has ever been known to us. Places consecrated to God's honour, clergy carefully set apart for His service, the Lord's-day piously observed, the public forms of prayer, the decencies of worship, these things viewed as a whole, are sacred relatively to us, even if they were not, as they are, divinely sanctioned. Rites, which the Church has appointed, and with reason, for the Church's authority is from Christ, being long used, cannot be disused without harm to our souls. Confirmation, for instance, may be argued against, and undervalued; but surely no one in the common run of men wilfully resists the Ordinance, but will thereby be visibly a worse Christian than he otherwise would have been. He will find (or rather others will find for him, for he will scarcely know it himself,) that he has declined in faith, humility, devotional feeling, reverence, and sobriety. And so in the case of all other forms, even the least binding in themselves, it continually happens that a speculative improvement is a practical folly, and the wise are taken in their own craftiness.

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Therefore, when profane persons scoff at our forms, let us argue with ourselves, thus; and it is an argument which all men, learned or unlearned, can enter into. These forms, even were they of mere human origin, (which learned men say is not the case, but even if they were,) are at least of as spiritual and edifying a character as the rites of Judaism. Yet Christ and His Apostles did not

even suffer these latter to be irreverently treated or suddenly discarded. Much less may we suffer it in the case of our own; lest stripping off from us the badges of our profession, we forget there is a faith for us to maintain, and a world of sinners to be eschewed."

SERMON VIII.

THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY.

THE GLORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

ISAIAH lx. 1.

Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

1

This day we

OUR Saviour said to the woman of Samaria, "The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father 1." And upon to-day's Festival I may say to you in His words on another occasion, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." commemorate the opening the door of faith to the Gentiles, the extension of the Church of God through all lands, whereas, before Christ's coming, it had been confined to one nation only. This dissemination of the Truth throughout the world had been the subject of prophecy, "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the

1 John iv. 21.

curtains of thine habitations. Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited'. In these words the Church is addressed as Catholic; which is the distinguishing title of the Christian Church, as contrasted with the Jewish. The Christian Church is so constituted as to be able to spread itself out in its separate branches into all regions of the earth; so that in every nation there may be found a representative and an offshoot of the sacred and gifted Society, set up once for all by our Lord after His resurrection.

This characteristic blessing of the Church of Christ, its Catholic nature, is a frequent subject of rejoicing with St. Paul, who was the chief instrument of its propagation. In one Epistle he speaks of Gentiles being "fellow-heirs" with the Jews, “and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the Gospel." In another he enlarges on the "mystery now made manifest to the saints, viz. Christ among the Gentiles, the hope of glory 2."

The day on which we commemorate this gracious appointment of God's Providence, is called the Epiphany, or bright manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles; being the day on which the wise-men

1

Is. liv. 2, 3.

2

Eph. iii. 6. Col. i. 26, 27.

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came from the East under guidance of a star, to worship Him, and thus became the first fruits of the heathen world. The name is explained by the words of the text, which occur in one of the lessons selected for to-day's service, and in which the Church is addressed. Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall rise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and Kings to the brightness of thy rising. Thy people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified'."

That this and other similar prophecies had their measure of fulfilment when Christ came, we all know; when His Church, built upon the Apostles and Prophets, wonderfully branched out from Jerusalem as a centre into the heathen world round about, and gathering into it men of all ranks, languages, and characters, moulded them upon one pattern, the pattern of their Saviour, in truth, and righteousness. Thus the prophecies concerning the Church were fulfilled at that time in two respects, as regards its sanctity and its Catholicity.

It is often asked, have these prophecies had then and since their perfect accomplishment? Or are

1 Is. lx. 1-3. 21.