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give ourselves to God, must come obediently to His footstool, and asking Him to forgive us all our wanderings, to overlook all our negligences, to remedy with the abundance of His grace all our want of affection towards Him, offer Him henceforth the entire service of our souls. Brethren, will you not be persuaded to do this? will you not, remembering how your Saviour gave Himself when only eight days old, to obey His Father's commandment, give yourselves also, however young, to do His will? Blessed are they that early learn to obey God. Blessed are they that at any time come to seek Him with their whole heart. Let this blessedness, then, be yours: offer yourselves to-day, heart and soul, to His service: cost what it may, it is better for you to submit to God, than to side with the evil one.

Finally, this day's gospel will teach us not only lessons of obedient walking in the Church's ordinances, of persevering continuance in our allotted duties, of patient endurance under the troubles we ourselves have caused: but it will remind us of the apostle's rule, that whatever we do, we must do all in the Name of the Lord JESUS. In that Name given as at this time to their Lord, Christians must learn to do all their

appointed part. In the Name of JESUS: that is, for His sake, by His strength, and in reliance upon His merits, all our works must be wrought. For His sake, because in gratitude for being saved by Him, and as servants bought by His blood, we must not work for any other. It is so very easy to do good works out of other motives, out of a wish to win the praise of men, or to gratify our own kindly dispositions and better affections, that we have much need to renew our intention of doing our work for Him alone, every morning before beginning it, and every day while in the midst of it. This we shall do, however, very diligently, if we remember that it is also only by His strength that we shall rightly accomplish our task. He is our Saviour, not only in having redeemed us from Satan and death, but still more in having won for us the grace and strength to imitate Him; let us treat Him as such; let us look to Him for that power which we feel the want of in ourselves; let us ask for it in His name, and through His merits, pleading continually His sacrifice before the Father, and we need not fear of obtaining all we require, for He Himself has said, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked

nothing in My name: ask and that your joy may be full."

ye shall receive,

Another year has now passed away, and we are all so much further on in our journey of life, so much nearer the hour of death, and the day of judgment. As we grow older, we feel how years hurry by us. Now (to look back on) they are like as a tale that is told. The season comes round again; the same duties, the same business, the same feelings, meet us; all things (or nearly all things) around us are the same as they were a year ago. And we can hardly believe that so much time has passed.

And yet a great and serious portion of our time here has passed, with its many trials, its many temptations to evil, its many occasions of good. And how has that time passed to us? How have we acted under the trials of the past year -its temptations to evil-and its occasions of good? All these are serious questions, to which it much concerns us what answer we can make. For every year adds to the many talents for which we shall have to give an account. Health, strength, learning, riches, time, how have we used them? They have been given us, once for all; whether we have used them, or abused

them, they have passed away for ever, never

to return.

If we have wasted them through carelessness, if we have abused them to sin, Almighty God, of His mercy, may yet pardon us upon our repentance. But even repentance cannot make the past undone, cannot give back to us the months, and weeks, and days, which have been consumed in idleness or sin. The very best that repentance can do for us, is so to fill us with godly sorrow for past sin and neglect, as that we shall set ourselves in earnest to redeem (in some sense) our mis-spent time, by spending the time that remains more entirely as Christian persons ought.

Again, we should remember, that not only may not occasions which have passed be recalled, but that habits also have been formed in us which are every day harder to cast off. So it is through life. Day by day, year by year, habits, as it were, grow upon us: our character, for good or evil, is formed by degrees. Either, by God's grace, the spirit gets the better of the flesh; or, through man's sin, the flesh gets the better of the spirit; either we make progress and grow confirmed in holiness; or we make progress, and grow confirmed in sin through life there is no place to

stand still, all men move one way or other. One man resists temptations to sin; is careful in his prayers, in reading holy Scriptures, in selfexamination, in meditation; is strict in his daily life; denies himself, and makes duty his rule of living: uses all means and occasions of good which God puts into his power, for His glory, and for the good of men: and so such an one goes on from strength to strength: by God's grace he is each year less tempted to evil, more settled and confirmed in good; each year he finds duty more pleasant, self-denial more easy, as the will of God becomes his will: each year he is able to see better the means and occasions of usefulness which God has given.

This is indeed a blessed onward course, and may well comfort and encourage all such as are set to serve God out of an honest and good heart, to know that time, as it passes, will, with God's help, make their trials less, their duties easier and plainer: but there is a downward course also, against which all must be roused, and specially the young. There are many, only too many, whom each year leaves-not as it finds them, but—weaker to obey, and further removed from God and holiness. Such persons give way, day by day, to the daily temptations of life, and

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