those "quiet resting-places," where, in their narrow beds, those whose travail is ended may repose till the morning of the resurrection!

How earnestly should we endeavour to realize to ourselves that doctrine of the Communion of Saints which is perhaps nowhere more impressively taught than amid those receptacles for the dead, where alone in this world they who have participated in common privileges are brought under a common destiny, and share a common home!

How affectionately, too, should we, who are Christians, respect the remains of the dead in Christ, strangers as well as friends! With what pious care, so far as in us lies, should we guard them from all that may savour of irreverent treatment; entering our churchyards as if therein we crossed the threshold of the unseen world; ever speaking therein (if speak we must) in tones subdued and lowly as they who would not break a wearied friend's repose; and no more venturing to tread with careless foot upon the grassy mound which covers one for whom Christ died, than to commit any other act of wanton profaneness!

Lastly, since if even the decaying remains of our brethren, known and unknown, are to be treated with reverence and affection because those bodies which are now the prey of corruption were once the temples of the Holy Ghost, and by the mighty working of Christ our Saviour shall hereafter be made like unto His Glorious Body, with what jealous care does it behove us to watch and guard our own living bodies now! how carefully should we exclude everything that can defile them from without, or corrupt them within! how earnestly should we endeavour to make them meet for the abiding presence of a Heavenly Guest! how sensitively should we shrink from anything and everything that may even tend to be an offence to Him! May He, for His merciful compassion's sake, enable us, while yet we live, to realize more and more the awfulness of our baptismal vows. May He purify us from all filthiness of flesh and spirit! May He write it indelibly upon our hearts that we are already dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God, dead to the world, dead to the flesh, dead to Satan. May He pour His grace into our hearts, and enable

us so to live to Christ here, that by His Cross and Passion we may be brought to the glory of His resurrection, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

LECTURE II.

THE RUBRIC PRELIMINARY TO THE ORDER FOR THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD.

On the Privilege of Christian Burial.

ROMANS xiv. 7, 8, 9.

"FOR NONE OF US LIVETH TO HIMSELF, AND NO MAN DIETH TO HIMSELF. FOR WHETHER WE LIVE, WE LIVE UNTO THE LORD; AND WHETHER WE DIE, WE DIE UNTO THE LORD: WHETHER WE LIVE THEREFORE, OR DIE, WE ARE THE LORD'S. FOR TO THIS END CHRIST BOTH DIED, AND ROSE, AND REVIVED, THAT HE MIGHT BE LORD BOTH OF THE DEAD AND LIVING."

IN that part of the Epistle to the Romans in which these words are to be found, S. Paul had been blaming some of the Jewish Christians for throwing obstacles in the way of the Gentile converts at Rome, and disturbing

their minds by raising certain unnecessary questions about the use of meats, and by the language of contempt and reprobation which they had applied to those who did not agree in the same opinion with themselves concerning things indifferent. And the Apostle's argument in the text is this, that as none of us either lives or dies to himself, that since none of us is his own master, neither hath any of us the right to live as he lists, but all of us are the subjects of Christ, and are obliged to do as He hath commanded, we must not allow ourselves to be guided in religious matters either by our own will, or by the will of others, but simply and solely by His.

The rule thus laid down had its primary reference to a particular case; but it must be obvious to us that it is of general application, and as such may be taken as a solemn protest and warning against a spirit which I fear is very prevalent, a spirit of selfishness and self-willedness even in religious matters. We are here taught that the standard of our obedience is to be taken, not from what we may happen to like, or what may chance to