faith and firmness of St. Mark, Evangelist and Martyr? Apostolic frailty, Thomas doubting, Peter denying, and Philip demanding proof; James and John aspiring to be first; yea, even Judas betraying with a kiss; these we look not far to find; but Apostolic penitence, St. Thomas confessing, St. Thomas preaching, St. Thomas slain at his prayers; St. Peter weeping bitterly, living the life, and dying the death, of the great Shepherd of the sheep; St. Philip, winning souls to Christ that were "estranged.. through their idols," until baptized with the baptism of blood; St. John and St. James, as "sons of thunder," lifting up their voice for the Gospel; where, oh where now in Christendom, shall we look for these ?

Yet still, as in Apostolic days, all things are possible to the true believer, to him who abides in Christ. Be we then more stedfast in faith, and He will help our unbelief; more constant and earnest in prayer, and He will "teach us to pray;" more diligent, more reverent, in searching His Scriptures, and He the more will open. our understanding; more bounteous in our alms, the more will He reveal Himself to us an hungred, naked, sick, and in prison; more rigorous in our denial of self, and the more will He make

us to abound in "the unsearchable riches of Christ;" more devout and regular at church, and the more will He-as surely present and as highly gracious, when two or three be there, as when "the multitude keep holy day"-make us "satisfied with the pleasures of His House; more careful in our self-examinations, more painfully anxious about the Holy Communion, and the more therein shall we realize His presence when He shall come and "make His abode with us.'

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

Sermons for the Christian Seasons.

ST. PHILIP AND ST. JAMES' DAY.

ONE MIND.

1 ST. PETER ii. S. Be ye all of one mind.

On this holy feast of the Church we are led to think of two Apostles of the Lord, two holy brethren, who were indeed one in Christ, bound together by a common faith, and deriving a spiritual fellowship with each other from an union with their Divine Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact of this their fellowship, and of the Church's commemoration of them together, may well lead us to think of that oneness of mind which should exist among the members of the Body of Christ. We are many, and yet we are to be one, one in Christ Jesus, one in faith, one in doctrine, one in the confession of Christ and the holy truths delivered to us in the Church; for as by one Spirit we are all baptized into one

body, so that Spirit, when it is obeyed, unites us together into one fellowship, binds us to each other, interests us in each other, gives us common interests, and common hopes, and common objects of desire, by drawing all our hearts upwards toward the ever-blessed Jesus, by fixing all our eyes on Him, our common Master, as the eyes of the maiden wait on the hand of her mistress.

When that one Spirit of grace reigns in our hearts, it kindles in us a common love towards God, and a common love towards each other. Where all hearts are moved by the Holy Ghost, they will be "as the heart of one man. They will be of one mind, minding not earthly but heavenly things, and as brethren they will help each other patiently to tread the strait and narrow way that leadeth to the glorious door through which Christ has already passed. Where men love heavenly things, their union, their oneness, their fellowship, is true and sound; a sort of heaven then begins to be formed among them even here, and it is the part and duty of the Church on earth, of the members of Christ now sojourning in the world, to try to make a sort of image and similitude of heaven.

And this sort of earthly heaven, if I may so speak, we pray for when we pray that God's

kingdom may come; for though we have a double meaning in that prayer, and do also speak of the final and glorious kingdom of God, yet we first pray that Christ may so dwell among us on earth that we may form what He Himself calls "the kingdom of heaven" on earth, that is, a heavenly-minded kingdom, a fellowship, a society of men, full of heavenly thoughts, and heavenly pursuits, and heavenly love, and heavenly unity and concord, and among whom Christ reigns as King. We know at once that all who are in heaven are one. God is one; of the three divine Persons in the Godhead, we are taught that they are one, one not only in Godhead, but also in unity of will. We behold indeed their oneness in the great work of our redemption, for in this most merciful work, though the part and office of each Person of the blessed Trinity was different and distinct, yet was it decreed by one decree of divine love. God so loved the world, that He sent His only-begotten Son into the world; the Son was of one mind with the Father, and fulfilled the Father's will, and we know that the love of Christ towards us passeth knowledge; while further it is said that the Son, "through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot

unity of the