living, without having their lives reformed according to the Spirit of Christ. It is the peace of death when men put the Scriptures from them habitually, and either leave off their devotions altogether, or continue them as an unmeaning form. They may not have said to themselves, "There is no God:" but they have managed to say it practically; for, without longing to become like God, or caring to please him, they are not disturbed by the fear of his anger. They may attend Christian worship, and speak respectfully of Christianity; but its realities are no realities to them: they set aside the question of salvation, as a thing which they do not like to enter upon. And thus they live in ordinary times peacefully enough: but if danger comes near them, either personally or to the state of society around them,-if they have reason to think that death is near,-then they find their peace troubled: it is not proof against all assaults; it must be secured not only by setting aside the Gospel of Christ, but by trampling it under foot. The neutral state is no longer possible: the question is brought to an issue; and they, who have hitherto not been the friends of Christ, are tempted to become his open enemies; they, who hitherto have not thought of his Gospel, now boldly deny and revile it. So, on the other hand, with those who are living in the peace of God, I call it the peace of God, when a man,

having endured for a time the struggle between his sins and God's will, is enabled by the Holy Spirit to end it, by making his sins give way to his principles; by altering his heart and life, in conformity to his Saviour's image. Then the man is justified and sanctified, and, in St. Paul's strong language, confidently anticipating that what has so well begun, will end no less happily, he is saved. But St. Paul himself explains his meaning, by saying, that "he is saved in hope," not actually : and where there is hope there must be uncertainty, and there may be fear. The sins that were overcome will rise again to the struggle; or, as life goes on, and older years bring other temptations, it will not be the sins which he once overcame, and which he may more easily conquer again, from having conquered them once already; but it will be others, whose strength he has not yet tried; an appeal to passions within him, of whose force he never till now had cause to be aware. And here is the need of watchfulness and prayer, that such a danger may never find us unprovided; never find us without a just suspicion of our own weakness; never without a deep and lively knowledge of our Redeemer's strength. But, at any rate, the peace of our hearts is broken; and struggles and dangers, for a time at least, interrupt it. Nor may we be sure that it will be only for a

short time; it may go on for years: not so, indeed, as that our peace is altogether lost, or that we are ever tempted to wish God's word untrue; but yet, so as that our perceptions of its truth may be less keen; and though our will to subdue our sins to Christ be unvaried, and its efforts continual, yet it may always find it opposed by the law in our members, and sometimes be overcome by it. Surely if it were not so, St. Paul would have had no need to bid us put on the whole armour of God; for armour cannot be wanted if we are never to go into battle.

I have gone on to things in life far beyond what your experience has yet reached to:-nay, inasmuch as I have carried forward my thoughts to the very end of our earthly course, I have anticipated my own experience also. But so it is,that when we have reached the top of the hill, we can look down it before us as well as behind us,and while the ascent is yet fresh in our recollections, if not actually in our sight, we can see the path by which we have to go down to the conclusion of our journey. Nor can the map, if I may so call it, of any part of the journey of life, be without its uses to you, by whom, in the natural course of things, it must all be travelled over. Would to God, that while your age yet renders it impossible for you to be settled in the peace of death,

you might shelter yourselves in the peace of God; that, being children of light, you would walk as such; that, having everlasting habitations prepared for you, you would early prepare yourselves, by an entire turning to God, for entering into them.

ADDRESS BEFORE CONFIRMATION.

ALTHOUGH it is very true that where great stress is laid upon any one particular crisis in our spiritual life, and where a strict preparation has been made for it, the effect, as soon as it is over, is often exceedingly shortlived, and people, feeling themselves in a manner released from something that was hanging over them, run wild with even the greater eagerness, in consequence of their late restraint: although there be this danger attending any unwonted effort, if made too violently, and especially in matters that concern our souls, yet as no good is to be done without such an effort, and as it need not be overstrained or excessive, so I think that the preparation for confirmation may be of the greatest use to you, and I would not lose this opportunity of turning it, so far as I can, to your lasting benefit.

I take it for granted, that of the uses and duties of confirmation in general, you must have some tolerable notion, from what has been said to you