thing as to announce all the privileges and obligations of the Gospel, which flow as from a fountain from the humanity of CHRIST, Who is also GOD over all blessed for ever. The putting on of the new man, created in righteousness and true holiness, grace and strength, whereby we may grow to the full stature of our regenerated manhood, and may reap the fruits of holy obedience, even life eternal;-all this is involved in the preaching of CHRIST, Who is our Mediator, our Exemplar, our Sacrifice, our Intercessor.

Right worthy, then, was Samaria's joy. And have not all to whom the same glad tidings are gone forth, reason to rejoice also? Yea, have not we, who are met together here this day for the very purpose of rejoicing and being glad that CHRIST has been preached to you, and especially of commemorating as Christians in all ages have done, the dedication of this your most beautiful house to the glory of Almighty GoD? Well is it that your joy on this occasion should be great. Full of joy, doubtless, was the day when, for the first time, your devoted pastor, and my own dear and tried friend of many years, preached CHRIST to you in an upper room in this city. Then began to be restored to you the faith of your fathers; and that Church, which had so often witnessed, apparently in vain, and amid persecution, was once again, through the protection of her Divine Head, permitted to speak in lowly guise indeed, but in the overpowering might of truth and love.

To you, too, most joyous was that never-to-be-forgotten day, which we now specially commemorate. Though six long years have passed, it seems but as yesterday, since a long and stoled procession, headed by the venerable fathers and other clergy of your Church, and adorned by some of the brightest names amongst the AngloCatholic Priesthood, entered with a jubilant psalm these sacred walls, already crowded with thankful and loving hearts; and with notes of praise and prayers of faith, and offerings of duty and of love, the then chief Pastor of this diocese, assisted by numerous Priests and Deacons, set apart with holy mysteries this house of prayer as a temple of the King of glory for ever. Oh, neverto-be-forgotten is that memorable day and its accompanying services, when with well-ordered pomp, decent and unreproved, and with something at least of becoming reverence, CHRIST was preached unto you. Great indeed was the joy of the faithful in this city on that occasion.

And yet there is, I think, cause of greater joy to-day; for as fruit is more prized than blossom, and reality than expectation, so this day, in which we are permitted to behold fruits of the faith then sown, ought to be more joyous still. It was, doubtless, not without something of misgiving that the means of

grace were then offered to you. Knowing how awful is the abuse of privileges, the infirmity of purpose in all men, the difficulty of persevering in a good cause, and of enduring patiently the misrepresentation and obloquy which all who are enabled so to persevere must expect-the fear of these things was as clouds to overcast the bright season of holy joy, which ushered in the full light of Gospel truth amongst you. But now may we not rejoice that these clouds are dispersed, and that the light has brightened into perfect day-the earnest efforts then commenced having been brought to an excellent work? Who, indeed, can contemplate the many tokens of the continual dew of God's blessing upon the ministrations of this place, without really grateful joy. Although committed to the charge of a single Priest, the daily offering of prayer and praise has, with few interruptions, and always of necessity, been made amongst you. In their full integrity, and with due reverence, have matins and evensong, in lowly confession and exalted praise, resounded from this temple, in the united harmony of common worship. On the weekly festival, at least, has the tremendous sacrifice of the altar been offered according to the venerable use of your own communion, which is the complement and crown of all other service, and the real Christian oblation. Here have children been duly catechised, which is the true Christian education of the heirs of immortality; here has the grace of confirmation and of holy orders been dispensed by a successor of the Apostles; here has earthly love been sanctified to a mysterious and heavenly use in holy matrimony; and here, too, have the bodies of the dead in CHRIST been committed, as temples of the HOLY GHOST, to hallowed earth, there to repose till the Great Day.

And of those who have already fallen asleep, as many have done, (including the good Bishop who consecrated,) during these past six years-have we not in them the source of the purest joy of all. Heart saddening as it is to part from our earthly loves, who at this moment rejoices not to know that many, (may they be all!) who have been called away from you, found this sacred place a nursery of paradise, having here learnt the strains which they are hymning together now, and which they will hereafter recognise as the unceasing songs of those who circle GoD's throne day without night, rejoicing? Nay, further, while we joy for them, and render hearty thanks to our heavenly FATHER, that it hath pleased Him to deliver them out of the miseries of this sinful world, may we not believe that they also joy with us, and are now gazing approvingly from their bowers of rest, if not mingling in spirit and unseen amongst us, longing for the time when they shall welcome us to the paradise of GOD? May we all attain that blissful rest!

But this reminds me to venture a word of warning in conclusion. True it is that you have every way cause of joy; but as the Christian's joy is not the joy of the world, neither is the manner of indulging in it. At best we have need to rejoice with trembling; for when we consider the ground of our joy, our Christian privileges, have we not reason to fear, lest, by undervaluing, or abusing, or perverting them, we should inherit sorrow and shame rather than joy. Most awful as well as most joyful are such privileges. They heighten our responsibilities, and deepen our guilt of disobedience. "Take heed," said our great Prophet, "lest the light which is in you be darkness." And still more awfully He declares, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now ye say, We see, therefore your sin remaineth." And most awfully of all He saith, "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin." Yes, better for your souls that you should have been as the heathen or the heretic, than that you should abuse the privileges with which you have been intrusted. Now ye are light in the LORD, walk as children of light. In vain will you fall down and kneel morning and evening before GOD's footstool, unless you work with the grace there sought, and live as you pray. In vain will you approach the holiest place, and prostrate yourselves before the Crucified, Who is present there, unless you are also in heart and mind crucified with CHRIST, and prove that you are really His, by crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts. In vain will you confess sins with your lips, unless the heart be lowly and contrite; nor will any absolving words have power to unloose you, unless you are truly penitent in respect of each individual sin which you confess, and earnestly strive against the commission of sins you have already confessed and repented of. In a word—in vain, yea, worse than vain, will be all your privileges, and fallacious your joy in them, unless you live day by day, and hour by hour, as those who have had CHRIST preached to them ought to live; carrying the cross after Him Whose Name you bear, Whose Gospel you profess, yea Whose very members you are, in lowliness, in peaceableness, in loving penitence, in holy obedience, in self-denying perseverance. In this way, the HOLY SPIRIT preventing and following you, will your joy here,-which, however great is at best chequered and imperfect,-be succeeded by joy complete and never-ending,-even fulness of joy at God's right hand for evermore.

DAILY STEPS TOWARDS HEAVEN.

THIS is the title of a most valuable manual* lately put forth by a devout and earnest layman of our Church; and we cannot more fitly commence our notice of it, than by thanking him for a work which we shall rejoice to see in the hands and daily use of all our readers. His first object was to put before himself, and ultimately before others, the life of His LORD and GOD, JESUS CHRIST,-His doctrines, His work, and its attendant circumstances, in the Gospel history,-in a form likely to be of daily practical use. The author tells us, and truly, that to read a little with reflection, prayer, and practical self-application, is better than to read much without it; which, if of any, is of little profit: that the thoughts suggested in this book, arranged for every day in the year, in the way of text, with meditation and self-application, are intended as helps only, and should be accompanied, where there is time and opportunity, with consideration of the other parts of Scripture referred to.

"It may be urged," he says, "that the practical part of the Christian life, so especially needful to all in secular callings, is the daily struggle to conform to the will of GOD, to compare ourselves with His standard, to know and confess our guilt, and to set ourselves steadily on the work of amendment." Such works as these are to be used day by day; and as this is intended to lead to, and not from, the holy Scriptures, and in occasional moments of leisure to revive the recollection of them, we fear not earnestly to recommend it.

A manual like this is admirably calculated to confer no trifling advantages upon those engaged in the world's incessant round of toil and labour; to the man of business and the merchant, that it may form a safeguard against the all-engrossing cares of this world. Ours is essentially a business age; an age when men give their life and strength, and every hour of that life, to the work of their callings, to the heaping up this world's goods. Never were the children of this world wiser in their generation than they are at this time; never was a plan to stay the current of this evil more needed.

As we walk through the crowded streets, and think that each man we see so intent on his labour is here on his way to eternity, to an everlasting state, can we help trembling at the thought of the few moments that are spared to prepare for that state? Oh that anything we could say would induce men to think; for it is from the want of this "great law of consider

Daily Steps towards Heaven; or, Practical Thoughts on the Gospel History, for every day in the year, according to the Christian Seasons. London: J. H. Parker.

ation," (as Horneck calls it,) that men go on from day to day, and from week to week, as if death and judgment, heaven and hell were mere idle dreams. They do not deny them, but they see not, that if heaven is to be reached, and the judgment is to be without condemnation, it must be by daily steps here, and step by step daily to the end. Men will not believe that they are to use a similar wisdom in their religion to that of their worldly callings; they will think that religion is to be pursued and found in a totally opposite way, in spite of the plain words of Scripture telling them it is not so. We are wise enough in other matters: who thinks of establishing a business in a week? who thinks of saving a fortune in a year? who does so otherwise than by care, and adding coin to coin, and goods to goods, house to house, and field to field; patiently working on and laying out with caution to the best advantage what he has saved, and turning every change that occurs in markets, in funds, in the political world, in seasons and customs, all to his profit, by being ready to meet, and prepared for them? And for what is all this talent and wisdom spent?-all for this world's goods. Perseverance and labour are duties; but then the heart must not be so devoted to them as to neglect the steps we must daily tread towards heaven, if we would reach there. Do they not know that, if each day has its work, and that no less than can be well done in a day, that to-morrow cannot supply the neglect of to-day? And is it less so in religion? Can we in that take steps enough on the Sunday, to make up for the total neglect and forgetfulness of it during the week? Our worldly wisdom says “Ño;” and sure we are that our experience tells us, that those who take the fewer steps in the week are not those who take the more on Sundays.

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We could almost think that the man of business argues thus with himself:—“I am a tradesınan; I must work diligently at my calling to support my family, and get forward in the world; this occupies all my week, and Sunday is my only rest; I cannot work on Sunday." For it is work, and hard work too, to save our souls by only thinking of it on Sundays; and the accumulation of daily steps untrodden will each Sunday add to the labour, till the fortune is made, the independence acquired; and then how very few can, and do, turn from that freedom from care which they seem to have earned so hardly, to tread the narrow way that leadeth unto life. May the title of this manual sound as a warning to all, that the way-the narrow way-consists of daily steps; and may the use of it be blessed to those who hear the warning.

We must not be thought to neglect the fact, the cheering fact, that men of business may be, and many truly are, walking