tinued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of Bread, and in prayers."

"And in Prayers"-and that is the fourth and last point of our subject. The early Christians kept life in their souls by steadfast listening to the Apostles' teaching, by holding sweet communion and fellowship, by partaking on every opportunity of the Lord's Supper, and by that, without which all the rest had been vain, by Prayer. No doubt they prayed in secret, and were much in prayer in their closets, but the prayers here spoken of were public prayers, the common worship of the whole body. They continued steadfast in that, as they did in the other three points. To be absent from prayers would have troubled them much. No need was there for the Christian minister to urge the converts to attend prayers-no need to set before them its blessingno need to speak of the risk of neglecting prayers, they were eager of themselves to come, "they continued daily," we read, "with one accord in the Temple"-or in other words, they continued "stead. fast in prayer."

And here again, I might draw a comparison, not favourable to ourselves, between our paths, and the practice of the just Christian. But I forbear, I leave it to your own thoughts, as on this point, so on all the others, I have sought to set before you plainly, unreservedly, what the life of Christ's people was at

the first. I have shown you what was their practice on these four points: Apostolic teaching, Christian fellowship, Holy Communion, Public prayer. And this has been recorded for our learning: consider it well, for you have in these four points the answers to the questions with which I started, "What shall we do"? Yes! that is the question of questionswhat shall we do, we who have embraced Christianity-we, who have accepted Jesus-"What shall we do to be saved "-to come at length into the rest of heaven? Yes! that is the question-one which it concerns us all to put, not once, or twice, but again, and again: each to his own soul-" What shall I do to be saved." Thank God there is an answer for us at hand. It is this. Do as they did, who at the beginning confessed Jesus Christ to be their Saviour: "Continue steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, and fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in Prayers."

SERMON XIX.

THE NINETY-FIFTH PSALM.

PSALM XCV. 6.

"O come, let us worship, and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker."

THE words of the text will be familiar to all your ears. They are a part of that well known "Venite," which has long been used in the Christian Church, as a fit and proper introduction to the service of praising God.

And they contain a spirit-stirring call to sing God's praise, we are invited by the author (and St. Paul tells us in Hebrews that he was David) to "worship God." Because He is a great God-"a great King above all Gods"-and for His work of Creation. Because in His hands are all the deep places of the

earth, and the strength of the hills is His also. Because the sea is His: He made it, and His hands formed the dry land, or in one word, because He is our Maker. "O come, let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker!"

Further, in this Psalm, mention is made of God's goodness. His care and protection of us whom He has made. "For the Lord He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His Hand."

So far of the text, as it stands in the ninety-fifth Psalm, and its connection with the general teaching of that Scripture. It is an exhortation, an earnest invitation to worship God for His goodness, and greatness, and care for His people, as seen in their creation, preservation, and redemption.

And as such, you will see how appropriately it stands in the order of our morning service. Like that well-known hymn of Bishop Ken's:

"Awake, my soul, and with the Sun

Thy daily course of duty run,
Shake off dull sloth, and early rise,
To pay thy morning sacrifice."

Like this hymn, the ninety-fifth Psalm may well come out of a Christian's mouth on his earliest awakening from sleep. "O come," who will not say it from his own soul? when he wakes refreshed by sleep, and finds the darkness and dreariness of night

M

gone, and the fresh beams of light springing in through the lattice-who, I say, that has any true piety in his heart will not in his first moments of waking bethink him of the great Power who has watched over him, and kept him alive, and desire to make some acknowledgment of His goodness? Who will not say to his soul, "O come, let us sing unto the Lord?" O come, let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker? But there is a particular fitness in the use of these words to-day. For to-day is Septuagesima Sunday, and we read in our church the first chapter of Genesis, the chapter which records how the world was made and that which inhabits it. "In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth."

Perhaps no chapter has been more commented upon and more disputed upon. But there it stands unshaken in its witness to the greatness and goodness of God. There, after all that modern science can do, we turn for an answer to the great question, How came we here? How came we to be masters here? to have in subjection all creatures? What was the origin, the first beginning of life? first beginning of that which has no life-no organic life-the solid earth, with its rocks and trees, and various soils, the sun, the moon, the stars. Whence came they? Who made them? They could not have made themselves. They must have had a first

The