an undue zeal for something which is not Christ's but our own; and, what is yet worse, a greater regard to these earthly ties, than for that great and only tie which should fully control us, the communion of the Holy Spirit of God? This is a general evil, which might be dwelt on in one or other of its particular forms, according to the circumstances of particular congregations. In its form of religious, or national, or political party spirit, we have little to do with it here; but in another form, and one suited to our circumstances, it exists here as much as anywhere. Ties are attempted to be thrown over every one who comes amongst us, if, indeed, they have not been thrown over him earlier; binding him, by a supposed chain of honour, to the particular society into which he is entered; so that their honour and their interest, according to their own notions of both, are to become his law: he must resent supposed insults offered them; and if they do evil, he is bound, if not actually to join in it, yet to conceal it, and in no way to endeavour to put it down.

It is this sympathy with the members of our own particular society, without always distinctly keeping it in subjection to our stronger sympathy for God's law, which is the cause of so much evil. It is what we see sometimes exhibited amongst the poorer classes with respect to the law of the land; whatever crime may be committed by one

of their own class, they shrink from having any hand in bringing him to justice, because their notion is, that it is betraying one of themselves. We see exactly that here is the mischief of the spirit condemned in the text. A man who has committed a great crime is yet considered as one of themselves, not as one whom they are to love for Christ's sake, and as a member of a society in which he is one, but as one of themselves according to an evil and unhallowed union which he abhors, an union which leads men to each other because they are alike in worldly condition, and teaches them to regard this as a greater bond than the love of goodness and the hatred of wickedness. I have given the instance in the name of the poorer classes screening each other from the law of the land; but you know that it is exactly the same feeling which makes boys combine together to screen one another from the laws which affect them, and to help one another sometimes in breaking them.

It is astonishing how much mischief is done by a deceitful word. "We must not desert our companions;" that is the sort of expression which characterizes the proselytism in which the proselyte is made twofold more the child of hell than his converters. Companions in what, or for what purpose? Accident has thrown us together in the same place, it is true; we eat, sleep, and live under the same

roof, or within the same town.

But this is but a

poor reason for union of heart or feeling, although it is great reason for showing kindness and civility. If we think of what is more than a mere accident; if we look upon each other as companions in a better sense, that is, as having a common work and a common interest, then it becomes us to consider well what this work is, and what this interest. Is it to help one another in evil or in good? Is it to assist one another in maintaining the liberty to do what is base or wicked, to live in idleness, to get in debt, to be thoughtless, extravagant, or sensual? If this is the work for which we are companions, then, indeed, it is a companionship which the language of the text will best describe. They who are led into it, and they who lead them, become the children of hell together.

But surely we are companions in a better sense than this, and with a companionship wherein Christ himself may be one. There is before you a common work and a common interest, in which you may be fellow-workers with Christ, and fellowreapers; sharers of his labour, and sharers of his glory. There is a common work to which you are all leagued, that the society to which you belong should be in reality what it is in name, a school of Christian education; there is a common interest, that all evil should be put away from among you, inasmuch as it hinders you each and all in follow

ing Christ steadily. This is a true companionship, a Christian communion, in which there is ample room for the exercise of all, and far more than all, the good points which can ever exist in those evil communions, for good nature, for mutual kindness, for preferring each the other and the welfare of the whole to his own; but which admits of nothing narrow-minded, nothing contentious, nothing which is a breach of our true and heavenly communion, nothing which leads us to excuse, to endure, to become accomplices with evil. For in this true companionship, whatever is against Christ is also against our union; we are no less false to one another than to him, if we do not endeavour to put it down. And to bring over any to such a companionship is no less than to fulfil Christ's command, while we effectually avoid incurring the danger of his warning. It is conversion, not proselytism; and as in the spirit of human proselytism both are accursed together, he that proselytizes and he who is proselytized: so, in this true conversion to the companionship of Christ, he who is converted has saved his soul, and he who has converted him, shall shine as the stars for ever and

ever.

VOL. III.

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SERMON XVI.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.

[Preached in Rugby School Chapel, on the Founder's Commemoration.]

DEUTERONOMY, xi. 19.

Ye shall teach these my words unto your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

THIS is the simplest notion of education; for, undoubtedly, he is perfectly educated who is taught all the will of God concerning him, and enabled, through life, to execute it. And he is not well educated who does not know the will of God, or knowing it, has received no help in his education towards being inclined and enabled to do it.

Stated in these words, I do not know that any one would much dispute the truth of this description. But when we come to unfold it, and try to arrive at an accurate knowledge of it in detail,