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though we can do nothing of ourselves to help ourselves, yet there is help for us? Is not the means of this help clearly and distinctly pointed out? "Whoso eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood shall live for ever." Is not the reason why it must be so set forth as clearly and as distinctly, because "He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood dwelleth in Me and I in him,"-because such a person is considered by GoD actually part of His holy and just and righteous SON, and is treated accordingly-insomuch that, as the SON lives by the FATHER, So we who thus become part of the SoN shall live by Him.

Is not this indeed the bread that came down from heaven ? Is it not so in a far higher sense than the manna of which our fathers ate? That was indeed a type of this: that preserved them alive through all their wanderings in the desert, which typifies this life to the Christian; in the barren and desolate regions it sustained their life, and gave them strength to reach the promised land, which to us typifies heaven. But, after all, it was but a type: "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead." This is the reality, of which that was merely the shadow, -this is the true bread from heaven, he that eateth of which shall live for ever.

The Communion of this Sunday is the last Communion from which you will be excluded. Before we again meet at the Table of our LORD, you will have received your mission in life, and will have been endued with strength to perform it. The next call to spiritual food and nourishment will be made to you as perfected Christians-that is to say, as Christians entitled to the full privileges of your calling. See that you do not neglect it. You cannot work in the strength of your SAVIOUR unless you are united to Him, nor can you plead His righteousness and His merits, and the atonement which He has made for your sins and your shortcomings, unless "He is in you and you in Him."

SPECIAL LECTURES

On Matters of Conscience,

ADDRESSED TO THE CATECHUMENS AND THEIR SPONSORS IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM OR IN THE CHURCH, ON WEEKDAY EVENINGS: TOGETHER WITH QUESTIONS FOR SELFEXAMINATION ON MATTERS OF CONSCIENCE.1

LECTURE I.

You will remember that when we considered the covenant of grace, we found one part of it to consist of faith and obedience2-two qualities which we separate for convenience of description, but which in practice cannot really be separated at all. For, in fact, we obey GOD because we believe Him; and we should not obey if we did not believe. On this necessary union of works and faith I

1 The Parson must remember that these are not intended as catechetical questions, but as helps to self-examination. They should be read to the Catechumens as part of the Lecture, and then given them as a guide to their own meditations.

In practice these generally do form the subjects of subsequent conversations, not only between the Parson and his Catechumens, but also between the Parson and the Sponsors. Still, it will be better that the subject should be started by the Catechumen himself, who will generally come of his own accord for assistance or explanation. Conscience should not be treated with the rough hand with which we treat intellect. Some of course there will always be who will take no trouble about the matter, but upon characters like this there is little hope of making impression at all.

2 See Sermon No. I.

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need not enlarge to-day-not only because I have read much to you out of the Homilies about it, but because I spoke of it last Sunday, when I explained the difference between a lively faith and a dead faith, showing you that the latter is a belief in any fact, such as a fact in history, or a fact in geography, or a fact in natural philosophy, which does not concern you at all, and by which your own conduct is by no means affected; while the former is that which so far concerns you, that not only you think it true, but, on account of your thinking so, you act differently from the way in which you would have acted did you not think it true. Now, this change of conduct on account of your faith we call obedience, and sometimes duty, and sometimes also works. The Homilies call them works which spring out of a lively faith.

To ascertain whether our works do spring out of a lively faith, we are told to try ourselves by the rule of God's commandments. This at once tries our works and our faith-our belief in the GOD who gave the commandments, and the effect that belief has produced upon our conduct. And this is the way we are told to prepare ourselves for the Communion, because the Communion is a test to our own consciences of our state towards GOD-it is a type of heaven. To this Communion, and consequently to heaven, we might be admissible in two ways, either by never having broken God's commandments, or from having been forgiven the breaking of them for CHRIST's sake; and we must remember that when we judge ourselves and pronounce that we are unfit for the Communion because we have broken GoD's commandments, and also unfit because GOD has not, even for CHRIST's sake, forgiven us, we are pronouncing our own condemnation : we say that we have sinned, and that GOD has not forgiven us, and that we are in a state of damnation. I can understand a man's conscience keeping him from the Holy Communion, but I cannot understand that man having a moment's peace while it does so; because in pronouncing himself unfit and too bad to be forgiven, he has himself condemned himself to hell.

I will now place your duty before you by putting direct

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SELF-EXAMINATION.

questions to your consciences-dividing them according to GOD's commandments. This is your preparation for the Communion, and this is your preparation for heaven. Your conscience must acquit you as you hear and reflect upon the questions, or, you must have repented and been forgiven for CHRIST's sake; or, you must be cast out when you die from the presence of GOD. It is for you to determine in which of these three states you now are.

I will begin with a few preliminary questions on the authority of the Commandments, and our peculiar reasons as Christians for obeying them.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-EXAMINATION.

1. Have I well considered the peculiar circumstances under which GoD's chosen people of old received the Commandments-that it was just after they had been saved by a Great Deliverer from the house of their bondage and from the hand of their oppressor, and placed in safety and in freedom by their baptism in the Red Sea?

2. Have I remembered that I was myself once under a more grievous bondage-in the hands of a harder taskmaster; that I was saved by a Great Deliverer, and that GOD did not require of me obedience to His Commandments till He had first placed me also in safety and free. dom by the water of baptism?

3. Have I remembered that if obedience, as a proof of thankfulness, was required of the Israelite, still more is it required of me the Christian?

4. Have I remembered that God required obedience of the Israelites because they were His people, and that He was their GOD; and that I therefore should glorify GoD with my body and my spirit for the very same reason: because I was made His child, and because I was bought for a price.

5. Have I always considered that the Commandments are the laws of Him Who shall judge me; and that I must stand one day face to face with Him Who gave them, to be judged according to the deeds done in the body?

6. Have I always considered that these Commandments

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were the very laws I promised to obey when I was first made a member of CHRIST? Have I always then borne in mind that by breaking my own part of the promise, I run a risk of being cut off from Him?

7. Have I considered that each commandment is addressed to me in particular, not to me in common with others; that it is, Thou shalt not do this or that? Have I always borne this in mind, or have I proved that I did not, by excusing myself under the plea that I was not much worse than my neighbours?

8. If I have remembered the similarity between my condition and that of the Israelite, have I also remembered the great difference that is between us? That though GOD required a specific service from him, yet in my case He has left it to my own sense of gratitude to determine the amount of my own duty-"if ye love Me, keep My commandments ?" Have I then by doing little, proved to Him and to myself that I have little thankfulness and little love?

LECTURE II.

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT.

We are all of us, I trust, by this time seriously preparing ourselves for the great Communion of Easter. We are, I hope, examining the state of our own souls, and trying how far we are fit to join the Communion of Saints at the resurrection, of which this Communion at Easter is the type and remembrancer; we are seeing what in us has been decayed by the fraud and malice of the devil, and what by our own carnal will and frailness, and have begun to pray GoD to renew these things in us by the grace of the HOLY GHOST.

You know that we can never dare even to pray to GoD upon our own merits, much less ask Him for His very greatest blessing, the Body and Blood of our LORD and