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ever? Is this our continuing city, our abiding home? Will any present pleasure last, or present gains? Will any of the things for which men of the world strive and are troubled, whether pleasure, money, lands, homes, honour, consequence, feasts, stay in our hands when they are got? Are not all perishing or ready to perish? "None of these things move me," said the same Apostle, speaking of persecution; and so should we speak of all earthly things; we should not be moved by them; we should not have heart enough for them to be moved by them. They that weep should be as though they wept not; they that buy as though they possessed not; this is the sort of spirit with which we should take good things here or evil.

Our one trouble should be about our souls, about eternal life, about losing or gaining the mercy of our Lord. We should "not be brought under the power of any" worldly thing; not under the power of gain, nor mirth, nor advancement. It is enough to be under the power of Christ. We cannot have many cares at once in our heart, or many objects of interest, or many masters, or many objects of love. One will push out or rise above another; and it should be ours to keep all out and keep all down but the love of

Christ, that that may be first indeed. We shall wish it to be first by and by.

Though doubtless we have to toil for our bread and to provide for our own, yet we should do this without being overcharged with the cares of this life, without being over-anxious, or overbusy, or over-eager, remembering these words of our Blessed Lord when He bade His disciples look to the lilies how they grew, and not be too much troubled about their clothing or their bread. "If God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith... your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."

Henceforth then let no man trouble you; let the pleasures of Christ, obedience to His word, the salvation of your soul, be the one thing uppermost in your life. Remember that Christ hath bought you, and that you are His, unless by the wilful undoing of that purchase you would be the devil's. If you doubt which is the best master now, ask yourselves which is the best eternally. Place this one word eternally before your souls, for it is of eternal life that you have to think of

most, and looking into eternity may you be moved to hasten at once to God who desires to bestow upon you eternal life through Jesus Christ His Son.

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

Sermons for the Christian Seasons.

SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

THE APOSTLE'S PRAYER THE RULE OF CHRISTIAN

PERFECTION.

EPHES. iii. 14—19. For this cause I bow

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the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

FEW of us can fail to have been struck with the solemnity and high tone of this prayer of St. Paul, which has been read as the Epistle for today. It may be that some of us have thought that it contained a higher standard of feeling and life than we could hope to reach; and therefore have been tempted to abandon the consideration of it in silence; whilst others, striving to force the feelings which it recommends, have been

betrayed into false excitement and unreality. The remedy for both these common cases is a careful consideration of the Apostle's petition as a whole. Almost every word is a rich mine of thought, but there is a lesson contained in its general scope which we must carefully observe. It is indeed very spiritual; but it is not the less practical. It is a pattern for the most advanced Christian; but it is a lesson for the weakest believer. We are not to regard it only as an Apostle's prayer for the early saints, who lived in days far different from our times. It is a prayer suitable for all ministers of the Gospel, for all times. It shews us what is the object of Church teaching and therefore points out the state to which all Christians ought to be advancing. The Apostle did not pray for any blessing which his people could not receive; and therefore all he prayed for they were bound to seek. Hence this petition came to the Ephesians not only as an evidence of their pastor's love and devotion, but with an implied command. And so it is now: the prayers of the Church are exhortations to the faithful. For example: when the earnest petition arises from the altar, "that this congregation here present may with meek heart and due reverence hear and receive Thy holy word,"

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