a beacon-light to others? you will learn to adore the provident wisdom and goodness of our Almighty Father.

The Jewish ritual, burthened as it was with ceremonies, was diligently attended to by this great good man. Hundreds of miles he travelled for its observance; temporal gave way to spiritual interests; and the eagerness with which he followed up the lesson he had been taught by studious reading, proved that his heart was in the service. Your own observation will teach you the unhappy contrast now! The Christian service is unencumbered with a single ceremonial burthen; it is, in the language of St. Paul,

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a living sacrifice," and though a simple and an easy service, "holy and acceptable unto God." Yet how little labour is bestowed upon its duties! how seldom does study improve the lesson that has been taught and why? because the heart is not

I

in the service. To the Ethiopian the word of God was a perpetual counsellor,—to the high in authority and station now, it is but imperfectly known, if known at all. It is listened to from habit, and is as habitually forgotten.

It pleased the Almighty, in his considerate mercies, that one who thought and acted so well should be won to think and act still better. The text has furnished us with the command given by the angel to Philip, and here I call your attention most seriously to the purpose of this summons, from the scene of his pious labours, to the wilderness of Gaza.

It would seem from the previous history that this zealous disciple of Christ was employed in prospering the cause of his crucified Master; an employment on the issue of which the well being of thousands,

perhaps, was suspended. Yet such is the care of Heaven for man, its favourite work; so steadily does the eye of God pursue the conduct of his creatures, that he commissions one of his holy angels to call Philip from his important work into a distant country, for the express and only purpose of conversion to the pious Ethiopian. His charge is immediately intrusted to others, and a dreary and a desert wilderness is the changed scene of his exertions.

It has been already observed that the Ethiopian was occupied, on his return from Jerusalem, in reading a passage from the prophecy of Isaiah; a fortunate study for the future prospects of the Ethiopian, for it pointed directly to the sufferings and death of Christ; and an important assurance to all classes of mankind, that the "ways of wisdom" are in the search of truth. The Ethio

pian persevered in his inquiries

after better

knowledge, and he eventually succeeded. On the suggestion of the Spirit, Philip ran to him, and addressed him, "Understandest thou what thou readest?" Mark his reply. "How can I, except some man should guide me?" How much of erroneous interpretation of the word of God! how much of unchristian feeling! how much of misery to the individual, and prejudice to the cause had been averted, had this same humility on sacred subjects been ever the character of the Christian Church! And will it not appear to you an obvious conclusion that no one should presume, unassisted, (humanly speaking,) to pronounce upon the doctrines, much less to fathom the mysteries of holy writ? Mystery must form some portion of a revelation from God to man; and if, after every laborious endeavour on the part of those who have been nurtured in the study of God's word, much will still remain mysterious to them, does

not the argument apply, unanswerably, to the ignorant and uninstructed?

Yet are

there many page to their own prejudices or evil inclinations, disdaining the warning voice, to which the Spirit of God would suggest a listening ear! It will be a becoming and a bounden duty in you to make known to your charge, that as the Bible must ever be their companion, so should the approved minister of the Church ever be their guide. They have avowed their belief in its tenets and you have been declared competent to teach them.

who will wrest the hallowed

The passage on which this good man was so intent was that beautiful prophecy which forms an appropriate portion of the most solemn festival of our Church," he was led as a lamb to the slaughter." "Philip began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus."