so remember that His very rest was a ceaseless prayer. What we have ever to bear in mind is this: that there is but one final and fatal evening to life, to beauty, to goodness, to happiness. It is sin. All our dangers, all our sorrows-every pang of remorse, every ache of shame, every access of despair-comes from sin. It is sin that crowds the wards of the prison-house; it is sin that throngs the cells of the asylum and goads the suicide to the river-bank; it is sin which, when it stops far short of these desperate extremities, yet makes the heart gather blackness, and stains the path of life with tears. And how does sin thus gain a footing in human hearts? Only in one of two ways-stealthy, insidious intrusion, or sudden, violent assault. Both attacks need equal watchfulness. When a Josiah degenerates, when a David murders, when a Peter blasphemeswhat does it mean? Alas! it means the same as when those who know what is right do what is wrong; it means that their principles are not yet established; it means that there is no depth of earth in the stony place where the good seed of teaching has fallen; it means, in a word, that they have not yet learnt that life is an education and a struggle; it means that they have slept when they should have watched; have been careless when they should have prayed. Even at home, even in the holidays, yea, even till the end of life, Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. VI. It only remains, on the one hand, to hope that all who return may, after a rest well earned and wisely spent, return here in health, in happiness, in good spirits, with high resolves, with loving, earnest hearts, to a diligent and prosperous term; and, on the other hand, to bid a very hearty and kind farewell to those who leave us. From every one of them we part in perfect kindness; from most with sincere regret. And for those who have done their duty here and been blessed those over whose happy years at school the blessing of God has fallen like a line of light-those who have learnt by glad experience the dignity of duty, the holiness of innocence, the happiness of work-we know that by God's grace we shall hear of them again with pride and pleasure. And if there be any who have not yet fully, bravely, wholly, learnt to refuse the evil and to choose the good, to them we say that there, at the Holy Table of the Lord-there, where side by side we shall kneel, all of us sinners, yet all of us redeemedthere, more than at any other spot on earth, is to be found for all who faithfully and humbly seek it, the pledge of past forgiveness, of present consolation, of future hope. For all of us alike, with the end of this term, will be shut and ended another volume, wherein is written by Time, the great transcriber, the history of ourselves. In two more days the last page will have been turned, the solemn finis written. "Whose hands shall dare to open and explore I hear a voice that cries Alas! Alas!' SERMON XXXII. BLAMELESS AND HARMLESS. PHIL. ii. 15. "Blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke." I. THESE beautiful words are suggested to me by the conclusion of to-day's Epistle they are an amplification of that word "blameless," which is there the most prominent conception. They seem no unfit subject for our morning thoughts. I do not desire to treat of them elaborately, or theologically. It is better that the passing thoughts, by which, week after week, we would. lead you heavenwards, should be spontaneous and simple; and very often I should rejoice if the text could be the only sermon; if there were any means of engraving the text alone upon your hearts and consciences—more than content if so all else that is said, and he who says it, were alike forgotten. II. And I think you all will feel that these words— "blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke "—are very exquisite words-words worthy to linger in our memory as with the music of a lyric song. They describe the most consummate of attainments— the loftiest of ideals. They are the brightest commentary on the exhortation, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect;" they are the finest description of what Jesus was, and of what the followers of Jesus ought to be. means free from every III. The word " blameless form of wilful wrong or intentional misdoing against our fellow-men; the word "harmless" means sincere, simple, without admixture of sin and vileness in the sight of God. To be the first is far, far the easier. It would not be so if the word "blameless " meant "unblained;" for no man, however blameless, can escape being blamed. The experience of ages has shown that the shield of innocence, which a good man. carries with him through the world, cannot be so white that none will throw dust at it. Some of the holiest and noblest men that ever lived have been-and sometimes all through their lives-very targets for the arrows of abuse. So long as Envy has restless eyes, and Calumny a fertile imagination, and Malice a myriad of voices which bellow in the shade-so long will there be enemies, persecutors, and slanderers of the very saints of God. The stainless purity of Joseph saved him not from infamous accusations; nor the noble meekness of Moses from bitter criticisms; nor the splendid services of Samuel from open ingratitude. Of the stern selfdenial of John the Baptist they could say only, He hath a devil; of the boundless sympathy of the Saviour of mankind, they dared to mutter, "Behold a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." If ever we feel discouraged at the thought that there are natures which guilelessness fails to disarm, or unselfishness to win, let the Cross reveal to us the high lesson that we may still be utterly blameless, though it may be that we live no day unblamed. And if they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, they have done the same to them of His household, and some of them have even "Stood pilloried on Infamy's high stage, And borne the pelting scorn of half an age." IV. Yet blamelessness is often recognised. In those school-reports which, term by term, pass in hundreds through my hands, and which we send home to your parents as our estimate of your conduct and character, I always observe with deep pleasure that the very large majority are favourable and good reports. Not a few of them are the warm expression of hearty praise. It is quite exceptional if any boy is singled out for censure as idle or unruly, as untrustworthy or corrupt. And now and then in these reports one comes across the word "blameless;" and it is a deep pleasure to be able to endorse it; for of all characters it is the very highest that can be given, and the one which must most delight a parent's heart. If any of you have ever received that report-if any of you ever earn it hereafter-as I hope many of you will strive to do-be well assured that, since it is never lightly given, it shows you to have won the love and the confidence of those who are set over you. It means no mere negative character-no mere absence of overt misdoings. It would never be given to a conceited, or saturnine, or ill-conditioned boy, or to one who is content with the superficial standard and the vulgar average. It would imply diligence, and purity, and faithfulness, and good influence over others; and that modest humility, that courteous sweetness, that happy geniality, that natural appreciation of all kindness, which are only found in the fairest dispositions, and which are to the nature of a boy like the very dew of God upon the opening flowers of life. And yet, though rare indeed are such |