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of that first confusion still survive the Apostle's time; and, if it were possible for him once more to look over the troubled scene of this stormy world, if he could see the complicated mass of old and new, of knowledge and ignorance, of faith and doubt, of Greek and Jew, barbarian and Scythian, reproduced in other forms, yet still with the same conflicting principles, would not the same prayer still be offered up? would he not still look on our trials and duties with the same calm, cheerful, constant eye,—not in despair at the victory of evil, nor yet in overweening hopes of the triumph of good, not in fear of the growth of knowledge, still less in forgetfulness of the divine excellence of love,-but with the deep persuasion that in those who walk honestly, faithfully, and sincerely, in whatever state of life, "He who has begun a good work in them will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ."

Love without knowledge, and knowledge without love, judgment without sincerity, and sincerity without judgment, still need his rebuke as they did then to thread our way through the mingled maze of truth and error, of good and evil, with which this world

abounds, is still the task which he places. before us. He, as he saw the divisions which even then had begun to rend the Christian. society, could rejoice that whether "in truth or in pretence," whether by those who opposed or those who adhered to him, "Christ was preached." He looked over the many discordant elements of good which the world and the Church then exhibited. He saw the sense of justice, courage, and truth which still lingered in the better spirits of the heathen empire, the good centurions who befriended him, the upright magistrates who protected him, the poets whose wisdom he did not refuse to quote. He saw the "zeal, not according to knowledge," but still rousing his eager sympathies, to which he bore witness in the Jews, his brethren after the flesh. He saw the new and ardent love of his own con

verts, for which he " gave God thanks always in every prayer," yet not without an earnest hope and exhortation that it might "abound in all judgment," and that their "moderation" as well as their love might be "known unto all men." He saw all these several mighty gifts and graces which God had sent into the world;

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he "would not be brought under the power of any one of them, he would not surrender his own convictions, "not for an hour," even to those who seemed to be of the greatest weight; but he did not fear, in the midst of all these conflicting interests, to make that well-known final exhortation to his converts, -that whatsoever things were true, whatsoever things were honest, whatsoever things were pure, whatsoever things were lovely, whatsoever things were of good report, on these things they were boldly to think, these things they were faithfully to do. As with the prayer which I have read for my text the Epistle opens, so with this charge it closes. It is the last counsel which he gave to the Philippian Church, and through them the last charge which he gave to the Church at large. "These things," he adds, "which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do, and the God of Peace shall be with you." They were seen united in him; they have rarely, if ever, been seen united in equal proportions since. May it be our endeavour so to learn, receive, hear, and see them, if not in others, at least in him; and in that still

higher union of all things just and true with all things pure and holy, of which he was only the imperfect follower; and then we shall indeed find that the "God of Peace will be with us, keeping our hearts and our minds with the peace which passeth all understanding, through Jesus Christ our Lord."1

1 Phil. iv. 7, 8.

SERMON III.

MOUNT SINAI IN ARABIA.

(PREACHED ON MOUNT SINAI, IN THE CONVENT OF S. CATHARINE,

ON THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT, 1853.)

GAL. IV. 25.

This Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia.

WHATEVER may have been the Apostle's meaning in the use of these words thus occuring in the Epistle of this day, every one here will have felt, I am sure, that they have come home to us with a force with which they never came before, and will never come again. "This Agar, this rocky desert," so he seems to play upon the double meaning of the word, "is Mount Sinai in Arabia." And here we are assembled for the first, and probably for the last, time in our lives, within its precincts.

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