under all circumstances, that God will pardon them, and give them back what they have lost. And thus proceeding, through God's grace, they will gain it; and Esau's great and bitter cry will not be heard from them.

We barter life for pottage; sell true bliss

For wealth or power, for pleasure or renown;
Thus, Esau like, our Father's blessing miss,
Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown.

Our faded crown, despis'd and flung aside,

Shall on some brother's brow immortal bloom:
No partial hand the blessing may misguide,

No flattering fancy change our Monarch's doom;

His righteous doom, that meek, true-hearted love
The everlasting birthright should receive,
The softest dews drop on her from above,

The richest green her mountain-garland weave.

Services for the Second Sunday in Lent.
Morning Lesson, Genesis xxvii.
Evening Lesson, Genesis xxxiv.
Epistle, 1 Thessalonians iv. 1.
Gospel, St. Matthew xv. 21.

The Collect.-Almighty God, Who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and in.. wardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The exercises of Lent are a combat and warfare of the spirit against the flesh, that the flesh may be subdued to the spirit. To this purpose we prayed in the Collect for Sunday last, excited by our Saviour's fasting and victory over the devil in the wilderness; and the Collect for this day leads us into the most hopeful way of our coming off victorious in the combat against flesh and blood, and all the spirits of darkness. We must distrust ourselves, under a deep sense of our sins and weaknesses, and place our whole hope and confidence in that Almighty arm, which alone can protect and strengthen us, even Jesus Christ, the arm of the Lord, Who is our strength, as well as our Redeemer.

His divine instruction, given by His Apostle in the Epistle, teacheth us so to walk as to please God, and never to slacken our pace, but go forward with steady step and growing haste, till we arrive at the everlasting joy of our journey's end. But here our Lord's command is particularly and seasonably pressed upon us, in order that we may obtain that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord in happiness. We must, therefore, according to His express command, preserve our minds and bodies in the strictest purity and chastity. The conquest over "the sinful lusts of the flesh" is the great purpose of Lent and fasting. "I was fasting for three weeks," says Daniel, "and flesh and wine came not within my lips." But however we may do, in the difference of constitution and circunstances, as to outward abstinence, we must totally conquer the impure desires of fornication, drunkenness, and all other

deadly sin. In this kind of abstinence from flesh and wine, we must keep a perpetual Lent. If any seed of these be suffered to take root and grow, in vain do we pretend to keep the spring fast by the strictest abstinence in other respects.

This, our diseased daughter as it may be called, the animal part of our nature, weak by Adam's fall, of which the devil, in consequence of that first conquest, is apt to take possession and grievously torment us, is strikingly shewn forth by the case of the Canaanitish woman's distracted child in the Gospel. And the way to its cure and restoration to saving health is pointed out in the mother's earnest prayers and persevering cries, with deep humility and firm trust, to the merciful Jesus. Hence we are taught whither to fly for that help and cure which we have not in our own power or means of getting, and can only find in our Divine Almighty Saviour, Son of God, as well as Son of David, being God and man in one person. Although He may sometimes seem to refuse our most necessary petitions, and delay to grant what we most earnestly beg, yet it is only to improve our patience, and bring us to the temper that is fitted to receive His gift. For we may be sure that He will not finally deny the request of those who, after the example of this afflicted mother, continue to call upon Him faithfully.

But the cries of mere flesh and nature springing from a sensual mind, like those of Esau, whose affecting case is read as a warning to us in the Morning Lesson, He will not hear. If hrough profaneness like his, we make light of he priesthood, and means of grace appointed to

P

secure the blessings of our heavenly birthright, we may at length, in the time of our extremity, Esau find that there remains no blessing for us. found that his father would not repent of the settlement which he had made, nor give him any share in the inheritance, although he sought it carefully with tears. Such may be the sad end of the sorrow of ungodly sinners, when their sins have made them utterly unfit for happiness, which all men naturally desire. When the time in which they might have become holy and virtuous is past, "Then shall they may cry and weep in vain.

they call upon Me," says God, "but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord" (Prov. i.). Now, therefore, while the day of salvation lasteth, let us hear, learn, and practise His kind command, with His most merciful promise upon our obedience. "Seek ye the Lord while He may be Let found. Call ye upon Him while He is near. the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah Iv. 6, 7).

But while we constantly call upon God, and seek Him so far as He may be found of us, we must join with our prayers holy prudence and watchfulness. If we would be safe from sin, we must keep ourselves from temptation; if we would keep ourselves pure, we must be upon our guard against the vanities of the world, which are the baits and snares that the devil lays to entrap and

catch the unwary. To this purpose, we are warned in the Evening Lesson, by the case of the unguarded Dinah, and the dreadful consequences of her going abroad to see and be seen, to give and receive deadly poison. "O turn away mine eyes," we should often say, "lest they behold vanity." "Watch and pray, said our divine Keeper, "that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." May the divine Spirit guide and guard us !

Third Sunday in Lent.

"Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich."-2 Cor. viii. 9.

As time goes on, and Easter draws nearer, we are called upon, not only to mourn for our sins, but especially over the various sufferings which Christ our Lord and Saviour underwent on account of them. Why is it, my brethren, that we have so little feeling on the matter as we commonly have? Why is it that we are used to let the season come and go just like any other season, not thinking more of Christ than at other times, or, at least, not feeling more?

Am I not right in saying that this is the case ? and if so, have I not cause for asking why it is the case? We are not moved when we hear of the bitter passion of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for us. We neither bewail our sins which caused it, nor have any sympathy with it. We do not suffer