-as to our own salvation-are powerless altogether. It is in this sense, that the apostle says, "If I had all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." The next sentence which follows is, if possible, still more extraordinary. "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."

We have seen, already, two of the most common boasts of the Corinthian zealots, the speaking with tongues, and the working of miracles, declared to be useless without charity; and therefore it follows, that they may be found without it. Many, too, we may be sure would also boast of the sacrifices which they had made; of the fortunes, which they had given to the common funds of the saints; and of the perils, which they encountered by the confession of Christianity. These too, St. Paul assures us, both almsdeeds, and sufferings, and martyrdom, are useless to our salvation, if our heart be all the while a stranger to the flame of charity.

But here a very serious difficulty arises; what is charity, if this be not? What stronger symptoms of love for God, and man, can there be than such bounty in the relief of man; such courage and constancy in the service of GOD? Who, that did not love the poor, would give his fortune for their nourishment? Who, that did not love

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God, would be burnt alive in His cause? little attention, however, to the character of men, will remove the objection; and open to our view a strange and melancholy prospect of the inconsistencies of the human heart.

As this, however, would take up more time, than we can spare at present; and as there remains much more in the present chapter which will require explanation, I will defer its consideration till the evening: when I shall hope, by God's help, to give you sufficient directions to distinguish between all pompous pretensions to charity, and that true and godlike love which is not confined to particular situations; and does not depend on the extent of the talents committed to our charge; which may be as truly felt, and as effectually exercised, by the widow who gives her mite; or by the still poorer sufferer who can only contribute his prayers; as by the wealthiest and most powerful of the servants of God on earth.

In the mean time, a very important lesson may be drawn, even from the unfinished argument which has now been offered to you. It is, that a man's outward actions derive all their value from the motives which give them birth; from the feelings of faith, of hope, and of love, which prompt the apostle, in his missions; the saint, in his miracles; the rich, in their almsgiving; and the martyr, in his sufferings, All these out

ward actions have only a relative value: and, if we wish either to imitate their splendour, or to partake of their blessings, we must first begin by purifying our hearts by repentance, and strengthening our resolution by prayer. These are the corner stones of the Temple of the Holy Ghost, and where these do not exist, He will never dwell. May they increase and abound more and more in your hearts; and in his, who now addresses you!

SERMON XIV.

QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY.

PART II.

1 COR. xiii. 3.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

IN fulfilment of my promise, I now return to the consideration of charity, or love,-for the meaning of both is one, under the several lights, by which St. Paul enforces it on our thoughts and practice. I have already explained to you, how it was his intention to shew its pre-eminence, not only over all other virtues, but over all the gifts of the Holy Ghost, even when those gifts were miraculous. None of those powers, he tells us, for the possession of which the Corinthians were so anxious, and in which they so much boasted themselves; - neither the faculty of speaking with unknown tongues, a gift with which some of the early Christians were favoured, and which was considered as an unerring mark of the favour

of the Most High, - nor the power, by faith, of working miracles the most extraordinary, were of any value to the salvation of their possessor, unless they were sanctified, and rendered acceptable, by the united love of God and man.

Assertions, these, of themselves not a little appalling, since we can hardly conceive a wicked man so favoured by the Almighty as to be possessed of miraculous powers. Yet if we consider that such marvellous gifts were entrusted to the preachers of Christianity, not for their own benefit, but for the conversion of others; that God has, in every age of the world, been often pleased to make use of wicked or worldly men as the preachers of His truth, and the instruments of His glory; and that, among those first selected by Christ, and endued by Him with the same miraculous powers as the rest, we discover the name of Judas, we must acknowledge, that the faith, even of an apostle, may exist without necessarily producing the fruits of love in our hearts; and that even an apostle may preach the word, and raise the dead, and cast out devils, and yet, while he is the means of salvation to others, be, all the while, himself a castaway. It may, indeed, very greatly lessen our apparent inferiority to the early ages of the Church, when we observe, from the conduct of these Corinthians, that the power of working miracles did not necessarily exempt its possessors from the