om we have wronged; and so make friends of
the Mammon of unrighteousness, who shall forgive us, and receive us
as friends in heaven, instead of making enemies, and going out of
the world with the fearful thought, that we shall meet at God's
judgment-seat people whom we have made miserable, who will rise up
to accuse us, and demand payment of us when it is too late for ever.

Let us bear in mind, even though we cannot copy, the dying words of
Muhammed the Arab, who, when he found his end draw near, went forth
into the market-place, and asked before all the people, 'Was there
any man whom he had wronged? If so, his own back should bear the
stripes. Was there any man to whom he owed money? and he should be
paid.' 'Yes,' cried some one, 'those coins which you borrowed from
me on such a day.' 'Pay him,' said Muhammed: 'better to be shamed
now on earth, than shamed in the day of judgment.' He was a
heathen. And shall we Christians be worse than he? Then let us
pray for the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, which will
make us faithful and true; so that no man may be the worse for us in
this life; no man may have to say of us, when he hears that we lie
dying, 'He wronged me, he cheated me, he lied to me; God forgive
him:' but that our friends, as they carry us to the grave, may feel
that they have lost one whom they could respect and trust; and say,
as the earth rattles in upon the coffin lid, 'There lies an honest
man.'

SERMON XXV. THE SIGHS OF CHRIST

(Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.)

Mark vii. 34, 35. And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith
unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears
were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake
plain.

Why did the Lord Jesus look up to heaven? And why, too, did he
sigh?

He looked up to heaven, we may believe, because he looked to God the
Father; to God, of whom the glorious collect tells us, that he is
more ready to hear than we to pray, and is wont to give more than
either we desire or deserve. He looked up to the Father, who is the
fountain of life, of order, of health, of usefulness; who hates all
death, disease, infirmity; who wills that none should perish, body
or soul.

My friends, think of these cheering words; and try to look up to God
the Father, as Christ looked up. Look up to him I say, if but once,
as a Father. Not merely as your Father, but as the Father of the
spirits of all flesh; the