Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/173

Rh solemnly promised to read the Holy Scriptures daily; he will therefore have daily before his eyes the precepts, the instructions, the example of ;—the rewards and punishments of the life to come. He is obliged to catechize; and the more careful he is to instruct others, the more effectually he will learn himself, how far we are fallen from, and what pains we must take to be restored to the image and favour of. He has promised to lead an holy and exemplary life. If he does not do this sincerely, he will be the scorn of men now, and of devils hereafter. It will be impossible to converse with poor and needy people, and to seek out for help for them, without partaking of the spirit and compassion of the blessed, who laid down His life for them. If he is careful to read divine service distinctly, with deliberation and gravity, it will beget devotion in himself, as well as those that hear him. If his sermons be plain and practical, they will affect his own heart, as well as those he preaches to. Every child he baptizes puts him in mind of the vows that are upon himself. And he cannot administer the other Sacrament as he ought to do, but it must needs fill his soul with a thousand holy ideas and devout thoughts,—with a holy fear, lest he should offer the prayers of the faithful with polluted lips, or distribute the bread of life with unclean hands, with an ardent love for, whose love and death he commemorates, with a perfect charity for all the world for whom he died. And the oftener he administers this Sacrament, the more he will find his graces increased. In visiting sick and dying persons, he will be put in mind of his own mortality; and in fitting them as he ought to do for the account they are going to give, he will be put in mind of the much greater he is himself to give. When he exhorts, reproves, admonishes others, it will bring to his mind the words of the Apostle, "Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?" &c. When he calls to mind that he has promised all faithful diligence, &c. he will give himself wholly to these things, and will be ashamed to be found wholly taken up with business which no way relates to the salvation of souls. If he is diligent in prayer, which he promises to be, will