upon every soul of man that doeth evil, and glory, honour, and peace to every man that worketh good-that was to be their message, that was to be their weapon, wherewith they were to strike, and did strike, through the hearts of sinners, and convert them to repentance that they might die to sin, and live again to righteousness.

With this armour, and that one weapon, the Word of God, the Christians conquered the souls of the men of the old world. Often they failed, often they were defeated, sadly and shamefully; for they were men of like passions with ourselves. But their defeats always happened when they tried other armour than the armour of God, and fancied that they could fight the world, the flesh, and the devil with the weapons which the world, the flesh, and the devil had forged.

Still they conquered at last-for God was with them, and the Spirit of God; and they put on again and again the armour of God, after they had cast it off for a while to their own hurt.

And so shall we conquer in the battle of life just in proportion as we fight our battle with the armour of God.

My friends, each and all of you surely wish to succeed in life; and to succeed, not merely in getting money, still less merely in getting pleasure, but with a far nobler and far more real success. You wish, I trust, to be worthy, virtuous, respectable, useful Christian men and women; to be honoured while you live, and regretted when you die; to leave this world with the feeling that your life has not been a failure, and your years given you in vain : but that, having done some honest work at least in this world, you are going to a world where all injustice shall be set right.

Then here, in St. Paul's words, are the elements of success in life. This, and this only, is the way to true success, to put on the whole armour of God. Truthfulness, justice, peaceableness, faith in God's justice and mercy, hope of success, and the sword of the Spirit, even that Word of God which, if you do not preach it to others, you can and should preach

to yourselves all day long, continually asking yourselves, 'What would God have me to do? 'What is likely to be his will and message 'upon the matter which I have in hand?'all these qualities go to make up the character of the worthy man or woman, the useful person, the truly able person, who does what he can do, well, because he is what he ought to be, good; and all these qualities you need if you will fight the battle of life like men, and conquer instead of being conquered therein.

But some will say, and with truth, 'It is easy 'to tell us to be good: we can no more change

our own character than we can change our own 'bodies; the question is, who will make us ' good?' Who indeed, save he who said, 'Ask, and ye shall receive?' St. Paul knew well enough that if his armour was God's armour, God alone could forge it, and God alone could bestow it; and therefore he ends his commands with this last command-Praying always, 'with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereto with all perseverance, and supplication for all saints.' Those who

wrote the Church Catechism knew it likewise, and have said to us from our very childhood: 'My good child, know this: that thou canst 'not do these things of thyself, nor walk in 'the commandments of God and serve him 'without his special grace; which thou must 'learn at all times to call for by diligent 'prayer.'

Yes, my friends, there is but one way to obtain that armour of God, which will bring us safe through the battle of life; and that is, pray for it. Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. You who wish for true success in life, pray. Pray, if you never prayed before, morning and evening, with your whole hearts, for that Spirit of God, which is truth, justice, peace, faith, and hope-and you shall not pray in vain.

SERMON XII.

PAUL AND FELIX.

ACTS XXIV. 25.

And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.

THIS is a well-known text, on which many a

sermon has been preached, and with good reason, for it is an important text. It tells us of a man who, like too many men in all times, trembled when he heard the truth about his wicked life, but did not therefore repent and mend; and a very serious lesson we may draw from his example.

But even a more important fact about the text is, that it tells us what were really the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion in those early times, about twenty-five years,