solved with your whole heart to give up all to Christ, to make a complete, entire, unreserved sacrifice of yourself, this offer of yourself should be accompanied by acts of self-distrust, by acts of reliance upon God, by special prayers for grace and strength. In the midst of devoting yourself wholly to God, be careful to confess yourself unequal to such service.

I do not want you to promise but a little, to stop short of a complete offer, because you may only perform a little. God forbid; go all the length of the Apostle as regards the offer of yourself, but do all upon your knees; pray before you resolve; pray when you resolve; pray continually after you have resolved; that the constant dew of God's blessing may fall and keep your resolutions green and fresh. In our warfare we should resolve to fight like David in the Name of the living God; then out of weakness will come forth strength; though spear and sword be not found in all the camp, though the best, the keenest, sharpest weapon be used against us, though like David we may lay aside the armour of man's making, the stones of the field, the pebbles of the brook will become in our hand stronger than these; we shall contend with power when we seem to be unarmed; we shall

be more than conquerors when we are considered defenceless, and we shall have hidden means of success which the world knoweth not of.

And what else have we to trust to but God's grace ? What are human resolutions but a wall of loose stones, fair to look upon when they are first piled up, but with no powers of continuance, first one stone of it and then another giving way, bulging in this direction and in that, till all comes down. It can only be by the power of the Holy Ghost, by His constant presence, that their firmness can be preserved. It is of course of deep importance to make use of seasons of religious feeling, especially in the way of committing ourselves to God afresh, and to exercise all spiritual thrift that the most may be made of the impressions of such a time; but though we may then feel ourselves lifted up and transported as it were into a new world, we may well check the tone of confidence and assurance in which we shall incline to speak, by looking forward to the time when great temptations will be trying the stedfastness of our purposes.

If we examine past resolutions which have failed, we shall often be able to track out some self-confidence, some self-dependance, some selfreliance, some want of real looking up to God for

help, some indulgence of a sanguine temperament which did not really base its hopes on the Cross of Christ. We have sometimes yielded to natural ardour and hopefulness, and had too little godly fear to temper and mellow the hue of hope, that it might be toned down into that of a sober and Christian kind. Do not these past failures make the road and point the way to future victories ? If there have been any such faults in past resolutions, we may learn to make them with greater humility and fear; we may learn to make them under a deeper sense of the infirmity of our own strongest purposes, of the fluctuation of human feeling, of the weakness of our firmest intents. Where the consciousness of weakness is sincere and deep, there will be a proportionate sense of the power of God, of the strength which is ministered to us in the Church from the Cross of Christ. He who is diffident of himself, who is at the same time strongly bent on living wholly to God, and who is anxious for divine support, is likely to excel the Apostle in the boldness of confession, while he will fall short of him in the boldness of his profession.

In this spirit plan your future course; purpose to devote it all to Christ, and yet look to God to confirm the purpose, even as we believe He is

the Giver of every purpose that is good. Resolutions made on the bended knee, in profound humility, with fervent prayer, carry with them the seeds of life. There is reasonable hope that such may survive the hour of trial, and not be washed away in the heavy storms. Though even these may fail through future neglect of prayer, or through other faults, yet none but these can stand. All else will crack with the heat of the fire. There is nothing strong except where man owns himself to be very weak, and God to be the only source of strength. I can do all things," says St. Paul, "through Christ which strengtheneth me." Without Him we can do

nothing.

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

Sermons for the Christian Seasons.

ST. JAMES' DAY.

THE TRANSFIGURATION.

ST. MATT. xvii. 4. Lord, it is good for us to
be here.

IN commemorating the holy Apostle St. James, we may well turn to consider that great mystery which He had the privilege to behold, I mean the transfiguration of our Lord. Not often dwelt on in discourses, and perhaps not often meditated on by ourselves as other themes, is the subject of our Blessed Lord's transfiguration. We are perhaps more conversant, speaking generally, with the other great events of His earthly pilgrimage, than with this; and nevertheless its record by the Evangelists seems to be one of the nost impressive portions of Holy Writ. St. Mark in the ninth chapter of his gospel, and St. Luke in the ninth of his, record the same wonderful occurrence as St. Matthew; and in considering this subject, with God's assistance, I shall not confine myself to the narrative of any one Evangelist in particular, but endeavour to blend their leading features into one.