scape, so is the lifting up the light of God's countenance upon the soul - every object is invested with new form and character, and shines with hues from heaven.

But Spiritual Peace results, further, from Dependance on God's care. We are weak, and ignonorant, and helpless, and therefore to a Friend we look, not for communion only, and the sweet intercourse of thoughts, and words, and gifts, but for advice-support-assistance. And herein consists the Christian's Peace, that he may look to God for this from day to day. That very inequality between himself and his heavenly Father which must render full communion impossible,-that awful distance between the creature and the Creator which makes us reverently hesitate to call the Almighty One our Friend—this only increases the confidence with which we may depend upon Him as our Guardian. And in this exercise of absolute Dependance on his care lies our truest peace a peace such as all the dreams of Independence which the fumes of Sin have ever generated in the fancy of poor fallen man could never, in their fullest realization, produce. For it is not dependance that is irksomeit is the feeling our need of dependance, but not knowing whom we can implicitly confide in. It is not want which is painful it is the not knowing whence to get our wants supplied. It is not weak

ness that is miserable, either in doing or in suffering but it is the being compelled, when weak, to do and to suffer unpitied, unassisted, and alone. What so delightful as the exercise of childlike confidence? What so blessed as the consciousness of knowing one in whom that confidence may be exercised unreservedly in every circumstance and through every moment, of our lives? Yet this is the privilege of the Christian—if he would but enter into it. This is that Peace which passeth understanding which the sense of God's unfailing help can give. Jesus himself enjoyed it, when he said to his Father "I know that thou hearest me always." And he exhorts his followers to enjoy it, when he says, "Take no thought, saying What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." Paul felt it when he wrote, "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." And when he could throw out those paradoxical assurances, "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

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persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed." And when he could exclaim, "He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake for when I am weak, then am I strong." And Paul exhorts all Christians to enter into this confiding peace, when he writes to the Philippians, "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Why, it is our need of help from God which affords us the occasion of rejoicing in his care ! Had not our consciences awaked to the misery and guilt of sin, how should we joy in the Atonement which He has provided for sin? Had we not girded ourselves to the tremendous conflict with our inbred corruptions, how should we joy in that grace by whose effectual help they may be put to death? Did we not feel that we are strangers and pilgrims upon earth, how should we glory in the prospect of that better country, and that city which hath foundations, which God has prepared for us? In this our present

fallen state, our deepest sense of evil is the mother of our highest good on the tears of our affliction is painted the rainbow of our hope-and through the gloom that gathers over the shows of earth we best can see the stars of heaven. Any thing that bends us down into dependance is a blessing — for in Dependance lies our Peace.

But Spiritual Peace depends, still more, on our being in harmony with God's will. This is indispensable to solid Christian joy. It is only as our Friend that we can delight in the recollection of God's presence, and exercise dependance on his care; and we can never rise to the conviction that God is entirely our Friend, so long as our conscience tells us that we are not friends, and wish not to be friends, with Him. All true and lasting peace -all sober certainty of waking bliss depends on the condition of our own minds, the moral harmony that reigns within ourselves. It is because this harmony has been disturbed that man is miserable. And it is only in proportion as it is restored that he can be happy. And it is because this harmony is restored in the converted man-because he has received into his soul that Spirit of holiness which brings his will into accordance with the will of God, that he can rejoice in God as now his Father indeed-not in name and relation only-not by creation, sustentation, and daily benevolence, merely

but as the Producer of a state of mind accordant with His own-who has begotten him again of His own Spirit, and created him anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, which He had before ordained that he should walk in them. It is this fellowship of inward will that St. John especially refers to as the source of Christian joy. For he tells us, " if we say that we have fellowship with God, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth; but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another;" and that "he that keepeth God's commandments dwelleth in him, and He in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." And this, therefore, Jesus presses on his followers as the source of all true inward joy. "If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. And these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." And so felt St. Paul,— "Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world." O it is indeed a peace that passeth understanding to feel, with all the wondering gratitude of conscious integrity, that we have taken God's will for our own,