as I have already hinted, no one but a traitor to the Truth would for an instant overlook the solemn certainty that the reason, the only reason why the Church deals thus with the solemn mysteries of our most Holy Faith, is because in no other way can they be made practical. The virtue of CHRIST's sufferings;-the efficacy of the Sacrifice of the Death of CHRIST in undoing the ancient curse and paying the penalty of the sins of the whole World ;-the ransom which was paid by His precious Blood-shedding;-all this is certain: all this is assumed as wellknown, as Articles of the Faith. We confess these truths in our Creeds,-in our Te Deum— in our Baptismal and our Communion Service. They run into the staple of our worship. They lie at the foundation of all we say and do in Church.

But then, since the great office of CHRIST'S Religion is to conform the life even more than to inform the understanding,-to mould the heart even more than to instruct the mind,the moral lesson is continually enforced, and an easy precept (so to speak) is drawn from an act which in its true nature is by us not only inimitable, but altogether unapproachable.

In a word then,-A lesson of patience towards one another :-a lesson of kindness, and forbearance, and long suffering towards those whom we call our Friends :-this is the teaching of the incident we are now considering,-the only lesson I propose to draw from it, for your guidance and for my own.

Quite marvellous is it to observe how little we all seem to know of this temper and spirit. We claim so much. Any token of wavering constancy, any want of faithfulness to ourselves in our hour of need,-how prone are we to revenge it with coldness, and rebuke, and indignant displeasure! I say not that it is a mark of an evil disposition so to act. Rather is it perhaps a sign of a warm and faithful spirit which cannot brook in another what it especially would shrink from being guilty of itself. But however we may explain it,—however palliate the offence,-an offence it is; an offence against the Spirit of Him whom we serve, and whose Holy Name is called upon us.

And I earnestly invite you to take this lesson to yourselves, every one,-be you naturally as forgiving as you may: and to seek to "fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of CHRIST in your flesh, for His Body's sake which is the

Church ."... Be more patient,-more longsuffering;-less ready to take offence and rail against the World and its ways: remembering that thou hast bound no one on the Earth's surface to thee,-nor canst bind,-as CHRIST bound those Eleven who, when they beheld Him apprehended in the garden, at once "forsook Him and fled."

Be more grateful too for the consolations of Friendship. Shall we not own with deep deep gratitude to God this singular mark of His favour and love, that He allows us to be sustained from day to day by the kindness of somany;-helped forward by the sympathy of those we cherish;-crowned every day (so to speak) with the flowers of that Garden which the enemies of CHRIST trampled under foot; and in exchange for which they gave Him nothing but a Crown of Thorns? Who are we that Mercy should enclose us on every side,-while of the Son of Man it is written that in the hour of His extremity, "all the Disciples forsook Him and fled ?"

• Col. i. 24.

Good Friday.

THE MALEFACTOR ON THE RIGHT.

S. JOHN xix. 18.

They crucified Him, and two other with Him, on either side one, and JESUS in the midst.

THERE is no day in all the year like this. It is a funeral, not a festival. The heart puts on black, and feels as if it had lost a Parent. This at least is certain; that he who knows nothing of such emotions on Good Friday has yet the chief lesson of his life to learn for he cannot yet have realized in any degree the nature and extent of a SAVIOUR'S Love.

If we could see a child in his Father's house when that Father was about to be carried out to burial, cold and unmoved,-occupied with some foolish toy, or intent on some idle occupation,-what could we think of him but this:either that he was bereft of reason, or else destitute of natural affection? By no other image can I speak of Good Friday. CHRIST everywhere speaks to us as to children. He calls us "sons." The one sentiment which He claims at our

hands is reverential adoring Love. And He is crucified,―dead and buried,-to-day!

There will perhaps be found some one to remark shrewdly that to-day CHRIST is not crucified: that Good Friday is but the anniversary of His Passion. True enough. Do we however know nothing of the sorrowful nature of an anniversary? Does not the recurrence of the year-day of a great domestic grief oppress the spirit and make us go heavily? This shall be only the anniversary of the greatest sorrow the World hath ever known. Shall it not even so fill every corner of our hearts with strange discomfort, and even pain?

True, that the season is bright and joyous,the time, early Spring. The reason of that is because Easter is so near,-the Festival of Joy to all things in Earth and Heaven. But you are requested to believe that there is Sorrow over the whole Earth to-day. All the Churches feel it. Every heart of every believing man confesses it. Not only throughout our own land, but throughout all Christian lands: not only in the Churches of England and of America, but in all the Churches of the West and of the East, a Fast is kept to-day. And all our countrymen in all our distant Colonies are mindful