might have limited the vision of the Jew;-but that upon us a great light hath arisen; that God hath vouchsafed to speak to us as a man to his friend; that there is not now a faculty of our minds, or a lofty desire of our spirits, which may not find its proper and best exercise in searching into the mysteries of redemption. Therefore will He require of us diligence in this search in all its varied directions, and with reference to all his varied gifts.

And if I were speaking to a congregation of Christians whose occupations were those of ordinary men, I might remind them, that every path of lawful duty affords to him who diligently walks in it, during that his progress, glimpses of Divine truth, and appearances whereby God may be known: how much more then when I address an assembly whose very employment is the search for truth, and the cultivation of the highest powers of man. If in the secluded corners of our Christian land I could point to the book of God's word, and the Sabbath services of his Church, and the sacramental ministrations of his servants, as means of secking after and knowing Him, how much more forcible ought such an appeal to be where the book of his word is the subject of earnest study,― where the services of his Church still offer their daily assistance to its members. If the Christian peasant can from his scanty experience verify the Scripture character of God, and confirm his faith

by his sufferings and his deliverances; what shall be said to those who have the course of God's providence open before them in the history of the empires of the world, who can enter into the labours, and inherit the experience, of those gone before? If from the debasing influences of manual toil, and the barrenness of the untutored intellect, the lowly believer can rise in imagination to the glorious descriptions of Scripture, and endure, as seeing him who is invisible; what shall not be hoped for from those before whom are unrolled the treasures of poetic art, who have been taught the laws according to which the creative mind may wield its mighty and unbounded powers? As thus employed, thus gifted, thus exalted in aim and opportunity above other Christians, do we call upon you to acquaint yourselves with God-his creation, his word, and above all, that greatest of his works which He carries on within us, even the new creation of the spirit of man, and its restoration in righteousness and true holiness.

And as there are many here before whom this place is now first spreading out its treasures and its advantages, let me remind them, that it is not for nothing that their Creator hath preserved them to come hither, but that they may occupy with those talents which He hath entrusted to them, and bear away hence a rich increase of sound learning, both such as directly concerns the knowledge of Himself,

and such as bears upon and illustrates that highest wisdom. Let me remind them, that now is opened before them the opportunity of raising for their guide through life, that high pattern of perfection of which we are speaking; that in proportion as they strive and toil after it now, will their apprehension of it be clear, and their desire for its attainment earnest, through that life of action and trial which is before them: and on the other hand, according as they neglect and undervalue what is here offered to them, and obey not the call of wisdom here continually made, will their future standard of exertion be low and inadequate, their best powers misapplied or ill-furnished, their lives without usefulness, and their end without honour. And let them not suppose, that this search after the knowledge of God consists merely in acts directly devotional, or studies exclusively theological; nor despise the barren and unpromising aspect of some of the paths in which they will be here summoned to pursue it. The fulness of the stature of a perfect man in Christ, is not to be acquired, but by the united and harmonious progress of all their faculties, many of which have not yet learned their mature and healthy action: the very habit of mental application has often to be acquired; the judgment is seldom at first qualified to pronounce on the usefulness or tendencies of this or that course of study; the imagination has yet to

apprehend those first and unchangeable laws, in accordance with which beauty ministers to the service of truth. Therefore will the pursuits to which we call them often seem to be but distantly related to the great ends of human enquiry, and the thoughts which spring from them will range perhaps wide of those subjects to which they would fain give more direct attention: but meanwhile, amidst their humble and hopeful toil, other capacities shall be expanded within them, new desires shall spring up, inconsistencies shall be removed, and errors purged away.

But what we say to them, we say also to all. Few of us are sufficiently mindful of the responsibility of our intellectual powers, or sufficiently careful to keep pure the inlets of thought. We forget that amidst the following of the devices and desires of our own hearts, to which we are prone, we often know the things which we ought not to have known, and leave unknown the things which we ought to have known. We seek for wisdom without that fear of the Lord which is its only beginning. We say to him, 'Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.' And then the varied treasures of history are to us but the sickening details of human selfishness and passion; the glories and the sympathies of our nature sink down in our view, and become of no price in our esteem; the beauty wherewith this earth is spread loses

its charm for us, and we range our efforts under the standard of the world's utility; not remembering the end of things, but only looking one step before us, and becoming cold, and heartless, and unspiritual. And the only remedy for all this is, to set the Lord always before us; to bear in mind that He is King of this world, and Lord of the spirit of man; to maintain with Him a personal and constant communion in prayer and the ordinances of his Church; and to look upon ourselves as his soldiers and servants, with his vows upon us, his name our solemn watchword, and his cross our banner.

But let us pass from contemplation to action, from the ascertaining and setting up our standard of perfection, to the earnest following on to attain to it. "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." As in your search and enquiry after Him you discover from time to time fresh proofs of his perfections, so let every such discovery add to that which you have yet yourselves to acquire and become. And if it should be objected to such a precept, that our pattern should thus be ever shifting before us, that there would be no rest, no end to our endeavours; I reply, that in this consists the very depth of the precept, and its adaptation to the wants of the human spirit. If from the bright array of saints and martyrs we might select one as our ideal pattern, and say, "Let me be like him, and