66

But, 2dly. As to the heart.

To overcome its natural enmity, and to bring the moral affections to a right state, is certainly a more difficult work, in which prayer must be specially relied on, and in which the grace of God will be far more conspicuous than the assiduity of man. And yet even here, while to God it appertains effectually to "take away the heart of stone," and to give a heart of flesh," he has not chosen that man should be altogether passive. Even' the unrenewed can do much, either to perpetuate and deepen their animosity against God, or to convince themselves of its unreasonableness, its utter futility when directed against him, and its certain reaction upon themselves. It is only necessary that, as reasonable men, they should bring reason fairly into play; and that, as honest and candid men, they should deal by the Gospel and its Author with somewhat of that common fairness which marks their dealings with their fellow-men; and that, as those who live under the light, and must be judged by the law of the Gospel, they would walk by that light, and submit themselves to that law, and then all will be well. "Doth our law judge any man before it hath heard him?" was a question very pertinently asked by one living under a far less perfect law 'than ours; nor is it common to hate another without a cause; yet it would be well to ask whether the Gospel is not often prejudged and

condemned without a hearing, and its Divine Author not only "hated without a cause," but in opposition to every reason that should induce men to love and serve him. It is very important for those who are still alienated from God, to ascertain something concerning that perfectly loose and vague repugnance to sacred things, of which they now know nothing; and to test fairly the validity of those excuses for self, which they have hitherto received without examination. In the course of such an investigation, their causeless opposition will gradually weaken and die; they will think less highly of themselves, and more highly of God; and they will be continually approximating more closely towards that right state of the affections, "that honest and good heart," in which the Word takes root with ease, and brings forth fruit with patience, to the honour and glory of God!

PRIMARY INFLUENCES-SPIRITUAL CONCERN. 189

CHAPTER III.

PRIMARY INFLUENCES- -SPIRITUAL CONCERN.

"Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and said, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

Seeking rest, but finding none."

"Thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore."

"I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day."

"Mine iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me."

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God."

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

SUPPOSING the Word or the grace of God to have been received, what will be its primary effects? how will it first display its influence? The answer to this question will form the subject of the present chapter.

In some cases, the spiritual progress is so rapid, that we cannot trace all the steps in the course. The chain of Divine influence and of human experience is so finely wrought, and so curiously united, that we discern not all the separate, especially the primary links. In such cases, little or nothing is obvious and prominent to the eye, until it rests upon the tokens of spiritual sorrow.

Generally, however, there is an introductory stage of restlessness, inquietude, and self-dissat

isfaction, before, as yet, the impressed and awakened spirit has sufficiently turned its reflections inward upon self to produce compunction and repentance. This it is proposed now to illustrate a state in which there is emotion without religious affection-an excitement and disturbance of the feelings, without their proper and religious direction. Now it is altogether natural, and to be expected, that there should be such a stage in the experience of the spiritual man. The first throwing in of light upon the diseased eye, or upon those who have long been kept in darkness, occasions restlessness and pain. Is it not to be presumed, then, that the first introduction of spiritual light upon the long-closed "eyes of the understanding," upon the sin-darkened mind, would produce a similar effect? Would it not necessarily disturb the sluggishness of feeling, and excite rapid, strong, and almost convulsive movements of mind, and, at first, would not these movements be fitful, irregular, undefined, and undefinable? Another analogy may be employed.

When a pestilential influence is epidemic, taking to itself "the wings of the morning," sporting in the sunbeam at the noonday," and brooding over a devoted spot under the dusky cover of the night; although it taints the air, yet has it no individual influence, until it is received into the system; and then, before as yet its symptoms are fully developed, the first ground for suspicion that it is secretly and insid

iously at work, is furnished by the fact of a dulness of mind and spirit, a general languor and restlessness, seemingly without cause, and yet beyond control. Even so, when the powerful but not malignant influence of the Divine Word and Spirit is abroad, until it is appropriated, until it takes hold upon the individual man, it is to him as though it were not; and when it does first seize upon the moral system, we see not usually the more marked symptoms of compunction and self-abhorrence, but only a strange and apparently causeless disarrangement of the moral feelings a vague uneasiness—an incipient change, of which time and results are to show whether it shall be for the better or the worse. In fact, the exhibition of these primary influences of grace are altogether anomalous, and defy all regular classification. The mind and heart are then in their agitation, and it is not until this subsides that we can ascertain the level at which they will stand, or speak with precision of the deposite that will be left at their subsidence,

Among those who have evidently been "pricked at the heart," whose heart "God has touched," the symptoms of incipient influence are exceedingly various. In some they are far from obvious, partly because they are not strongly marked in themselves, and partly from an anxious effort for their concealment. Still, even in these cases, the practised eye of the Christian examinant can scarcely fail to dis