this place, to many of you who were present on the late occasions. Now, my dear friends, I desire exceedingly to bear in mind myself, and to call the attention of our fellow-men throughout this land, were it in my power so to do, to the retribution of Divine Providence in the alarm that is spread, and the danger that hovers over the Church in the sister kingdom. How frightfully she has neglected her duty! With what awful apathy hath she sat by while millions of her fellow-creatures were ignorant of the language, the only language they could speak, without making a vigorous ecclesiastical effort to preach the Gospel to the people in their own tongue! How hath she reposed in her ease and quietness within her various mansions, while hundreds and thousands of the people have been like sheep going astray without a shepherd, or left to the prowling wolves who would devour and rend them! And now, when the retribution comes, when the hand of God is turned to chastise the neglected daughter, now an aların, and next an outcry is raised. And truly, my dear brethren, the negligence deserves chastisement: but negligence in a child, and a child that is our own, a child of the same family, of the same sentiments, based on the same foundation, belonging to the same Father with ourselves-negligence does not call for destruction. For amendment; chastisement unto amendment is a righteous thing. We see in the progress how God works: he is a God that "hideth himself" from those that will not see; but in his ways there is a revelation to those who will see. We see the righteous retribution of Providence, the trouble coming where negligence has been long practised. You find it in your own affairs, in your relative and domestic condition, throughout all your business: if in any particular you have been negligent, if, after repeated warnings, you have continued negligent, be sure thy sin will find thee out; domestic trouble relative losses, failures in business, disappointment among friends-these will be the inevitable consequences of continued negligence in business, or inattention to the practical duties of friendship. And the Church as a body is no exception to this rule: let negligence be practised more and more, let warnings be rejected, let neglect be persevered in, in despite of warning, and the secret reproaches of conscience; and I say, God forbid that our Father should not chastise. If we were left to ourselves we should be ruined. I believe it is in the righteous chastisements of a wise and watchful Father that the preservation of the child consists.

You are aware of the peculiar object connected with our present meeting together in this place, as regards the continuance and ease of your assembling yourselves together here, and the relief of this place of worship from a debt that still hangs over it. It is connected with what I have been saying. If the truth I have been telling you is the truth preached from this place; if this be (as we believe it is) a member of the Church we belong to, the formularies of the Church honoured here, the truth of God proclaimed within these walls—then, brethren, by all the value you set upon this truth, I would again avail myself of this last lingering opportunity of addressing you (it may be) for a considerable period, to ask your liberality to free this place from this incumbrance. The days of large endowments seem to be at an end. Men talk of despoiling the Church of her endowments, but we hear of few who endow her afresh as some of our forefathers endowed her. There have been men of large possessions in this world, who have built such places as this, and larger place than this, from their own

private resources. Sacrifices they must needs have made; but they had a Master who recompensed them for the loss, if it could be called a loss. Alas, how closely calculating have our pecuniary sacrifices become for the sake of the Gospel, and with what rigid economy do we dole out help for such occasions as the present!

Bear this reproach, my brethren: it is not said in unkindness to you personally -far from it; but from a feeling in which I participate with shame. While we so talk about what is to be done with the endowments that our forefathers gave, the age of endowments seems to be gone entirely. What! shall the shade of popery rise up, and say with scorn and contempt at our better creed, “We were the endowers chiefly; we were they that gave thousands to build places of worship; and you find it difficult to gather a hundred pounds to clear a debt." Take away the reproach, as far as lies in you, as regards this place at least; and let the collection now made, be made from liberal hearts and loving hearts, to the honour of Him who is worshipped here in spirit and in truth.

My dear friends, I thank God for this renewed, and (as I have already hinted,) for the present, the last opportunity of declaring these truths in your ears. I believe-and not from mere fancy, but from very satisfactory and delightful evidence from time to time conveyed to me-that he hath not suffered me to speak altogether in vain from this place. Hearts there are which have been touched and melted under the truth, and which have thanked God in secret, and who have from time to time given expression of their sentiments to myself also, of what the Lord has done for them under the ministry of the Word from my unworthy lips. Blessed be the Lord God Almighty, the Saviour, for these things! I shall bear an affectionate remembrance towards the flock assembling in this place: and I would affectionately entreat you to bear me upon the sacrifice and service of your faith before God; that, in the large and populous sphere where I am now called to labour*, God would help me with great power and teaching of his Holy Spirit to speak the truth in the love of it, with singleness of heart, to honour God, and to desire the salvation of all who shall be entrusted to my charge. Dear Christian friends, pray that it may be so: and I beseech our God, in the tender love of his dear Son Jesus Christ, to minister to all your hearts in all the affectionate anxieties that you feel in private about your friends and relations; in all the trembling apprehensions that you experience for your own souls; in all your doubtfulness respecting his truth, and labouring study of his word: praying for divine teaching, in all the difficulties of your relative situations, in all the turmoil of necessary business, and the frequent interruptions of those meditations which compose your chiefest joy: that in all these things, and the variety of the plague of the experience of the inner man in every believing soul, the unction of the Holy One may be full, and rich, and powerful, preserving you from all evil, making you diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, with all prayer and supplication for all saints-with prayer for all that are in authority, for our king, for those who rule under him, for all ministers of religion; that we may be godly and quietly governed, and in all possess a patience under the various provocations of domestic life; that you may have self-possession, self-command, self-denial,

St. Mary's Church, Liverpool.

that the various little difficulties which thwart and distress from day to day, may be warded off by a willingness to yield, as far as truth will permit you, for peace sake. As far as lieth in you, my beloved brethren, be at peace amongst yourselves, be at unity amongst yourselves. Bear with one another, remembering that uniformity is not necessary to unity. Oh, bear with one another. There are diversities far more than in men's hearts who love the truth. You are nearer one another than you think, in conversation after: the proof is, when you kneel down to pray, how much more closely are you held together than when your conversation is controversial. Oh let there be more, then, of the unity of the Spirit among you, and less of willingness to discover differences. There is strength in unity: be strong in the unity of holiness among yourselves. Oh, refrain from all sin, refrain from all falsehood, from all misrepresentation in society, from all exaggeration of reports, from all slandering, from all traducing of a neighbour behind his back.

I beseech you, brethren, be ye holy, for God is holy. Walk closely with God, be much in private, secret prayer: as much as lieth in you in your various situations of life; even in the midst of necessary business, let your hearts stir up with ejaculatory prayer, catching a blessing from God every hour of the day. Walk with God.

And what shall I say more? The time would fail me to give utterance to what my heart contains to my Christian friends. Dear brethren the peace of God, with all that that contains, of the great God-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost-the blessing which is richly laden in Christ Jesus in our nature, which is conveyed in faith, which is applied and experienced in and by the Holy Ghost, the blessing of God which brings his love down, which draws your love upwards, which assimilates you to him, which conforms your character to his, and gives the mind that was in Jesus to the members of Jesus; the blessing of God which bringeth heaven upon earth, that it may take you and make you heirs of heaven-the blessing of God be amongst you!

And if there be a man or woman here present who is yet a stranger to these things, and knows not the power of this grace, may God, in his infinite mercy, render what I have now been permitted to say a blessing to such one. Let a mystery be recognized; let objections be given up; let the vain strugglings of a proud understanding be prostrated; oh, let your hearts be touched. Fellow sinner, believe in God, believe also in Jesus: yield to your own conscience; seek the Holy Ghost-ask, and ye shall receive, for God is true.

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GOD'S CARE FOR HIS CHILDREN.

RIGHT REV. CHARLES RICHARD SUMNer, d.d., LoRD BISHOP OF

WINCHESTER.

RAM'S CHAPEL, HOMERTON*, MAY 4, 1834.

"

'Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little one should perish."-MATTHEW, xviii. 14.

Ir would be difficult for the imagination to conceive a scene more solemn and affecting, than that which was exhibited when our Lord uttered these gracious words. There was there one "made lower than the angels ;""a man of sorrows," meek, and lowly, and without a place to lay his head. Around him pressed the disciples, uninstructed as yet in the truths of the spiritual religion, and slow of understanding to comprehend the nature of their Divine Master's teaching, with pride in their hearts, and strife on their tongues, and eagerly questioning, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. In the midst stood a little child, placed there by Jesus himself, a fit sign and emblem of humility; the important lesson which he intended to deduce from the unseemly contest which had arisen. We can picture to ourselves the astonished disciples, standing like newly awakened men; their dream of ambition vanished, their eyes opened to the real character of those who were to be the lowly followers of the cross, while doctrines so strange and humiliating fell from the lips of their heavenly Teacher:-" Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." The pretensions of each would be silenced successively, as the candidates for honour were reduced to their proper level. The keys of Peter, already given, would fall from his hands, as conveying no claim to the desired distinction: Judas, though he bare the bag, would feel his title forfeited: Simon and Jude, would reap no advantages as Christ's brethren according to the flesh: Andrew, none as being first called: the beloved Disciple himself would be made conscious that he could challenge no place of priority as a right, because he leaned on his Lord's bosom. The kingdom of heaven, our Lord taught them, was for the little children, meek and lowly in heart, as new-born babes, desiring the sincere milk of the Word, that they might grow thereby." The promise was to them, "If children then heirs:" for these God created, and provided with an everlasting love: he sought them, as a shepherd for the missing sheep from his flock upon the mountains; none shall pluck so much as a single soul out of their Father's hands. "It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish."

These words, brethren, suggest several distinct considerations, which I would desire to bring before you, in connexion with the appeal on behalf of those For the Ram's Chapel Charity Schools.

schools, for which your charitable aid is this day requested. May the Holy Spirit, the only wise and true teacher, quicken and enlighten our understandings, and write upon our hearts, and upon the hearts of all the children educated in these schools, and on the hearts of all their parents and friends, that wisdom which alone maketh wise unto salvation.

The text implies, first, THE EXISTENCE OP THINGS WHICH PUT in Peril THE SOULS OF THEM THAT MAY BE THE CHILDREN OF GOD. If man were walking in Eden, he might step upon the flowers which bestrew his path, without dread of encountering some poisonous reptile beneath the cover. If sin had not made this world a wilderness, he might go on his way rejoicing, without risk of harm from the lion in the way, or the ambush of the enemy lying in wait to take his life. But, in the actual state of things, perils encompass man on every side, even from his cradle. No sooner is he born into the world, than he has too much reason to find, that he has not been ushered into a friendly country, where all is fair, and smiling, and peaceful; where the intentions of all who surround him are kind and beneficent, as may be those of his earthly parent, or his nurse who watches him; where he will be considered by no opposing interests, be crushed by no selfish feelings, be misled by no evil example. Pain comes to try his temper: self-indulgence makes him seek his own gratification at the expense of others: passion hurries him into violence: temptation calls from without, corruption answers from within: and Satan, who is as a serpent for subtilty, and as a lion for strength, finds too often, an unresisting prey; and adds another ruined soul to the long list of the victims which it has been his pleasure to devour ever since sin entered into the world, and death by sin.

But I need not particularize; there is not an hour during the imprisonment of the soul of man within this fleshly tabernacle, that innumerable spiritual dangers do not hang over it, meet it in every scene, encompass it in every stage of its existence, and cease to assault it only with the cessation of life itself. Every man knoweth the plague of his own heart. Is there here one ignorant of it? Oh, let me beseech him to descend into its inmost recesses, and search there, and see, and try himself, and then he will find that his own experience, if fairly tried, his own experience will remind him of his own particular bitterness, and most besetting sin.

But, secondly, IT IS CONTRARY TO GOD'S WILL THAT THESE DANGERS SHOULD BE FATAL TO THE SALVATION OF HIS PEeople. They prevail, alas, too frequently, notwithstanding the rich provision of God's inexhaustible mercy in Christ Jesus, his unbounded love, his long-suffering and waiting to be gracious, his repeated offers of free-forgiveness and preventing grace, his expostulations and warnings, his fatherly reproofs, and his healing chastisements. But God desireth not the death of the sinner; he rejoiceth over one sinner that repenteth. It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." What an evidence he has given of this truth in redeeming him from the curse of the law; "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish but have everlasting life." "Herein perceive we the love of God, because he laid

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