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tion in the interrogation and answer, to which I have before alluded; together with the first prayer, which is a supplication for spiritual gifts to the Almighty and Everliving God, who hath vouchsafed to regenerate those about to be confirmed by water and the Holy Ghost.

The second part consists of the rite itself, the laying on of hands, and the solemn benediction.

The third, or concluding part, consists of general petitions, in the versicles, response, and the Lord's Prayer; in petitions more peculiar to the occasion, contained in the two last collects; and of the final blessing.

Such is the office of Confirmation; and is it not with a melancholy feeling that we come to the consideration of it? We have periodically to consider this ordinance with reference to those who are preparing to receive it. But it has come this day under our notice, merely as a holy rite; and our interest in it is entirely retrospective. Years have passed since the hand of our Bishop, in Confirmation, rested upon our heads-to some of us, many years. Parents, sponsors; they whose hearts once beat in tender anxiety for us, as ours perhaps are throbbing now, at the thought of all the trials, temptations, and difficulties, awaiting our own dear children and godchildren; where are they? Their once familiar faces beaming with that generous unselfish love, that kind of love which none other can ever feel for us, seem to appear before us; but, with respect to most of them, they have gone the way of all flesh; not lost, but gone before us. Whether in the Church triumphant they are cognizant of what passes here below, is doubtful: we can scarcely suppose it; for if they were witnesses of our struggles, they could hardly be at rest; and blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours. But it is probable, that from time to time, as they are uniting with us in the prayer that it may

please the Lord of his gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of his elect, and to hasten His kingdom; their righteous hearts may be cheered by the joyful intelligence of our progress in holiness, our advance in grace. Surrounded as we are by angels and invisible spirits, who are ministering to the heirs of salvation; incessant as the intercourse is between the visible and the invisible Church, this seems more than probable, and certainly has ever been a pious opinion in the Church. And while we think of dear ones loved, and now seen no more, can we venture to hope that their spirits have been thus cheered, by such intelligence of our conversion, of that renewal of our nature by the co-operation of God's Spirit with our own self-discipline, which is fitting us for the mansions purchased for those who persevere unto the end, by the cross and passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?

Let us this day deal honestly with our souls. Let us devote some additional time this night, ere we retire to rest, to self-examination; let us attend to the verdict which our consciences shall return. There was a period in our lives in which our Bishop asked us, "Do ye here in the presence of God, and of this congregation, renew the solemn promise and vow that was made in your name at Baptism?" the promise and vow that you should renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh; that you should believe all the articles of the Christian faith; and that you should keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of your life. There was a time, when to this solemn question we each one of us answered, I do. And to your conscience, and to mine, my brethren, I now, in the name of the living God, put the question: Have you kept the promise, or, are we found liars? Conscience, each man's conscience, I ask the

verdict of thee? Dying men, ye are nearer the grave, that is, nearer to heaven or to hell, than you were when this promise was made; God is not to be trifled with. Oh! dreadful thought! Whose, whose is the conscience that does not upbraid him? Who, and where is he that would not be driven to despair, if he had not a Saviour, or if he had a Saviour less than Almighty? Oh! the comfort of knowing that, when the heart is right, when there is a willing mind to do the duty of our station in life, because that station indicates the call of God to each individual, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous; and that through Him, through the strengthening of His Spirit, we can do all things.

But is there any careless one among us, any whose heart has not been converted by the grace of God's Holy Spirit; any who, in asking the question proposed, feels that he has not only not kept his promise and vow, but not endeavoured, not even desired, after the first impression passed away, to do so? Why has that person been brought here? He has been brought here by God's providence to hear God's minister, in the name of God, say to him as I now do, Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die? If you will turn this day unto the Lord, He will turn unto you, and by turning unto you convert your heart by the grace of His Holy Spirit. Turn to Him, as you only can turn, by renewing your solemn vow and promise of obedience. Will you solemnly, seriously do this, counting the cost, the many indulgences you will have to give up, the persecutions you will have to endure, the mortifications to which you must submit? Will you do this? Will you cut off the right hand of sin, or pluck out the right eye of sin, if need shall be? Will you determine to become religious, considering well what such a vow implies, in all but the hypocrite? Then happy will be this consideration of the

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order of Confirmation to you; for the Fatherly hand of God will ever be over you; His Holy Spirit will ever be with you, and so lead you in the knowledge and obedience of His Word, that in the end you shall obtain everlasting life. God of His mercy grant that thus it may be with us all!

SERMON VI.

(Preached, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 1846.)

HOLY COMMUNION.

REV. v. 6.

I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain.

THE book of Revelation sets forth a picture as well of the Church as of the world. Its picture of the world waits till time shall lift the curtain which conceals it. But its view of the Church is neither obscure nor transitory; we see there Christ our Lord exhibited as the never-ending object of Christian worship. Though angels, and saints, and the whole hierarchy of unseen realities were included in the reach of the Apostle's vision, yet to them we hear no prayers addressed, whereas "every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."

And this worship is not paid to Christ merely as the Eternal Word, but as the Word Incarnate. He appears

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