to hear. And from these most powerful motives we cheerfully obey. We present our bodies a living sacrifice upon that altar which consecrates the gift, even Jesus. We are holy in him, acceptable unto God through him. We own it "our reasonable service." We are not our own. We acknowledge it our bounden duty. Christ hath bought us with the price of his own blood. Lord, give power to obey, and command what thou wilt. Consider, O christian, while thy poor soul was dead in trespasses and sins, thy body was a wretched slave to the drudgery of Satan and thy vile lusts. Now a better Master demands its service. It is of God's mercies in Christ thy soul is quickened, and by the same mercies thou art required to yield thy body as a living sacrifice. It is now the temple of the Holy Ghost, therefore to be consecrated to holy purposes.

Was David so struck with the distinguishing favour of being a king as to dance joyfully before the ark? 2 Sam. vi. 14. Oh, consider our eternal mercies in Christ, being kings and priests unto God! Meditate daily, hourly on this. How should it affect our hearts with love, raise our spirits in triumph, inflame our af fections with zeal for God's glory! Our spiritual mercies are not common to all. Carnal men are ignorant of and despise them. Oh, study then to approve yourselves as the peculiar, highly distinguished favourites of Heaven! As the elect of God, be clothed with humility; yet as kings' sons live upon heavenly food, and act as those who dare not demean themselves by a practice below their royal dignity. "He that saith he abideth in Christ ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked," 1 John ii. 6.

SEPT. 23.-Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.-Matt. v. 6. To thirst after happiness is natural; to seek it from

wrong objects is natural; to desire to escape a hell of misery and enjoy a place of happiness is equally natural. If this may be called salvation, all men wish to be saved. The most wicked may wish to die the death of the righteous, and that their last end may be like his. This every man is capable of as a rational, intelligent being. And many are striving to make them selves righteous in order to be saved. But to desire salvation in God's way, to hunger and thirst after Christ and his righteousness, is peculiar to the quickened only. The dead hunger not. Spiritual appetites spring from spiritual life. A natural man can as soon seek to fill his belly with the east wind, or to allay his thirst with the sun-beams, as do this.

To know ourselves to be miserable sinners, destitute of righteousness, to believe Christ has obtained it for us, and to hunger and thirst after it, this lies at the foundation of true godliness, this enters into the very essence of our religion. Such self-emptied, hungry, and thirsty souls are blessed; for they shall be filled. Filled with all the blessings of Jesus' everlasting righteousness, acceptance with God, pardon of sins, and peace from God; filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, with all the graces of God's Spirit on earth, and with all the fulness of God in glory. "This is the heritage of my servants, and their righteousness is of me," saith precious Jesus, Isa. liv. 17. "The skies pour down righteousness," the faithful open their hearts and receive it, Isa. xlv. 8. Oh, what delightful fellowship and intercourse subsist between heaven and earth, hungry souls and righteous Jesus! Says Bishop Hall, "If Jesus had not said, 'Blessed are those who hunger,' I know not what could keep weak christians from despair. Many times all I can do is to find and complain I want Jesus: I wish to enjoy him. Now this is my stay, he in mercy esteems us, not by having, but desiring also. There never was a soul miscarried with longing after grace. O blessed hunger, that always ends in fulness! I am sorry I can but hun

ger, yet would not be full, for the blessing is promised to the hungry." As verily as the righteous man Jesus wrought out righteousness for sinful man, all thirsty souls who come to him shall be filled with righteousness. For he fills "the hungry with good things," while he sends the rich (the self-righteous) empty away, Luke i. 53.

SEPT. 24. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.-Rom. viii. 1.

Burkitt observes, "This chapter is a summary of evangelical duty, and a magazine of christian comfort; it begins with no condemnation to believers, and ends with no separation from the love of God." It is natural to conceive, if we had never sinned there would be no condemnation against us; but that now we are sinners, and naturally under the condemning sentence of God's holy law, that yet there is now no condemnation to us, this our carnal reason cannot conceive, and therefore opposes it. But it is God's truth and the joy of faith. This unfolds the great mystery, that we are one with Christ; viewed, beloved, and chosen in him. This gloriously displays the attributes of Jehovah's justice and holiness; while all Christ's members obtain from his righteous law, a full and ample discharge from all condemnation. Therefore that blessed name Jesus is above every name to us. In this and every other matter of salvation, to him every believer's knee will bow, and his heart confess Christ is all in all. Rich privilege to be in Christ Jesus! Unspeakable happiness to be freed from all condemnation! Blessed effects of covenant-union with Christ! Joyful experience of the grace of faith in him! To have such a knowledge, and pass such a judgment upon thy soul, O christian, is just and right. It is thy duty and pri vilege at all times. Practise it.

As to Jesus, how readest thou? "The Lord hath

laid upon him the iniquity of us all," Isa. liii. 6. Christ "bore our sins in his own body on the tree," 1 Pet. ii. 24. "Christ suffered, the just for the unjust," 1 Pet. iii. 18. "We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. He was made sin for us who knew no sin." Can we read all this without singing a triumphant challenge, "Who then shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" God that justifieth? No. "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us," Rom. viii. 33, 34. Here is the glorious triumph of faith. Thou art "carnal, sold under sin," Rom. vii. 14. In thy flesh dwelleth no good thing; though thou hast no reason for confidence in the flesh, yet always abundant cause to rejoice in Christ Jesus; for, in him thou art perfectly righteous, in him for ever freed from all condemnation. O believer, thou art called ever to rejoice in this liberty, and to evidence it by walking "not after the flesh but after the Spirit."

SEPT. 25.-I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.—Jer. xxxii. 40.

I will, and they shall. Such is God's gracious way of saving his people; while proud, legal hearts, and self-righteous spirits, are puffed up with notions of free-will; and hence, are ever contending for terms and conditions, to be performed by dead sinners, in order to be saved; or by creatures insufficient of themselves, to think a good thought, to secure salvation, and make it effectual to their own souls. But this fear of God is a blessing of the covenant of grace. Naturally, the fear of God is not in our hearts. It is one black mark of the unregenerate, "he has no fear of God before his eyes." How awful! how deplorable is this! Yet, naturally, we fear not the power of the Lord, nor dread his wrath; nor are we at all sensible of our danger. What

wonder of love, what matter of thankfulness, that the Lord hath put his fear in thy heart, O christian! "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." It is perfectly consistent with the strongest faith, the most inflamed love, and the highest spiritual joy. Though, by faith in Jesus, we are delivered from a servile, slavish fear of God, which fills with legal terrors; yet, we are possessed of a filial, loving fear toward him, as to a tender and affectionate Father.

This fear shall dwell in the hearts of saints all their days. By this their souls are kept from sinning against the God of love. And the blessed effect of it is, "They shall never depart from me," saith the Lord. Thy soul, believer, being rooted and grounded in the truth as it is in Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, expecting life and salvation through faith in him, shall never depart from this good old way of the Lord, into by-paths of human errors, and destructive ways of total apostasy, and final unbelief. The Lord's fear shall preserve thee in thy Lord's truth. Though thine enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil should surprise thee into sin against thy Lord, and draw thee from sweet communion with him; yet shalt thou fear to "lie down in thy shame, while confusion covers thee." Thou shalt remember, Jesus ever lives, to save to the uttermost all sinners who come unto God by him. Thou shalt fear to seek to any other object but him; so shalt thou return, by faith and repentance to him. "Happy is the man that feareth always," Prov. xxviii. 14. Let this absolute promise of our Lord excite faith in and prayer to him. "Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear," 1 Pet.

i. 17.

SEPT. 26. For we who have believed do enter into rest.-Heb. iv. 3.

When Christ is known and believed on in the heart, ease and rest are enjoyed in the conscience. Therefore