may do likewise. The Rainbow has many hues, but they are all blended together to form that one Bow of Mercy. So each Sunday and Holiday has its special teaching, but all go to form one harmonious Whole. So also in the Christian scheme every single doctrine has its fit place, no undue prominence is given to one over another, (for that is the very root of all Heresy), there is, and there must needs be, a subordination, but each is in its due order and course, and placed according to its natural or rather supernatural fitness. No earthly intellect unaided could have thought out and arranged so simple, so evenly balanced, and yet so grand and glorious a plan. Christianity is not a natural but a supernatural system. The Church, being as it is the Body of CHRIST, is not a mere moral police, but a Divine Teacher !

Our Church's Year has come to an end. This day is its last Sunday. With next Sunday (if we live) we begin again the old familiar round, one which, by its very familiarity, is so welcome. We

know beforehand what to expect, and we know that what we shall have is best for us. But before beginning again we first have to end: and before beginning a fresh account we have to settle the old one! Alas, point after point of our life during the past year suggests itself to us as one of a debt to GOD, unpaid altogether, or paid with unjust deductions, or of slovenly, indifferent service. Alas! how many Communions neglected, unprepared for, unprofited by, unthankfully received: how many opportunities of worship lost: how many Sermons heard only by the outward ear, producing no permanent, or lasting effect on the life, only for the moment perhaps smiting our conscience, arousing convictions only to be stifled, or set aside, or appealing only to the intellect, or awakening mere curiosity, or beginning and ending in mere excitement, and talk: how many an open, wilful sin committed, or duty omitted: how many a flattering of ourselves that we are very well as we are, that many are as bad, or worse than we: how many

a giving up of sins only because we were tired of them, and not because we either loved or feared GOD or hated sin, but still fostering one pet vice, dear to us as the apple of our eye, one which we are fain to disguise to ourselves under every specious name, until we almost persuade ourselves that it is a virtue: how many a coming to JESUS in the great company but only from low and unworthy motives, from temporal interest, or coming, as it were, only a part of the way to Him, and turning back when we were on the very point of meeting with Him, either because we were ashamed of Him, or because we did not love Him enough, or, strangely enough, (an excuse which some amongst us have not been slow to put forward,) through an overstrained respect, or an over-superstitious dread of Him, which makes us stop short of being united to Him in Holy Communion! How much, alas! have we been wrapped up in ourselves! How often we have acted the part of Cain in disclaiming any duty incumbent on us

to provide for the spiritual, or the temporal welfare of our brother! How we have hated any little inconvenience which has interfered with our prejudices, or our comfort, or even our happiness, even when we knew it was for the general good of our fellow-creatures, or our co-worshippers in the same Church!

Truly the last Sunday of the Church's Year, with its retrospect of the past, with its thoughts of how much the LORD CHRIST has done for us, and how little we have done for Him, affords us ample matter for self-abasement, and leaves us an ample margin for amendment in the future!

The Prayer.

O LORD JESU CHRIST, good Master, teach us to lift up our hearts unto Thee, even as Thine eyes are lifted up over us to observe our ways, and to encourage us to draw nigh to Thy Presence! Thou, O LORD, of a truth, art that Prophet which should come into the world, even

as Thou hast already come: grant us that we may so reverently receive the prophets of Thy Church which proclaim Thee by their doctrine, and follow the just men who show Thee forth by a good life; and listen to the disciples and messengers, who in any way declare Thee, that we may by Thy gift and Thy merits, with them obtain the reward of everlasting life Who livest and reignest with the FATHER, and the HOLY GHOST, ever one GOD, world without end. Amen.

TWENTY-FIFTH MONDAY AFTER

TRINITY.

CLXXVII. On the Christian's Journey through Life.

Ps. cxix. 1, 176.-" Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way, and walk in the Law of the LORD. I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost: O seek Thy servant, for I do not forget Thy Commandments."

THERE are, perhaps, three things for which this Psalm is especially remarkable. First, for its usefulness, that is,