Sermons for the Christian Seasons.

ST. MARK'S DAY.

ABIDING.

ACTS xv. 38. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.

THE voice heard at Lystra still crieth in our streets; "the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.' To call "Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercurius," to worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, and to give the glory of the incorruptible God to the image of corruptible man, is still the tendency of the human. heart, darkened by the idolatry of self. Still afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man, which shall be made as grass, we bring our oxen and garlands to him, whose breath is in his nostrils, and forget the Lord our Maker, who hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth, and who claimeth the cattle upon a thousand hills.

Among the children of the world, Herod, ar

rayed in royal apparel, still sits upon his throne, and when he makes an oration unto them, they give a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. Still, were St. Paul in the flesh, would his heart be stirred, to see all Athens given to idolatry; still would the beloved disciple warn us, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Enough to mention the adoration of wealth. For alas! we need no royal edict, no voice of herald, nor sound of music, to make us fall down and worship the golden image; and when Dives goeth forth, though the balances of deceit be in his hand, and he be poorer in God's sight than the beggar at his gate, the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself, and, blinded by the god of this world, cry before him, 'Bow the knee.'

Not only here, but even among those who profess and call themselves Christians, prevails the same evil temper. Without the Church, is not the very religion of multitudes designated by the name of man? And within, discern we not the same sad blemish, which of old disfigured the Corinthian Church, when Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas, were made, as the watchwords of "carnal" men, to take from the dignity of Christ? The promised blessing of prophecy is ours, our

"eyes" do see our "teachers;" but to look so earnestly on them, as though by their own power or holiness they were sent to save, is to turn that blessing into an occasion of falling, and to run the fearful risk of those who give not God the glory.

59

Now, doubtless, for our admonition in this matter, to teach us how far "it is better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in man,' and that "cursed" is he "that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm," the Almighty has put before us in His Scriptures the failings and infirmities of His saints, and has shewn us, both from their lips and from their lives, that they are "men. of like passions with" ourselves.

It is beyond my present design to dwell on the many examples which may be found in the records of the Older Testament; to comment on the presumptuous pride and anger of the "friend of God," at Meribah, who was nevertheless of the meekest of men, or upon that sin which was "ever before" the man after God's own heart. Under the revelation of grace and truth, we are the more concerned with the failings of Apostles and apostolic men; nor can we regard these more profitably than as they are brought before us by the Church in the selection of her Saints-day services. Herein, for instance, as we glance through

her calendar from Advent to Advent, we find St. Thomas portrayed in all the stubbornness of doubt and unbelief, and we pray that our faith in God's sight may never be reproved like his; St. John the Evangelist declares humbly of himself and us, "if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves;" we read less of St. Matthias, on his festival, than of "false apostles," and the arch-traitor, Judas; to St. Philip, discontented, and seeking after a sign, our Lord is speaking in sorrowful reproach, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip;" on the feast of St. James, there is "indignation," and, on St. Bartholomew's, "strife," among the Apostles.

:

Upon this, St. Mark's Day, the weak point in his history is not indeed directly and prominently brought forward, but is nevertheless the key-note of the strain in the services for this day, as in a river, we may see the dark reflection of its shadow. The point to which I allude is this :-Barnabas and Saul, on their return from Jerusalem, took with them John, whose surname was Mark, as their minister, but at Perga in Pamphylia he proved himself unworthy of that holy fellowship, departed, and went not with them to the work. Persecution and tribulation, doubtless, arose because of the word; and by and by he was offended, or he

shrank in terror from those perils by land, and perils by water, which could not daunt the noble heart of Paul, nor turn that "son of consolation," who had given up all to God.

From all such wavering and weakness the Collect prays deliverance, beseeching Almighty God that we be not "carried away," but that "we may be established in the truth."

The Epistle instructs us how great things God hath done to aid our patient continuance in welldoing, and for the perfecting of His saints, in the appointment of an Apostolic ministry-that first and loving gift of our ascended Lord unto His Church.

But the highest lesson, and the most gracious promise of the Festival, come from our Lord's lips in the Gospel," Abide in Me, and I in you." For though the Church, it is true, shineth "fair as the moon" on the darkness of this evil world, yet "all her radiance, all her glow, she borrows from the Sun" of Righteousness. The glorious company of her Apostles, the goodly fellowship of her Prophets, shall shine as the stars for ever, but only because, like the star of Bethlehem, they lead us on to Christ. All her holy men and means, her servants and solemn services, are only holy as from Christ and for Him. Streams they are from one