manifest, "for it shall be revealed by fire," and it is by fire that every man's work shall be tried of what sort it is. If any man's work shall abide this trial, if his motives shall be conscientious, his reasons. sufficient, he shall receive reward.

If, however, his work shall not be able to endure this trial, and in that fiery ordeal to which it shall be subjected it shall be burned, "he shall suffer loss," he shall lose the whole fruits of his labours; "but he himself shall be saved." However mistaken he may be in his method, however he may have misunderstood the Spirit of the Scriptures, if his motives and scruples have been conscientious, if in the presence of his God he can plead them in justification of his conduct, the mercy of his God shall be extended to him; he shall be saved though his work shall be destroyed, "he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire." It shall not be vain reasons or scruples that shall be sufficient, but such as shall stand the fiery ordeal to which they shall be then subjected by their all-seeing

"to

Judge," to whom all hearts are open,

all

desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid."

Thus is it, my brethren, a fearful responsibility we take on ourselves, when we separate from the assemblies of our brethren; when we take on ourselves to lay afresh the foundations of that building which the wisdom and piety of our ancestors has erected, when by rejecting the forms and services they have drawn up, we exalt our own private judgment over that of the united wisdom of ages. We may be right; be right; if so, we shall receive reward: we may be wrong, but conscientiously wrong; if so, our work shall be destroyed, but we ourselves shall be saved. If wrong, if wilfully wrong, or without sufficient reason, or purity and sincerity of motive, we have caused heresy in God's inheritance, how fearful is the trial this passage of the Scripture prepares us for!

Surely then it will be our wisdom to listen to the advice of the apostle, "Prove

all things: hold fast that which is good." Let us learn to hold fast the form of sound words which we have deduced and proved from the Scriptures, in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus; that by our example and godly conversation, by our charitable bearing towards all those who differ from us, by our readiness on all occasions to render unto all men a reason of the hope that is in us, we may convert others to what we believe to be truth; we may be the blessed means, in the hand of God, of strengthening that union which should distinguish the true disciples of our Saviour.

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SERMON XII.

1 CORINTHIANS, xiv. 15 (part of).

"I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also."

WERE there not amongst us a considerable sect or party, who at least practically deny the expediency of a set form of prayer, by trusting to the season, or the occasion, to suggest to them both the words and forms, or to give them the vantage-ground they vindicate to themselves, trusting to the effusions of the Holy Spirit to give them utterance, it would be unnecessary to reason on the propriety of an established form of prayer to direct our devotions. Such, however, being the opinion of many zealously and religiously disposed, I will endeavour to lay before

you the high authority on which this practice rests, as well as such reasons and arguments for its expediency as most readily suggest themselves.

To lay the most solid foundation, I will first direct your attention to the example of our blessed Saviour, who himself, constant in his devotions in the temple and in the synagogues, must have there joined in the forms of prayer then made use of; the use of which he in no one instance leads us to suppose that he dissented from. Nowhere is such a practice, though it was at once general among the Jews and complied with by himself, condemned or found fault with; while, on the contrary, that beautiful form in such constant use among us, venerated as his prayer, at once testifies his opinion of such forms, and guarantees to us his authority for their use and establishment in our public devotions. The peculiar occasion on which this prayer was given to his disciples, affords us an additional proof.

In the sixth chapter of St. Matthew, and