Christ; and we are striving, in reliance on the promised assistance of the Spirit, to walk in the paths of duty and of holiness. But, alas! we find that our course is slow and tedious, our progress uncertain, and our difficulties increasing. We cease not from our exertions; we cease not to pray and to watch according to the injunctions of our Master; but we feel not the satisfaction which our visible improvement in holiness would produce. Let us not, however, despair. God may be trying the strength of our faith and patience, by the disappointments which we experience: he may be teaching us a lesson of humility and self-abasement, and showing us the necessity of a still more undivided reliance upon the grace of his Holy Spirit. At all events, we do know that if we desert the ways of his laws, we relinquish at the same time every hope of our final salvation. Nay more, we incur the infliction of positive misery, as well as the forfeiture of positive happiness. To press still forward is therefore our undoubted duty: our most earnest exertions must be put forth; and we must pray that our faith may not fail, and that our patience may not be exhausted. God is in the pillar of cloud, no less than in the pillar of fire; and from each will he look down upon the progress which his people make towards their promised inheritance, and will be at once their guide and their defence, their banner and their shield.

Neither are we to murmur at the chastisements of God, however severe their pressure may seem. Our temporal afflictions are the merciful dispensations of our heavenly Father. They are the means by which he subdues our pride, our worldly tempers, our self-confident and haughty spirits; they are the means by which he would draw us towards himself, and bring us as humble suppliants to the footstool of his mercy. They are given us to raise our affections from earthly things, to make perfect our patience, to give effect to our repentance, and to confirm our faith.

In these merciful purposes of loving-kindness let us with patience and gratitude humbly acquiesce; and whether in temporal afflictions or religious anxieties, let us be consoled by the rich encouragements of divine love, and our faith will produce that firm conviction which the words of the apostle express: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" We are not indeed worthy to ask even the crumbs under his table; but if we ask in the spirit of humility and faith; if we come, not trusting in our own righteousness, but in his manifold and great mercies; he has pledged the honour of his word to grant our humble petitions. If the prayer be the prayer of faith; if the earnestness of the prayer be commensurate

with our necessity; if in patient continuance in well-doing we wait for his salvation; we need not despair of attaining his great compassion. He will grant us more than we can ask or desire, and the bounty which he bestows is limited only by the measure of his eternal love. The very crumbs of his table are light, and life, and bliss." What then must be the riches of that unfading inheritance, to which he will introduce his redeemed people, when the banquet of his almighty love shall be spread amid the fulness and the glory of God's own house for ever!

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SERMON IX.

THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS.

EPHESIANS ii. 19.

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

THE great and precious promises which God has given to his church, the high and invaluable privileges which he has vouchsafed to his people, are declared in Scripture to be so afforded for their progress in holiness of life, for their advancement in meetness for his everlasting kingdom. It becomes, then, our highest interest, as it ought to be esteemed our bounden duty of gratitude to him who gives them, to value and improve these means of grace, for the use of which we shall one day be called to render a strict account. In order to this, we ought gladly to embrace every privilege; we ought earnestly to examine every promise; we ought to allow

every motive of godliness to exert its full force upon our hearts; we ought to cherish every impulse of humble gratitude to kindle our affection and our zeal. But, alas! how feebly and imperfectly are our hearts influenced by these feelings! How little do we regard the spiritual application of God's holy word! how little do we value the blessings of the covenant of grace! Perhaps the state of Christianity contributes in no small degree to the prevalence of these dispositions. The great mass of mankind around us profess themselves to be Christians. We are familiar from our childhood with the prominent doctrines of Christianity, (at least they are continually presented to our minds, whether they make a due impression on our hearts or not,) and thus, as we are accustomed to think but little of the regular return of day, or the regular changes of the seasons, so do we habitually forget God's unspeakable gift, and lose sight of its importance, from the very circumstance that its blessings are within our reach. Hence arises our lukewarmness in the duties of religion; hence our habit of generalizing the declarations of God's word; our tendency to be conversant with the theory, rather than the practice of Christianity. We "go round about Zion, and tell the towers thereof;" we admire the beauty of her palaces, and the security of her defences; yet we linger without her gates, as if we knew not that within her