THE SEASON OF MANHOOD.

"Before honour is humility."-Prov. xv. 33.

You will have seen by this time that I am carrying out from the New Testament arranged by the Calendar according to the teaching of the Church, the very same lesson which I have already shadowed out from the Old Testament, in the march of the Israelites towards the promised land.

And it is quite true, that, besides the type of the Israelites in the wilderness, we do possess in the Church Calendar, from Christmas to Easter, that is to say, from the birth of CHRIST to His glorious resurrection, another and a livelier picture of a Christian's progress through this state of trial, to the blessedness of His promised land. There is, therefore, and there must be, a close resemblance between these two pictures of the same thing. In the earlier Sundays of the Calendar, we see set forth, only now much more vividly and distinctly than in the old type, the protection, and the guidance, and the grace vouchsafed us by GoD, before we were, I will not say deserving, for that we never are, but able to deserve it. There is the same obedience required, the same instruction imparted in the Sundays after the Epiphany, which we find in the commandments of Sinai, and in precisely the same order. In neither case is the commandment given first, and the protection vouchsafed, as a consequence of having obeyed it. In both cases alike the great deliverance is effected

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THE HARD WORK OF LIFE.

first, the people are adopted, called, set forth on their journey, led by the presence of GoD, and all this out of GOD's free grace, and no deservings of their own. This

is done first, the commandments are given afterwards. In the one case the pillar of the cloud, in the other CHRIST Himself, walks the road, step by step, before His people. They are expected to follow where He leads, and to receive and walk by the commandments of their GOD, not so much in the hope of an immediate reward, though that they will receive, as in gratitude for a deliverance already effected. "We love Him, because He first loved us."

I have shown you that the Exodus from Egypt, the Baptism of the Red Sea, the Pillar of the Cloud, the Commandments of Sinai, and the additional help and guidance, and protection, and means of access to GOD in worship afforded by the tabernacle, typify the childhood and youth of the Christian, together with his call to Confirmation, and the additional help he acquires by it. I have shown you, too, that the same season of life is pictured in the Birth of CHRIST, and the instruction of the seasons after Christmas, while Septuagesima, like Sinai, completes the course with the image of Confirmation and its consequences. I am going now to lay before you, by the Sundays in Lent, your future course,-the stern realities of manhood; the hard work of life,—the road of your duty lying through a desolate wilderness, which your Master trod, and which, as soon as He has strengthened you for your journey, you must tread after Him, if you wish ever to reach the place to which that same path has led Him.

You have longed, no doubt, as all young people do, for the time of your coming to manhood and womanhood. You have fancied it a thing to be desired; and you are right-so it is-every part of the road that leads to eternal life is a thing to be desired. You have been looking forward with hope to the greater liberty and fuller enjoyments of that state. You have done well. The liberty is greater, the enjoyments are fuller. That is to say, greater means of serving GOD are put in your power, and fuller enjoyments result from a consciousness of having

LIBERTY BRINGS RESPONSIBILITY.

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served Him. Thanks be to GOD, He has left no part of this life without its own flowers and its own fruits, which those who journey along it are free to gather.

But remember, if you increase your liberty, in the same proportion you increase your responsibility. If your enjoyments multiply, so do your temptations. Do not forget that the Old Testament typified the maturity of manhis march from Sinai to the Promised Land-by a path through a desert; or that the Christian Church points out the progress from Confirmation to a blessed resurrection by the season of Lent.

Lent has its festivals and its enjoyments too just as life has. The Sundays in Lent are not Sundays of Lent. They are times of rest and refreshing, like the halts in the wilderness: but for all that, the main business of life lies through the hard, stony, uninviting path of duty-the weekdays of Lent-the time of abstinence and self-denial.

I would not discourage you. I would point to the Holy Land beyond the wilderness-to Easter at the end of Lent to the prize of your high calling in CHRIST JESUS at the end of your path of duty. But I may not deceive you into the idea that the path which I am now pointing out to you is an easy one. I may not say any thing but what my Master said of it. I must tell you that they who would come after Him must not only take up their cross, but that they must take it up daily to follow Him. But I will not tell you that you can enter into heaven, except through much tribulation. I will not talk to you of any thing but a strait gate and a narrow road for you to travel in, for my Master has told me that though there is a wide gate and a broad road, and many people travelling in it, yet that that gate and that road will lead you to destruction.

I must tell you this-or how would you believe me when I spoke to you about Confirmation? What need of strength from above if the path of your life were easyyour burthen light-and your journey safe? Willingly will I point out to you, from the Old Testament, the Rock that followed GoD's chosen with its refreshing waters,

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THE SEASON OF MANHOOD.

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and tell you from the New that that Rock was CHRIST. Willingly will I tell you of the manna in the Old Testament, and show you how " man did eat angels' food"and then call you to the Holy Communion, and tell you that the FATHER giveth you far more than He gave the Israelites of old-that He giveth you the True Bread from heaven, of which that was but a type. I will call you to eat of it again and again, "for the journey is too much for you." I will show you how you may "go in the strength of that Meat to the mount of GOD." But I will not lead you to suppose, either that the wilderness of this world supplies meat for the soul, or that the journey is not hard to flesh and blood; for if I did you might attempt it on your own strength, if I did you might think lightly of the nourishment which your heavenly FATHER has provided for you, and so "faint by the way," and never reach

your home.

I must tell you what manhood is, and what you must expect to find it, not what you would fancy it, or wish it to be. And I will tell it you from the Church. Look at the Gospels, Epistles, and Collects of Lent, just as you would look into the guide-book of a journey you are about to take. See from them what sort of country you are going through; see what you may expect to meet with; and see what preparation you must make, and what provisions are necessary for your journey.

The First Sunday in Lent shows us mortification of the flesh through regeneration.

The Second-our spiritual weakness.

The Third-GOD's defence against our spiritual enemies. The Fourth-Justification by being made one with CHRIST.

The Fifth-The grace of perseverance.

The Sixth-which brings us into Holy Week, and carries us step by step, in its variety of Gospels and Epistles, through the great and mysterious doctrines of the Atonement, teaches us voluntary conformity of our lives to the humiliation of CHRIST.

This, and none other, is your path along Lent through Easter Eve, to the joyful morning of Easter Day. This,

DIFFICULT DUTIES.

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and none other, is your path of manhood and womanhood. through the grave and gate of death, to a joyful resurrection, on the last Easter, the Day of Judgment.

First Sunday. There is a great difference, you cannot help seeing that, between the duties pointed out to us by CHRIST'S example in this stage of our life, and of the Church's teaching, and those which were pointed out to us in the Sundays before Septuagesima. Those were duties towards our neighbours-obedience to the Church, obedience to our parents, considerateness, benevolence, and the like that is to say, obvious, and therefore easy, duties, -duties suited to the strength of young Christians. Those which are held out to us now, also from the example of our Master, are personal duties, less obvious, less supported by public opinion and the praise of man, less seen, and consequently very much more difficult. We are like the disciples, who, having performed successfully many great works in their SAVIOUR'S Name, tried to cast out the devil from the young man who was brought to them during their SAVIOUR'S absence, and were surprised to find themselves absolutely unable to do so. When afterwards they asked their heavenly Master, "Why could not we cast him out?" they were told that "this kind comes not out but by prayer and fasting."

The disciples, then, were young Christians, learners like yourselves, and CHRIST taught them, as the Church in His Name teaches you, by putting easy things before them first. You have been told to love, honour, and succour your father and mother, to honour and obey the Queen, and all that are put in authority under her, to submit yourselves to your governors, teachers, spiritual pastors and masters, to order yourselves lowly and reverently to all your betters, to hurt nobody by word or deed, to bear no malice nor hatred in your hearts, to keep your hands from picking and stealing, and your tongue from evil speaking, lying, and slandering. These, and many things like these, you have been told to do, which, as regenerate as children of GOD-as not only disciples,

1 The word Easter is from the same root as the words East and Yeast, and like them signifies rising.

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