cently abandoned. And, to win the return of this gracious and all-powerful monitor, we would bid him work for it. We would tell him, that it is by toiling and striving and pains-taking, he must recover the distance which he has lost, and call the departed light and departed influence back again. If there be a remaining sense of duty in his heart, we bid him work with all his might to prosecute its suggestions; and never cease to ply his labours of obedience till He, who still it appears is whispering through the organ of conscience what he ought to do, shall be so far satisfied with the probation, as again to shed a sufficient manifestation on the doctrines which he must never cease to contemplate. And this not merely to restore to him the hope of experience, but to revive in him the hope of faith; and, full of penitential labour as well as of penitential meditation, to make his light break forth again on the morning, and his health to spring forth speedily.

This holds out to us another view of the indissoluble alliance, that obtains between the faith of Christianity and the obedience of Christianity. It is not saying all for this, to say that the former originates the latter. It is saying still more to say that the latter strengthens and irradiates the for

mer.

The genuine faith of the gospel never can encourage sin; for sin expels that Spirit from our hearts, who perpetuates and keeps alive faith in them. And by every act of disobedience, there is a wound inflicted on the peace and joy, which a

belief in the gospel ministers to the soul. It is by practically walking up to the suggestions of this heavenly monitor, that we brighten within us all His influences; and thus, as the result of a strict and holy practice, is there a clearer and fuller light reflected back again, on the very first principles from which it emanated-so that Antinomianism, after all, is very much an affair of theory, and can only be exemplified in the lives of those who either profess the faith, or imagine that they possess it, when they are utter strangers to it. The real faith which is unto salvation, not only originates all the virtues of the gospel; but, should these virtues decay into annihilation, it also would fall back again to non-existence along with them; and, on the other hand, does it uniformly grow with the growth, and strengthen with the strength of a man's practical Christianity.

On two distinct grounds therefore, do we urge on every believer, a most persevering strenuousness, under every temptation and difficulty, in all the ways of righteousness. The first is, that he may brighten his personal evidences, of being indeed one of those whom God is enriching and beautifying with grace in time; and thus will he strengthen that basis on which the hope of experience rests, when it looks forward to a preferment of glory in eternity. The second is, that he may strengthen that very faith, by which he relied at the first on the promises both of grace here, and of glory hereafter, for, after all, it is by faith he stands ;

and the whole of his spiritual life will forthwith go into decay, should he only look to the hope reflected from himself, instead of drawing it direct and in chief abundance from the Saviour. An exuberance of fresh and healthy blossom upon a tree, affords a cheering promise of the fruit that may be expected from it. But what should we think of the soundness of that man's anticipations, who should cut across the stem because he thought it independent of the root, which both sent forth this beauteous efflorescence and can alone conduct it to full and finished maturity? And the same of spiritual as of natural husbandry. Were there no foliage, no fruit could be looked for—yet still it is union with the root, which produced the one and will bring on the other. And, in like manner, if there be no foliage of grace in time, there will be no fruit of glory in eternity. But still it is by abiding in Christ, that the whole process is begun, and carried forward, and will at length be perfected. Give up the hope of faith, because you have now the hope of experience; and you imitate precisely the man, whom the leaves had made so sanguine of his drest and supported vine which he had trained along the wall, that he cut asunder the stem and trusted to the abundance of his foliage. And therefore we reiterate in your hearing, that the hold of faith is never to be let go; and that from Christ, who ministers all the nourishment which comes to the branches, you are never to sever yourselves; and that the habit of believing prayer, which is the

great and perpetual aliment of all virtuous practice, is never to be given up; and thus it is, that, let the hope of the 4th verse brighten to any conceivable extent upon you, from the light which is reflected by your person-yet still it is the faith by which you are justified, and the hope of the 2d verse directly emanating therefrom that form the radical elements of your sanctification here, and your meetness for the inheritance hereafter.

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LECTURE XX.

ROMANS V, 6—11.

"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement."

FROM the preceding verses we gather, that a believer at the very outset of his faith, may legitimately hope for the fulfilment of all God's promises. Some of these take effect upon him in time, and form the pledges and the earnests of those further accomplishments, which are to take place in eternity-thus affording a basis on which to rest the hope of experience. It is true that they are the greater things which are to follow. The glory that is hereafter, will greatly exceed all the glimpses and all the tokens of it with which we are favoured here; and it may be thought that because we obtain small things now, it does not follow that we are to look for greater things afterwards. A man may both be able and willing, to advance the small sum which he promises to bestow on me to-morrow;