere act of that same infinite power, whereby in the first beginning of things, he said, “Let there be light, and there was light." But we see it was his will, on this and on other occasions, to use outward and visible signs, for the purpose of conveying, as it were, the virtue which went out of him. It was his will that the daughter of Jairus should not revive until he had actually laid his hands upon her: as in another case he made clay wherewith to anoint the eyes of the blind man, and touched the ears and tongue of the deaf and dumb, instead of merely commanding that they might be made whole. It is reasonable to believe, that by this part of his dispensations, our gracious Savior intended his people to understand, what they should think of those outward sacramental signs, which it was afterward his will to ordain for tokens and channels of his saving and sanctifying grace. We need no more doubt that virtue goes out of Christ by the water of baptism, or the consecrated bread and wine of the holy eucharist, than we should have doubted in those days whether or no virtue went out of his blessed body, had we stood by and seen that as many as touched him were made at once perfectly whole.

A third point of our Lord's divine and gracious dealings with his people, is what the church teaches us to call his preventing grace: that is, his being beforehand with us, pouring into our hearts by his good Spirit that good will and mind which we never could have had of ourselves. This preventing grace, it would appear, the holy and ever blessed Son vouchsafed to exercise in regard of Jairus on this memorable occasion. For know

ing what the messengers said apart to the distressed father, he made haste, before Jairus had any time to utter words of despondency, himself uttering words of most consoling hope: "Be not afraid: only believe." Or ever he had time to express his disappointment and anguish, our Lord prevented him, showing that he knew both what was spoken in secret, and also the preparations of the heart of man. Even as by his preventing grace he puts into our minds good desires, before ever we think of asking for them. This power over man's heart is in such sort the Almighty's own, that there is no reason to believe in his having ever communicated it to any created being whatever, man or angel; and our Lord, by exercising it, gave a sufficiently sure token, even through the veil of his flesh, that he is indeed 'very God of very God," having power not only to forgive sins and to raise the dead, but also to control and order men's secret heart.

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Let us learn by the compassionate haste which he made on this occasion, forbidding despondency, and encouraging faith, while yet Jairus was in that bewildered state, so common at first in any sudden calamity, and had had no time to think distinctly for himself-let us learn, I say, from this, from whom proceeds every one of our holy desires and just counsels. It is the Holy Spirit of God preventing us, that we may have a good will. To him alone be ascribed all the glory. It may be, if our Savior had not made haste, and spoken to Jairus such words of encouragement as those in the text, he might have given up the matter in despair, and have quite lost the blessing intended him. And we, if God gave us not first a heart to pray and to do good works, what would become of our works, and of our prayers ? Let us not forget this, but ever remember it, not so as to make our own and other men's thoughts of it light and superficial by irreverent mentions of it, but so as to fear and tremble always in whatever we do toward working out our own salvation, as knowing that it is not ourselves, but God, which worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Our godly mo VOL. I.-10