ADAPTATION OF TEACHING.

39

grace of Confirmation would be, for instance, the parable of the talents, or any similar passage, in order to furnish the leading idea; and upon this we must build, as upon an axiom, that sacramental grace is given by GOD freely to all His children-if not in equal proportions, still in proportions suited to their stations and capacities,—that all receive it alike gratuitously, not as a reward for learning their Catechism or any thing else; but that, according to the use we make of it after we do receive it, we work out our own salvation with it, and are received as faithful servants by the GOD who gave us the means by which we work it out; or else, by the misuse of that same free gift, are cast out into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

It is manifest that the same spiritual treatment would be necessarily inapplicable to all cases, that what would be life to the one would be death to the other; that he who would sharpen and exaggerate zeal in an age when, for the love of GOD, every man's hand was against his neighbour, and he who would denounce formalism at a time when it is difficult even to bring our own people to Church twice a week; he who would speak of duty only to the man who is blind to sacramental grace; or of devotion only to him whose faith is unfruitful of good works; of eternal life to the Pharisee, or of formal hypocrisy to the Sadducee, would alike be doing the devil's work with God's weapons; and, however well intentioned he might be, would remind us of Paley's inexperienced architect, who added weight instead of support to the falling wall, by building his buttress on the wrong side.

The Church catechist will always regulate his line of teaching by the prevailing colouring which the character of the nation, the fashion of the age, or the tone of any particular class of society, casts over every individual, as well as the particular idiosyncrasy of the individual him

self.

Perfection of character must be gradually and painfully built up by grace; the office, therefore, of the Church in any particular nation, or any particular age, is to cherish

40

ON CONFIRMATION.

the element which that age or nation does possess-to use it as a foundation, and upon it to build up the perfect Christian. In both cases alike she will have to encounter difficulties, different no doubt according to the different aspects, but we have no reason to suppose that it is easier to educe practice from faith, than we find it ourselves to build up faith from practice.

GENERAL LECTURES.

En Church.

I.

THE AWAKENING.

CHANGE OF THE SERVICES AT SEPTUAGESIMA.

"Our Profession is to follow the example of our SAVIOUR CHRIST, and to be made like unto Him."--Service for Infant Baptism.

IF I were to ask any one person of all those now present in the church, why it was that our LORD JESUS CHRIST came down from heaven, there is not one of you who would not be able to answer me, there is not one of you who would not say that it was to die for our sins-to buy us back from the hard task-master to whom we had sold ourselves,—and to give us again an inheritance in heaven. You might not all express this in the same words, but all would give me the same meaning; ignorant and uninstructed as any of you may be on other points, at least would know that.

you

Before we go on any farther, just stop and consider the extreme thankfulness with which we should regard this. The Gospel, the glad tidings of our salvation are now so universally known, that they have become things of course, things of which none of us can say where it was that he first learnt them, or who it was that first told him of them; but of which, notwithstanding, he is just as sure, as he is that it became light on the Christmas morning of CHRIST's birth when the sun rose, and was dark on Good Friday after the sun had set. This is not natural re

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WHY CHRIST LIVED AMONG US.

ligion, it did not come to you of its own accord. Some one must have told it first of all, and as no man could know anything whatever about such matters, it must have been revealed from GOD. Thank Him, therefore, thank Him heartily, that He has so burnt it in upon your minds, that it has now as it were become natural to you. And now go on to show your thankfulness by building upon that known fact, all that He would have you build.

And in order to do this, ask yourselves first, if to make satisfaction for our sins, and to bear our punishment, were all that our blessed SAVIOUR had to do upon earth, would it not have been sufficient that He came down from heaven -took our nature upon Him,-bore our punishment,—and then returned? Why did He live those four and thirty years upon the earth? You will not all of you be able to answer me this question, but a great many will, especially the younger ones, because most of you have been taught your Collects, and have been questioned, Sunday after Sunday, on the meaning of them, and have been shown how to look for their meaning in the Epistles and Gospels. Take up your Prayer Books and look for the second Sunday after Easter; do you not see there that Almighty GOD gave us His only Son, not only "to be a sacrifice for sin," but also to be an "example of godly life;" that is why He lived four and thirty years in this wicked world. He not only took our punishment, He not only told us how redeemed men ought to live, He not only gave us grace to do it, but having our nature, being one of us, He lived the life Himself, that He would have us His people to live. If we would say the task is hard, we are but men, we cannot do it; He would answer, See, it was done, and by a man; if we would say we are but weak, we have but the strength of men, not the strength of GOD, He would answer, How can you say that you are weak, how can you say that you have only the strength of men, when you, the members, are so joined to CHRIST the Head, that you are no longer twain but one flesh? He could do all things by His heavenly nature, and so can you by precisely the same means; you can do all things through CHRIST which strengtheneth you. If CHRIST is not at this moment in

THE CHURCHMAN TAUGHT BY THE CALENDAR. 43

you, and you in Him, whose fault is that but yours, who neglect those ordinances which make you so?

Follow CHRIST as your example; this is all we Christians have to do upon earth; this is our business; this is our task in our Master's vineyard; this is what He set us to do when He called us out of the market-place of this world, where we should have been standing idle all the days of our lives, and sent us into the vineyard of His Church, where all who stay there are His servants, and must work for Him. This is our work; to do what He did. And now I am going to show you how to do it; I am speaking to all of you, no doubt; but I am speaking more particularly to-day to those who are going to be confirmed; so I will show you a picture of your own Church lives, from your own Church calendar.

You are to follow CHRIST not only from birth to death, but to resurrection also, and judgment, and heaven.

Well, He was born on Christmas Day, He died on Good Friday, He rose on Easter Day, and went to heaven on Holy Thursday. There is the beginning and end of your work, and now let us trace it out.

Prepare to meet your LORD, says Advent Sunday; that is your call from the market-place. Go into His vineyard and get your work ready against His coming in the evening to look at it. Now for your tools, those things which are to be given you to work with. There are the Holy Scriptures, says the Second Sunday in Advent; and to teach you them, says the Third Sunday, there are God's Ministers, who are commissioned by that very Master, to show you how to use them, and to give you what the Fourth Sunday tells you, is necessary too; the presence of that Master and His strength; the Master's eye and His hand. Well, children, you have had this ever since you were born. Did we not christen you? Did we not, as stewards of God's mysteries, endue you with your Master's strength, by making you members of Him? Did we not afterwards put you to school? Did we not teach you to read God's blessed book? Did we not catechise you week after week, and day after day, to see if you understood it? These are the tools that