once more shone forth on their sincere repentance, so we may hope for mercy, and pray for it in hope. In the falls of the saints the fallen may learn hope; they are our arguments against despair; by them we are encouraged again to strive, again to draw near unto God, again to climb the hill of the Lord, again to do battle with the world.

How should we bless God that He has revealed to us the darker as well as the brighter features of His saints, that He has shewn us their weaker side, their frailties, their moments of distrust, the flaws and blemishes on their souls! in mercy has God lifted up the veil and suffered us to see His own beloved ones when they fell, that we, feeling them to be of like passions with ourselves, and not spotless, might be emboldened to seek forgiveness when we have sinned, and instead of plunging on in sin, might cast ourselves as penitents at God's feet, not without hope of mercy. Blessed be God that by this means He has forbidden the fallen to despair; and do Thou, O blessed Jesus, full of all grace and love, Thou only of all born of woman without spot of sin, made sin and accursed for us, do Thou lift us up, raise us from the ground, accept our repentance, plead for us with the Father by

the merits of Thy Cross whensoever we have fallen; suffer us not to despair, renew our strength, help Thou our unbelief, and save us for Thy mercies' sake. As of old Thou did raise up Thy fallen saints and again drew them near unto Thyself, and didst not turn Thy face away from them altogether, so have pity upon us, be not extreme to mark what has been done amiss, receive us yet again; shew us the light of Thy countenance, and so shall we be whole.

Sermons for the Christian Seasons.

ST. STEPHEN'S DAY.

THE OPPOSITION OF THE WORLD.

ACTs vii. 55. He being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

WHEN St. Stephen on being charged with speaking blasphemous words, reproached all who were in the council with their unbelief, their stiff-necked resistance of the Holy Ghost, he raised malicious instead of repentant thoughts. Their evil hearts were stung and maddened by the just reproach, not softened into any compunction for the abused and rejected gifts of God; giving vent to the anger that burned within, they "gnashed upon him with their teeth," hating him for the fearless words which denounced their sins. Then being himself full of the Holy Ghost he turned from the glaring eyes, the wild faces of that angry crowd, from their bitter and furious looks, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he had in a vision a very different scene to warm and sustain his soul in that

perilous and lonely hour. He looked up stedfastly "and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." There was a light in a dark place, the veil that hides heaven from mortal eyes was for the moment raised, that the sight of the heavenly place and of the glory of his Lord might cheer and embolden the spirit of the saint in his time of need.

Black and fearful as was the earthly scene in which he stood, there was a light above, marvellous, wondrous light; around him on earth were enemies heated to the very excess of hate; above him Jesus, his friend, his Saviour, who is love itself; here on earth things to terrify and afflict him; there in heaven all that could rejoice and enrapture the soul of man. "Behold," he exclaimed, as his eye was filled with the sight of heavenly things, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." These last words made the cup of wrath to overflow. Convicting him as a witness against himself, "they stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city and stoned him." The very miracle that was vouchsafed, the very sign of God's singular love and favour, only quickened

his condemnation, and hurried the stones into the hands of the maddened crowd; the heavenly vision brought on his death; the sight or the Son of God in His glory subjected him to the wrath of man, and the very fact that God was bestowing upon him unusual marks of love was enough to provoke the fiercest enmity of wicked men.

Now though it is only at particular periods that the world is so stirred against the saints, as to persecute them unto death, though it is only at intervals that the wilder and bloodier deeds are done against the disciples of Christ, yet we have witness both in the darker and lighter forms of persecution of the enmity that is between the world and God. They cannot be reconciled; there can be no peace between the two; the world, as the world, opposes God; there is a perpetual struggle between the empires of light and darkness, the two kingdoms of good and evil, each seeking to dispossess the other of some portion of its territory, its goods, its subjects, at one time by open assaults, at another in a more noiseless and hidden way. What God loves, the world hates; what God blesses, the world gnashes upon with its teeth; what God highly favours, the world greatly