Consecrate yourselves. Empty yourselves of yourselves, that you may be filled with God. Yield yourselves to Him, not with a passive acquiescence, a sentimental quietism, but with the earnest, energetic direction of all your faculties to this one end. A period must still intervene for most of you before the active independent work of life begins,--a period of discipline and waiting. Only by patience will you win your souls. But the self-dedication must be made at once, and it must be complete. Half-heartedness spoils the sacrifice. Postponement is perilous. The opportunity despised turns its back on you for ever. Consecrate, consecrate yourselves, body and soul and spirit, to God now, this night. FOOTNOTES [1] _These sermons are printed from reporter's notes._ [2] Preached at Cambridge, Oct. 23rd, 1881. [3] Preached in St. Paul's Cathedral on Sunday Afternoon, September 6th, 1874. [4] Mr. Foley, R.A., sculptor. [5] Sermon preached in St. Paul's Cathedral on Sunday, May 21st, 1876. [6] Sermon preached in Durham Cathedral on the Occasion of his Enthronement, on Thursday, May 15th, 1879. [7] Preached in St. Peter's Church, Bishop Auckland. [8] Delivered at St. Paul's Cathedral, Tuesday evening, November 4th, 1873. [9] Delivered in St. Paul's Cathedral, Tuesday evening, November 11th, 1873. [10] Delivered in St. Paul's Cathedral, Tuesday evening, November 18th, 1873. [11] Preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, Thursday, June 19th, 1884, on the anniversary of the Girls' Friendly Society. [12] Preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, on Sunday Afternoon, May 30th, 1875, before some of Her Majesty's Judges, the Lord Mayor, and members of the Corporation of the City of London. [13] Preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, February 1st, 1884. [14] Preached at Manchester Cathedral, at annual meeting of Additional Curates Society, on Tuesday, November 1st, 1887. * * * * * Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. Transcriber's Note: In Table of Contents, ditto marks replaced by text they refer to ("Christianity and Paganism"). Italics indicated by _underscores_ and transliterated Greek by +plus signs.+ "Gallas" changed to "Gallus" on page 79, "Constantine" to "Constantius" on page 93, and "god" to "gods" on page 112 (c.f. BCP Psalter xcvii. 7). Punctuation errors corrected on pages 39 and 128. Spelling errors corrected on page 80 ("fanactism") page 104 ("consciousnes") page 148 ("evey") and page 170 (+eu+). Different spellings of apostasy/apostacy, and inconsistent hyphenation elsewhere, have been retained. Illustration on title page is decorative emblem.