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Reflection.

And does He not blot out every sin that is confessed?

Will He lay to my charge the sins I remember with shame, which I would not do again to save my life?

Does not He know that I would choose His love with all losses, rather than all the kingdoms of the world, the happiest home, the longest life of earthly peace, without it?

Therefore, I believe in God, His character, promises, and revealed will.

I hope in spite of my many sins, my little repentance, my great inconstancy.

I love, by desiring to love God in our Lord Jesus Christ.

I know that He loves me, and He knows that I would love Him. "Who shall separate us?"

A Good Answer.

MANNING.

FATHER and mother who troubled themselves very little about God and our holy religion, lost their only child by death. The parents not only made bitter lamentations, but murmured against God's providence,

as is usual with those especially who think least of God, but require that He should think all the more of them, and keep them and theirs like the apple of His eye.

They asked their pastor if God, as the Scripture says, is love; why then did He take away from them their only child?

This clergyman replied, "You want to know from me why God has taken away your child; I answer, He desires to have one of your family in heaven. You parents do not wish to go to heaven, and had the child remained yours, you would not have allowed him to go either. Therefore the Lord has taken it to Himself at the right time. If you had a real parental heart you would follow the child, and seek it in the ways of virtue and godliness, and you would find it there and never lose it again."

Reflection

J. C. F.

ON THE COMMOTION CREATED IN A SMALL HOUSE BY HAVING THE CHIMNEY SWEPT.

BY JAMES HILDYARD, B.D., RECTOR OF INGOLDSBY. ALLING this morning before noon at the house of a small farmer in my parish, I found his wife and daughters all in confusion because "the sweeps had just been." The good dame was full of concern that I should have come at such an unseasonable time. "All the carpets were up," the chairs and the tables one on the top of another, and the ornaments of the little parlour all huddled together under a dirty table cover. In fact, nothing was "as it should be;" and, worst of all, neither the mistress nor the young ladies were "fit to be seen!" Perceiving their distress, I beat a hasty retreat, promising to call again another time when they should be less busy.

Pursuing my morning's walk, I was led into a short train of reflection on the conduct of these well-meaning but weak people. What consternation had I unintentionally created! what vexation, where I meant only good! what fretting and fuming would there be after I was gone!-and all on account of a parcel of dirty sweeps! How much happier, thought I to myself, might these folk have been had they had the small amount of philosophy-or shall I not rather call it religion-requisite to make them despise

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such trifles, and hold them as contemptible as the smoke that filled their chamber!

Such occasions, will constantly arise in the path of us all. They are the petty trials sent to prove our faith. And, curiously enough, persons who will bear greater ills with comparative equanimity, will often be found not proof against these little inconveniences.

Thus have I known a sand-fly or a gnat cause more real annoyance than some serious misfortune. A piece of china accidentally let fall will throw the lady of the house off her balance for a whole evening, who would perhaps have read with cold indifference in the day's newspaper of an entire ship's crew having been drowned.

Happy they who, bearing constantly in mind that but "one thing is needful," learn to disregard all other matters in comparison, and endure accordingly with equal mind both the great and the little vexations of life.

Short Sermon.

'Hearing' and 'Worshipping.'

BY I. R. VERNON, M.A., STOGUMBER, TAUNTON.

"Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; bring an offering and come before Him; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." 1 Chronicles xvi. 20.

HAT do we come to Church for? What is our object in assembling in the House of God?

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Want of thought in answering this question has brought about the common use of expressions which again help to keep up a wrong idea as to the purpose of our presenting ourselves before God in His courts. Thus, such phrases as Whom do you hear?'-or, 'I am going to hear such a one to-day,' are in common use. And to the question, What is your object in coming to church?'-some would directly answer, 'I come in order to get good;' and hence, such church-comers, if they are in the parish of a preacher who fails to interest them, or whose doctrine they take upon themselves to condemn, will stay from church, or go elsewhere, thinking only of hearing, and having, in St. Paul's words, itching ears.' Nay, in some cases, if the clergyman by his faithfulness, or by his infirmity, have offended them, they will show their anger by refusing to go to hear him any more.'

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You will agree with me that, with many, the question, 'What is your object in going to church ?' would be thus answered, 'We go there to hear? We go to get good.' And there may be some readers who will be surprised at my calling such an idea incorrect. Let me therefore explain my meaning. I do not deny that one object of our coming to church is this, of getting good, of hearing. What I say is that, though an object, it is not (or should not be) the object. We do come to hear God's Word read and preached, and with deep reverence and Godly fear should we hear it, as being the savour of life unto life to them who heed it, but the savour of death unto death to them who slight it.

We come also to get and to receive a good and a blessing at the hands of the King, by the faithful use of the means which He has appointed, and this not only through the channel of preaching and reading, but through the channels of prayer and the sacraments.

But this (so to speak) more selfish part is not the whole nor the chief part of our service. This is one object; but the principal object of our coming before God should be a nobler than this. And this noblest object is pointed out in the text, 'Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; bring an offering and come before Him; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness'

The true answer then to the question, 'What is our object in presenting ourselves before God?' is this :-We come to offer to Him our worship, of which reverent 'hearing' is indeed a part, but only a part, and not the highest part. Public worship-this is the great end of our assembling ourselves together; and hence, we ought rather to describe ourselves as 'worshippers' than merely as

In truth we should not come to church merely to get but to give. Not to take only, but to offer. Not to hear simply but to worship. 'Give unto the Lord' we are invited; bring an offering, and come before Him: worship the Lord.' We are to bring something, to bring an offering. It is wonderful, but it is true, that poor fallen man has that to offer which God not only deigns to accept, but desires to receive.

What then is this offering, the bringing of which constitutes worship?

It is the offering of ourselves; all that we are, and all that we have; our whole being and having; spirit, soul, body, substance. 'Spirit, soul, and body,' this is the three-fold division given by St. Paul; and now let us see how each may be offered to God in our presenting ourselves before Him to worship Him.

The spirit is the highest part in man, and we may perhaps describe this as being the Mind, or the understanding. It is that in us which is most like to God, for God is a spirit. Hence, as our Saviour teaches us, they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.' Our worship must be spiritual worship; our mind must give full assent to what we are doing, and must be as it were the priest in us, deliberately and consciously offering to God the sacrifice of the whole man. Our service must be reasonable service; the mind must preside at it; and the spirit which God gave must willingly and with all humble and pure faith fall down and worship its Maker. So that we are to bring into God's courts the offering of the spirit's worship, our whole mind and attention, and intention and belief, are to be laid at the footstool of the King. Our thoughts and our purpose are to be, so far as can be in our fallen state, fixed upon our service. To be accepted or counted as worship at all, our offering must be that of the spirit.

But beside the worship of the Understanding, that of the Heart is to be likewise offered. The devotion of the soul, of the affections, is to be brought to God's House and laid before Him. As the spirit is that part of us which is most like to God, so the soul seems to be that life in us which the lower animals in some measure share; the seat of our affections, our longings, our emotions. And God will have offered our heart-worship as well as our mindworship. Ah! but you will tell me, and I shall sadly agree with you, that here is the difficulty, to bring to God really the offering of the worship of spirit and heart. The Mind wanders from our service, and the Heart too often remains cold. Nor shall we ever wholly correct this here; yet watchfulness and earnestness may, by the grace of God, do wonders towards it. And let us remember that our worship in God's house is not to be another thing from our life outside of those walls. Our whole life is to be given to God, only our worship is a special and direct dedication of it to Him. And the more entire is our giving of our lives to God in common life, the less imperfect will be our endeavour to make a pure offering of spiritual and hearty worship when we bow before Him in His courts. And the more we accustom ourselves to meditate upon God, upon His perfections,

Short Sermon.

and upon His love, the more readily shall we raise our mind to Him in the service of the Sanctuary; and the more naturally and habitually will our hearts, with their affections and desires, expand to Him at such times, as a flower to the warm sun.

It is right, moreover, to use every means that we may to assist and stimulate this flagging attention of the mind, and languid devotion of the soul. Hence, the advantage (not to speak of them now as indeed part of our offering to God)-hence the benefit to ourselves even, and the aid to the spirituality and heartiness of our worship, of external beauty appealing to the eye and ear; such aids as are provided by the beauty, so far as may be, of the church itself, and also of the music and singing. We should honour God with our best in all things; but besides this, we are so made that our own devotions are much assisted by such external aids.

But let us now turn our thought to the share which the body may claim in this worship of our whole being. And here it is that the evil effect of that misconception of which I spoke is to be most perceived. Many come to church as hearers merely and not as 'worshippers.' And the demeanour and behaviour of too many accords only too well with this idea. Does the general posture and behaviour of many congregations suggest the idea of worshipping? Is it not that rather of hearing merely? What else can we gather when we see not a few who have neither infirmity nor age to plead, sitting during the prayers? This arises, no doubt, from want of thought, as I will prove to you, for which of us would for a moment think of sitting to pray in our private devotions?

Think, moreover, thus about it. Would any sit in the presence of a king while pleading with him for his life, and for his grace and favour? Or at the queen's court, would any take such a position as suitable while addressing her? And I am a great King, saith the Lord of Hosts.'

But one will say to me, perhaps, 'So that we offer spiritual worship, the worship of the body is of little consequence.' I think it may be answered to this that the actions of the body are no bad tests of the earnestness of the spirit. Do men plead for their lives with that cold dispassionate demeanour? or, are not clasped hands and streaming eyes, and bent knees in such a case the natural and necessary outlets and expressions of the earnestness of the soul?

Moreover we cannot worship God in public without in some degree enlisting the body also in the service. Where would be our public prayers and praises without the aid of what David calls the best member that we have ?' Where were even our listening without the bodily sense of hearing? Moreover, God requires the worship of the whole man-spirit, soul, and body. The same Word which tells us that our worship must be spiritual, and requires for God the offering of the heart, demands also that the body shall be presented a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.'

Thus we are to worship God with our whole being when we come into His courts. Also, we ought to worship Him with our substance, to offer Him of that we have. And in this privilege both the poor and the well-to-do should claim their share, and even

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