.

himself; puts an end to their wilderness experience; gives them "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

"Whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth; even as a father, the son in whom he delighteth."

66

THESE Words express a grand peculiarity of spiritual religion: tell us, what is the life of it: show us the hidden spring of all that liberty, peace, holiness, and blessedness, wherein it eminently consists: - Christ, in you," as the apostle speaks, (Col. i. 27,) "the hope of glory." It is this intimate union, and growing fellowship, of Christ and the believer, on which depends all reality, and all power of godliness, within us. According as this is maintained, and increased, the soul dies to sin; lives to God; finds strength for all obedience and suffering; presses on, with holy delight, to the full enjoyment of God in a perfect world. Nothing else can make our religion a happy, soul-engaging

thing; and, be sure of this, You will never make any progress in wisdom's ways, but as you have this conviction respecting them,-They are pleasant ways. All enjoyment, all blessedness, is found with her. All the things that can be desired are not to be compared unto her. And what so reasonable a conviction as this? O that wondrous privilege of the saints !——Who can describe the bliss that is contained in it?-renewed intercourse with God, as a God of love toward us, in Christ! Truly, (saith St. John,) our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we that your joy may be full." (1 John

unto you,

i. 3, 4.)

66

My brethren, if you wish your religion to be a reality, if you want it to engage all your affections, as God has taught you it must, you will not, (as most do,) put this subject from you, as a mystery, the experience of which is not essential to salvation; and unattainable, but by a favoured few. It is a great error of professors, even of many, who (we hope) have really embraced the gospel, that they set up a low standard of attainment. They do not want to go beyond a certain pitch of spirituality; or to surpass others, whom they account patterns for them in their condition of life. Hence they are too prone to rest satisfied, in a confession (I mean, a sin

cere confession) of gospel principles. They have some sense of the depravity of their nature. They acknowledge their need of salvation, through the mercy of God in Christ. They confess, they must be indebted to the Holy Spirit, for all ability to serve God: and, with these principles, they set about a holy life, and make many laborious efforts for its attainment, in the measure they have proposed to themselves, and are surprised, and pained, at their manifold and repeated failures. But, all this while, they are afraid of too much religion. There is a point, where they would stop: accounting all beyond it very well, it may be, for David, and other eminent saints, but not to be looked for in ordinary Christians, as they are content to be. Especially, they can do without the exercise of spiritual affections; as belonging, in their estimation, rather to the joys of a future state, than the present; and inconsistent with the daily occupations of this, to them, busy world. The same is the case, as respects the privilege proposed to us in my text. They shrink from it; and hope they may be saved, without the attainment of it. It is too high, for such as they. Alas, it is not to be wondered at, that such persons live, for the most part, in an uncomfortable suspense, whether they be Christ's, at all. So cold are they; so worldly: they do so little honour

to him and his cause, and feel so little that gospel which they profess.

power of

It is a great matter, in religion, if we would have any success in it, any comfort of it, to aim high. God looks more at this than at actual attainment; and will honour it, in the peace, and establishment, of the feeblest saint in whom it is found. This was the spirit of our apostle as he describes it, (Phil. iii. 13, 14.) "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark."

real ac

If then, dear brethren, you have any quaintance with yourselves as sinners, and with Christ as a Saviour, seek, earnestly, to understand and enjoy the "riches of the glory of this mystery," which is fulfilled in the experience of the saints" That Christ may dwell in your hearts, by faith."

May the Spirit of Christ vouchsafe his presence with us, while we notice, from these words,

I. What it is, to have Christ dwelling in our hearts.

II. The means, whereby this privilege must be enjoyed.

I. What it is, to have Christ dwelling in our hearts.