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DISCOURSES.

DISCOURSE I.

INTRODUCTORY.

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2 PETER III. 11.

WHAT MANNER OF PERSONS OUGHT YE TO BE IN ALL HOLY CONVERSATION AND GODLINESS?"

WE are met together, my christian friends, in conformity with the spirit of the season,* for the purpose of impressing our minds more deeply with the importance of religious truth and the weightiness of moral responsibility. Such purposes are always in season, for when is it that truth loses its value, or responsibility lowers its demands? When is it that our minds are not liable to fall into error on the right hand and on

* Lent.

B

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the left? Or what train of thought is there, what conversation, what course of action, which does not tell on the issue of our final account? But there are seasons when we are more distinctly and impressively called to meditation and self-scrutiny. Opportunities," it is commonly said, “are the golden spots of time." Some things there are which can only be done at particular seasons; others which may be done well at all times, but better at some seasons than at others. Both these remarks apply to the things of religion. Now, in the time of this mortal life, must the soul be brought into a state of salvation, NOW OR NEVER; but there are certain periods in life when that Now receives a stronger emphasis, when every thing seems to concur in pointing out the present moment as the fittest for minding the things that belong to our everlasting peace.

And what season so fitting for considering the privileges we enjoy and the obli

gations they bring with them, and the measure in which we are improving the one and meeting the other, as the present? As members of the Church of England, we are called to commemorate the fact, that our Lord and Saviour did for our sakes fast forty days and forty nights, and for our sakes endure all the fiery temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And this season is, moreover, preparatory to our consideration of his last sufferings, "for us men and for our salvation;" "his agony and bloody sweat, his cross and passion," those awful mysteries, by the remembrance of which we adjure him to hear and deliver "us miserable sinners." And surely it is when we are contemplating what Christ has done and suffered for us that we can best learn what it is to BE a Christian and to ACT the Christian, and most clearly perceive "what manner of persons we ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness." These words of St. Peter forcibly express the unlimited

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