"Glad to be

Anywhere, anywhere, out of the world !"

Yes, my children: and for you too of the upper school. It may be also that you will be tempted, as so many in the same rank of life have been. And you, perhaps, rather in a different way. As you go out into the world, you will learn, I fear, I sadly fear, more than you now know of what I am about to say. But remember this: if ever you, any of you, have a sentence said to you, which may have a perfectly good sense, but which (though you do not understand how) you feel was not so meant: then GOD gives you your feminine instinct to be your guide and your guard. Ah! I so sadly remember what I once heard from one who began life quite as brightly, quite as earnestly, quite with as much determination to serve GOD as any of you can have; (she is gone now, poor thing!) "The first occasion of my fall was this: I had something said to me which I did not understand; but I felt that he who said it meant it badly, though it might mean well. I had not courage to say I was offended: I smiled: and that smile cost me "-what afterwards she would have given worlds to regain !

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see GOD." But what does this mean? We know, when our dear LORD shall come again to judge the world, every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him.

Well; no doubt it especially means that the pure in heart shall have the nearest and dearest place to Him there.

But it means more. It means that they shall see Him even here. It means that the more any one tries after that great grace of Christian Modesty, the more, even in this world, they shall see how GOD it is, Who rules all the changes and chances of their lives: the more they shall see Him in outward things; and in [their souls and hearts too, which shall be His dear Temples.]

And then remember: all these Beatitudes are true the contrary way. If, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see GOD; then, Cursed are the impure in heart, for they shall not see GOD. That is most especially, most particularly, most above all others, they shall be shut out from His Sight, here and hereafter. If there is one sin above another which blinds our eyes, and deafens our ears, it is that of impurity. He, that spotless LAMB OF GOD, Who condescended to have it said of Him that He cast out devils through Beelzebub the prince of the devils, never allowed one slightest suspicion of this sin to dwell on His infinitely glorious Name.

Now something else. I am speaking to you, my children: all of one sex: all, more or less, of one age. See the safeguard that GOD especially gives you. You might well say: Why is this sin of impurity so much worse in women than in men?

It might be a very difficult question to answer. Perhaps, in the sight of GOD, it is not worse. But the worse it is thought by the world, do you not see how that makes your especial safeguard? So GOD has ordered: and He has ordered it as a help to you. We know that, let a woman once lose that grace: and, in almost all cases, all are gone. It somehow does not so fall out with men. But look here. We should never think it a real sin in a woman, only a fault, to be cowardly. I earnestly hope better things for all of you:-but still, if your fancy were to turn poor quiet cows into raging bulls or the like, I should not call it a sin. Those of your own sex who have done so have, nevertheless, suffered Martyrdom joyfully. But in a man it would be very different. If he were a coward in the one case, he could not be a Martyr in the other. Why? I can only say again, because so GOD has ordered it.

Then is not that a help to you? "If ever, if ever, I should, even by words only, lose my character as a modest Christian woman: even the world would make it very difficult to me to regain it." And, to say one word to all of you together, which I would rather say to each of you separately: if about words, ought it not so to be about thoughts?

There, my children, I have done my duty by speaking plainly to you this Lent. Thank GOD,

one such Sermon once saved one of you, under GOD's great Love, from a terrible sin. He keep you all, whether by any poor words of mine, or how else may please Him, from any shadow of it!

READING XIV.1

"Who will hearken unto you in this matter? But as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike." I SAMUEL XXX. 24.

Do you remember, my children, how, when GOD was calling His own people Israel to their Lent, after He had said, "Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the people, assemble the elders," He goes on, "Gather the children ?" And perhaps you do not remember how, when the great army of the Ammonites and Moabites came up against Jerusalem in the days of that good King Jehoshaphat, and there seemed no help from man-how, when all the people were gathered together in prayer, it is written in the Book of Chronicles, "All Judah stood before the LORD with their little ones, their wives, and their children."

So now for a lesson as regards you. You know that, in the very middle of this Lent, we wish to give up two days altogether to GOD. And though you cannot join in this: because neither are you old enough, nor have you the power, to enter into it yourselves: yet you may very much help in it; and if you do so help-Well; I will tell you a story to show how you yourselves will have part of the reward.

1 Preached the Third Sunday in Lent, 1863.