that we become in any sort fitted for the sacred presence of our Father in heaven.

Thus Thomas, ever the doubting apostle, is answered, "Dost thou not know the way to the Father, Thomas?" Come then, and let others come to Christ. In Him they will find all truth, in Him they will find all life, which will fit them for the Father's presence. And so in Him, and abiding in Him, they will be in the way, the saving way, which will lead them, without risk of loss or failure, to the Father.

Brethren, I have been anxious to speak to you a few words upon this holy text, as I am aware that it has been twisted within these few days into an argument, why you should leave the church and go to the chapel; why you should desert the teaching of God's ordained ministers and go to that of those who have neither commission to teach nor fitness for teaching; why you should neglect and undervalue the Holy Sacraments which Christ hath given, as though Holy Baptism were not the real entrance into the kingdom of heaven, nor the Holy Communion the Divine food of the Church and of Christian souls.

I wish to give every credit to those who have done this thing, for good and pious intentions; and so far as they merely insist upon the sacred and precious importance of this blessed verse, I go with them in every

word that they say. But when they go on to say that because Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, therefore baptism and the Lord's Supper, and the Church, and the ordained ministry are good for nothing, I ask-Is, then, this verse, holy and precious as it is, the whole of the Bible? or are we to take hold of it alone, and explain it alone in such a way as to forget a hundred other verses which are equally written by the Holy Spirit of God for our good, which are therefore equally true, equally to be studied, and explained, and followed, and obeyed as this one is? Did not the Lord equally say that, "Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God?" Did He not direct His Apostles to baptize all nations? and did He not say to them, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved?" Did he not bid Ananias say to St. Paul, even after he had been converted by a miracle, "Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins?" Did He not bid St. Peter, on the very Day of Pentecost, in the very freshness and fulness of the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to say to the crowd of believers who anxiously asked, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"-" Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost?"

Are those who believe the Bible to be the very Word of God at liberty to overlook these things, and pass them by as if they were not written? Again, does not

our Lord say that whoever eateth the

flesh of the Son

of Man and drinketh His blood hath eternal life, and He will raise him up at the last day?-that he that eateth His flesh and drinketh His blood dwelleth in Him and He in him?-that, as the living Father sent Him, and He liveth by the Father, so he that eateth Him, even he shall live by Him? Did He not bid St. Paul say that the cup of blessing which we bless is the communion of the Blood of Christ, and that the bread which we break is the communion of the Body of Christ? and did He bid the same Apostle tell the people that they ought to discern the Lord's Body in eating that bread and drinking that wine?

Are, then, those who believe the Bible to be the very Word of the Holy Spirit of God at liberty to overlook these things, and to pass them by as if they were not written?

Again, did not the Lord Himself commission His ministers to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature? Did He not tell them that whoever despised them despised Himself? Did not the Apostle St. Paul, by His Holy Spirit, ordain elders for the people's instruction in every city? Did he not, by the same Spirit, tell Timothy, whom he had ordained, that

the Holy Spirit was given to him by the laying on of his hands with the hands of the Presbytery?

Are, then, those who read their Bible, and study it, believing it to be the very Word of the Holy Spirit of God, at liberty to shut their eyes to all those things that are written, and treat them with contempt and scorn, as though they were not?

Brethren, I embrace with all my heart and soul the blessed text on which I have been speaking. I rest with all my hope of being God's servant on earth, or reaching my sacred inheritance in heaven, upon the precious truth that my Lord Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that it is utterly impossible for any man to come to the Father but by Him. But I do not therefore shut my eyes nor my ears to other blessed and sacred words which He has left for my learning; nor do I find that those other sacred words interfere in the least degree with the full truth and blessedness of them. Though I teach that holy baptism is the entrance into the Church of God and the graces of the Holy Spirit, yet I only do so because He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life hath taught me so. Though I speak of the sacred spiritual feeding of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Communion, yet it is no invention of mine; it is but because He who is the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life, has

told me that it is so. If I teach the doctrine of an ordained and commissioned ministry, I do so because He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life inspired His Apostle to say that none can teach except he be sent. Which is right?-the man who holds one text as to forget a hundred others which proceed from the same authority and form part of the same Bible, or the Church which, faithfully walking in the doctrine once delivered to all the saints, compares spiritual things with spiritual, and teaches the people according to the sacred truth which she received eighteen hundred years ago, and, amid a thousand heresies, and schisms, and follies, and enthusiasms, patiently and faithfully teaches still? O brethren, believe me, the faith which the Church of God has taught for all these many years, the faith witnessed in the pious books of an hundred generations, and in which hundreds of thousands, yea millions of our fathers, have fallen asleep in Christ, and now wait, as truly alive as we are ourselves, in God's paradise, for the general resurrection of the just-that faith has not been mistaken, so far as that a hasty reading of a single text should justify men in leading others to disparage the rest of the whole counsel of God made known to men for their salvation. The glorious company of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of the Prophets, the noble army of Martyrs, the Holy Church throughout all