will you stand the praises of the saints, you that are happy when your fellows praise you! How will you stand the honour of the angels, you that are proud when your masters honour you! How will you stand the Captain's caresses, you that would barter half your lives, I think, for one kind pressure of St. Patrick's hand upon these heads of yours! How, my Brothers, will you stand it all! One mute look of overpowered gratefulness (which the Captain will see and be sure to understand),-one mute look of overpowered gratefulness, one little effort to stop the thanking tears, one little cry of wonder, as your eyes fill with the unwonted light, your hearts swell with the unwonted joy, and you will slip aside from the Captain's praises, wearing your white stoles worthily, holding your palms like men that won them, taking your predestined places in the ranks of heroes, saying then and for ever, as I say now,-who can help saying it!-blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and honour, and power, and might be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen

III.

CHARITY SERMON.*

"Give alms out of thy substance and turn not away thy face from any poor person: for so shall it come to pass that the face of the Lord shall not be turned from thee. According to thy ability be merciful. If thou have much, give abundantly: if thou have little, take care even so to bestow willingly a little.”TOBIAS, iv. 7, 8, 9.

THERE is one fact, my Brethren, which few men remember, but which no man can forget without serious consequent loss; and that is the precise end and purpose of our earthly sojourn. It is one of the devil's stratagems to keep that end as much as possible from our view. We ourselves aid him in his strategy. We muffle up our eyes, and muffle up our minds lest they should see things which we find it pleasanter to have left in darkness. Few men think of doubting that just what they do is just what they ought to be doing. They rarely see the world as the world really is. As they go along the streets they forget that there are people therein over and

* This Sermon was preached January 1, 1871, in the parish church of St. Michan's, North Anne-street, in behalf of North Anne-street Parochial Schools, and of the Orphanage attached to the Convent, George's-hill.

above the men and women whom they see. They forget the presence of the keen, untiring devils, that troop up and down, hurry to and fro, to defend the lines and advance the standard of hell. They forget the white-robed guardian angels that, just as keen, just as untiring, wage against hell one perpetual war. Still, forget it as we may, blind to it as we may succeed in making ourselves, it is yet a plain unquestionable fact that our earth down here is but a battleground between hell and heaven, and that to take part in the unceasing battle is precisely the business for which we all were made. The fight commenced by Lucifer in heaven, is carried on and continued upon the earth. And as good Angels beat Lucifer in the old time, so good Men are to beat him in the new.

And, my Brethren, this war with Lucifer is by all means a bitter and a dangerous war. We, who wage it, must expect to get no quarter, and to find no cowardice in our foe. The haughty Spirit who feared not God Himself, is not likely to be afraid of such as we; the malignant spite that had no pity for the innocence of Eve, the malignant hatred that had no mercy for the sufferings of Jesus, will, you may be sure, show no softness in our generation. And this Lucifer is not only of surpassing strength, but he is also of surpassing craftiness. Whatever he studies, that he is sure to know, and man he has made his peculiar study. He knows man well, all the weak points in man's armour, all the unguarded points in man's dominions. And his great cunning has, backing it up and per

fecting it, one overpowering advantage-that is to say, the experience and observation of nearly six thousand years. That long period, all spent in incessant fighting, has been serviceable to Satan in many ways, but especially in this that it has enabled him to see what plan of warfare is likely to be most effective against humanity. It has given him abundant opportunities of finding out what may be relied upon with safety as sure to determine the movements of men. And he has long since discovered that in the supernatural line of fight that happens, which in the natural line of fight has been happening through all recorded time-namely, that people who are badly fed or badly clothed, who have little discipline, or no discipline whatever, either fight very badly or do not fight at all. That is the lesson taught the devil by the past. What has triumphed in the past will, he knows, be pretty certain to triumph in the future. And so is it brought about that of all the agencies which Satan employs in his war with men, none are more his favourites, none have been more successful, none have brought more captives to his infernal prison than these three-Error, and Ignorance, and Want.

For, my Brethren, consider for a moment, in the first place, what, in this war between hell and heaven, want can do. Want of some kind, it may be safely argued, is at the bottom of every sin. But want in its commonest forms, as it meets us every day, with naked limbs, and meagre face, and hungry eyes, and

imploring speech, such want as that has, we all know, very much to do with lengthening the list of crime. It is not true that "the poor, in a lump, are bad," but it is true that the poor have very terrible temptations to badness. Hunger, cold, nakedness, houselessness, friendlessness, abandonment by men, seeming abandonment by God, all that terrible train of woes engendering discontent, culminating in despair, attack our poor; and these it is that bring so many criminals to our public courts, so many prostitutes to our public ways. Our little boys have so often no help on earth, and no hope in heaven; their poor little bodies are naked, and cold, and hungry; their poor little wits must shift some way to quiet the gnawing pains. And so we have thieves, and house-breakers, and swindlers, manufactured out of heaven-destined, immortal souls. And then, our poor little innocent girls! They, too, must try some plan against the hunger, and the nakedness, and the cold. And we know what plan they are very frequently-one may almost say it-forced to follow. One jewel have they that the devil specially desires and covets. It is a jewel which not all the wealth of the universe has value enough to purchase. But they sell it, God help them, for a few copper or silver coins. And so, both amongst our girls and amongst our boys, does the cause of Satan flourish. Through want alone he leads captive every year thousands of little children whom Christ was calling to Himself, whom want of some kind forced to disregard the call.