THE MEANS OF GRACE.

"Means without God can do nothing, but God without means can do anything he pleases."

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This is an old saying, which we should do well to remember, and especially those who are unavoidably prevented from enjoying the means of grace; but yet we should also recollect, that though means without God can do nothing," yet it is by means that He is pleased most generally to work. Even if we do not see the necessity of them, they are of God's own appointment, and that is enough. Surely the God of wisdom cannot err; nor is it to be expected that, having appointed particular ways by which He promises to convey particular gifts, He will bestow those gifts equally on those who seek them in the ways which He has commanded, and on those who neglect those ways; for that would be as much as to give license to these who hold the unscriptural doctrine, that as we cannot give ourselves grace, we must only wait till it is sent to us, without taking any trouble in seeking it. It would be an acknowledgment that means are useless. This is a fatal mistake—we must seek, if ever we hope to find.

The grand thing for which we should seek, is God's Holy Spirit, because it is He who conveys to us the two things we so greatly need-holiness and happiness.

Now, you who truly desire to obtain this precious gift, seek it in the various means of God's appointment. I write the following lines to help you to keep the means of grace in your memory, and have affixed, to each separate means I mention, the authority for it in Scripture, and the blessed promise which God has annexed to it.

THE MEANS OF GRACE APPOINTED BY GOD HIMSELF.

"Say, in what path that e'er was trod,
Shall mortals find the love of God!
That jewel of heav'n, so bright and rare,
The pearl of price, without compare."

"Seek it, O mortal, from above,

'Tis God can give a heart to love!"

TEXTS FOR EACH MEANS OF GRACE.

1" Seek it then first with anx

ious care,

Where best 'tis found-in secret prayer."

Command-Pray without ceas ing. 1 Thess. 5. 17. Promise-Ask, and it shall be given you. Matthew, 7. 7.

9" And where the Gospel truths abound,

In holy books 'tis often found." 10" Avoid with care the smallest sin, And it will brightly glow within."

11" Examine daily all you do, And if you've kept these means in view."

Command-Give attendance to reading. 1 Tim. 4. 13. Command-Abstain from all appearance of evil. 1 Thess.

5. 22. Promise-Being made free from sin, and become servants of God, ye have your fruits unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. Romans 6. 22. Command-Examine yourselves. 2 Cor. 13. 5. Promise-For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 1 Cor. 11. 31.

Thus, mortal, seek it from above,
And God will give a heart to love!

DETACHED SENTENCES,

Found in the hand-writing of the great Lord Chatham.

The great end of religion is to make us like God, and conduct us to the enjoyment of Him.

It is of as great importance for a man to take heed what thoughts he entertains, as what company he keeps; for they have the same effect upon the mind. Bad thoughts are as infective as bad company: and good thoughts solace, instruct, and entertain the mind, like good company; and this is one great advantage of retirement, that a man may choose what company he pleases, from within himself.

Watch against all fretful and discontented thoughts, which do but chafe and wound the mind to no purpose. To harbour these is to do yourself more injury than it is in the power of your worst enemy to do you. It is equally a Christian's interest and duty to learn, in whatever state he is, therewith to be content.

To be anxiously fearful what will become of us, and discontented and perplexed under the apprehension of future evils, whilst we are in the hands, and under the care of our Father, which is in heaven, is not to act like children. Earthly parents cannot avert from their children all the calamities they fear, because their wisdom and power are limited; but our all-wise and almighty Father can.

"A fool's wrath is presently known.” "Only by pride cometh contention ;" and a man would not know what mind lay at the bottom of his heart, if provocation did not stir it up. If your anger be soon kindled, it is a sign that secret pride lies lurking in the heart; which, like gunpowder, takes fire at every spark of provocation that lights upon it. Pride and anger are as nearly allied as humility and meekness.

Conversion, or regeneration, really implies a thorough change of the whole man, from the love and practice of sin, to an habitual holiness of heart and life, ordinarily in the use of the means of grace, and always under the influence of the Spirit of God.

Let a penitent and contrite spirit be always my portion, and may I ever so be the favourite of heaven, as never to forget that I am chief of sinners. I still prefer charity, which edifieth, before the brightest intellectual perfections of that knowledge which puffeth up.

An eagerness and zeal for dispute, on every subject, and with every one, shows great self-sufficiency, that never-failing sign of great self-ignorance; and true moderation, which consists in an indifference about little things, and in a prudent and well-proportioned zeal about things of importance, can proceed from nothing but true knowledge, which has its foundation in self-acquaintance.

Some are apt to imagine because they do not feel or know themselves to be guilty of drunkenness, adultery, fornication, or murder, or covetousness, or dishonesty in their dealing, that therefore they are clean. But they are apt to forget the thoughts of pride, and haughtiness, of revenge and implacability, of severity and ill-nature, of envy and malice, of anger and passsion, of ambition and worldly grandeur, the frequent mis-spending of their precious time, and the like. What is this but to publish a religion to the world which has no effect towards making any of the sons of men happy.

"THIS IS THE ORDINANCE OF THE PASSOVER."

EXODUS xii. 43.

The solemn ordinance of the Passover is the type under the law of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and we learn much of its true nature from it; carefully distinguishing the letter from the spirit. The essence of both is commemorated, Exodus xii. 26, 27. The Lord's people have ever observed it with reverence and

delight. Heb. xi. 28; 2 Kings xxiii. 22.-The special mercy of God towards Israel formed the topic of exaltation in the Jewish Church; so the glory of the Christian Church is that God spared not His own Son, &c. By the terrors of affliction Pharoah let Israel go so by suffering unto death the Son of God delivered the lawful captives. As Israel overcame by the blood sprinkled, &c.: so shall the Church in the hour of temptation; Rev. xii. 11.—It commemorates the chiefest mercy of God to a fallen world. It is an ordinance for the faithful in Christ Jesus: none can comprehend it but by having his understanding opened to understand the scriptures. The proper partaking of it is described, Ex. xii 43: no stranger, &c.; and ver. 47, a spiritual character, distinctive of their calling, should mark those who eat the Lord's Supper. The privi lege of faith rendered the Jewish ordinance acceptable with God: by the same faith alone can we derive benefit, from breaking of bread as followers of the Lamb. Rom. xiv 23.-Therefore none who are strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, none of the uncircumcised in heart, none but the true Israel of God can duly participate in this ordinance, wherein we view retrospectively, what the Jews beheld prospectively in the passover. To be welcome guests there must be an habitual preparation, which consists in a permanent principle of holiness, wrought in the soul by God's word and Spirit, by which a man is so entirely changed, (and also universally,) as to have new tastes, new dispositions, new desires, new pursuits, and inclinations; a change by virtue of which, Christ and sin, the world, time and eternity, ourselves and our fellow-creatures are placed before us in a new light: this is called

being "born again," new creatures, &c. The Lord's supper is

spiritual food, and supposes spiritual life in its partakers. The best food will not make that alive which was dead before. We expect growth, not life from the Sacrament: it is not a converting, but a confirming ordinance, and to come to it with any preparation short of a passage from death unto life is but to bring a finely dressed corpse to a sumptuous banquet. To every worthy communicant Christ says, "let this serve as a pledge to you, that you shall eat and drink at my table in my kingdom." Such pledges can only belong to those whose salvation is secured, for Christ's pledge shall be certainly redeemed. No prospect of happiness in heaven without conversion to God, therefore no pledge of it can be given to the soul till converted. The ordinance cannot answer the end for