called to him, they shouted, but they could hear, as out of a well, only three or four dismal groans. In the course of hours they got ropes, and let a man down, and then the body of this Priest was found, dashed to pieces, ninety feet down. He had not one moment to make his peace with GOD: he went into eternity without the warning of a second!

Well, was that guide who said, "Peace, peace, when there was no peace;" who said that the road was safe, when it was horribly dangerous; kind or cruel? They had set their minds on going that way; but was he kind because he said, You may go safely? Suppose he had answered, You must not go for all the world: I dare say they would have thought, How tiresome! But would he have been unkind for all that? You know better.

Now, my children, who are like those travellers, gliding forward over the snow, not well knowing in themselves whether the journey were safe or unsafe? And who is like the guide, whose business it was to warn them of danger, and to advise them how best to travel?

Have you not all a difficult and dangerous journey to take; and the name of that journey is called Life? Do you not hang every moment over death? Can any one tell when her hour will come? And after death, is there not the Judgment? Might not any one of you,-if you were living carelessly, without one thought of GOD, without any one desire even to love that dear LORD

Who so loved you as to die for you,-meet with some sudden accident, fall into some sudden illness; and wake up only to say, The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved? Well, and who are like the guide? (I hope not like this particular guide, but like true guides, having the same duties that he ought to have done.) Why, all who are over you in any way. The Mother, the Sisters, I myself, and any one whom the Mother and Sisters set over you. And woe to us if we see you going wrong, and do not tell you, warn you, punish you, if needs be! Any one of us who sees you doing wrong and allows it; might hinder it, and will not; might try to hinder it, and will not: how shall we ever be able to answer for this at the dreadful Judgment-seat of Christ?

Oh yes; it is a great deal easier, it makes one far more comfortable, never to find fault; it is so much happier a thing to praise than to blame. I, for one, never find fault with you without its costing me a great deal. But what if GOD were to say

to me that which He said to Eli?

"In that day will I perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house : when I begin I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not."

And I think that what I need most especially to say to you is the very thing which the text says: "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." My children, you do not remember this enough. Just see how you are fenced in from doing many and many a wrong thing. No care of ours can keep you altogether (I know it too sadly) from outward temptations. I will never turn this place into a prison; and unless I were to bolt and bar you in, I never could keep you from all intercourse with those who would lead you into sin. But you are preserved to a very great degree from harm.

And you are taught a very great deal about our dear LORD; some of you, at all events, as you answer here, Sunday after Sunday. So that as far as headknowledge is concerned, you have learnt much. And what does all this show?

Why, it shows that you always have to keep the text in mind: "To whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." When you hereafter come to stand before the Judgment-seat of GOD, do you think that much or little will be required of you? And if much, do you think that you are acting up to that belief: that you are trying so to do good, so to be obedient, kind, gentle, true, reverent to GOD, and the things of GOD, as they should be who have your privileges?

I have spoken of four things. Let me see.

Obedient. We often, you know, have ladies

staying for a week or so here. Do you think it is likely that, when they went away, they should say,-Of all the obedient children I ever saw, yours are the most so? And yet, ought you not to be so? Who was He that set the great example of obedience? Was it not that dear LORD Whom you all profess to follow? and Whom some of you, I do believe, are trying to follow.

Kind. Well; and there I may say truly that you do please me much. I think you are very fairly kind to each other, and very kind to the little ones. This is one thing which gives me great pleasure when I think of you.

True. My children, I dare not speak with any certainty about this, but yet many things make me hope the best. I never like to threaten. I never like to remind you where all liars will have their portion; in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. I would far rather say, Think of that LORD Who is the GOD of Truth. You say you love Him, you say you wish to be like Him. Think of those Martyrs who died for the Truth, whom you also love, whose deeds may well make our hearts burn within us. They died, rather than be false. And we-what possible temptation can we have to a lie, that, remembering them, we ought not at once to trample into dust?

And then I said, reverent.

What do I mean by reverent?

I mean, that when you come into God's House,

or are engaged in God's service, you should show that you remember Whose House you are entering, and in Whose service you are taking a part.

Do you do that?

Now remember: it will be no excuse to you that others were as bad or worse, that others encouraged you to do ill. When you rush into this place, when you rush away from it, as if you were coming into a play-ground rather than God's Own House; a House of which it might be said, "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the House of GOD, and this is the gate of Heaven!” will GOD excuse you hereafter, because the fault was so common here? My children, you know better. You have a better feeling in you. You are capable of better things. Nay, I am willing to believe that half the fault arises from carelessness. But I do trust that I never shall have the pain again of hearing my children do what you did, not many hours since. I believe you are earnestly sorry; but sorrow can never bring back the past.

Nothing can bring back that. But the future; that is still in your power: and will you not try? I think you do sometimes. I can only hope that you may always.

And now, &c.