restless souls-The Christian Year. And to us in this place it ought to have a deeper and yet more real interest, because it was the favourite motto of that good. and eminent man-to whom to the latest day of its existence Marlborough will owe so much, and who to some of us here present was once a beloved and living friend, and not merely a hallowed memory. When at a time of deep anxiety he came to the place it was the one thought which he carried with him. Many would have shrunk with dread from the responsibility before him, but he did not, because to him responsibility was but the quiet, earnest, faithful fulfilment of the duty to which God had called him; many would have been painfully anxious about the success of their work, but he was not, because he knew that duties are always in our own hands, results always and alone in the hand. of God. In the very first words which he uttered in this chapel he said to the Marlborough boys at that day, “The very youngest boy in this chapel has hardly so much need to pray for God's grace in the work set before him as I who have urged you to it." And when, though the burden and heat of the day was already over, he was called to another new and arduous work in that toilsome Indian bishopric, it was again these words which consoled and encouraged him. I, my brethren, who stand where he stood, who speak from the very spot where, on these saint's day evenings, he so often spoke—I, who by a slight effort of memory, can recall the very expression of his face and very accent of his voice, and who have wandered with him so often on the terrace, and in the forest, and over the downs-know well, how earnestly, were he now here, he would attribute any particle of success wherewith God blessed his labours to the grace which enabled him to keep this

spirit alive in his heart, like a silver lamp shedding its quiet radiance over the darkness-know well that, if his happy spirit still linger here in a place which was so dear to him, and among the successors of those who were once his beloved children in the Lord, there is no lesson which he would urge upon you with a more fatherly gentleness than this-"Thus saith the Lord God, In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength."

4. The text opens many a wide vista, and it is impossible at all adequately to illustrate and enforce it. I will, therefore, leave it with you for your own meditation, only praying that God's Holy Spirit may impress it deeply upon all our hearts. But I will merely mention the cause why it suggested itself to me to-day as likely to be profitable to some of you. It was because to many of you-I hope to the large majority of you, certainly to all the noblest and best of you, to all, in fact, except the idle and the frivolous-the two weeks of school-time which yet remain to us, must be weeks of effort and anxiety. You know how very much depends for most of you in the future upon the exertions of the present; you know that in an age of struggle and competition and over-population it will require on your parts a distinct and vigorous effort to secure those conditions which are the ordinary elements of a reasonably happy life; you know that in this age, even as regards mere earthly success and position, the axe is at the root of the barren trees; you know, in fact, that what is called your chance in life depends in great measure on what you do and on what you learn here now. I suppose that for the twothirds of you the complexion of your future, its earthly prosperity, or its comparative earthly failure, turn on your ability to pass well or ill, or even to pass at all, in

certain competitions which will test how far you have. used the opportunities which it is the earnest and faithful endeavour of us, your teachers, to further to the uttermost. And all these are, and ought to be, powerful motives, though even these are, and ought to be, less powerful than the nobler considerations that all who love you will take a keen interest in the success or non-success of your school endeavours, and above all, far above all, that those endeavours being incumbent on you from your very position here, are in reality a part of your duty to your neighbour and your God. And all these considerations ought to produce in your minds a steady, conscious purpose, deliberately to do your best; to waste no time; to cultivate to the utmost, wisely, carefully, and thoughtfully the power both bodily and intellectual, as well as spiritual, which God has given you. But I cannot feel surprised, nor can I blame, a tendency to restlessness and anxiety at a time of examination, any more than I can be surprised if you even look forward with some care and misgiving to the necessary uncertainties of your future life. And, therefore, as the best remedy which I can offer, I would say in sincere sympathy, "In quietness and in confidence shall be your rest." Do not yield to over anxiety. Fevered work, flurried work, anxious work, restless work, is always bad work. Work all of you as if you felt and realised "the dignity of work, the innocence of work, the happiness of work, the holiness of work." Do your best loyally and cheerfully, and suffer yourself to feel no anxiety or fear. Your times are in God's hands. He has assigned you your place. He will direct your paths. He will accept your efforts if they be faithful. He will bless your aims if they be for your soul's good. Regard your present life-the present conditions of your life

as His assignment and His boon; regard the present hours-yea, the very moments of your life-as no less real, as no less substantial, as no less important, as no less certain to enjoy God's blessing of innocent happiness and cheerful hope-perhaps far more so than any of the moments which are yet to come. Do your best then in quietness, not in feverish impulse; do your best with confidence,-not confidence in your poor, ignorant, feeble self, but in a merciful and tender God, and be quite sure that whatever else may happen to you, or not happen, this at least will happen-which is greater than all earthly blessing-that His loving Spirit will lead you into the land of righteousness. Neither in these examinations which are immediately before you, nor in any of the competitions on which the future profession of many of you will depend, nor in the increasing labour, and struggles of your future lives-nay, not even in the hour of death or in the day of judgment will he have any cause to be unhappy or to fear who has quietly, humbly, faithfully done his best.

St. Andrew's Day, Nov. 30, 1871.

SERMON IX.

THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED.

MATT. xiii. 21.

"The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed."

THE parable of the grain of mustard seed must be taken in close connection with that of the leaven, and both are meant to illustrate the small beginnings, the silent growth, and the final victory of the grace of God in the human soul. But they belong to different points of view. The one is extensive the other intensive. The parable of the grain of mustard seed shows us the origin and the development of the kingdom of God, in communities and in the world; the parable of the leaven shadows forth its unimpeded influence in the soul of each separate man.

It is not, however, my object to explain either parable, but rather to touch on one or two natural thoughts which their central conception seems to suggest. May God,-who only can,-make even so insignificant a thing as a weekly sermon, one more barrier against evil, one more impulse to good in every heart among us. What so trivial and worthless as an atom of sand? yet God binds even the atoms of sand together into an invincible