thy manifold and great mercies: we are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table; but thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy, grant us therefore gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed by his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us."* Let our proud hearts be brought down to what is here so beautifully expressed; and he that so humbleth himself shall be exalted. We shall commemorate Christ; and at God's hands receive him to be ours-the inward grace and the outward sign together, and then, as further taught, we may and we must say each of us, and say it honestly, "Here we offer and present unto thee O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto thee;"† and this is that to which habitual consideration of the love of God ought to be habitually leading us. This is the grand work of every one of us this is that state to which when we shall have attained through grace, we shall be actually possessed of "righteousness,

and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,"* and be "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light."† Only let man be surrendered up to God, to take God's will for his will in all things, to leave himself in God's good hands for life or death, to do God's good pleasure; and as this is his duty, so shall it prove his glory and his happiness, and thenceforth nothing shall offend him. But what is the grand argument to bring man to this submission?“ І, if I be lifted up," (saith Christ,) "will draw all men unto me."† Here in the sacrament is he set forth as lifted up, as crucified. If with discernment of the Lord's body; if, "with humble and hearty thanks to God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, for the redemption of the world by the death and passion of our Saviour Christ, both God and man, who did humble himself, even to the death of the cross, for us miserable sinners who lay in darkness and in the shadow of death, that he might make us the children of God, and exalt us to everlasting life;"§ if, with the sense of this upon your minds, ye shall eat of that bread and drink of that cup,-what act could ye possibly do, what service could ye possibly attend upon,

which should be more likely to quicken all good thoughts in you; or which could tend more powerfully to constrain you to all cheerful and devout obedience? Then "I bid you, in the name of God, I call you in Christ's behalf, I exhort you as ye love your own salvation, that ye will be partakers of this holy communion. And consider how great injury ye do to God, and how sore punishment hangeth over your heads for the same, when ye wilfully abstain from the Lord's table, and separate from your brethren, who come to feed on the banquet of that heavenly food."*

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SERMON XXIII.

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

MATT. vi. 22, 23.

"The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness: If therefore the light which is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!"

Nor many years ago it was a question much debated, and indeed the debate is not ended yet, whether the children of the poor should be taught to read. It has fared however with this question as with many others-whilst speculators have been agitating it, the thing has been done. I do not mean that the poor have been taught universally, or that there is not a vast deal left in this work for those of the more opulent to look to, who may be of opinion that a national education is desirable; but every body, one would think, must be aware that we have no choice whether the bulk of all orders shall, in some manner or other, be educated or not. We may decide whether we ourselves shall instruct the poor of our own immediate neighbourhood, and our determination may affect some individuals; but with respect to the general mass, the case is decided for us.

The descent of knowledge from the higher classes of society to the lower has, of late years, been very rapid : the greater it has been, of course the more easily it may proceed-and since the love of knowledge is certainly one of our strongest natural appetites, when people can once see a thing so much coveted to be within their reach, they will not usually be very slow to grasp at it. The generality therefore of all ranks will be found to be not only willing, but eager to obtain instruction for their children, at all events, though the time should be gone by for themselves; and if so, the late discovery in the art of teaching will greatly facilitate their views: for whatever may be thought of the merit of this new plan, thus much has assuredly been demonstrated in nearly every considerable town throughout the king