and if we have been, or at any time may be, permitted to do any good, we should be ready always to say, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give the Praise;" or, with S. Paul, "Yet not I, but the grace of GOD which was with me"-for God's grace is the sole source of man's goodness, and all that we are, and all that we have, comes from GOD, and from GOD alone!

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER

TRINITY.

CXX.-On the healing of the man who had the dropsy.

S. LUKE xiv. 1.-" They watched Him." EAGERLY, intently, assiduously, yet cautiously, circumspectly, with cool, calculating, premeditated malice! They concealed under a feigned exterior of indifference, their excitement at the near approach of their expected triumph.

See," they seem to say, "how well our plan is laid see with what skill the nare is prepared, the trap baited! The

opportunity is now close at hand. He shall fall-and we know no other way of making Him fall-but by His very virtues. We will lure Him on to His ruin in the estimation of the people through His very compassionateness and so they watched Him."

And who was this that "they watched ?" The CHRIST of GOD: the LORD of Angels : Him on Whose very look legions of Angels hang: whose every behest they instantly obey before the Brightness of Whose Countenance they veil their faces: Him by the Word of Whose Mouth Heaven and Earth were created-GOD of GOD: and yet Him the Son of Man, Very Man as well as Very GOD: the Allcompassionate, the Ever Loving as well as the Omniscient, the All-knowing: Him, the Good Physician, and yet compassed with the feeling of our infirmities: sympathising with our every pain or suffering of mind or body: nay, not only with the long wearing sickness, or each sharp bitter pang of us all in our times of sufferingnot only with all sufferers in their suffer

ings, but with each sufferer in each pain of his suffering—and so "they watched Him."

Let us watch!" We see on the one hand this eager, excited little knot of enemies, and on the other the calm, unmoved Form of the SON of GOD. And yet let us take another object within the scope of our vision. "Behold there was

a certain man before Him which had the dropsy" that terrible disease which benumbs the senses and faculties; which parches the lips with an incessant thirst, which stamps the features with a peculiarly anxious, wistful look; which keeps the poor sufferer in an ever lingering fluctuation between life and death.

"In the last day, that great day of the Feast, JESUS stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

And

here, too, at this feast in the house of the Pharisee, He Who is the water of life, the living water, the Well of Salvation,

heals him who is afflicted with the plague of waters: He Who on another occasion

said to the raging sea, "Peace, be still," assuaged the waters which threatened destruction to this poor man; and checked and healed his disease, and silenced the mournings of the sick, and defeated the malice of those malicious watchers. "He took him and healed him, and let him go." With what malice they watched Him for evil. With what anxiety the sick man watched for his healing. With what love and tender compassion He watched, as ever, to do good, and to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men!"

The Prayer.

O LORD JESU, may our eyes ever be looking unto Thee, when the eyes of our enemies are upon us; and Thou shalt pluck our feet out of their net. Watch Thou, O LORD, over us in Thy tender love, and mercy, and so shall we be safe. Grant that we may watch ourselves, that we fall not into the sin of watching others

Put far from us,

with evil thoughts. LORD JESU, all censoriousness and envy, and bitterness, and harsh judging. Quench in us the flood of evil thoughts and the storm of angry passions. May the Ark of Thy Salvation be our rest from the waters which would overwhelm our soul, and bring it to destruction. Amen.

SEVENTEENTH MONDAY AFTER

TRINITY.

CXXI.—On the difference between the Sabbath and the Lord's Day.

S. MARK ii. 27:

"The Sabbath was made for man,

and not man for the Sabbath.

THE Sabbath day is Saturday, the seventh and last day of the week. The Sabbath day was the day on which GOD rested from His Works, and the day on which our Blessed LORD's Body rested in the Grave after He had finished the Work of our Redemption: it was the day too of Sorrows to the Widowed Virgin Mother, and of perplexity and distress to the disciples. The Sabbath day is not Sunday. Sunday