loving and the most pure, and how many sores and spots would be found, even these needing nothing less than the very blood of Christ to wash them out. And what of the rest? There is enough done among us every day to make angels weep, and to move the Lord to sorrow greatly over His sheep.

And yet with all these things to turn aside, to chill and check God's love, even now He is calling us to repentance; even now He says, and He bids us say, that He has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth; even now He stretches out His arms and calls even to the most rebellious of His children, to the most stubborn hearts and the most wild; even now He

lifts

up His voice, He cries aloud; He implores us to return; even now He exclaims, "Why will ye die, O house of Israel?" And how can ye answer Him? Will ye die? Is the choice made and your hearts fixed? What sound is there gone up from the midst of us to heaven? what answer do we make? Is there a fatal silence and no cry for mercy, no sound of weeping over our sins, no confession of sin, no prayer that we may be spared and forgiven? Good Lord, open Thou our hearts, and loosen Thou our tongues, that

we may cry unto Thee and say, “O Lord hear, O Lord forgive."

May such a voice and such a cry as this ascend from the Church continually, and may the Lord come among us, and save us for His mercies' sake.

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

Sermons for the Christian Seasons.

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

THOUGHTS OF CHRIST.

ST. MATTHEW Xxii. 42. What think ye of Christ?

The

THOSE to whom these words were addressed had then some thoughts about Christ. question was not, Think ye anything concerning Christ? but, What think ye? Their thoughts might be wrong, and ignorant, and imperfect; but still they were not altogether without thought about Him. The voices of the Prophets did not fall entirely on deaf ears; God's words were sometimes a subject of meditation with the Pharisees, however much their own pride and hypocrisy led them to misinterpret them. And herein it may be feared that they often put to shame some amongst Christians who while they profess to be called by that title, yet never have any thought of the Master whose name they thus bear. For wrong thoughts about religion are (in most cases at least) better than

no thoughts at all; as error is better than infidelity. And yet there are many who if they were asked, "What think ye of Christ ?" could not even give such a scanty answer as the Fharisees did, not only, as is the case with some, from ignorance, which (to our shame be it spoken,) even in this land may not be their own fault, but too often also from men's own wilful blindness. For thoughts of Christ do not suit with the ways of the wicked: they throw a gloom over their pleasures, and remind them while they are busily striving only for the things of earth, that these must all fade away, while the mansion prepared by Christ, in which they seek to secure no place, will alone endure for ever. Such thoughts too make sinners recollect, while they are obstinately following the biddings of their own passions, that they have been bought at a costly price by a Master who has given them a law to fulfil, and a faith to believe, and that when those passions have ceased to command, and themselves to obey, there will then be the reckoning of things done and things left undone to be given to their Lord. And so they would gladly get rid of such thoughts altogether; bent upon following their own way, they would have nothing to remind them of another; and therefore

of their own accord they think no thoughts of Christ. As though their own chosen forgetfulness wiped out the great realities; as though Christ's salvation was never wrought, and Christ's judgment would never come, because they feel no need of a Saviour, and would fain fear no doom. And thus they drown and lose all thought of Christ in dissipation, or enjoyment, or business, in unholy thinking, and wrong doing, being those of whom David says, “Neither is God in all (or, any of) their thoughts." That such a frame of mind should belong to any of my present hearers, may God forbid; and yet perhaps, even while we are saying to ourselves, "this does not apply to me, for I at any rate do think of Christ," we may be more nearly concerned in it than we imagine. For what do our thoughts of Christ consist in? Is it in the being content once or twice a week to hear of Him with the outward ear? and perhaps in the speaking a few cold formal words of course? In the going through a stated appearance of devotion, and repeating a certain routine of prayer? Surely if the heart and mind and soul are not engaged in it, if it is only an exercise of the tongue and a bending of the knee, it is indeed an outward acknowledgment of Christ, but it is no thinking