for his daily drink; he glorified him in poverty by resignation, and not by removing the cruel afflictions which the hardships of life, the unkindness of men, and the desertion of friends, heaped upon him. O be contented to be abased and to abound, to be distressed and to suffer need, with the Son of God.

Learn at Bethlehem the purest lessons of that religion which unites the soul to God, which makes us one with the Father and the Son. Come into the world anew day by day as he did, not to find your rest in it, but to make it the scene of your love and obedience to God, of your cheerful content, of your unrepining suffering, and of your goodwill to men. Learn from the entrance of our Lord into the world, as from all his actions, that duty is the only perfect happiness allowed to man upon earth; and that to be conscious we are in the service of our Maker, and to enjoy a well-grounded hope of his favour, is to have all that is

really essential to peace of mind. Then who shall possess dearer consolations? who shall boast brighter hopes? who shall say that Providence is an unsafe guide, or a poor friend, or a worthless portion? Let Christ be formed in your heart the hope of glory, and "God will supply all your need, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

21

SERMON II.

ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST.

ST. JOHN xix. 25-27.

1

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus, therefore, saw his mother, and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the, disciple, Behold thy mother! and from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

OUR religion is for the poor and needy, and him that hath no helper. It is eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame; the

portion of the fatherless, the desolate, and the widow. For it is the grace of God; it is the riches of his glory who is love; whom to serve is to love him and one another; whom to know is not by the strength of our reason, or even of our faith, but by the childlike reliance and simplicity of our love.

So especially did he teach whose memory the church throughout the world honours with thankfulness and with veneration this day; the disciple whom Jesus loved, the friend whose spirit was one with Christ, who left all to follow him, who cheerfully parted with all temporal hopes that he might possess Christ, who wept at the foot of the cross, who became, and is, the spiritual son of his blessed mother, whom not having seen we may also love for the sake of his and our Master. We are come to the spirits of just men made perfect. We with them are one society, as many of us as have cast in our lot with them, have taken up

our cross with them, and are with them born not of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God; not children of the world but created anew in Christ Jesus by that faith which worketh by love.

We look back and glory in our spiritual descent from them. The fathers of our Israel, the founders under Christ of the holy universal church, the mild and upright examples of the truth which they planted; we bless God who has set them before us in the way, and has thus drawn us with love to repeat from generation to generation, till we are inflamed with their spirit, "See how these Christians

loved one another !"

"He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love." Therefore said our Saviour, "Love one another." For this is an indispensable sign of our religion, the new commandment that is binding upon us as Christians, ourselves saved through the life of our Lord.

In order that this love may be raised