as well as by vocation, are qualified to be foremost in defending the truth against error and corruption. Nevertheless all may join in some degree in striving for the faith, by seeking to hold it undefiled themselves, and by refraining from all participation in any way with error, or from thinking lightly of differences, which they know to be contrary to the teaching of the Church, whose office it is to be a witness and keeper of the faith.

Again, there is a zeal in condemning sin, of which St. Jude likewise affords abundant proofs in his Epistle; but which again is more particularly the office of God's ministers in general, as the former kind of zeal is of some in particular. They are called to be foremost in boldly rebuking vice, and declaring the punishments which await the ungodly in the world to come; not with the zeal of the unconverted Simon, the Jewish Zealot, destroying the sinner through hatred of his sin, but with the zeal of the converted Simon, the Christian Apostle, while abhorring the sin, yet looking with much charity on the sinner, regarding him with the more compassion and love in proportion to their abhorrence of the offence by which he is entailing upon himself everlasting destruction. And

in some, although not equal, degree, all are in like manner called to display this zeal; when sin comes before them with unblushing front, or God is dishonoured or blasphemed in their sight or hearing, or when special opportunities are opened up in which they can speak a word for God, as well as of course universally in the case of those in any way committed to their charge, then it is the duty of all alike to imitate St. Simon and St. Jude, and seek to warn the sinner from his evil way.

But thirdly, there is one way in which every one of us in common not only may but must display his Christian zeal, and that is, in being "zealous of good works," earnest in doing good himself, as well as in avoiding evil, and seeking to stir up others also to a holy rivalry; considering one another, as St. Paul says, "to provoke unto love and to good works." This is a way in which we are daily called upon to display our zeal; other opportunities may occur but seldom, and not be so suitable for every one, but this is common to all, common both in respect of its hourly occurrence and its universal application. Thus then let us seek to approve ourselves “zealous toward God;" each shewing himself to be a very Thaddaeus, one praising God both in

words and works, and best asserting his claim to be reckoned among Christ's brethren by truly owning himself, like St. Jude, to be His servant. For His brethren indeed He has vouchsafed to make us; of us who are sanctified is it said, in a higher sense than of His kinsmen in the flesh, that "He is not ashamed to call" us "brethren." So then may we prove ourselves His in this world, that He may confess us to be His in the world to come.

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

Sermons for the Christian Seasons.

ALL SAINTS' DAY.

THE RECOLLECTION OF THE SAINTS.

HEBREWS xii. 1. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

How large a portion of the Church have already passed from the house of their pilgrimage, have already wrought their earthly works, and gone to the unseen world! The children of Christ's kingdom, the children of the light, are as yet divided, the one part from the other; part have passed the waves of this troublesome world, part have attained their rest, and fought their fight, and finished their course; whatever it was they had to suffer, to endure, to resist, has been resisted, and suffered, and borne; whatever pains of body, or trials of soul, whatever sicknesses, or family distresses, or bereavements, or temporal destitution and contempt, had to be gone through for the

trial of their faith, the trial is now past, the tears are wiped from their eyes, the heaviness is at an end, their affliction is but a tale, a thing, it may be, even washed from their remembrance, and quite blotted out.

It is nothing to them now that they were destitute, afflicted, tormented; nothing to them that they were sick or poor; the race is run, their faith proved; they cannot be disappointed of their crown; their expectation cannot be cut off; and though as yet the perfect bliss of being with Christ is not revealed, though they must wait till the day of God's last judgment before they can receive the fulness of their joy, they are now resting like weary travellers at their journey's end, and in a little while they will rise up from this pleasant rest, and enter upon the still higher and more energetic joy, when the Lord allots the mansions which He is now preparing for the elect.

But another part of the Church is yet removed from these happier brethren whose faith can no more be tried or shaken; another part is in the world, warring with the world, in the very heat and peril of the fight, pressing forward that they may attain the prize of their high calling in Christ, but not having attained, not counting that they have attained it, contending for the faith, beset by