cometh down from the Father of lights." There is One alone who can make "the sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and send His rain. upon the just and upon the unjust." Pray Him to lift up the light of His love upon you; to reveal to you the mystical cross, the book of His love, which passeth knowledge, and to give you grace with all saints to read it in its length, breadth, depth, and height. It is by no mechanical work of ours that we can come to a perception of the Heart of Jesus Christ. He alone can open it to us, and open our heart to see its meaning.

Let this, then, be your prayer, for prayer is the uniting of our consciousness with His Presence. Let it also be your meditation, for meditation is the gazing of the spiritual eye upon His love revealed in Himself. Let this be your desire in holy communion, for what is it but the union of His Spirit with our spirit, His heart with our heart, His love with our love? In the sacrament of His Body and Blood His divine love kindles our faint affections; and through the mystery of His incarnation and His crucifixion, by the wounds in His "hands and His side," He reveals His miraculous compassion. Let our prayer be, "Thou knowest that I love Thee;" yet not so that I dare say of myself. Forgive my lack of love. I would love Thee, if I could, above kindred, friends, home, and

it

life itself. I would fain love Thee so as to desire to depart and be with Thee; so as that life may be to me sweet only for Thee, and death without fear, because it shall bring me to Thee.

Let this be your aspiration at the altar, year by year, day by day, again and again, always persevering, in every prayer, in every communion. Hold Him fast by your supplications, and let Him not go till He bless you with this consciousness of love.

What drew Him down to us but love? what but love can lift us up to Him? What but the love of Christ dwelling in His elect is the life of His Church on earth; the rest of His Saints unseen? With St. Peter, they follow Him in faith with the beloved disciple, they lie upon His bosom and are blest.

up,

;

What a gathering shall that be when He shall have fulfilled His promise, "And I, if I be lifted will draw all men unto Me;" when, by the bands of love and the attractions of His pity and of His passion, He shall have drawn all His elect from all ages and from all lands, from all kindreds and from all tongues, from all sins and from all crosses, from all toils and solitude, from all partings and exile, from tears and waiting, from doubts and fears, strivings and failings, strivings and masteries, to the foot of the Eternal Throne! What a meeting,

when we shall see Him Who hath so loved us eternally; when all Saints, from the first unto the last, from the least unto the greatest,—all whom He hath loved unto the end, shall stand before Him for Whose love' sake they have lived and died, each one in perfect personal identity, in perfect mutual recognition,-changed, and yet the same; the same in all that we have loved, but changed into more of love and bliss than we have ever desired or dreamed there to serve Him for ever before

the throne of God our Father!

SERMON II.

THE SONS OF GOD.

ROм. viii. 14.

As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons

of God."

T. PAUL here shews us what is the end

ST.

and law of our regeneration. The Son of God was made man, that we might be made the sons of God. The Holy Ghost came down to continue in us this work of our redemption. We were made sons of God by regeneration in the baptism of water and of the Holy Ghost. Our adoption was a free, unsought, undeserved, and sovereign act of God, for His only Son's sake. Creation was not more sovereign, nor was the dust of the ground more passive when the first man was made in God's likeness, than we, when, through baptism, we were born again as sons of God.

But St. Paul is here speaking, not of our adoption as it is an act on God's part, but of our son

ship as it is a spiritual reality and actual attainment on our part.

We were made sons by baptism: we become sons by obedience. How can we become sons, if we were already made so? As we were made man by our natural birth, whereby we obtained the nature and capacities of manhood, we become men by natural growth, whereby what is in germ and virtue becomes actual and perfect.

"As

It is in this sense that St. John says, many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Baptism is our adoption, as birth is our life. As life is natural birth produced, so sonship is the spirit of adoption produced. To be led by spiritual instincts, lights, and inspirations, is to become, and therefore in a very and eternal reality to be, sons of God.

Το

But St. Paul does not mean, that none but they who are led by the Spirit are sons. The very word led implies obedience to the Spirit of adoption. For many are regenerate who will not obey. All who are baptised are drawn; but they only are here said to be "led" who follow the leading of the Spirit. When St. Paul says, "All are

1 St. John i. 12, 13.