you by seeing that, in whatever other way you may lose or fail, you shall never lose by one hour of our idleness, or fail by one carelessness of our neglect; loyal to you by never allowing a like or a dislike, an offence or an impatience, to deflect for one moment the even scale of our impartial justice; loyal to you by never allowing an impulse of anger or a thought of popularity to divert our judgment by one hairs breadth from what is right; loyal to you, therefore, by often doing, not what you like, but what you need,-not what might please you for the moment, but what will be best for you in the end. God forbid that I should shrink from setting before you our duties as masters no less frankly and faithfully than yours as boys; and these are our duties -to meet all your wishes half-way when they are good or innocent, but never to indulge them when they are unwise or wrong; to make the path of labour, and of knowledge, and of self-denial as smooth before you as God permits, but to do our utmost, at any cost, to check your feet when they would stray into the paths of death, or the steps that take hold on hell. All this you know, and I feel an entire confidence that here, if anywhere, the ruled and the ruling are one in heart. For as we to you, so must you be no less loyal to us; loyal to us even when we ask you to do hard things and to make great sacrifices; loyal to us even when you do not yet see why certain restrictions are necessary, or certain studies desirable; loyal to us, even if in all honesty, we have failed to understand your character, or failed to appreciate your efforts; loyal to us for having tried faithfully to serve you, even when you cease to be under our authority. For your gratitude we ask not; from the noble it will come spontaneously, from the ignoble it never comes at all, nor does it even enter into

our calculations. Enough for us if, whether grateful or ungrateful, we can help you a little on life's hard and thorny road. But more than this, you must be loyal not only to us, but to one another. When you daily meet in the school, in the classroom, in the dormitory, in the playground, cherish in your hearts not only a holy charity for one another, but with it a deep reverence for the awfulness before God of your common nature and your common immortality. Yes! be true to one another. Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is, brethren, to live together in unity. In lowliness of heart let each of you esteem others better than himself. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Oh, you, who are elder, while you lessen each other's trials by a friendship full of manly and mutual honour, make it your highest common duty to shelter the young, the weak, the inexperienced, so that neither cruelty, nor thoughtlessness, nor, worse than all else, the deadly curse and plaguespot of impurity inflict on their souls an irreparable harm. Build God's temple in kindness, by seeing that there be no such thing as a bully to vex, unhindered, the life of his fellows; build it in manliness, by seeing that no one elder or younger boy be allowed, unchecked, to profane the sacred name of friendship by corrupt and spurious fancies, which, beginning in effeminacy and vanity, end in shame and degradation. Yes; if you would build the temple of the Lord you must be true to one another. B. But remember that you cannot be quite true to one another unless you are true to your own selves. As our great poet says:

And to be true to yourselves is to be true to your

higher nature-true to the aims and purposes of an immortal soul, created in God's image and redeemed into His adoption. He who degrades God's high ideal for his mortal life-he who sows to the flesh and not to the spirit-he who prefers the death of sin to the life of righteousness—he who to the impulses of his lower nature sacrifices the inspirations of his higher and eternal nature, as Adam did when he flung away his Eden of innocence for the forbidden fruit, as Esau did when for one mess of meat he sold his birthright, as Saul did when he suffered one raging envy to poison his whole existence, as David did when he debased his soul to be trampled in the mire by one evil lust—such a one is a traitor to himself. It is sometimes said of a man that he is his own worst enemy; but this, alas' is true of many a man in a sense far deeper than that in which it is ordinarily used. An enemy might injure for a time, but what enemy, short of Satan's self, would destroy another with a subtle, everlasting, irremediable destruction, as he who sells his soul for nought? To be true to yourself you must take as the one law of your being that only which is best, and purest, and likest God.

7. For as you cannot be true to one another without being true to yourselves, so neither can you be true to yourselves if you are not true to God. He has made your heart His dwelling-place; you must be true to Him by not defiling it with idols. He has made the fortress of your soul strong for Himself: you must be true to Him by not betraying it to devils. He has given you talents and opportunities: you must be true to Him by employing them in His service. He has entrusted to you, as a labourer, the vineyard which His right hand hath planted: you must be true to Him by yielding Him its fruits of increase. Oh! strive to be

true to Him by obeying His commandments; to be true to Him in your daily prayers by bringing Him real sins to be pardoned, real wants to be supplied; to be true to Him in this His house, coming before Him with meek heart and due reverence: by coming here not to dream, or to sleep, or to smile, or to trifle, or to look, or to be looked at, but to praise and pray; by listening to the messages He sends you here as to words addressed to your individual souls. And one such message He is speaking to all of you now. The elder of you-the Prefects, the Heads of Houses, the Captains of Classrooms and Dormitories-He bids you protect the weak, punish the wicked, put down with a strong hand all evil doing, support and countenance whatsoever things are pure, true, lovely, and of good report. And no less to the younger even to the youngest new boy amongst usHe says, Be strong in the Lord, for moral weakness is very nearly akin to active wickedness. You, too, must help us to build God's temple. "Who is there among you of all His people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up."

Sept. 20, 1874.

SERMON XXIII

DRIFTING AWAY.

HEB. ii. 1.

"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip."

ONCE, in the safe harbour of a great bay, amid scenes not specially beautiful or circumstances wholly delightful, yet sheltered from every serious and fatal storm, there was anchored a little boat, which contained three youths. They were brothers, and had been bidden to wait there till towards the sunset, when a vessel would come to fetch them away; and they had been carefully warned that the bay was less safe than it looked, and that beyond the harbour-bar the sea was perilous and vast. One of these three youths, who, although the youngest, had the air of an altogether nobler race, felt a deep and instinctive horror of disobeying the command. The second of the three was a twin brother, a little older than this one,―attractive, brilliant, and capable of the highest things, but so apt to be misled by self-will and blinded by delusion, that when he grew wise in his own conceit, "there was more hope of a fool than of him.” The third, though in every respect inferior to his brothers and base in aspect, except only when his features reflected some family resemblance to theirs, yet being the eldest, and physically the strongest, was constantly trying to control and master them. Capable of admirable