II. You have not only been guilty of the most gratuitous presumption and rashness, but you have also acted in defiance of your own creed. You, my Lord, according to your own showing, are a very religious, indeed, an apostolically religious, man—a believer in the Church Catechism, and in the doctrine of confirmation. Doubtless your Lordship has been confirmed; and I may presume that you go to church as often as the majority of your order; and, when there, you listen very attentively to the reading of the decalogue, and after each precept you most devoutly and sincerely repeat the prayer, “_Lord have mercy upon us_, _and incline our hearts to keep this law_!” At the end of the tenth command you vary the words, and say, “_Lord have mercy upon us_, AND WRITE ALL THESE THY LAWS IN OUR HEARTS, WE BESEECH THEE.” In the Communion Service of the Prayer Book, I read the following words:—“Then shall the priest, turning to the people, rehearse distinctly ALL THE TEN commandments; and the _people_, _still kneeling_, shall after _every_ commandment _ask mercy for their transgression_ thereof, and grace to _keep_ the same for time to come.” In accordance with this direction the clergyman in a solemn voice commences with Exodus xx. 1: “GOD SPAKE THESE WORDS AND SAID;” and thus wishes to impress upon the devout and kneeling audience before him, that the laws which he is about to rehearse are the identical laws which were once proclaimed by Jehovah himself, and that they have now all the majesty and authority of the Divine Legislator which they have ever had. When he comes to the _fourth_, he reads, “Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day. Six days shalt thou labour, and do _all_ that thou hast to do; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no manner of work, _thou_, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man servant, and thy maid servant, thy cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.” No sooner are these words ended, than you, my Lord, and all true Churchmen, all newspaper editors and railway directors, who go to church on Sunday mornings, repeat the solemn prayer given above. In the sentence, “_Lord have mercy upon us_,” you confess that you have broken the commandment, and pray the God of Heaven to grant you “_mercy_” for the past; and in the following words, “_Incline our hearts to keep this law_,” you entreat Jehovah to renew your hearts, and give you an inclination to obey the “_Fourth Commandment_” in future. Are you, my Lord, sincere in this prayer and supplication? Are your Church friends among the nobility, railway companies, and newspaper editors, who use this form of devotion, sincere? The Son of God tests our love by our obedience. “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” are