pentance, and his Word as sufficient to break the stubborn, or melt the icy heart, it is still not ascribing too much to man to assert that the probability of being moved to genuine contrition may be either increased or diminished, and the time of repentance either accelerated or retarded by the state of mind and feeling which is deliberately cherished, and the course of thought, effort, and action that is rendered habitual. If the reader has borne in mind the remarks made in reference to the attainment of "the honest and good heart," he will readily apply them here; and he will justly conclude, that while the agency of God does not excuse man from action, the call to human effort, on the other hand, intends no unworthy reliance on human strength, and neither denies nor disparages the converting grace of God. Waiving all controversy on the subject, the author would fain present the wholesome and scriptural truth, that "the broken and contrite heart" must be sought and expected from God, in im'mediate connexion with the practical question, to be addressed by every one to his own heart: Am I pursuing such strains of habitual reflection, and such courses of moral discipline, as would naturally tend to humble me before God, and to make me a mourner for sin? or am I not striving against conviction, and encouraging myself in impenitence? And may each one so "judge himself" in this important point, "that he be not judged of the Lord."

In the sense here affixed to "the broken and contrite heart," it is a part, then, of that one great change by which "the power of sin and Satan" is destroyed, and the kingdom of God established in the soul. Yet in a lower sense, the terms admit of frequent application to the same individual. Even the renewed believer, whose heart has been once thoroughly broken' and bound up, may (in the language of one of our Articles) "depart from grace given, and fall into sin; and by the grace of God (he may) arise again and amend his life." There is no man that liveth and sinneth not; and even "the good man falleth sometimes seven times a day." These occasional lapses call for regrets and humiliation. Acts of sin require acts of contrition, and penitence must of necessity be a grace in frequent exercise, until death shall terminate the warfare of sin; and this modified and partial repentance, demanded by partial returns to sin, is as essential to the safety and the comfort of the renewed, as is conversion to the unrenewed; and he, perhaps, comes nearest to the mark of Christian requirement who best preserves the tenderness and sensitiveness of conscience, and who is deeply pained and deeply humbled even by the daily little infirmities which mar the beauty of his Christian holiness. These infirmities will give even to him some share in the exercises of the broken and contrite heart; and as he "goes mourning by reason of his sin," and "walking humbly with his God," there

will be comfort in the promise that this broken and contrite heart God will not despise..

The evidences of repentance scarcely require to be stated. They are furnished by "bringing forth the fruits meet for repentance." Being wholly practical in their nature, they can never be given in the case of what is usually termed a deathbed repentance; and it is the necessary want of them which attaches to such repentance so much of uncertainty and painfulness, such conflicting emotions of hope and fear. The new heart and the new life must attest that the heart has been broken to repentance. Hatred and abandonment of sin are not to be misconstrued, and to all, therefore, whose penitence has been genuine, we can say, in the expressive and eloquent language of the apostle," For behold this self-same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge!"

CHAPTER V.

THE BROKEN HEART BOUND UP.

"He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds."

"He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted-to appoint to them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

"Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee."

THE God of wisdom and of mercy has admirably tempered together the elements of the moral and natural world. The balance of power, the balance of "good and evil," has been nicely preserved. He has set "one thing also against the other;" and they only have correct apprehensions. either of his dealings or of our state, who follow those dealings throughout to their ultimate issue, and who view that state in all its stages of discipline. Sinful and depraved as we were by nature, spiritual sorrow, even to the very breaking of the heart, was necessary to our moral renovation. It was a painful and a bitter remedy, which he who knew our frame, and understood well our malady and its danger, knew to be necessary to our recovery to spiritual health. Hard thoughts, both of the providence and the grace of God, might naturally arise, did, we view the act of contrition, in its painfulness and misery,

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without reference to its alleviations and its consequents. The Most High might be deemed a stern Father and "a hard Master," in permitting his earthly children to sorrow thus deeply, even though it were "after a godly sort," especially if he permitted us to sorrow as those without hope," and to go mourning to our graves. But this is not so. He calls and causes us spiritually to sorrow and to suffer, "not for his pleasure, but for our profit, that we may be made partakers of his holiness. ." And while the ultimate benefit of the discipline is ours, all the alleviations of which it is susceptible are from him, and as soon as the effect is produced, by him it is brought to a close. For purposes of infinite mercy, for the acceptance and salvation of our souls, he causes the heart to become broken and contrite; but he leaves it not in its dismemberment and anguish. With an especial reference to its condition, he hath issued a commission to One, to "bind up this broken heart." He has provided an Almighty Physician, infinite in wisdom, consummate in skill, and unrestricted in power. Let us, then, alike for the just appreciation of his character, and the encouragement of our own hopes, follow him in his works of mercy, as "he goes about doing good," and see with how firm and yet gentle a ligature he binds up the broken in heart, and how soothingly he pours into them the oil of consolation. It is perfectly evident that this act of signal