3. Ps. cxix. may be said to be, in a sense, a commentary on the third part of the baptismal vow; only two verses omit mention of God's law. The following verses are especially helpful in this connexion:

10. With my whole heart have I sought Thee: O let me not wander from Thy Commandments.

32. I will run the way of Thy Commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart.

48. My hands also will I lift up unto
Thy Commandments, which I
have loved; and I will meditate
in Thy statutes.

96. I have seen an end of all per-
fection but Thy Command-
ment is exceeding broad.
100. I understand more than the
ancients, because I keep Thy
precepts.

127. Therefore I love Thy Command-
ments above gold; yea, above
fine gold.

131. I opened my mouth, and panted; for I longed for Thy Command

ments.

176. I have gone astray like a lost

sheep; seek Thy servant; for I do not forget Thy Commandments. Ver. 96 is said to have been Dean Stanley's favourite verse, and it is a fit epitaph for the grave of himself and his wife.

4. "I have been writing a book on the Commandments,which have occupied my mind very much lately. It will be dedicated to Dr. Macleod, that I may express my great respect for him, and my utter dissent from his doctrines about the abolition of the decalogue for Christians. It seems to me that if we lose them the connexion between theology and national life is dissolved.". (F. D. Maurice.)

5. The contemplation of our Lord for adoration and imitation. 'The eyes of

an Ignatius, or an Athanasius, or a Leo, or a Bernard, or a Pusey, however much history may rightly identify these men with zeal on behalf of the organisation and dogmas of the Church, were in fact, as their writings sufficiently testify, never off their Lord, for Whom alone, and in Whom alone, all external things had their value."-(Canon Gore.)

6. In what respects does Christ's perfect doing of the will of His Father, in the home at Nazareth, as afterwards, affect us ?

(a) Throughout He acted not simply as a man, but as Man, the Head and Representative of the race. As the whole race felt the dire effects of the yielding to the tempter in the Garden of Eden, so the race, in Christ, may be said to have lived the perfect life in the workshop of Nazareth. God looked down upon man, for the first time since the Fall, and beheld the ideal which He had formed for man. "Mankind, as St. Athanasius says, was made to be a picture of the Eternal Son; but the picture was become so blurred and begrimed that it could not be restored without the appearance of Him whose portrait it was intended for."-(Mason.)

(b) Christ also by His perfect Commandment-keeping was working out the perfect example for us to imitate; suited to persons of every age and circumstance. Now this example had been useless to us, "it would have daunted as much as it would have stimulated"; only that through the glorified manhood of Christ comes to us the spirit of a new life which makes conduct after the examples of Christ possible for us. As Mr. Gore adds in his Bampton lectures, "Ever watch the perfect life of Jesus as our example, we behold Him and accept Him as the perfect sacrifice; we contemplate Him raised up beyond example and beyond sacrifice into the glory of the Father... He is still the Son of Man."

61. Put shortly the three things which you say about yourself in this fourth answer of the Catechism.

The three things which I say about myself in this fourth answer of the Catechism are (1) That I feel gratitude,

ness. Baptist not a reed by Jordan banks, to bend before the wind; such as a bird would flee from in a storm, seeking the oak or cedar, which was firm, unyielding; the Baptist firm of purpose, determined; no reed shaken by wind. (b) (ver. 8) Self-denial. Baptist probably might have been at court; gorgeous dress, jewels, sumptuous fare; contrast, hair shirt, leather belt, locusts, wilderness, self-denial, given to the service of King of kings.

Not a reed shaken by wind. Echo: "Yes, verily by God's help so I will." This means firmness, see ver. 12; "violent," firm, determined. (Illust.— A great service in the Abbey, marriage of royal prince; all eager to be there and take part; barriers across outside to keep people back; some young brothers of the prince are kept back, but determined, they press on, break through, get in; now within; there in presence of the prince. Why there? Because they were determined.) Earnestness needed if to keep our privileges and get the blessings which are rightly ours. "I will" (St. Luke xiii. 24). To have privileges without determination and will is like holding a beautiful vase of alabaster in feeble hands; it will fall, be broken, lost. "I WILL."

(iii.) Christ warns and encourages.

(a) His warning (ver. 21, 23). People of towns where Lord ministered, on shores of Sea of Galilee, had great privileges, great light. What now? Towns all gone. Only one or two poor boats on the sea. Lonely where before so busy. In one place find amongst big thistles huge stones of old buildings scattered. Here a ruin roughly covered over; shelter for goats. Place where Lord taught-Capernaum; then "lifted up to heaven ; high privilege now desolate. "Thrust down to hell." Why? Did not value privileges. Let them slip, as so many baptized do when grown up. Privileges gone. Selves unsaved. Against this we pray. Pray for grace that may not fall (Heb. ii. 1-3).

(b) His encouragement (ver. 28-30). Kindly voice to those who pray for help and grace. "Come unto Me." It is

III. THOUGHTS 1. The subject of this Lesson-the fourth question and answer of the Catechism-demands most careful and prayerful preparation on the part of the teacher. The scholars should be taught that to say this answer with sincerity involves on their part a sense of gratitude,

hard work trying to keep on. Burdensome perhaps. I will give you rest." Do we need teaching? "Learn of Me." "Come." Pray. We are His members, even if but one of the hairs of Saviour's head; will not perish if keep near to Him. Grace to keep on comes to us through Him. (Illust.-Princess Elizabeth, daughter of the murdered King Charles the First, kept prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle; found dead one day, head resting on Bible, open, it is said, at text ver. 28-30. Robbed of her privileges in those wild times as an earthly princess; not lost privileges as child of the Great King-member of Christ. Kept these to end. Echo of all this, "I pray unto God to give me life's end" (St. Luke xii. 32; St. Matt. x. 22, last part).

Dwell on words, I thank; I will; I pray. Three heart feelings: thankfulness; determination; feeling of need. Fit for a happy Confirmation day when get these three. Thankfulness the greatest; it will move you to the rest; will be a power with you. (Illust.Freed slave girl; gentleman went into slave-market; saw poor girl put up for sale; she in agony of grief lest she should fall into hands of bad master. The man, moved with pity, bid a large sum for her; paid it down; bill of sale made out; he handed it to her, told her she was free. It seemed too good to be true; but when realised it, she went after him crying, " He hath redeemed me; he hath redeemed me; Oh, let me be his servant." Moved by gratitude she would do anything for him.) Have we such feeling towards Christ? Our privileges cost His life-blood. Moved by gratitude we shall have the will and determination to continue His to the end.

One more echo. Christ prays, "Holy Father, keep through Thine Own Name those whom Thou hast given Me," &c. (St. John xvii. 11-12.)

Echo: Our prayer, I pray unto God to give me His grace that I may continue in a state of salvation unto my life's end."

Prayer: Collect for Eleventh Sunday after Trinity.

FOR TEACHERS.

a resolution to serve God, and a feeling of need. The opportunity is here presented of inquiring how far by private prayer they are justifying the closing part of this answer; "And I pray unto God," &c. Moreover it should be pointed out to them that fitness for

Confirmation involves their expressing this answer with sincerity and earnestness. The teachers of a class of big boys or girls will feel that to bring their scholars on, one by one, to this point, is to see their work crowned with the success for which they watch and pray. At the same time an earnest protest should be entered against that method of dealing with children, encouraged by many revivalists, by which young souls are forced into an unnatural declaration of their feelings. We are not to analyse a child's religion; nor to rake up the seed to see how it is growing. The following statement of the truth of the matter, by the Rev. A. C. Macpherson, in his lessons on the "Church Catechism seems to be quite wise and good. "Years may pass perhaps before the child is called on to take up the cross of suffering or of active work for Jesus, but the tenderest age at which a child can understand is not too soon to make the conscious choice between good and evil. The current of child-religion may flow in channels which we who are older may make it difficult to trace, so that sometimes we may find it hard to think that children have any religion at all. Yet the youngest child we have to do with has mighty forces within him, of which the will is the mightiest, and the earlier these forces are set in the direction of God and holiness the better. We can no more understand the germ of religion in a child's soul than we can the growth of the germ of wheat, but we have in a visible obedience one test by which we can try if it is there. Obedience is the youth of religion, just as work is its manhood and peace its old age. If you can see the stream flowing within the river banks, you may thank God and take courage; but if you expect to analyse a child's religion, be sure you may spend time to better purpose in teaching principles of which God alone can see the working, but which will bring forth fruit in due season."

2. The following is an important bit of catechising on a knotty point, "This State of Salvation," by the Rev. W. Frank Shaw, B.D.

What is this state of salvation into which you have been called? We have been called unto, and placed in a state of grace, of privilege, of opportunity, in which we may be saved; yea, in which we shall be saved, "if we continue in His goodness" (Rom. xi. 22).

When were we placed in this state

of salvation? We were placed in this state of salvation at our Baptism, "according unto His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Tit. iii. 5).

Do you mean to say that every baptized person is certain to be saved? or that Baptism alone makes us sure of heaven? No; our Baptism does not make us absolutely sure of getting to heaven at last. What does it then? Holy Baptism places us in a state of salvation in which we are being saved if we continue therein, in which we are enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, are made partakers of the Holy Ghost, have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come" (Heb. vi. 4, 5).

3. The question of final perseverance, or the possibility of falling from grace, is involved in this part of the Catechism. The subject will be found treated at length by Bishop Harold Browne in his exposition of the third section of the Sixteenth Article. The doctrine of the Zwinglians and High Calvinists is that if a man has once been regenerate and endued with the Holy Ghost, he may fall into sin for a time, but can never finally be lost. That this teaching is widespread in our own day is patent from the frequency with which souls are described as saved" when brought into a state of acceptance with God. "Are you saved?" is the mistaken inquiry of many earnest persons. The mischief which such teaching does is two-fold. (a) It overthrows the doctrine of the Church on the subject of infant Baptism; if a soul once safe can never fall away and be lost, then we are in this dilemma: either we must hold that a baptized child can never be lost, which is absurd, or that a child by Baptism is not put into a state of salvation, which is at once unscriptural and uncatholic. (b) Amongst ignorant people the idea that no "converted" person can ever be lost must work untold mischief, rendering them careless as to their moral life, indifferent as to the need of sacramental grace, and unwilling to believe that the Christian life is a struggle, and demands constant and continued perseverance. The following are some of the passages of Scripture in which the false teaching referred to is refuted :-St. Matt. x. 22 and xxiv. 46-51; St. Luke xxi. 34-36; Heb. iii. 16, vi. 4-8, x. 26-29, 38; 2 Pet. ii. 20-22; Col. i. 22, 23; St. John xv. 2, 5, 6.