as we grow in grace, we shall set higher value on Holy Communion, because we grow in grace, as convictions of personal sinfulness are deepened within us, and our need of grace is more and more perceived. So often, also, as we communicate, we have opportunity afforded us for a fresh dedication of ourselves to God, and a renewed presenting of ourselves, our souls, and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto Him; humbly beseeching Him that we may be fulfilled with His grace and heavenly benediction, and enabled to walk more worthy of the great love wherewith He has loved us.

Approach, then, His gracious Presence, not only confessing your sin, and saying, "Lord, I believe," seeking the virtue that streams from Him into sin-sick, trusting souls, but come with thoughts and words of thanksgiving and praise. Thank Him for His great love. Praise Him for redeeming grace. Praise and thank, thank and praise Him for what He has been, and is to you, or to others dear to you: for every voice of His chiding or recalling Spirit; for His willingness and readiness to receive and bless you; for the light that has shone or been rekindled in your soul; for the repentance and faith which are gifts of the Spirit; and for that hope of future glory, of which you have now the earnest, the Spirit bearing witness with your spirit, that you are a dear, loved, because reconciled, child of God.

"Jesus! why dost Thou love me so?

What hast Thou seen in me

To make my happiness so great,

So dear a joy to Thee?

"Wert Thou not God, I then might think Thou hadst no eye to read

The badness of that selfish heart,

For which Thine own did bleed.

"But Thou art God, and knowest all;
Dear Lord! Thou knowest me;
And yet Thy knowledge hinders not
Thy love's sweet liberty.

"Ah, how Thy grace hath wooed my soul With persevering wiles!

Now give me tears to weep; for tears
Are deeper joy than smiles.

"Each proof renewed of Thy great love
Humbles me more and more,

And brings to light forgotten sins,
And lays them at my door.

"The more I love Thee, Lord! the more
I hate my own cold heart;

The more Thou woundest me with love,
The more I feel the smart.

"What shall I do, then, dearest Lord!
Say, shall I fly from Thee,
And hide my poor unloving self
Where thou canst never see?

"Or shall I pray that Thy dear love
To me might not be given?
Ah no! love must be pain on earth,
If it be bliss in heaven."

-FABER.

V.

CHARITY.

"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." -ST. JOHN Xiii. 34.

Re

THUS far, in the three preceding Addresses delivered at the early celebration, throughout a Mission, I have set before you and dwelt upon the conditions of worthy Communion, viz.: Repentance, Faith, and Thanksgiving. I have sought to show the relation in which these stand the one to the other. I have explained the nature of true Repentance; of "godly sorrow," as distinct from the "sorrow of the world which worketh death." pentance must be a distinct, personal, conscious act. It springs up in the mind in view of perceived, personal guilt. It cannot be true unless and until we see sin as God looks upon sin. For until we sin as against God, we shall not hate it, nor shall we understand the need of an atonement for the broken law of a holy God. The first requisite, therefore, of worthy Communion, as it is the first condition of salvation, is Repentance. We must "examine ourselves whether we repent us truly of our former sins; steadfastly purposing to lead a new life." We must not draw near the Lord's Table without

previous self-examination, and by this is meant, not a surface glance over our life and ways, nor vague and general confessions of sinfulness, but that searching and detailed probing of our hearts, in the sought aid and light of the Holy Spirit, which gives an insight into the evil within us, and brings to light the hidden things of darkness, so that we confess the commission of particular sins, or lament the omission of manifold duties. Then the language our Church puts into our lips is not unreal, but, self-abasing though it be, it is earnestly and intensely true. This lowly, self-accusing spirit, which writes. bitter things against ourselves, and acknowledges nothing but demerit and unworthiness, is a prime condition of worthy Communion. It brings us within the sphere and exercise of that forgiveness which is freely theirs who earnestly and unreservedly believe. Repentance precedes Faith. We must first be given to feel our need of a Saviour, before we can believe in a Saviour; and we must have been brought to a humbling conviction of our lost state by nature, before we shall look out beyond and from ourselves for One Who can save us from eternal consequences of that wrath of God which abideth on every soul not reconciled to Him by faith in Him Who died to redeem us from all iniquity. It is given to us to believe savingly, as it is given to us to repent truly, and whenever we do repent truly, we do believe savingly. Why? Because the Holy Ghost, Who convinces of sin, reveals the Saviour to the sin-sick, sin-convicted soul. The conviction of sin and the revelation of Jesus are alike supernatural. They are facts which belong to

the spiritual world. They are amongst the phenomena, if we may so speak, of the spiritual world. We can neither repent truly nor believe savingly of our own fallen nature or unaided faculties. To repent and to believe are of the Holy Ghost, and I will go so far as to say, that these are as cause and effect. Belief follows upon Repentance, for this reason, that the discovery of our real state, the Spirit-occasioned revelation to us of ourselves were overpowering in its self-condemnatory result, were it not that together with-or quick upon it -(I speak from experience), there is discovered to usI can use no other phrase-a living, loving, present Saviour; and in the joy, the bliss, the Heaven of that discovery, the wondering and yet rejoicing soul apprehends Christ, appropriates Christ, and as it sees and feels Him to be, so it unreservedly acknowledges Him, "My Lord-my God." Saving faith is not of intellect, it is of the heart: it is less of the reason than of the will; and if you would so believe that you may have "joy and peace in believing," it must be not so much that your sins may be forgiven you, but because they are forgiven you. And what feeling can but arise in the soul, bruised and healed, contrite and revived? What is the feeling that is awakened in the experience of any great temporal blessing, such as recovery from the gates of the grave, felt preservation from a peril or death which seemed inevitable? The feeling of joy is awakened, a feeling which finds utterance, expression, in praise. See how evangelical is the teaching of our Church in this her highest office of Holy Communion! She bids