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speak to Him, and to hear Him. But be alone in your inmost hearts, shutting out busy, anxious thoughts, that they throng not in with thy prayers, and cloud not the sight and thought of God.

Practise in life whatever thou prayest for, and God will give it thee more abundantly.

Bear patiently and humbly all daily crosses, contradictions, rebukes, and whatsoever is against thine own will. They will conform thee to the mind of God, be channels of grace which will cleanse thy soul for yet further grace.

Deny thyself things earthly, if thou wouldest taste the sweetness of things heavenly.

But this day, our Lord teaches, above all things, to persevere in prayer. Many begin well; many hold on for a time well; many pray well from time to time; some alas! can even work themselves up from time to time, to think they pray well, and to feel what they pray; many begin, again and again, well. Few persevere; for few they be, who find the straight gate and narrow way which leadeth unto life.

If thou hast begun, pray that thou mayest pray better. If thou hast failed, pray to begin again, and to persevere. All who pray to persevere, gain what they pray for. None who so prayed has perished.

He Who heard the poor woman of the Gospel, still heareth us. He is present with us, when two or three are gathered together in His Name. He is more specially present when He, as now, is Himself the Priest, Himself the Sacrifice, Himself giveth to us His own Body and Blood. He Himself to Whom we pray, He, in Heaven, prayeth for us; He pre

sents before the Father the tokens of His Passion in that Human Nature which for us He took, to plead for us. How should he not obtain all things, for whom, in whom, Christ prayeth? Prayer, in faith, hope, charity, humility, is the voice of God in our secret hearts. It goes up to God; it speaketh to God; it converseth with our Judge; not in our name, but in Christ's. What should hinder it from ascending to the Presence of God, to be presented by Him, not for our unworthiness, but for His worthiness, Who gave it to us, gives to it the value of His own Blood?

God is not as man, that He should change, or fail His promise. Which should fail, His Truth, or His Mercy, or His Almightiness, or His All-bountifulness, or His Love, which is Himself? All He has pledged to thee, if thou persevere in asking. severe, if thou askest to persevere.

Thou wilt per

Persevere in asking, and thou canst not perish. For "He is faithful Who hath promised. He also will do it."

SERMON XI.

RE-CREATION OF THE PENITENT.

PSALM li. 10.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

PARDON, acceptance, peace, Heaven, are opened at once to all, who, with penitent hearts, return to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. In one hour, one moment, God could, if He saw fit, cleanse the whole soul, and, like the robber, remove the penitent sinner from the Cross to Paradise. Yet He doth so very rarely. He has willed mostly that we should 'fight the good fight." For some mysterious end in His Infinite Wisdom, He hath willed that we should be perfected through trial, wherein men manifoldly fail, recover, and, through difficulty, learn that every good gift cometh down from Him, and that His "strength is made perfect in" their "weakness."

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And so we "are saved," but "in hope" only. His Gracious Voice of pardon is the pledge of everlasting forgiveness; the love, wherewith He receives returning prodigals, hath its spring in His unchanging, unending love; the first gush of tears waters the seed which shall be reaped in everlasting joy; the intense, ardent longing to love is the earnest of that fulness, wherein we shall love with an everlasting love Him Who hath so loved us. Yet if man, when innocent, was to be perfected through trial, much more, when fallen! There must be some intense mystery of value in our learning freely to obey, that God became Man to restore to us the power and will to love and obey God. Intense must be the value of souls, that God hath purchased them, Scripture says, with His own Blood, and that He, the All-Good God, has seen good to form them thus, even at the cost of the Sufferings of the Incarnate Son, and the waste of such a countless multitude of souls, lost in endless misery.

We are replaced then, by repentance, on the road to life whence we had wandered; yet at the beginning, not at the end. God does not take away trials, or carry us over them, but strengthens us through them. When He turns men to Himself, He changes their will, not their trials. Whereas, before, forsaking His Grace, they were defeated, now, through His Grace, He gives them victory over their besetting sin. But there can be no victory without warfare ; nor warfare without toil and pain. He turns men round, that, whereas, before, they "turned their backs" on Him, henceforth they should hold Him before them, aim at Him, stretch towards Him; and

He makes each act wherein they obey Him, a step towards Himself and His Everlasting Love and Bliss. Their whole course now, as a whole, is towards Himself, whereas it was, before, as a whole, away from Him. But where they left off in wandering from God, thence is their starting point in their

return.

a

Sin does us lasting injury. Each separate act of sin changes, so far, our moral nature and our trial. Each leaves its effects upon our souls. Even heathen wisdom saw that our acts, one by one, tell upon us. They form habits, and these, as ye know, are a second nature. And so, when we repent, we have not only that corrupt nature to subdue, which we inherited from Adam, but that second evil nature also, which by our own personal sins,-sins which, by God's grace, we might have withstood, but into which, through negligence or wilfulness, we fell,—we formed in us. And this evil nature, as we formed it by repeated acts of disobedience to God, so it is mostly, little by little, amid obedience to Him, and through His grace, that God unmakes and re-makes it.

ye are.

Step by step, act by act, ye have become whatever Whatever the besetting sin of each is, ye can recollect the time, at least in childhood, when it was not such. Most can recollect the first decided act, in which their sin mastered them. It might without labour have been slain then. Blessed," saith Holy Scripture, "is he that taketh thy little ones and dasheth them against the stone." What," says a father," are the little ones of Babylon, or the great evil city of this world, but infant, unripened,

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b Abridged from S. Aug. ad loc.

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