Do we answer, _I cannot_? It is a reproach, it is a calumny, upon the Gospel of Divine grace. That is the very revelation of the Gospel—_God giveth more grace_: more, as we need more; more, as we ask more; more, as we look and wait and make room for more. I _cannot_? No; but God can. _Ask_, _and ye shall have_. Or do we answer, _I need not_? _I am well enough as I am_—_God is very merciful_—_He knows our frame_, _and whatever deficiencies He sees in me_, _Christ will make them up_? Alas! it is too often the evangelical reply—if not with the lips, then in the heart! Christ died to make sin less sinful, to make sin less dangerous, by substituting a figment of justification for a reality of holiness, watchfulness, and self-control! Thus even the Blessed Lord Himself is made _a minister of sin_, and man turns the very table of his blessing into a new occasion of falling! Or do we answer, finally, _I will not_? _I love the breaches of my soul’s house_; _I do not wish that the gusts of passion should be fenced out_; _I do not wish that there should be no crack or cranny through which I may peep out on the world’s vanities_, _nor any secret neglected postern through which some delicious delirious lust may creep in to intoxicate me_? Oh! worst of all, most hopeless, this last answer—the answer of many consciences, will they but speak, in this great Congregation; the answer which not only virtually denies, but wilfully refuses, the Gospel; which makes the Cross an offence, and Christ to have died in vain! May it please God, by some one of His thousand, His myriad agencies, to make us feel! to bring us to our knees in hearty repentance before Him; and then, even as it is written, _humbling ourselves_ first _under His mighty hand_, at last to _exalt us in due time_! _RECENT WORKS BY DR. C. J. VAUGHAN_. THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST DAYS. Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles. I. THE CHURCH OF JERUSALEM, SECOND EDITION. II. THE CHURCH OF THE GENTILES. SECOND EDITION. III. THE CHURCH OF THE WORLD. SECOND EDITION. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, price 4_s._ 6_d._ each. LECTURES ON THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. SECOND EDITION. Two Vols. crown 8vo, price 15_s._ WORDS FROM THE GOSPELS. Sermons preached in the Parish Church of Doncaster. NEW EDITION. Fcap. 8vo, price 4_s._ 6_d._ NOTES FOR LECTURES ON CONFIRMATION. With suitable Prayers. SIXTH EDITION. 1_s._ 6_d._ LECTURES ON THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. SECOND EDITION. Price 7_s._ 6_d._ EPIPHANY, LENT, AND EASTER. A Selection of Expository Sermons. THIRD EDITION, REVISED. Crown 8vo, 10_s._ 6_d._ TWELVE DISCOURSES on Subjects connected with the Liturgy and Worship of the Church of England. Price 6_s._ THE BOOK AND THE LIFE: and other Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge. NEW EDITION. Fcap. 8vo, 4_s._ 6_d._ MEMORIALS OF HARROW SUNDAYS. A Selection of Sermons preached in Harrow School Chapel. With a View of the Chapel. FOURTH EDITION. Crown 8vo, 10_s._ 6_d._