have been ill but a short time, and who have not as yet seen that they are wrong in indulging the temptations to eager longing, or even to envy those who can go to church,—or else those who encourage discontent in this and other forms, "refusing to be comforted." In the majority of cases, it would be found that the kindness of the words, and the pleasant thought that others would like you to share in their pleasures, would prove a great help, and refresh and cheer your weary spirits long after the words had been forgotten by the person who spoke them. It seems half to take you to church in spirit,-at any rate it gives a realization of the communion of saints,-to some minds of course more deeply than to others. "I wish you could go with us." "In spirit I can," the heart answers, and already the feeling of isolation is gone, and in place of it is, “I believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints."

On the other hand, how often the sick person feels, as the last person leaves the house for church, "If they cared that I should go with them, surely they would sometimes say so; how then can I hope that they will remember me there? I am cut off from fellowship."

These feelings are of course wrong and morbid, they ought not to be cherished at all, they should be earnestly resisted,-but that they

will offer themselves to you as temptations, there can be but little doubt. The only way to meet them is to say, "I am here by the will of God;" and to fix it in your heart that you can expect no blessing any where but in the place that He appoints for you. You are the "prisoner of the Lord," and so, when you pray for "all prisoners and captives," you will feel that you can pray for them, for you have many wants and trials in common with them. As such you are to "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." And whilst these verses tell you your duties, they do at the same time tell you how great are your blessings,—that you are in the unity of the Church,-that sickness is not a state of isolation, for "there is one body,"—the whole Church is one family, of which some are sick, and some in health, each needing the other, and unable to go on without the varied and reciprocal offices.

People often say that "you can as well say ก Eph. iv. 1—6.

your prayers at home." It seems to you that this is not the fact; nevertheless be sure that when God calls you to do so, He will make all grace to abound towards you, and will not suf fer your "soul to hunger." He who fed the five thousand with so few loaves and fishes, will surely feed you. "Bread shall be given you, and your water shall be sure."b He will feed you, though often you may see no bread, but this does not hinder you from receiving it: sometimes it may seem to you very bitter,sometimes very dry,-it may rarely be "pleasant bread." Fear not, though thus it may be, and "though the scent of water'd may be far off, yet He can feed you and give you to drink; -He who gave you life, will sustain it;—He can exactly adapt the daily portion of bread to your need; He will make it sufficient to sustain you, and to enable you to go on your way. Only do not seek to choose your food, but let Him give you the "bread which is convenient and necessary for you."e

You wish to spend your Sundays differently from all other days, but the difficulty is how to do it; you have, perhaps, a great deal more quiet time and leisure for reading, than on other days, but you cannot go on reading always, and you have not the variation of daily

a Deut. viii. 3.
d Job xiv. 9.

b Isa. xxxiii. 16.

c Dan. x. 3.

• Prov. xxx. 8.

life, and of seeing friends, scarcely even your own family.

Have you tried, as much as possible, to make your Sundays like what they would be if you could go to church, and like your own past Sundays? You used to go to church; there was an appointed service; a guide and direction to your devotions and thoughts. A service that all joined in,-not only in the particular church to which you went, but throughout England. Was it not intended for all the members of the church? Then it belongs to you, for you are "a sick member."

If, when you know that the service is beginning to be read at church, you begin to read it also; then you may join with all who are worshipping every where, and you will cease to feel cut off and isolated. When you begin to do this at first it may appear to you formal; at any rate it will seem very flat, without any one to respond, without any hymns of praise, and you will have little, if any, pleasure in it. Do not be disappointed by this-do not leave off the practice because of it—for every time you try (after awhile) you will find more pleasure, and profit, and blessing in it, and feel more as if you were joining "the great congregation."a Perhaps, too, you will find the reading the Services alone and slowly brings out to

Ps. xxii. 25.

you new beauties which you never saw before. Your circumstances, too, may bring home to your heart some prayers and petitions, which hitherto you had only "heard with the hearing of the ear."a Especially in reading the Litany, you can bring in the cases of your own friends, separately, naming them in your heart, "widows," the "fatherless children," the "sick," "all prisoners and captives," &c., and this will give life to it, and enable you to be "helpers of their joy," and will connect you with others who are "sitting solitary."e

Do not say that it would be formal thus to read the Services at home, that they are meant for public worship, and that to use forms in private, and especially in a sick room, is a bondage and formality. If you are cut off from the Church by sickness, then you have no part in her Services. It cannot be more formal to offer these prayers in private than in public; they are for the whole Church, and therefore for you. You often complain of the exceeding difficulty of fixing your thoughts, and offering your own words in prayer,-here are words for you, true and holy words, which all ages have been uttering, exactly fitted to your wants, now and at all times. Sick people need guides for their thoughts and words more than others do; and they who have tried the plan of reading the

a Job xlii. 5.

b 2 Cor. i. 24.

© Lam. i. 1.