contribute to prepare them for the everlasting fellowship of the blessed, in the kingdom of God? Children, do you obey your parents in the Lord? Do you look up to them with that filial respect, and show that dutiful attention to their comfort implied in the fourth commandment of the decalogue? Masters, do you treat your servants with gentleness and humanity? Do you furnish them with opportunities of practising their religion? And are you careful, that in serving you, they neglect not the service of their Heavenly Master? "Servants,

are you,” in the words of the Apostle, "obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, not serving to the eye, as it were pleasing men, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart ?" (EPHES., c. vi. v. 5, 6.) Be sure you never forget, that to constitute a genuine worshipper of the Father in truth, all these considerations are to be duly attended to; and that a failure in any one of them will render that character proportionably defective.

As worshippers of the Father in truth you are called upon, moreover, to do him homage by your conscientious submission to the laws of your country, and obedience to its constituted authorities : "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, for there is no power but from God: and those that are, are ordained of God. Therefore he that resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist, purchase to themselves damnation." (ROM., c. xiii. v. 23.) Here, indeed, my friends

I am happy to have it in my power to bear the most unequivocal testimony in your behalf. Your laudable attachment to your political constitution, your abhorrence of principles that have a tendency to subvert it, your fidelity, allegiance, loyalty, are notorious to the public at large. Nor do I fear in the least to be disavowed, when I boldly assert, that in the moment of danger, or in the hour of trouble, I deprecate that moment, I deprecate that hour,the government of Great Britain will never fail to experience, in the Catholics of this realm, its most zealous and intrepid defenders.* However, my friends, as the furious and disorganising spirit of anarchy has gone forth, as it has levelled with the ground a kingdom once flourishing and powerful, and tainted the minds of a comparatively disaffected few in this island, it may not be improper to caution you against its pernicious influence. Disregard, then, the violent and noisy declamations of the friends of disorder. Despise their hypocritical complaints. Beware of their insidious machinations. Oppose their destructive efforts. Rally round the standard of tranquillity and order. Vindicate your character from every possible imputation of disloyalty. And prove by your general comportment, at all times, that, although debarred from the possession of some of the most valuable rights of citizens, your deserts, at least, entitle you to a participation in them all.

* This discourse was delivered at an early period of the French Revolution.

I cannot take leave of the subject on which I have been addressing you, without cautioning you against an extreme into which persons warmly attached to the cause of religion are sometimes apt to be hurried. The extreme to which I allude, is that of a misguided and intemperate zeal displayed by them in the defence of its interests. The consequences of this misguided and intemperate zeal are proved, from experience, to have been oftentimes deplorable. By it have been engendered animosities, hatred, rancour, discord, contention. It has extinguished, in the breasts of men, every latent spark of humanity. It has disturbed the peace of families and of nations, filled the earth with calamities and crimes, and brought disgrace on the Christian name. Let me not, however, be thought, in censuring one extreme, to recommend another of an opposite description: I mean indifference in the sacred cause. Be zealous, therefore, I say, but let your zeal be directed by prudence. Be zealous ; but let charity season your zeal; be zealous; "But if you have a bitter zeal, and there be contentions in your hearts; glory not, and be not liars against the truth. For this is not wisdom descending from above: but earthly, sensual, devilish." (JAMES, c. iii. v. 14, 15.)

Wherefore, my friends, let it be your constant endeavour to yield an universal obedience to the divine commands in all the various relations in which you stand, to God, to your neighbour, and to yourselves. Remember, at the same time, that

this universal obedience, in order to be such as is required of you, must be rooted in faith working by charity; that it must be the result, that is to say, of a mind deeply impressed with a firm belief of all the sacred truths revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ; relying, for its acceptance at the throne of grace, on his infinite merits; and prompted, by the most lively feelings of love and gratitude, as well as of reverential awe, inspired by the influence of the Holy Spirit, to do the will of your Father who is in heaven. Thus will you prove yourselves to be worshippers of the Father, in truth as well as in spirit; and the Father, finding in you the worshippers whom he seeketh, will receive you hereafter into his heavenly kingdom; for "not every one who saith to me, Lord, Lord," says our blessed Saviour, "shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he who doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. (MATT., c. vii. v. 21.)

SERMON XII.

ON THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD.

ALL things are kept uncertain for the time to come, because all things equally happen to the just and to the wicked, to the good and to the evil, to the clean, and to the unclean, to him that offereth victims, and to him that despiseth sacrifices. As the good is, so also is the sinner: as the perjured, so he also that sweareth truth. ECCLESIASTES, c. ix. v. 2.

THAT the same Omnipotent Being who called, by his word, the universe into existence, continues to preserve, to support, and to govern it, by his superintending providence, is evident from the spectacle which the face of nature exhibits to our view. The magnificence of the heavens, the fertility of the earth, the ebbing and flowing of the sea, the regular vicissitudes of the seasons, the alternate succession of day and night,-all proclaim, to the ear of reason, the wise administration of a supreme Governor. Did he withdraw, for a moment, his all-sustaining and all-regulating hand, universal disorder would immediately prevail; discord would destroy the harmony of the spheres; the sun would cease to enlighten with its splendor, and to cherish with its heat; no longer confined to their respective orbits by the influence of its attraction, the planets would reel in wild eccentricity to the most remote regions of space; the earth, stricken with unproductive