FOLLOWER

"Barnabas and Mark."-And finally, when on one such mission, viz., that to the Gentile converts, his commendatory letter from Jerusalem speaks of him as having "hazarded his life for the Gospel," which, again, literally recalls a strong saying of his MASTER, whoso loseth his life for My sake, "shall find it.”

But perhaps it would be impossible to select a more fitting motto for the whole course of St. Barnabas, than the verse out of the Gospel which the Church appoints for to-day. His character, in truth, though without the majestic loftiness of a St. Paul or St. Peter, is emphatically that of self-sacrifice for CHRIST's people, and for CHRIST. And "greater love hath no man than this"; and may we not truly add, that greater honour hath no man than this, to be allowed to do, in pain and death, after the example of the SON of GOD HIMself? And a special blessedness of all who are trying to imitate CHRIST closely, will be, that as they are the medium, even now, of the "consolation" of the HOLY GHOST to others, so their own consolation “also aboundeth by CHRIST."

Dearly beloved, let this be our final lesson to-day, to follow CHRIST closely, as manifesting that our love to HIм is a reality; keeping to His very words as nearly as we can, that (if He so grant!) we may also become meet for His HOLY SPIRIT'S use in His Church -the vehicles of a grace not our own!

W. J. L.

SERMON LXI.

THE GOSPEL MYSTERIES; THE SOURCE AND REWARD OF OBEDIENCE.

Trinity Sunday.

ST. JOHN iii. 9.

HOW CAN THESE THINGS BE?

Of course it is so obvious what our thoughts as Christians must this day be, that it is almost superfluous to say that I shall ask your meditations to the subject of the Gospel Mysteries. We are on this festival to celebrate the greatest Evangelical Mystery: the substance, and crown, and fulfilment of all the other feasts, and celebrations, and commemorations of Holy Church; and yet more, the source and fountain of all our practical duties. Faith centres in the TRINITYChristian obedience also flows from the same most blessed Truth. If "without Faith it is impossible to please GOD," so also "Faith without works is dead, being alone." Hence it is that the feast of Trinity Sunday is placed midway in the sacred calendar; because it sums up all those great doctrines of our Christian faith, which we have successively commemorated—the Incarnation, Ministry, Temptation, Satis

SERIES II.

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VOL. II.

faction, and Resurrection of our LORD, together with His glorious Ascension and the coming of the HOLY GHOST: and yet more, because, beginning from it, we now enter upon those practical duties of daily life, which are brought before us in the six months-the half of one circle of our Christian life which must pass before Advent.

But only to look at the doctrine of the Sacred TRINITY in this way as an ecclesiastical era, is of course unworthy of its supreme dignity and majesty. This festival will aptly lead us to meditate upon the nature of religious belief-what Faith is-and the need of holding fast sound doctrine in the form of words once delivered to the Saints.

Now the only Faith of which our Catechism speaks is, belief in all the Articles of the Christian Faith: it is upon the expression of this sound Faith that we are baptized, because "he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." If as Christians, even as the simplest, we are required to be taught "the Belief, the LORD'S Prayer, and the Ten Commandments"; and if there be other things above and involved in and proved by these plainer symbols, which we are bound "to believe and to know for our soul's health;"—if at that deep hour, when we "go hence and are no more seen," the sweet and solemn Christian Creed is pronounced in our ears, that the Church may be certified whether "we do believe as Christian men should or not" how needful is it upon us duly, as the great mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven pass in review before us, to examine ourselves, that "our faith may be found in the day of the LORD, laudable, glorious, and honourable, to the increase of glory and endless felicity." If on this day also, we have especially prayed that "GOD

would keep us steadfast in the profession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the Eternal TRINITY," let us see to it that this be a lively Faith, that we know what Faith is, and that we know HIм in Whom we have believed.

First, then, let us look upon our Faith, not as an idle apprehension, but, as costing us somewhat. If Faith has no struggles, let us be sure that ours is a dying, waning Faith, or a false deceitful Faith. Our Christian life was not meant to be easy: we may not have all gratification and calm still sunshine. The Gospel course is a struggle from first to last, both of body and squl. Faith being in some sense the exercise of our intellect and mind, we must practise self-denial, check and cross our wayward thoughts and fancies, just as we find ourselves bound, even religion apart, to curb and control our appetites and bodies. Each part of our compound nature requires the same sort of discipline and rules. Were we to give ourselves up to our bodies, we should fall into all sorts of vices and sins: so is it with the mind. The trials and difficulties of Faith are merciful checks and breaks which the Gospel throws in the way of our wandering and presumptuous intellect, reining us back as it were from forbidden things. Far, then, from the common and ungodly saying being true, that our intellects were given us for use, and that God will not judge us for using them, even though they conduct us to the actual disbelief of the abstract dogmas and mysterious doctrines of the Faith, such as those of the TRINITY Or the Everlasting Divinity of our LORD and SAVIOUR: we might as well say that GOD will not judge us for obeying our passions of revenge or lust by committing murder or adultery. One way then of looking at the chief Gospel mysteries is, to accept

them as such gracious means of chastening our wayward minds—of curbing and taming our intellects—of compelling them to bow down before something above and beyond them: even GoD's own Presence. Our intellects are given us to master, not to be mastered by them. We must fast in soul as much as in body. And either humiliation will in the end conduce to our greater and truer joy. It is only by making ourselves voluntarily poor, that we shall receive the true riches: only by stripping ourselves, that we shall have all things by becoming fools, that we shall be wise unto GOD. If we could at once master such an awful doctrine as that of the Holy TRINITY, where were the blessedness, "because we have not seen, of believing"? The crown can only be won through the cross; and the way of the cross is one of dust and sweat, poverty of soul, a bowed and broken attitude, and sore weary limbs and pain.

And not only is the merciful provision of mysteries and difficulties in the faith, which we must receive precisely because we may not, as we say, understand them, in exact and perfect harmony, with that bodily self-denial, which even for health's sake we must exercise, but yet more.

True faith in the chief Gospel mysteries, is, besides being in this way a means of self-discipline, also a means towards realizing love for the brethren in the Great Communion of Saints. Common and unspiritual minds are apt to think of the great Christian dogmas as rather repulsive simply, and exclusive. We are said in the Church to anathematize all who do not think with us, in that solemn confession which we have this day and last Sunday publicly sung not only is it said that we declare our own belief, but we interfere with that of