with themselves, would find a cause of offence in it; and as these persons must always form a large class, it is no wonder that our blessed Lord's preaching found no favour with a great body of His countrymen. But all this had been predicted long before. Isaiah had forewarned his countrymen that the Lord of Hosts Himself, while offering to be "a sanctuary,' should become "a stone of stumbling and rock of offence to both the houses of Israel,—a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem."

And when our Lord began to preach, He announced to those who heard Him, that He should himself be a scandal and offence to the world, that His doctrine should be a stumbling-block, and that His followers should be hated of all men for His name's sake.

Nor did the event fail to justify the prediction. One while, His countrymen were "offended in Him," because He was "the carpenter's son," and so they rejected His doctrine out of prejudice to His person. Another while, His very disciples not only were "offended because of Him," but "forsook Him and fled" from Him in His hour of trial, because He did not manifest His divine power for the destruction of His enemies.

And so with regard to His teaching. He bids the young Ruler, who professed a desire to inherit

eternal life, go and sell his goods and give to the poor; and the result is, that the rich man is offended; "when he heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions." So again, on another occasion, when He had answered the inquiry of the Pharisees, with respect to the payment of the tribute, in a manner that ought to have filled them with both remorse and conviction, all that is recorded of them is, that instead of acknowledging, Him for their Lord and their God, "they marvelled and left Him, and went their way." And so once more, when He had declared in the synagogue of Capernaum, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you,” -we are told that those who heard Him murmured at the hardness of the saying, that, in short, it was an offence to them; and it is added, "From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him."

Nor was it otherwise when the Bridegroom was taken from them. We have only to read the Acts of Apostles to see how continually the evil tempers and prejudices of men made the preaching of the Gospel an offence to them. And the Epistles are full of evidence to the same point. St. Paul testifies to the Corinthians that the doctrine of Christ crucified is unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks,

foolishness-a hindrance that is, and an obstacle, and a discouragement, and an occasion of falling. And the same Apostle speaks to the Galatians of "the offence of the Cross" as though the expression were quite familiar to them: while St. Peter, addressing himself to the faithful, declares that unto them that believe, Christ "is precious, but unto them which be disobedient" He is "a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even unto them which stumble at the Word."

Enough has now been said to show you that the religion of Christ Jesus our Lord was, even from the first, an offence to those to whom it was offered. So it has been throughout all ages. His doctrines, His Ordinances, His Church, His Ministers have been so many stumbling-blocks to the world; and so, no doubt, they will continue to the end. It is the world's way, and the Church's trial. And, therefore, brethren, it behoves us, each for himself, to reflect how far we have hopes of being inheritors of that blessedness which He, who is the Church's Head and Lord, has pronounced on those who are not offended in Him. In the remainder of this discourse it will be my object to offer some suggestions to your notice, which may aid you in your inquiry.

And first I must observe, that our condition is

very different from that of those to whom the Gospel was first preached, and, therefore, if we are offended at it, there is far less excuse for us than there was for them. We profess and call ourselves Christians; we continually declare our belief in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. They, on the other hand, had been brought up as Jews or Heathens, and for them to embrace Christianity involved a change in the opinions, feelings, and habits of a lifetime. If, to such persons, the doctrines of the Cross were a stumbling-block, it was surely no great marvel, human nature being what it is.

But with ourselves, as I have already said, the case is widely different. The Church can never appear to us as a new sect struggling for existence, and every where spoken against; she comes before us supported by vouchers of unquestionable authority, and hallowed with the reverence of ages, the birth-place and the home of all that has been great and noble and of good report in the eyes of man, of all that is precious in the sight of God. Into this Church we were admitted when infants, and so put in possession of privileges which can be found no where else to this Church we declared our allegiance in the face of God and the congregation, when we were confirmed by the Bishop; and with this Church we solemnly proclaim our communion,

whenever, in the house of God, we join in that Book of Common Prayer, which it is our happy privilege, as members of the English branch of Christ's Catholic Church to possess,-that Book of Common Prayer to which we confidently appeal as expressing the sense of the Universal Church,-the Truth, as it has been held by the consent of all times, places, and persons.

Shame, therefore, and grief it were for us to be offended in her. Undutiful, yea, unnatural were it for the child to lift up his hand or his voice against his mother. The Church to which we belong is Christ's representative, and vicegerent on earth to us. We know that in her the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments are rightly administered, by a clergy holding their succession from the Apostles, and, therefore we do not doubt that the Church of England is the Church of Christ in England, the English branch of the One Holy Catholic Church, apart from which there can be no safety.

How, then, can any who call themselves her children find cause or offence in her? Are they wiser than she? or purer? or better? Is their judgment infallible that they set it against her's? Is their life so heavenly that her ordinances are of no use to them?