of awakened zeal is past, and in a more ordinary mood we are called upon to battle with all the fretting or tempting circumstances of every-day life, with all the difficulties of religious service, then we are apt to be quite cast down as we recollect the warmth and ardour and strong purposes that so lately filled our hearts. A re-action takes place, and we think all things going the wrong way; we feel vexed with ourselves, and disappointed, as we find out the weakness of our resolutions and the difficulty of preserving a Christian spirit even amid the little incidents and trials of common life; we are apt to despair about our salvation, and to let our vessel go down the stream because the stream has somewhat baffled us for a time.

Now against all such desponding thoughts I pray you to strive; be of good heart; have faith; though beaten back, again fight against the tide, again grasp the oar; again summon up all your strength; again pray for strength; there is need of patience; need of perseverance, need of sustained effort; in time ye will gain the victory; in time ye will reach the goal; in time ye will obtain mastery over yourselves, and give good proof that the Lord has indeed changed your heart if ye will but persevere.

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

Sermons for the Christian Seasons.

THE PURIFICATION.

THE SCRIPTURE VIEW OF THE REVERENCE DUE TO
THE VIRGIN.

ST. LUKE ii. 22. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord.

We now come to another stage of our blessed Saviour's early life, His Presentation in the Temple. Though the day is commonly called the Purification, or Churching, as we might term it, of the Virgin Mary, yet if you look at the Collect, you will observe that the Church clearly regards that as the sccondary and lesser event, and means us to fix our minds principally on what happened to our Lord. On our Lord, I say, we are designed to bestow our chief thoughts. to-day.

And if we examine all the Services of the Church throughout the year, we shall find our Lord ever lifted up before our eyes as the object of faith and devout contemplation; every step of

His life, as far as it is revealed, is placed prominently before our minds, and little is said of the Virgin Mary except as far as it reveals some truth concerning our blessed Saviour. Even on those occasions which seem set apart for her especial commemoration she really holds an inferior place, and our thoughts are carried upwards from herself to her Holy Child. The PrayerBook seems only to bring her forward that it may point through her to some truth or mystery concerning her Son. We are never led to gaze at her alone, nor to stop short with calling her goodness or blessedness to remembrance, but we are led onwards to think of Him to whom she was the appointed and honoured instrument of giving birth.

For instance, the Feast of the Annunciation, which at first sight we might suppose to be devoted to her memory, is made in a very marked and impressive way to speak of our Lord Himself. Examine the Collect for that day and you will find that no mention is made of her at all; it all centres on that great and glorious truth, the Incarnation of Christ Jesus our Lord, made known to us by the message an angel.

of

In short, the Church is careful to prevent the

chief light of her teaching from falling wrongly, and, as if there is ever likely to be a tendency to over-exalt the Mother of our Lord, because she stands in a peculiar relation to Christ, and is drawn nearer to Him than any born of woman can be, our Church is jealous with a holy jealousy, and takes pains to make a broad distinction between the honour due to her and the honour due to her Holy Son. Though all fitting reverence is bestowed upon her who has indeed a high place, who is the "blessed among women,' from whom by a mysterious conception our Lord derived His human nature; yet the Prayer-Book exhibits a sort of devout sensitiveness, if we may so speak, lest there should be any over-exaltation given to the Virgin, and keeps her comparatively in the shade. Bear in mind how little is said of the Virgin Mary in the various Services; and even that little is not said so much for her own sake, or to increase her own personal honour, as to make us dwell the more on Christ. Wę learn all our views of her honour by looking upon Christ; we do not see her by herself. The events that happened to her are used as steps of the ladder, whereby we mount up to a fuller confession of our Lord.

Our Church too has the full warrant for this

mode of teaching; she has drawn it all from the Holy Scripture. She has learnt from the teaching of the Holy Ghost Himself, to make this marked distinction, to place this broad gulf between the honour bestowed on the Virgin and that given to Christ, and to keep the figure of the Virgin altogether in the shade. She has closely studied, closely copied the Scripture treatment of the Virgin.

When indeed we turn to the Scriptures themselves, we cannot but be struck by the awe with which the Virgin regards her Son, and the distance, if I may use the term, which she instinctively keeps. There is no familiar fondness on her part, no free approaches of motherly tenderness, but with all the depth, the warmth, the intensity of a mother's love, we see other feelings mixed; we see the deepest reverence in her love, a sort of grave and awed restraint placed upon her affection, an admiring and solemn regard paid to His slightest word and act, a continual consciousness of the infinite space between herself and Him, and a humble reserve in all her conduct towards Him. No one sat, so to speak, so humbly, so adoringly at His feet; there is no sense of power over her Son. These points are greatly to be observed.