fault in thyself, than to show to another that thou deservest not, as it were, a hundred weight of blame.

Be not careful to conceal any ignorance or fault in thee, unless it would hurt another to know that thou hast it.

Do willingly humble offices, humbly.

Give way to all, in all things in which thou mayest. It is but for a short time, at the longest. Seek here to be humble with the humble JESUS, and He will exalt thee. As thou becomest, by His grace, lowly here, thou shalt be exalted there. There, is greatness, which none envies; treasures, of which thou wilt deprive none; joys, in which all will joy with thee. There, not thine own lips or thine own thoughts, but thy Saviour will praise thee. Seek humility, and thou wilt find it; and when thou hast found it, thou wilt love it, and by God's grace, wilt not part with it: with it, thou canst not perish. Yea, thou wilt reign for ever with JESUS, Who was humbled for thee, and with the choirs in the heavenly dwellings. For there too, thou wilt be humble, not, as now, in the need of all things, but in the possession of all things, in glory, and honour, and power, and beauty, and knowledge, and wisdom, of which we have but the faintest shadow here; and all from God and in God. For there, if thou attain, thou shalt cast thy crown before the throne, saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power;" and giving back all to God, thou shalt receive all from God, in bliss everlasting, through His Merits, Who humbled Himself to thee, that thou, being humbled with Him here, shouldest enter into His Glory and His Joy.

SERMON V.

PATIENCE.

SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.

1 ST. PETER ii. 22.

"Even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps."

PATIENCE is the endurance of any evil, out of the love of God, as the will of God. There is nothing too little, in which to approve ourselves to God; nothing too little, in which, without God, we should not fail; nothing too great, which, with the help of God, we may not endure. The offices of patience are as varied as the ills of this life. We have need of it with ourselves and with others; with those below and those above us, and with our own equals ; with those who love us and those who love us not; for the greatest things and for the least; against sudden inroads of trouble, and under our daily bur

dens; disappointments as to the weather or the breaking of the heart; in the weariness of the body, or the wearing of the soul; in our own failure of duty, or others' failure towards us; in every day wants, or in the aching of sickness or the decay of age; in disappointment, bereavement, losses, injuries, reproaches; in heaviness of the heart or its sickness amid delayed hopes, or the weight of this body of death, from which we would be free, that we might have no more struggle with sin within, or temptation without, but attain to our blessed and everlasting peace in our rest in God. In all these things, from childhood's little troubles, to the martyr's sufferings, patience is the grace of God, whereby we endure evil for the love of God, and keep ourselves still and motionless, that we offend not God.

All other virtues and graces have need of patience to perfect or to secure them. Patience interposes herself and receives and stops every dart which the Evil one aims at them. "Patience is the root and guardian of all virtue;" impatience is the enemy of all. Impatience disquiets the soul, makes her weary of conflict, ready to lay aside her armour and to leave difficult duty. Impatience, by troubling the smooth mirror of the soul, hinders her from reflecting the Face of God; by its din, it hinders her from hearing the voice of God. It makes the soul outrun, or fall short of, the will of God. Impatience listens to nothing, heeds nothing, fears nothing, hopes nothing, judges aright of nothing, perseveres in nothing except in restlessness. Impatience is a burden to a S. Greg. Hom. 35. in Evang.

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itself, distrusts man, rebels against God. It shakes every virtue, and enters into almost every sin. It casts aside every remedy for itself or for any other fault. Impatience made Cain a murderer, and Absalom a parricide," and Judas a Deicide. Impatience, not waiting for God, turns even goods into evils. Jeroboam waited not for the goods which God had promised him; he forfeited them, destroyed his own house which he wished to raise, and left of his ambition no memorial save that it was he "who did sin and who made Israel to sin."

The sins of the Jews in the wilderness, (our ensamples,) whence sprang they, but from impatience of hunger and thirst, or of the sameness of the food God gave them, or of Moses delaying in the Mount, when they "made gods to go before them into Egypt," whence God had redeemed them? It might seem a natural thing, that impatience should be the groundwork of anger; but strange it is, that even deadly indulgence in miserable pleasure should be the fruit of impatience.

How does it shake faith to be impatient of evils, either in the world, or in the Church, or those which befall a person's own self! How does impatience with others' defects chill love, or impatience with even our own failings and short-comings extinguish hope! To be impatient at blame is a blight to humility; at contradiction, destroys meekness; at injuries, quenches long-suffering; at sharp words, mars gentleness; at having one's own will crossed, obedience. Impatience at doing the same things again and again, hinders perseverance; impatience c 1 Kings xiv. 16.

b 2 Sam. xvii. 1-4.

of bodily wants, surprises people into intemperance, or leads them to deceive, lie, steal.

"In patience" our Blessed Lord tells us, "possess ye your souls." By patience, we have the keeping of our own souls; we command ourselves, and our passions are subdued to us; and "commanding d ourselves, we begin to possess that which we are.” What is to possess a thing, but to have entire command over it, that we may do with it what we will? What, then, is to "possess the soul," but to be lord over all its powers, motions, emotions, and by the grace of God, to control and direct them, according to the will of God? Whence even the world calls a man "self-possessed," who cannot be thrown off his guard, but, gathered up within himself, and immovable, has a clear, steady command of all the powers of his mind. He is spiritually "self-possessed," who, by the grace of God so keeps himself, that "no vehemence of delight masters him, no tribulation wears him out, no sudden temptation carries him away, no unworthy affection draws him down from God."

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Patience, then, is the guardian of faith, the fence of love, the strength of hope, the parent of peace. Patience protects humility, keeps meekness, is the soul of long-suffering, guides gentleness, strengthens perseverance. Patience "bridleth' the tongue, restraineth the hand, ruleth the flesh, preserveth the spirit, tramples on temptations, drives away offences; breaks the force of passion, calms the violence of pride, quenches the fire of variance," bids, in its

a S. Greg. 1. c. e Paradise of the Christian Soul, P. iv. p. 61. ' See Tert. on Patience, c. xv. p. 346. Oxf. Tr. S. Cyprian on Patience, § 14. p. 262. Oxf. Tr.