Every day "testimonies" go up to God of our daily life and hearts; “testimonies” of good and evil; "testimonies" to be alleged in judgment; "testimonies" bearing not only on our greater and more notorious deeds, but our secret, mental acts also, our omissions as well as our commissions.

So our Lord, forewarning His disciples of their approaching trials, tells them, as it is recorded in St. Matthew, "that they shall be brought before governors and kings for His sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles :” but in St. Luke, in the same place, He adds, "And it shall turn to you for a testimony"." Thus, from the same deed, there should issue two testimonies; a testimony for the patient sufferer; a testimony against the unjust judge: and there should be, respectively, “to the one an evident token of perdition, but to the others of salvation, and that of God"."

O, how cautiously, then, and warily should Christians walk in the midst of these secret and most searching trials! With a visible world so enthralling, so bewildering, so deceiving,—with

6 Μαρτύρια. Compare the passages where the word μαρTúptov is used in Holy Scripture. Compare St. Matt. x. 18 with St. Luke xxi. 13.

7 Phil. i. 28.

an invisible world so near, so secret, so capable of being wholly unnoticed and forgotten, how thoughtfully should they step, as from year to year their remaining time of trial grows shorter, their end nearer, their judgment surer!

How should they learn to feel prayer, their constant, their blessed, their certain, their only safety! How should their whole lives be prayer! How should they link their more solemn services of public prayer with their private devotions; their private devotions with their momentary thoughts and words of supplication through their day; their momentary words of supplication with the ever-present faith, which regulates every little act and movement of their hearts to the honour and devotion of God! For die we sooner, or die we later,-live we smoother or rougher lives on earth,-visitations of God in Christ come to us all in great abundance: and happy only are they, whom coming early or coming late, coming by night or coming by day, in sorrows or in joys, in words of warning, in intercourse of good men, in holy sacraments, in opportunities of merciful and brotherly acts, He findeth watching,-watching in prayer,that they may know and not misuse the times of their visitation.

SERMON XI.

ANGELIC OBEDIENCE THE MODEL OF OURS.

ST. MATTHEW X. 32.

"Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."

THERE can be no doubt that the main, and probably the only meaning of this petition of the Lord's Prayer is this: "May Thy will, O Lord, be done by us, who are of Thy Church on earth, in the same perfect, full, and cheerful way that it is done by Thy servants and ministers in heaven.”

But though this point is so clear as hardly to admit of argument, the words "Thy will be done," seem to belong so properly to another prayer, the prayer, I mean, of resignation, rather than that of obedience, that I suppose many persons in using the Lord's Prayer hardly think of any other meaning. The prayer of resignation,

however, has its sanction and example elsewhere: in the solemn prayer offered by our Lord in the garden of Gethsemane, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done':" or, as it is given by St. Matthew," O, my Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done." Here then is the model of the prayer of resignation, foregoing its own inclination, and even its own best reason, and view of good, and acquiescing in the will of God; and not acquiescing only in God's will, but praying for it, and framing its own will and desire in accordance with it.

In the Lord's Prayer then the petition is rather that of obedience; obedience, like that of God's heavenly ministers, the angels; for we know of no others who are yet admitted to the palaces of heaven, there to do God service.

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May we who are on earth, O Lord, do Thy will, as Thine angels do it in heaven "." The prayer is the prayer of obedience, and the models of obedience are the angels.

Now it is in the first place worthy of remark,

1 Luke xxii. 42.

2 St. Matt. xxvi. 42.

3 Κατανοήσωμεν τὸ πᾶν πλῆθος τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ, πῶς τῷ θελήματι αὐτοῦ λειτουργοῦσιν παρεστῶτες. S. Clem. Rom. ad Cor. i. 120.

that our Lord hereby teaches us to think a good deal about the angels. We cannot forget or disregard either their existence or offices, if we use this prayer rightly. Besides, this prayer is given us for constant use. "Whenever we pray” we are to use it; so that the thought of the holy angels and their obedience is to be constantly present to our minds. And yet, in fact, men seem to think of these holy beings but seldom. Indeed, in despite of the many and glorious things which the Scriptures say concerning them, and the manner in which the universal Church hath always acknowledged and thought of them, some would seem hardly to believe that there are such spirits at all, ministering to the heirs of salvation.

It is also to be observed, that the proposing of angels for the sole model of obedience in the Lord's Prayer, gives us a most exalted notion of them, and their perfect submission and performance of God's will; according to the observation of Hooker: "As in number and order they are huge, mighty, and royal armies, so likewise in perfection of obedience unto that law which the Highest, whom they adore, love, and imitate, hath imposed upon them, such observants they are thereof, that our Saviour, being to set down the perfect idea of that we are to pray and