fully provided for a strictly Christian education of all its members.

2. Confirmation is by the Church of Rome esteemed one of the Sacraments. As we have no reason to think that it was first instituted by our Lord, although probably sanctioned by Him, and practised in the time of the Apostles, yet as it has no "outward sign of some inward and spiritual grace ordained by Christ," we do not call it a Sacrament, but simply a religious rite or ordinance.

3. Confirmation, according to the 60th Canon of the Church, is appointed to be solemnized every three years at the Visitation of the Bishop; and, according to the usual practice, we may always expect that a Confirmation will take place every third year. In the mean time, let me exhort each young person in this Congregation, who has arrived at a suitable age, to give diligent attention to the Catechism, and to all those studies which will assist in a general understanding of the great doctrines of Religion. And let me impress upon those who have been already confirmed that, whenever they think of the solemn promises made for them at their Baptism, or of the equally solemn ratification of those promises made to the Bishop at Confirmation in the words "I do," they may evermore be reminded what they are what they have to do-and

whither they are fast going. They are Christians— *they are placed here for the purpose of working out their salvation-and they are daily treading the road that is leading them to Heaven or to Hell.

To many of them, no doubt, Religion has as yet appeared little more than a thing of mere words and names. It will one day assume an appearance of most awful reality, and they will then wonder that they could possibly have heard the most solemn truths, uttered the most serious promises, and attended the most affecting rites and ordinances, without heeding to inquire, to think, or to care, whether they had any meaning whatever.

But, as I should hope and trust, and as in some instances I actually know, there are many here who are otherwise disposed: to whom, on the present occasion, I would fain repeat my earnest and sincere wish that they would evermore bear in mind what it is to be Christians. You in particular, my young friends, although now in the "spring-time of life," are not too young to become religious beings. Religion, as you will find some day, is the only course that can end well; and if there is one sentence of Holy Writ which should be deeply impressed upon your hearts, it is that of the wisest of men-"REMEMBER THY CREATOR IN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH." Ecclesiastes xii. 1.

LECTURE XV.

MATRIMONY.

Genesis ii. 24.

THEREFORE SHALL A MAN LEAVE HIS FATHER AND HIS MOTHER, AND SHALL CLEAVE UNTO HIS WIFE; AND THEY SHALL BE ONE FLESH.

It ought to be a very important consideration with all of us, my brethren, that the two Institutions which are probably of more deep and serious interest to the well-being of man both in Time and Eternity than any, were appointed by God himself at the Creation of the world.

I mean THE SABBATH, and MARRIAGE. These are not to be considered merely as two Jewish Institutions; for, as I said, they were appointed by God at the Creation of the world, as we read in the second Chapter of Genesis, more than two thousand years before the formation of the Jewish people at the call of Abraham. They are there

fore Institutions intended by God to be kept up as long as the world lasts: they were both appointed, and both hallowed, and sanctified, and blessed, by God; and by the true worshippers of God they have ever been religiously observed. But when men have forsaken God, slighted His Laws, and become profligate and licentious, they have always themselves thought, and endeavoured to make the world think, lightly of these two Divine Institutions. During the French Republic in the last century, when Atheism and Licentiousness spread a moral pestilence over a whole empire, one of the very first acts of an infidel frenzy was to do away with the Sabbath, and to make Marriage a mere civil contract, which might be made and dissolved at pleasure. Bear in mind then, my brethren, that when the Sabbath and Matrimony are treated, or spoken of, or thought of, slightingly, the Devil is at work; for two of the earliest Institutions of God's own appointment for man's benefit and happiness would not be treated otherwise than God intended them to be—that is, seriously and religiously.

After having considered the Services for the Holy Communion, for Public and Private Baptism, the Catechism, and the Confirmation Service, it comes next in turn for me to offer a few remarks upon our very ancient, and holy, and

scriptural service for the solemnization of Matrimony-a subject, my brethren, which should always be dwelt upon with gravity and seriousness, and never with that spirit of silly raillery, or idle levity, with which the ignorant, or the thoughtless, or the profligate, too commonly invest it.

I make this remark at the entrance upon my discourse, because, from some cause or other, which I will not pretend to explain, the subject in question appears to have been too little brought forward in the Pulpit of late years; and the consequence has been that a great majority of our people have ceased to take those serious and religious views respecting Marriage that they ought to do as Christians-entering upon it in the fear of God, and thinking every breach of its solemn and affecting vows and promises as a manifest transgression against the Laws of God. That it was intended by the Church for the subject of Marriage to be religiously brought forward in the Pulpit is evident from the 18th Homily, which is thus entitled "Of the state of Matrimony."

At the same time, my brethren, there are many things connected with the subject that may perhaps excite the alarm of the refined and virtuous mind, and these, adding difficulty to embarrass