striking for who was ever modest,-self-deny-ing, humble-minded, regardless of luxury, pomp, and worldly honours, if not our SAVIOUR; the meek and lowly-hearted One who proposes Himself in this very respect as a model to us all? And yet, He it is who commends so highly Mary's costly offering. Now, for our sakes He did it: and it was to shew us that He approves, and will to the end of time approve, all similar ventures of Faith and Love. "Give all thou canst," then, when thou art making thy offering to GOD! Do not sit down to calculate nicely whether there may not be something spared in this quarter,—something less costly bestowed in that. "Give all thou canst."... Our Fathers felt so when they built our Cathedrals and our Churches. They were prodigal of ornament, and lavish of material,and built for unborn ages, and for the popu lation of these last days. Our overgrown rural population is literally everywhere worshipping GOD in Churches erected three, four, five hundred years ago. Very different is our spirit! work is to be done to the honour and glory of GoD, there is ever some person at hand to ask gravely whether the decorations might not be fewer,-the materials less

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costly; and perhaps in all sincerity the wants of the poor are urged. But I repeat, that our LORD's words are emphatic in their disapproval of all such suggestions. They are strong words, hard words;-hard as the rock. They prove to be a soil which absolutely refuses such cultivation. No harvest of economical precepts can by possibility be made to grow upon it. These words of CHRIST are the commendation,-the eternal praise,-of lavish outlay and costly expenditure made for CHRIST's sake, and in CHRIST's honour. It is the praise won by every one of whom that may be truly said which was once spoken of Mary," She hath done-what she could!"

*The foregoing Address was spoken before a little handful of persons in the Chancel of S. Mary's Church. It is published in the hope of winning for it a larger auditory. O Reader, if it strikes a responsive chord in thy breast,-give, (for the impulse is from Heaven!) give of thy best to Gon, after the example of this blessed woman: give of thy best, and give largely, and give now. Time is short: Eternity will be very long!... "We brought nothing into this world; and it is certain that we can carry nothing out."

When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I um innocent of the blood of this just Person: see ye to it.

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FROM this act of Pilate's, I suppose, has arisen a phrase which has passed into the common language of mankind. We talk of "washing our hands of a business and we mean thereby that we will have nothing to do with it. This is exactly what Pilate meant. But there are certain situations in life where it is not possible so to rid oneself of a responsibility, and Pilate was precisely placed in such a situation. Act he must and act he did. How he desired to act, the incident recorded in the text shews clearly enough. He would have given anything,

-no, not anything; but he would have given much,-to set our SAVIOUR free. He desired sorely to wash his hands" of the entire matter. The force of circumstances, however, (for so he would have phrased it); the force of circumstances was such, that he felt constrained to surrender the Holy One to His cruel enemies. He went through a barren, form therefore,staining His hands with the very water wherewith he washed them; and proclaiming his own guilt even while he declared our LORD's innocence. The record will remain against him while the World lasts-viz. that JESUS CHRIST "suffered under Pontius Pilate."

On these days of Holy Week, as you will perceive, the few words spoken from this place do not pretend to be Sermons. They are but short meditations on some event of the Season. And I invite you now to bend your thoughts on the case of Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judæa, -under whom our LORD suffered.

1. And first, I think most persons are secretly inclined to pity him rather: for his conduct gives one the notion of a man driven by circumstances to pursue a course which was contrary to his nature. I take leave to say at once that this is a mistake. Pilate's nature is a matter of

express record, and it proves to have been stubborn, pitiless, inflexible, implacable. He was a man of a fierce and bloody disposition too,--as his murder of the Galilæans, while they were in the act of sacrificing, shews. But harsh, and stern, and relentless, and unfeeling, he is proved by many of his known acts to have been. If therefore we behold a man wavering and irresolute in the presence of CHRIST,-quite at his wits' end, so to speak; and completely divided between his determination to set free his Prisoner, on the one hand, and not to offend the Jews on the other, (for what he dreaded most of all was to be accused to the Roman Emperor for his many acts of rapine and violence)-if, I say, we behold Pilate thus irresolute, it is not him we must pity, but the mercies of CHRIST which we must rather admire. Just as when I see some strong iron bar bent by mechanical pressure, I infer with astonishment the marvellous unseen power which must be all the time at work to produce such an improbable result, so, when I read of Pilate's vacillation; when I behold him going in to our LORD, and out to the Jews, and back to our LORD again,— if I remember right, at least as often as nine times; and that, in a very short space :—when I