then, as the foundation of our faith, is that Christ Our Lord should be truly doing, and have truly done for us, those things, which Scripture sets forth and the Creed reveals. Our disease is real, so must be our cure: we want some actual help, we must come to Him to find it.

This is the great thing which is going on in heaven and earth. Worldly people have their eyes fixed on a thousand other objects. Some are asking what kings are in danger, what new states are likely to rise up and gain power among the nations. Men of business are considering how they may lay out their money to the best account, so as to have the largest return. Some of you probably are planning how to improve your lands, so that they may yield a larger return. Others are considering what they shall do when they are a few years older, what employment they shall follow, what master they shall serve. But all this time the one only real, lasting, and important work is going on in the midst of us unseen-God's great controversy with mankind, and Christ's work of intercession and grace, by which He is saving from the fallen world those whom by grace and faith He truly joins to Him. This is the one great reality; and it depends on the truth of those past actions of Christ, which this season of Advent brings before us, and of those things which He continues to do through the ordinances of His grace. At this time did the Second Person in the Blessed

Trinity, God the Son, come down from heaven to earth for our salvation, and take part in man's nature, in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. Through that manhood which He took, was He able to die, and rise again for us. And now that He has gone up into Heaven, He truly offers up the prayers of all His servants, and He is truly present with us in His Church's worship, wherein we have assurance of meeting Him as our Saviour. And He truly feeds us with that precious food of His Body and Blood, which, by taking our nature, He has made the means of our soul's nourishment. These are the things which Holy Scripture and the Creed set before us things, the importance of which depends on their truth; which are not brought about by ourselves, though our life depends upon them.

And what is meant by a living faith in them? We do an act of faith every time that with a true heart we declare we are convinced of them. When you repeated the Creed to-day, if you meant what you said-if you felt that these things were true, and were prepared to do and suffer for them-then you made an act of faith. And you can make an act of faith every time you say your prayers, by repeating the Creed with earnestness and sincerity. But to have a living faith, it is needful that all our acts should be acts of faith. The whole man, both in soul and body, must be fashioned on this principle. We must live like persons who always saw

Christ to be present, and always believed accordingly. If we went into a King's palace, and saw him before us, what decency, respect, carefulness, would there be in our words and actions. The real believer is always in the presence of God. Christ Our Lord, who has mercifully taken our nature to be a satisfaction for our sins, is ever near and before him. And especially when he enters into the King's courts, into Christ's place of peculiar presence, it is with such love, reverence, and devotion, as shows that his faith is real. You may see when he comes here, that he truly discerns that gracious Master, who has mercifully done so much for his sake. The thought of Christ's nearness to him has all his heart. There are no wandering looks, no idle thoughts-Christ is near. The sayings of Scripture are true sayings; and He who promised His presence to men of old time has bestowed it upon Christians.

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SERMON VII.

THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA.

ST. JOHN, iv. 10.

"Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink ; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water."

SUCH words spoke Our Lord to the woman of Samaria. What she wanted, was to quench the thirst of that sultry climate. She had betaken herself to the neighbouring well of the Patriarch Jacob. For how else could she gain what was necessary to life? As a well were useless unless there were hidden waters, so without a well, thirst could not be satisfied. Now, through the method of supplying the body's wants, did Our Lord instruct her respecting the replenishment of the soul. For what is it which all men require but salvation?

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How can we get it but from Him? He is the true well-head, the source, the fountain, to whom alone we must betake ourselves amidst the painful wilderness of life. We must come like Israel of old, who "drank of that rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ." Thus, "with joy shall draw water out of the wells of salvation." Let us meditate then, by God's help, upon this topic: First, How is Christ the well of life? Secondly, How can we drink of Him?

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I. Now Christ is the well of life, because in Him those original perfections on which life depends, have their dwelling in the world. A wonderful saying it seemed to this woman of Sychar, when she found a stranger sitting upon Jacob's well, that in His Person was a "well of water, springing up into everlasting life," at which alone the spiritual thirst of all men could be satisfied. For she knew not what had befallen that other daughter of Eve, to whom it was said, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." This was that "gift of God," of which Our Lord declares that she was ignorant. She knew indeed, what all may know if they please, that in God alone is the principle of life; that all perfection must have its root in Him; that as He is the Author of our being, so is He the very source and spring from which holi