uman being for whom He died: at least if we have
true honour, gratitude, loyalty, reverence, and godly fear in our hearts
toward Him, our risen Lord?

Oh let us open our eyes this Whitsuntide to the experience of our past
lives. Let us see now--what we shall certainly see at the day of
judgment--that whenever we have failed to be loving, we have also failed
to be wise; that whenever we have been blind to our neighbours'
interests, we have also been blind to our own; whenever we have hurt
others, we have hurt ourselves still more. Let us, at this blessed
Whitsuntide, ask forgiveness of God for all acts of malice and
uncharitableness, blindness and hardness of heart; and pray for the
spirit of true charity, which alone is true wisdom. And let us come to
Holy Communion in charity with each other and with all; determined
henceforth to feel for each other and with each other; to put ourselves
in our neighbours' places; to see with their eyes, and feel with their
hearts, as far as God shall give us that great grace; determined to make
allowances for their mistakes and failings; to give and forgive, live and
let live, even as God gives and forgives, lives and lets live for ever:
that so we may be indeed the children of our Father in heaven, whose name
is Love. Then we shall indeed discern the Lord's body--that it is a body
of union, sympathy, mutual trust, help, affection. Then we shall, with
all contrition and humility, but still in spirit and in truth, claim and
obtain our share in the body and the blood, in the spirit and in the
mind, of Him Who sacrificed Himself for a rebellious world.

SERMON IV. PRAYER.

PSALM LXV. 2.

Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come.

Next Friday, the 20th of December, 1871, will be marked in most churches
of this province of Canterbury by a special ceremony. Prayers will be
offered to God for the increase of missionary labourers in the Church of
England. To many persons--I hope I may say, to all in this
congregation--this ceremony will seem eminently rational. We shall not
ask God to suspend the laws of nature, nor alter the courses of the
seasons, for any wants, real or fancied, of our own. We shall ask Him to
make us and our countrymen wiser and better, in order that we may make
other human beings wiser and better: and an eminently rational request I
assert that to be.

For no one will deny that it is good for heathens and savages, even if
there w