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and left upon our fellow-soldiers in the struggle, behold them gallantly confronting the common adversary, and feel that their success or loss is our own, and ours and theirs, without having our affections drawn out towards them, in a degree proportioned exactly to the interest with which we regard the common enterprise, and our confidence in their zeal for its attainment?

But if this be so in the world, how should it be otherwise in the church, where the parties still are men, but where the ties by which they are drawn together are so much stronger, and the common cause so much holier and more important; and where, consequently, the interest excited, when the parties are really and truly zealous in the cause, must be so much more intense?-As Christian people, we have "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all." * In this relation we are

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striving together for the faith of the gospel: rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. Ascribing unto the Lord the honour due unto his name." If there be a service for us to unite in, which may have the effect of binding it down more firmly upon our hearts, that we have all these things in common; and if there is any

* Eph. iv. 5, 6.

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way by which we can make a common effort for the glorifying of him who died for us, and for the salvation of one another's souls; if we can meet to climb up to heaven together, every one giving something to all the rest, and receiving something from all the rest, for the estab lishment and confirmation of the common hopesurely this must be a way of assembling which must bring its own blessing with it, and a service in its own proper nature calculated to make us "vessels unto honour sanctified and meet for the master's use:" if indeed the "end of the commandment," and the badge of our discipleship "be charity."

But is not common prayer this service? We are met together by God's command in God's house -the one God and Saviour, the one father and preserver of us all. And every sincere Christian knowing what is his own business here, and what is upon his own heart, knows thereby, in general, what is every other's business, and what is upon the hearts of all true-hearted men around him. He is come hither himself as a sinner in the sight of God, to meet those his fellow-sinners, over whose falls his Christian principle has taught him to grieve; and whose spiritual danger and distress the same principle teaches him to bewail; and the sinners round him view him

with the same eyes with which he views them; and therefore, with one heart, as well as with one voice, all may say together, and each in his brother's name no less than in his own, -" We have erred and strayed from thy ways O Lord, like lost sheep; we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts; we have offended against thy holy laws; we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us."* Here is communion in humiliation; communion in self-renunciation; communion in confession, in peril, in distress. If the humiliation be but on all sides genuine, how must the sense of it and the common profession of it, make us all feel that we are "all members one of another."

But we have also a common hope, and building it all of us on one and the same foundation, our common supplication is a joint effort, by which every Christian, bearing every other in his heart, we come to one "throne of grace" together, each to seek for his brother as well as for himself, and each assured that his brother is, at the same time, seeking for him grace, mercy, and peace, from God the father, and from the Lord

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* General Confession.

Jesus Christ."—" But thou O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults; restore thou them that are penitent, according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord." Here is communion in faith, in hope, in desire, in endeavour. We stand on the same ground, covet the same good gifts, and covet them for one another. If my brother is edified, if his spiritual disease is healed, if his sins are forgiven him, my prayer is answered; and so is his prayer answered if God does these things for me. We have agreed together," touching these things, to ask them for each other. Our hearts are enlarged to desire that the dew of God's blessing may light on all, and let it light where it will, all are gainers.

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And therefore there will always be occasion for a common acknowledgement. "We thine unworthy servants, do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving kindness to us, and to all men."* Here is communion in obligation, in thankfulness, and in thanksgiving.

And thus throughout; every sincere and pious person confesses, prays, gives thanks with his neighbour, and for his neighbour; and confiding in his neighbours sincerity, he deems of all around him-these are they who desire "his kingdom to come," and his will to be done in whom my soul delighteth-these are they who feel that I can never go too far in ascribing glory, and honour, and worship, and power to to Him, to whom it is my heart's desire to render them-these are they, who are interested in precisely the same things which interest me, and are here to declare it. All things which are worth having or worth desiring, we have and desire in common; and our lamentations are common, and our admirations and our rejoicing also.

* General Thanksgiving.

But I will not enlarge further upon this:-I only ask, is not the service which quickens and excites these views, a service through which, under God, charity may well be expected to be promoted, and brotherly-love and unity be established and increased; and if so, is it not for the glory of God and for the good of souls? Ought not such a service to be more valued by us all? And are not our obligations to attend upon it self-apparent ?

But an objection will be taken here. The case has been stated rather as it ought to be, than as it is. Look, it will be said, at our Christian assemblies so called. If God is in the place of worship, surely people know it not.

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