o
feel and know that some things are right, and others wrong, yet do not
adhere to the right; who are conscious they sin from time to time, and
that wilfully, who have an uneasy conscience, who fear to die; who
have, indeed, a sort of serious feeling about sacred things, who
reverence the Church and its Ordinances, who would be shocked at open
impiety, who do not make a mock at Baptism, much less at the Holy
Communion, but, still, who have not the heart to love and obey God.
This, I fear, my brethren, may be the state of some of you. See to it,
that you are clear from the sin of knowing and confessing what is your
duty, and yet not doing it. If you be such, and make no effort to
become better; if you do not come to Church honestly, for God's grace
to make you better, and seriously strive to be better and to do your
duty more thoroughly, it will profit you nothing to be ever so reverent
in your manner, and ever so regular in coming to Church. God hates the
worship of the mere lips; He requires the worship of the heart. A
person may bow, and kneel, and look religious, but he is not at all the
nearer heaven, unless he tries to obey God in all things, and to do his
duty. But if he does honestly strive to obey God, then his outward
manner will be reverent also; decent forms will become natural to him;
holy ordinances, though coming to him from the Church, will at the same
time come (as it were) from his heart; they will be part of himself,
and he will as little think of dispensing with them as he would
dispense with his ordinary apparel, nay, as he could dispense with
tongue or hand in speaking or doing. This is the true way of doing
devotional service; not to have feelings without acts, or acts without
feelings; but both to do and to feel;--to see that our hearts and
bodies are both sanctified together, and become one; the heart ruling
our limbs, and making the whole man serve Him, who has redeemed the
whole man, body as well as soul.

[1] Sam. i. 11.

[2] Ps. lxxxiv. 4.

[3] Luke xviii. 13.

SERMON II.

Divine Calls.

"_And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel;
Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for Thy servant heareth._"--1
Samuel iii. 10.

In the narrative of which these words form part, we have a remarkable
instance of a Divine call, and the manner in which it is our duty to
meet it. Samuel was from a child brought to the house of the Lord; and
in due time he wa