gether. Fellowship with each other, mutual sympathy, and what
spectators from without call party-spirit, all this is a prescribed
duty; and the sin and the mischief arise, not from having a party, but
in having many parties, in separating from that one body or party which
He has appointed; for when men split the one Church of Christ into
fragments, they are doing their part to destroy it altogether.

But while the Church of Christ is literally what the world calls a
party, it is something far higher also. It is not an institution of
man, not a mere political establishment, not a creature of the state,
depending on the state's breath, made and unmade at its will, but it is
a Divine society, a great work of God, a true relic of Christ and His
Apostles, as Elijah's mantle upon Elisha, a bequest which He has left
us, and which we must keep for His sake; a holy treasure which, like
the ark of Israel, looks like a thing of earth, and is exposed to the
ill-usage and contempt of the world, but which in its own time, and
according to the decree of Him who gave it, displays to-day, and
to-morrow, and the third day, its miracles, as of mercy so of judgment,
"lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great
hail."

[1] 1 Tim. iii. 15.

[2] Easter and Whitsuntide.

[3] John xvii. 23. 1 Cor. xii. 12. Eph. iv. 4-6.

[4] Eph. ii. 14; iii. 6; iv. 13; v. 23-26.

[5] Vide Tracts for the Times, No. 11.

[6] 1 Cor. xii. 13.

[7] Titus i. 5.

[8] 2 Tim. ii. 2. Vide also 1 Tim. v. 22.

SERMON XVIII.

Stedfastness in the Old Paths.

"_Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the
old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find
rest for your souls._"--Jer. vi. 16.

Reverence for the old paths is a chief Christian duty. We look to the
future indeed with hope; yet this need not stand in the way of our
dwelling on the past days of the Church with affection and deference.
This is the feeling of our own Church, as continually expressed in the
Prayer Book;--not to slight what has gone before, not to seek after
some new thing, not to attempt discoveries in religion, but to keep
what has once for all been committed to her keeping, and to be at rest.

Now it may be asked, "Why should we for ever be looking back at past
times? were men perfect then? is it not possible to improve on the
knowledge then possessed?" Let us examine this question.

In what r