a child that causeth shame; and many and many of your parents would echo with all their souls the saying of Queen Blanche, the mother of St. Louis of France, that she would rather see her son a corpse at her feet than know that he had committed a deadly sin.

III. "Is thine heart right?" Let us take one more answer: some may answer carelessly; some presumptuously; but will not many of you—yes, I am very sure you will-answer in a deeper, humbler, sincerer, more serious spirit? "Yes," you will say, "I am weak, I know, and sinful; and bitter experience has taught me that my own good resolutions are as the morning cloud and as the early dew. They have been so because at former times I have not watched enough or prayed enough, or listened enough to the voice of conscience, and of God's Holy Spirit within my soul. But I am sorry-though my life has not been always right, yet I hope, I trust, that my heart is right—it is not hard. I do hate the thing that is evil; I am not blinded by self-conceit and sin. And God, I know has not forsaken me. Here, like a green leaf fresh-plucked from the Tree of Life, He gives me now a new term, a new hope, a new chance; and even now will I offer to Him a silent prayer, and will cry to Him, Oh, my God, my Father, lead back to Thyself thy sinful and wandering child. Here is my wilful, sinful heart; make it humble, and strong, and faithful unto Thee. Here is my poor stained and feeble life; take it, and make it pure and noble. My own strength, O Lord, is perfect weakness; my own wisdom is utter folly; my own righteousness is utter sin: but I lift up mine eyes unto the hills whence cometh my help, "Make me to do the thing that pleaseth Thee, for Thou art my

God. Let Thy loving Spirit lead me into the land of righteousness."

This, my brethren, this is the tone and spirit of the answer, which, would to God we all might make; because, if any resolve in this spirit, God will help him. He will lift up the hands that hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees. Fear not thou who canst answer thus. The ocean of life is large, and thy little boat is small, and there has been many and many a terrible and disastrous shipwreck on those rough waves; but though the great winds blow and the angry billows roll, God shall keep fast thy feeble hand upon the guiding helm, and thou shalt reach the safe haven where thou wouldst be, and out of the gossamer threads of thy weak and wavering will, He will forge the iron cables which shall moor thee safe to that everlasting Hope, which is an anchor of the soul.

With such thoughts, with such prayers, with such purposes, with the determination more and more earnestly to make our hearts right before God-humble, earnest, watchful-let us kneel at the Holy Table of the Lord. Nowhere can we better consecrate our hearts than there. Oh, let every one of us kneel there, meaning indeed to consecrate ourselves, our souls and bodies, this term and all the rest of our lives-to Him who created and Him who died for us. Let it be to us an Eucharist, a feast of deep thankfulness to God for His many mercies to us and to our school; let it be to us a Communion, to bind us all more and more closely together in the bonds of Christian fellowship, eager to stand by one another, to wish each other prosperity, to do each other good; above all may it be to us a memorial of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If we follow the footsteps of His blessed life, they may lead

us indeed, at times into sad and lonely places, and there may be times when we, like many of earth's noblest, may have to tread them with bleeding feet. But what matters it? If we walk in those footsteps, we shall see God's face, and His name shall be in our foreheads, and they shall lead us at last to the realms of everlasting joy.

May 10th, 1874.

SERMON XX.

THE OBJECTS OF SCHOOL LIFE.

1 KINGS xix. 13.

"There came a voice unto him and said, What doest thou here?"

I ISOLATE these words from their splendid context, upon which I am not going to touch. To-day the Voice comes, not to Elijah in the wilderness, but to us in this chapel; and, in answer to its appeal, we must try to understand our position, here and now, in all its definiteness. We lose by not reminding ourselves of our special duties; we lose by not going up into the tribunal of our own consciences, and setting ourselves before ourselves;1 we lose by laying to our souls the flattering unction of general professions, and not rigidly bringing them to bear on daily acts. We should do our work, I think better, I am sure we should deceive ourselves less-if we asked ourselves, "Am I, day by day, doing my day's task in the little corner of the vineyard which God has given me to cultivate? and am I doing it, not perfunctorily, but faithfully, not discontentedly, but humbly, not with eyeservice, but in singleness of heart?" If we can put those questions to ourselves very searchingly, and still answer them with a clear conscience, it is enough. Sloth, discontent, disobedience, disloyalty to duty,

1 St. Augustine.

these torture and scourge the souls of those who yield to them; but, whether others count a man fortunate or unfortunate, and whether the elements of earthly happiness be largely or but very sparingly within his reach, yet the world,-were it "one entire and perfect chrysolite -were all too little to give in exchange for that deep peace which God sheds into the inmost soul of that man who has simplified every other end and hope in life to this: to do God's will from the ground of the heart,to show that we love the Father whom we have not seen, by loving, by serving, by helping in the holy life, our brother whom we have seen.

I. To-day, then, if we will hear God's voice asking us "What doest thou here?" let us not harden our hearts. What, for instance, does the Lord require of us who are set over you? To feed the flock of God which is among us; to bear every labour, to make every sacrifice; to be instant in season and out of season; to reprove, rebuke, exhort; to remind ourselves often how deep and wide are the interests entrusted to us, how strict and solemn is the account which we must one day give before the judgment seat of Christ :-are not these our duties? It may be that, like all duties in any sphere of life, they may be often irksome and discouraging; it may be that we may see the tares springing up in rank growth among the good seed which we have sown; it may be that childish frivolity, that subtle impurity, that want of dignity, and want of loyalty, and want of gratitude, may often make us sad at heart: but results are not in our hands, efforts are; and what God requires of all of us is effort, not result; and the very best efforts of the very greatest and holiest men have often been exactly those which, from the Cross of Christ downwards, have often seemed to fail the most; so that all we have to do