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than this) even encouraged by their very religion. Now, could we have lived in a heathen village, and have witnessed this fearful state of unrebuked sin; worship offered up unto cruel and hateful idols; men, women, children, living and growing up in sin, taught to sin by their religion itself, led on and tempted to sin by the priests of their false gods; could we have lived in such a village; and then left it; and, after a few years, returned to it, and found in it the Church of Jesus Christ, and His blessed gospel; how great, how blessed, would be the change! The worship of idols put away; their temples cast down, and the church builded in their stead; the Lord's day a holy and blessed day of rest and peace; the voice of prayer and praise heard in God's house; the Psalms of David in place of idol hymns; holy Baptism, the blessed Sacrament of our new birth; holy. Communion, the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. And then what a change,, also, in men's lives, and tempers, and conduct, through the power of the Holy Spirit! No longer, proud, fierce, cruel, unforgiving, but meek, lowly, patient, long-suffering; the young no longer trained in ways of uncleanness and impurity, but taught to be pure, chaste, to keep undefiled their baptism-robe of white, and to follow the

- as we

pattern of all God's saints, in warring against the sinful lusts of the flesh. Such are the changes which we should witness. And such changes (to God be the praise) do take place at this day. Such changes the missions of the Church are, under God, bringing to pass at this day. And unto such changes we may help, each in his place, by our prayers and by our alms. As then we value our own privileges within the fold of Christ's one holy, catholic, apostolic Church, as we value His blessed Gospel, value His holy Sacraments, as we value His holy day, as we value His ordinances of prayer and praise, and as we feel for our heathen brethren, the souls for whom also Christ died, the souls for whom His precious Blood was shed, the sheep scattered upon the mountains, whom yet it is the will of the good Shepherd to gather unto Himself, that they, with us, (and perchance by our means,) may be one fold under one Shepherd; shall we not be ready, glad, and thankful, to do what we can, each of us, to bring about this blessed work?

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JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

Sermons for the Christian Seasons.

ST. MATTHEW'S DAY.

WORLDLY BUSINESS A SCHOOL FOR HOLINESS.

ST. MATTHEW ix. 9. And as Jesus passed forth from thence, He saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom; and He saith unto him, Follow Me. And he arose, and followed Him.

SUCH are the few and simple words in which the blessed apostle and evangelist St. Matthew speaks of his own call unto his high and holy office. And very nearly the same words are used by St.Mark and St. Luke, when speaking of the same event; the latter of whom thus writes: "And after these things He went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom; and He said unto him, Follow Me. And he left all, rose up, and followed Him." Wherein we are to note that St. Luke, as also St. Mark, speaks of St. Matthew by his other name of Levi,

and adds these few but striking and affecting words, that "he left all." When Christ called him, St. Matthew at once "left all, rose up, and followed Him.”

And such ready obedience unto Christ, even unto the leaving, if necessary, of all things, would seem to be the lesson which the Church would have us learn from this day's festival. Such, at least, is the prayer which she puts into our mouths in the Collect for the day; that "Almighty God, Who by His blessed Son did call Matthew from the receipt of custom to be an Apostle and Evangelist, would grant us grace to forsake all covetous desires, and inordinate love of riches, and to follow the same His Son Jesus Christ."

The Church therefore would seem, on the one hand, as at other times, to warn us of the great danger and deceitfulness of riches, and of the hindrance and obstacle which they too often prove to a sincere following of Christ, a sincere and hearty obedience unto His will; and, on the other hand, to exhort and admonish us, by the instance and example of St. Matthew, that the task, although hard, is yet not impossible; that, as the holy apostle was not so occupied by the cares of a busy life, but that he heard Christ's voice; was not so set upon riches, but that he

left all, rose up, and followed Christ; so may Christians now hear Christ's voice, even in the noise and tumult of the world's business, and may follow Christ even in the path of daily life; if only they do indeed "forsake all covetous desires and inordinate love of riches," and, whilst they are "not slothful in business," strive also to be found "fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." For this it is to live as Christian persons ought to live, who, whilst they "learn and labour truly to get their own living, and to do their duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call them," know and feel the danger which is in such things, the temptations which worldly cares have in them, and the many awful sentences of holy Scripture which warn us against being ensnared and beguiled by them.

I say, the instance of the apostle St. Matthew may be a stay and support to them whose lot is cast in the midst of the cares and business of life,—so great and so pressing as are those cares in an age and nation like our own,-and who ask, how it is possible to live strict, and holy, and Christian lives, to serve God faithfully, to grow in grace, to nourish religious thoughts and reverential feelings, in the midst of a cold, heartless, and evil generation; to remain pure with defile

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