o the spiritual
penetration of the law of God, and have never given a thought to the
question of a heart-surrender to His will in everything, and the sin of
merely withholding that surrender.

Then, to take another primary subject of a different class; there is a
wide and general ignorance of the great lines of Christian Evidence, and
a large open door accordingly for the active attacks of shallow, or
subtle, unbelief. Few have ever been taught in any definite way the
supreme significance in this respect of the fact of the Lord's
Resurrection, and its mighty walls of proof; and the reasons for our
belief that the Bible is indeed not of man but of God; the witness of
history to prophecy; and so on.

LET US DROP SEEDS OF TEACHING.

I owe an almost apology for this long talk about subjects of doctrine,
and practice, and evidence. But I have kept all along the purpose of
this chapter in view. I wish to remind my Brethren how very much they
may do, in the course of visitation, to _drop seeds_ of fact, of truth,
of principle, in careful, thoughtful words, the product of private
reading and reflection, called out by some natural occasion.
Undoubtedly, the subjects I have outlined are themes for the pulpit, and
for the Bible class, as well as for the visit. But my feeling is that
the visit gives opportunities quite of its own for didactic work. We
ought to be "natural" everywhere; but we are sometimes suspected, or
imagined, to be less so in public than in private; and besides, in
private we give and take; we are open to question and answer; and this
may give quite special advantage to the word spoken, quietly and
pleasantly, but pointedly, in the pastoral interview.

"PURCHASE THE OPPORTUNITY."

"The priest's lips should keep knowledge." [Mal. ii. 7.] The Clergyman
should be ready everywhere to be the teacher on the great subjects which
he is supposed to make his own. He will never intrude instruction, or
parade it; but he will everywhere be on the watch for the occasion for
it, [Greek: exagorazomenos ton kairon], "purchasing the opportunity,"
[Eph. v. 10.] at the cost of care.

VISITATION OF THE SICK.

And here I may come again to that important branch of visitation, the
visitation of the sick. The Church, as we well know, provides a Form of
Visitation; most helpful and suggestive in its principles and outline
for all. But it is, as you are aware, _imposed_ by the Canon (lxvii.)
only on such Clergymen (very scarce pe