there is yet nothing beneath the sun one thousandth part so wondrous as the human mind. And because this mind, this intellect is an especial and peculiar gift from God, distinguishing His one rational creature from the brutes that perish; man is in this respect dignified, and most highly dignified too. And this his dignity belongs to him as man. This honour he may claim as God's immortal work; apart from extraneous circumstances of birth, rank, or profession. This dignity mere poverty cannot destroy; sin alone can materially tarnish it; and sin is equally undignifying, equally degrading in high or low, rich or poor. The distinctions of society must and ever will be maintained; but those distinctions, though they may modify, can never annihilate that bond of union which we are taught in Holy Writ binds together, even it may be in some cases almost against their own will, all orders and degrees of men. We, brethren, in this day do most undeniably overlook this grand fact, and neglect the great duty of honouring all men. There is a strange want of sympathy between one class and another: a dark mutual distrust: a general imputation of evil motives-a belief, real or affected, in the desire of the one great contending party to overwhelm the other. But an end would at once be put to much of this, could we but honour all men, and strive to do to others as we would be done by. The possession of wealth, and power, and influence should not raise feelings of ill-will in the breast of a less favoured neighbour; nor should the want of these things render a man an object of contempt or indifference. Christianity requires that the poor should be succoured and defended; and we should desire that their wishes and prayers for the amelioration of their condition should be, if not immediately yielded, (for this sometimes may not be) at least

be regarded with attention and respect. The law of England is based upon a spirit of charity: and if we would make men loyal subjects, we should show that we who are prepared to defend the law, -not merely honour it, but are desirous to act according to its spirit. There are many serious evils existing around us; many things all good men would wish otherwise ;-much social discontent, much grinding poverty, a grievous want of sound liberal education; these, and many other such things can only be effectually removed or even lessened where men have learnt to understand and feel the power of Christian principle. It is not for governments to do all : each man must, as I said before, work in the good cause for himself. The time we hope and trust may come, however distant it may now appear, when governments, in spite of themselves, will desire to act on Bible rules; for the simple reason that experience is sure to prove that they are the only lasting, the only safe guide; the only laws that can stand through all. And if, when these principles shall be thus publicly acknowledged, it shall be found that they have been more extensively acted on in private than had been supposed; the blessed task of the ruler will be an easy one, because it will be but the fulfilment of a work long before commenced.

To honour all men, then, implies an earnest belief that every man in the world is, in a certain sense, a being deserving of reverence, as God's creature, the noblest work of His hand: that the welfare of each individual, however far removed from any other by birth, station, or intellectual qualifications can never be altogether an indifferent object to any Christian man.

But while we are to honour all,-there are those to whom we

owe more than honour; we are to love the brotherhood,—the members of Christ's Church; those who having been baptized with us into the same Spirit, have been made heirs, if by faith and love they hold fast their profession,-of the same eternal home. How near

and dear the ties which thus unite us to each other, brethren, could we but view them aright! How forcibly do the Scriptures exhort us to. the observance of our Christian duty from the consideration of this great fact, that we are all one :-all forming one great household: all brothers and sisters by a still more blessed relationship than that which unites kindred according to the flesh. What an earnest desire to promote the good of our fellow-believers would such a thought excite in us, could we but feel it from the heart! But alas! holy Christian communion is one of that host of spiritual blessingsand privileges which the superficial religion of these days has long since ceased to regard. The love which should bind us together as one in Christ, the mutual aid and comfort sought to be afforded by all to all in this relation of this we know but little and it seems a principle which never enters into our daily thoughts and actions. Our Christianity, such as it is, has become a selfish thing: cach man, with few exceptions, lives in regard to religion, as to other things, for himself alone: casting but little thought on the other members of the great Family of the Church. Most fearful damage is inflicted on religion by this state of things, and no marvel. Did we love our brethren and sisters in Christ as the Bible bids, it could not be that so many real children of God would live and die as they now do, in a spiritual sense, alone in the world; solitary, as it were, in the midst of millions. How many struggle on through a weary life, battling against sin and seeking to grow in

grace;

but

finding no helping hand to guide and comfort save His who is ever present. The soul-enslaving fetters of a conventional worldliness and an unchristian formality have bound us down to earth. But let those who would promote their own happiness and eternal welfare, and would aim at removing vast social evils seek to love the brotherhood,-their fellow-Christians, as Christians. The duty is not inconsistent with the strictest observance of social order. But in God's sight, as Christian brethren, "the rich and the poor meet together," One Lord has redeemed them ;-one Faith has been professed by them; one baptism has constituted them members of one glorious family, the Holy Catholic Church :-they have "one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in them all." No professing Christian, then, can, even if he would, live to himself alone. As a member of a great household he is performing, or not performing the duties imposed upon him in that character. If he be acting consistently with his profession, then-because "when one member suffers all the members suffer with it, or one member rejoice, all the members rejoice with it," he will sympathize, ás far as may be, in the joys and sorrows of his Christian brethren. Upon the poor and full of grief he will look as brothers in an earthly family look upon one of themselves who has obtained, by sad experience, too dark a knowledge of the trials of this evil world. The ready hand will be stretched out to help :-the kind word will not be unspoken :-the heart will not despise the unhappy sufferer of the Christian family because he may be a dweller in a lowly home, and may rest upon a bed of straw; nay, more, even because the baptized one may have rejected the riches of his Saviour's mercy, have run into a course of wilful deliberate sin, and may be an outcast upon earth. It is long

B

before brother ceases to love brother: it should be no light thing that should quench our sympathy for our brethren in Christ. And if we would so love the brotherhood: if we would bear and forbear: if, while we profess to be saved by faith in the Lord Jesus we would be careful to maintain the good works of Gospel charity, we know not how many we might be the means of bringing back to peace, contentment, and loyalty. Suffering makes men what otherwise they would not be. Hunger is a hard master. Stern facts are more powerful than pleasant theories. Unpitied and unsolaced misery is a sad foe to the gentler feelings of religion. When men feel that they have no earthly helper, it adds fearful force to the temptations which are ever but too rife to let go their trust in their Heavenly Friend, the Merciful One and the Just. They too often become reckless. They look for aid to any source; they listen to any offer of help, however vain and futile. They must have a sympathy of some kind; and if they find no Christian fellowship, if they have lost all sense of Christian brotherhood, we may lament, deprecate, associate to overthrow Communism and Socialism, but we can never expect to extirpate the feelings in which they take their rise, but by the exhibition of vital, and not merely nominal, Christianity. We must show those who suffer that we grieve for their sufferings, and that we will turn no deaf ear to their cry. The evils which surround us are real; it would be a grievous error to imagine that the 'poor man's cries for help are all excited by the intemperate suggestions of the demagogue or the fanatic. Not so. Believe me, brethren, that we, the more prosperous classes in the land have a great duty to do,—not only of repression but as God's stewards of restitution; we have works of self-sacrifice to perform, and the time has come when we must