Hence it is that the Church has set apart this season of Lent to come
round to us year by year as a season of special thought and prayer and
self-denial. Many other times and seasons come to us laden with the same
spiritual influences, and to be used by us as times of reflection,
inspiration, purification, and strengthening. This is the purpose which
the quiet of these recurring Sundays should be fulfilling in our lives,
or our gatherings for Holy Communion.

And once and again there comes to us in the course of life some time or
season which is sure to make its impression upon our soul as having
brought us in a special sense into the presence of God, and within the
overshadowing influences of His Spirit.

So it may happen to us that some family bereavement, the death of father
or mother, of brother or sister, or child of our affections, draws us
away from the world into a closer communion with our Father in Heaven, a
communion which is never entirely lost again or forgotten. So, too,
comes the season of confirmation, as to many of you just now, with all
its thoughts, feelings, prayers, and resolutions.

And it is a happy thing for our life when any of these seasons leave an
indelible mark upon our memory and our spirit.

But as we think of these words of Jesus, "This kind goeth not out but by
prayer and fasting"--the question for each of us here to-day is, what
practical daily meaning we hope to give to this season of Lent which is
to begin on Wednesday.

Let us not fancy that we can allow such seasons to come and go, year by
year, giving them no thought or attention, without some corresponding