SERMON XIV.

AFTER CONFIRMATION.

1 ST. JOHN ii. 12-15.

"I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

In this passage the beloved Apostle having a great precept to deliver, the precept of loving not the world, neither the things that are in the world, begins by recommending it in this earnest and affectionate manner to every age of

Christian people. He gives the reasons why he writes it, and the reasons why he has written it before, to little children, to young men, and to fathers. It is fit for little children, because their sins are forgiven them for His name's sake, and because they have known the Father. It is fit for young men, because they have overcome the wicked one, because they are strong, and because the word of God abideth in them. It is fit for fathers, because they have known Him that is from the beginning.

See, then, in a short and apostolic summary, the duty of a Christian life, and the character of each of the three principal Christian ages! The duty is, negatively, not to love the world, to abstain from it, to renounce it ;-affirmatively, to love the Father and do His will: and each age has its own peculiar and appropriate reasons for discharging this duty. Do we desire to know how St. John would have addressed little children, desiring to win them to set their hearts upon God, and keep them off from the vain pomp and glory of the world and the sinful lusts of the flesh? "I write," he says, "and I have written to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake, and ye have known the Father;" because, that is, ye have been baptized, made children of God's love,

instead of children of His wrath, and your sin pardoned in the sacred baptismal water; and because, though ye are still young, and unknowing in the sterner parts of Christian duty, yet ye have learned to know and love God as a Father, a kind and loving Father, and have tried to be obedient and dutiful children to Him. So that St. John would teach little children to love God, and not the world, on the ground of their recent blessed baptism, and of the fatherly love of God towards them, of the nature and blessedness of which they can form some kind of judgment from remembering the anxious love and care of their earthly parents.

Do we again desire to know how St. John would address Christian young men, desiring them (not now for the first time) to renounce the love of the world, and to grow in the love of God? "I write," he says, "and have written to you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one;" because, that is, ye have already had some experience of the wiles and temptations of the evil one, from whom ye were rescued at your baptism, and in the strength of baptismal grace and the Blessed Spirit have, in your first encounters, fought a good fight, and conquered: "because ye are strong;" strong in strength of bodily endurance, so as not lightly

X

to yield in your self-command and discipline; strong in heart, so as to defy the threats of evil spirits; strong in humility, so as to know that it is not in your own strength, but in the indwelling power of the Spirit of Holiness that your warfare is to be waged: and because "the word of God abideth in you;" because, that is, you possess the "sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God'," so as to be able, by studying that word, and using it for your defence, to put down all opposition of spiritual enemies, and keep yourselves in the pure and holy faith in which ye were baptized.

Do we desire to know how he would urge old men still to cultivate the love of God, and renounce till death the world and all its lusts? "I write, and have written unto you, fathers," he says, "because ye have known Him that is from the beginning." Ye know, and have known by long experience of Christian warfare, who and what He is in whom ye have trusted. Ye have known Him as He is eternal, as He was from the beginning, and will be for ever, the uncreated, everlastingly begotten Son of God.

Thus we learn, from this passage of St. John, that the way to address the first age, the chil

1 Eph. vi. 17.

dren, is to put them in mind of their baptism, and to represent God to them as a Father. The proper address to the second age, the young men, is to speak of struggles and conquests, of the power of the evil one, and of their own greater strength from the word of God abiding in them. To the old men belong the comfort and the encouragement of having known, by their own long experience, the power and goodness of Him whose nature is unfathomable and eternal; who is from the beginning. Filial dutifulness, if one may so sum up, for the children; conquest for the young men; and depths of sacred doctrine for the elders.

My brethren, I am called upon to address you this evening with a word of sacred exhortation, and I hardly know which, among the various topics which crowd upon my thoughts, I may most profitably select to offer to your reflection. The time is one of most unusual and particular solemnity for on what former occasion have we seen so many deeply interesting events taking place within the compass of so few days? It was but two days since that more than half of our whole number were admitted, by the sacred apostolical rite of Confirmation, to the order and estate of Christian manhood; to-day, we have witnessed the reception of more than two-thirds