are spiritually discerned, and spiritual discernment they have none. Then the scriptures testify strongly against all mere professors. An inspired apostle says, 'In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.' 'Follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.' And our Lord himself asks the question, Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?' Doctrinal knowledge and belief, and an outward Christian profession, are things that pertain to a believer, but we may see plainly that not every one who possesses them--not every one who says to Jesus Christ, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But saith Jesus 'He who doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven' shall enter into heaven. It is not for a moment to be supposed from this, that admission to heaven is bestowed as the reward for doing the will of our Father in heaven. The thing is quite otherwise. For the doing of the will of God by fallen man is never such a thing as to merit heaven-the obedience is so imperfect, and mingled with so much disobedience. But the statement of our Lord is most certainly true, because the doing the will of his Father in heaven is positive evidence that a man is a converted man, and a believer on Jesus Christ. No man doeth the will of our Father in heaven till he be converted, and become a true believer. And no man who has really been converted by the word and Spirit of God, but does the will of our Father in heaven. Hence a converted person and one who does the will of God are one and the same. The title to heaven is a free gift for Jesus Christ's sake; and the doing the will of God gives evidence that the title so obtained is actually possessed. Wherefore it is plain, that all who do the will of our Father in heaven, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, and enjoy it for ever. O that I may really possess all the things here mentioned by my Saviour! May I call him Lord, knowing his doctrine, making a profession of discipleship, and out of a renewed heart doing his will. For alas! I am prone to deceive myself, and to rest satisfied with a part of Christianity, not seeking to possess the perfect and glorious whole,-doctrine, profession, and practice. TWENTIETH DAY.-EVENING. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity,' Matt. vii. 22, 23. The Ar all times the Lord knows persons and things as they really are. There is there can be, no concealment from him. But men ofttimes exceedingly mistake the character, and misjudge the deeds of their fellow-men. And frequently, too, men mistake their own character. eternal condition of every man will correspond with his real character, not with what his fellows have thought of him, nor with what he has thought of himself. And what each one really is the Lord will make manifest. A day is comingthat day-the day of general judgment, when the dead having been raised, and those who are then alive having been changed, all, a mighty multitude, shall stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, set down on a throne of judgment, and attended by his holy angels. Yes, reader, thou shalt die, and thy body shall be hidden in the grave; but the voice of the trump of God shall find it out, and to witness and take part in the awful proceedings of the judgment day it shall be raised again. Men form an opinion now concerning thee; they believe thee to be godly or otherwise; they regard thee as possessed of this or of that feature of character: and they may be right, or they may be wrong. It is a small matter to be judged of man's judgment, in comparison of the searching righteous judgment of God. For in that day the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed—all the actions of every individual shall be written as with sun-beams the true character shall be exhibited, that, to the glory of divine justice, it may be most evident that the eternal condition of being, awarded by Jesus Christ, the Judge, to each individual, exactly accords with that individual's character. Ah! in that day there will be some wonderful revelations, and many strange reversals of the judgment formed by men concerning others, and about themselves. Some who were followed and flattered, who bulked largely in the public eye, and by men were admired, and held to be of high repute in the church, will be disowned by Jesus Christ, the righteous Judge; will be declared by him to be only workers of iniquity, and will be commanded to depart from him. Terrible change! to have the favourable but false judgment of fellow creatures swept utterly away, and the true condemning judgment of God branded deep into the soul, proclaimed in the presence of the universe, and 'just, deserved,' echoed far and wide from the countless myriads,-even from those who are in the same condemnation. Miserable men! ye had your day of praise from your fellows, on whom outward appearances imposed. The reputation of being what you were not, satisfied you. And now the character which belongs to you, is publicly attached to you for ever. Never more shall ye impose on any. Workers of iniquity the Judge hath declared you to be; and workers of iniquity you shall remain, and shall be known to be, throughout all eternity. But men also form wrong judgments regarding themselves. These shall be reversed on that day. Men do not always obtain correct views of their own character, and of their spiritual state, even on a death-bed. On the contrary, they almost always die just as they have lived. What they have thought of themselves during life, they continue to think in going down to the grave. True, light breaks on the soul, the moment that she enters into the world of spirits. In that moment, the sentence which is to be publicly pronounced at the day of judgment, is sealed upon her. But between the opinion which a man has of himself when shutting his eyes in death, and the judgment of Christ concerning him at the day of judgment, there will be, in many instances, a wide difference. Many will say in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will Jesus profess unto them, I never knew ye: depart from me ye that work iniquity.' These thought themselves great ones, highly honoured, and doing great service in the church of Christ on earth. But mark; it is to their gifts, their services, their profession that they refer: it is what they had done that they plead. And mark again how the unerring Judge characterises what they had done, and the things to which they refer with so much confidence and complacency: he calls it 'working iniquity.' So certain it is that all fallen man's obedience to the law is nothing but iniquity. Prophesying or preaching in Christ's name, casting out devils in his name, and doing many wonderful works in his name, if taken as meritorious grounds of justification before God, are only iniquity. For imperfection and sin mingle with every thing that man does. A great work may have sin mingled with it as well as a little work. The great work dazzles men, and they think that the doer of it is a great man, and deserves well of God. But the righteous Judge is not dazzled. The imperfection or sin which accompanies the preaching of the gospel, or the casting out devils, or the doing many wonderful works in Christ's name, is as distinctly discerned, as the imperfection or sin which accompanies the most common duties of ordinary life. Preaching, or prophesying, or doing what men think some great work in religion, does not excuse or make up for the accompanying sin. If justification is to be sought from any deeds of law, these deeds must be perfect. Otherwise those who perform them are only workers of iniquity. Hence the necessity of giving up all dependence on deeds of law. What service of God could be greater than those have pled? Nor is there any intimation that they were pled falsely. But being pled as the ground of justification and acceptance, they behoved to be tried by the perfect law of God. And so tried, they came short. In each and all of them there was something wanting, or something wrong; and therefore those who performed them were declared to be workers of iniquity. My friend, renounce self-righteousness. Look on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. In all thy intercourse with God, whether on thy knees at a throne of grace, or when standing before a throne of judgment, plead the Saviour's merits. Lose sight of self in thinking of him. Yea, contemplate him, and commune with him till thou come to bear his likeness, being changed into the same image by the Spirit of the Lord. TWENTY-FIRST DAY.-MORNING. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,' Heb. xi. 1. THE Bible speaks much about faith, attaches great importance to it, and points out vast effects that flow from it. We are told that without faith it is impossible to please God; that whatsoever is not of faith is sin; and that the just by faith shall live;-that being justified by faith, we have peace with God,' and that he who believeth, or hath faith, shall be saved.' Hence we are naturally led to ask, What is this faith? What is its nature and properties? An inquiry regarding a matter of so much importance is highly reasonable. One, writing on this subject, says, "That peculiar act of the understanding by which we avail ourselves of information given us by others, in those things which fall not under our own observa tion, and which do not admit of proof in a way of | The word here rendered evidence means demonreasoning, is called faith or believing.' And the stration, the strongest and most convincing proof Spirit of God, by the writer of this epistle, tells that we can have of a matter. Faith, then, us that 'faith is the substance of things hoped gives us certainty as strong as demonstration; it for, the evidence of things not seen.' satisfies the mind as fully; it leaves no doubt or hesitation. The things to which it relates are unseen, for faith cometh by hearing; it has for its objects not those things which come under our observation, but things which are made known to us by testimony. What demonstration is to its objects, faith is to its objects, those unseen things to which it relates. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Substance here means subsistence, or something which serves as a foundation for another thing to stand on. Now faith is the subsistence or foun-dation on which things hoped for rest. God, in his word, testifies certain things to us, and he gives us many great and precious promises. The Holy Spirit enables us rightly and firmly to credit the divine testimony, thus working faith in us; and that faith regards these realities of the future as attainable and desirable. Hence hope of possessing and enjoying them springs up hope plainly arising out of faith, and resting on it. The things hoped for are thus connected with faith; they are built up on it, they are present to the soul which possesses it. So that when any one asks me, Wherefore dost thou hope for perfect holiness, or for Christ's presence in heaven, or for glory and immortality? my reply is, I hope for these things because I have a faith which gives me certainty that they are realities, and that they are attainable and desirable. Without faith as a foundation, there can be nothing hoped for by the Christian; but wherever there is faith, there will be hope, having reference to those things of which God testifies, and which faith credits and receives with assured belief that they are true, attainable, and exceedingly impor tant. The things hoped for are the blessings of salvation promised by God to believers, pardon, peace, sanctification, the resurrection of the body, complete redemption, and eternal glory. These things all rest on faith-faith in Jesus Christ, by whom all these blessings are purchased, and through whom they are conveyed-faith in the testimony and promises of God, by which they are revealed and secured to the believer. Glorious things these which a Christian hopes for! Precious that faith on which these things hoped for rest! Is that faith mine? Do I credit God's testimony in his word? Do I regard as realities the pardon of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the communications of divine grace, the victory over death in the resurrection, the eternal perfect holiness and happiness of heaven? What and how do I believe? And what hopes flow from and rest upon my belief? O my soul, ponder well what answer thou canst give to these questions. Things not seen, as distinguished from things hoped for, are such as the creation of the world by God out of nothing, the whole train of providences by which God prepared the way for the incarnation of his Son, the birth, preaching, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, his being head over all things to the church, and many other like matters too numerous to mention. Faith is the evidence of these unseen things. By means of it, the mind has certainty concerning them, just as the understanding attains to certainty by the process of a mathematical demonstration. Both in the one case and in the other, the mind feels that the thing is so certainly true, that it cannot be otherwise. Mathematical certainty we are wont to call the most certain of all. The belief of things not seen, to which a man attains by faith, is just as certain. And to mark that it is so, faith is here called the evidence or demonstration of things not seen. But nothing can be a sufficient foundation for this certainty but the testimony on which our faith is founded being a divine testimony. If I am sure that God is telling me about things not seen, my mind is at rest. There is no room for doubt. The certainty which flows from the divine testimony is equal to any demonstration. And inasmuch as faith is here called the evidence, that is, the demonstration of things not seen, this description marks it out as resting on the testimony of God. It would not be enough that we had human testimony. For there is a possibility of the witnesses being deceived, or of their wishing to deceive us. God's testimony alone can give certainty equal to demonstration. How very comforting that in matters of such mighty importance as the doings, the character, and the will of God regarding our fallen world, our faith rests on the word of God, and not on the word of man! Let us carefully see to it, then, that we have a regard to God in reading and hearing scripture truth, and that we remem2. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. ber that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Then we shall have a faith which will make the things of God's word realities, as much as the things which we see, or touch, or have demonstrated to our understandings, a faith which, realizing things future, desirable, and attainable, will furnish a solid foundation for vivid, cheering, Christian hope. TWENTY-FIRST DAY.-EVENING. may shun the performance of duties which he could well and creditably perform, and refuse offices which he is qualified to fill. In that case the public are defrauded, and God has not all the glory that he might have from the talents which he has bestowed. Wherefore every believer should judge of himself soberly; he should, like a person in his right mind, form a sober, sound, yet moderate estimate of his own gifts and graces. And the standard by which he is to judge is the measure of faith bestowed on him by God. The "According as God hath dealt to every man the believer who has the most enlarged, lively, measure of faith,' Rom. xii. 3. BELIEVERS are not all alike. Faith is one of the measures by which they are estimated. By faith they are united to Jesus Christ. By faith they receive out of Christ whatever graces and gifts, of a spiritual nature, they possess. According, therefore, as faith is weak or strong, languid or lively, do the divine life and the divine graces flourish in the believer. Faith is the hand by which believers appropriate what God freely offers to them in the gospel; and therefore, if the hand be strong, it will be able to appropriate more; if weak, it will be able to receive less. Faith is the channel of communication between Jesus Christ and the soul of the believer; and, therefore, if the channel be wide and free from obstacles, there will come gushing along a full stream of the water of life, from the ever full fountain-a full portion of spiritual blessings, from Jesus Christ, the repository of all such blessings. But if the channel be narrow and contracted, or if it be obstructed by any thing, there will be a less free and abundant communication of blessings through it.-The faith by which believers are united to Christ, then, being different in different individuals as to its strength and weakness, its languor and liveliness, the enlarged range of its objects and the comparative contractedness of its sphere, Christians are to estimate themselves according to the measure of faith which they possess. The usefulness of a believer—the degree in which he can promote the glory of God, and the good of men, depends on his occupying the place for which he is best fitted. But he will not do so, if he thinks of himself more highly than he ought to think. Puffed up with a false opinion of his own abilities and excellence, he will aim at occupying a place, and performing duties, for which he is unfit; while the place and duties, for which he is suited, are overlooked and neglected by him. But there is an error on the opposite A believer may think of himself less highly than he ought to think. And thus he extreme. vigorous faith, ranks highest among the disciples of Christ, because such a faith brings him nearest to Christ, and by means of it communications are made most abundantly out of Christ's fulness. Nor does this give any occasion for spiritual pride, nor minister any food to it. For the apostle, as directed by the Spirit, takes care to remind us that every measure of faith is dealt out to us by God. Believers are never permitted to forget that are.' by the grace of God they are what they And verily the greater measure of faith that God deals out to any man, the deeper will be the man's humility and self-abasement before God. For it is just a man's feeling convinced that he has nothing ip himself, which, through the Holy Spirit, leads him to rely on Jesus Christ. And the deeper the feeling of his own unworthiness, the more earnest and decided will be his dependence on the merits of Christ. The more thorough his sense of his own emptiness, the more he is prepared for being filled with all the fulness of Christ. So that a large measure of faith, and consequently high attainments in Christianity, and a high place in God's house, are not only quite consistent with deep Christian humility, but necessarily connected with it. God giveth me whatever I possess, and, therefore, when I receive much, my unworthiness of so great blessings is strongly impressed on my mind. The result of all this is to place believers in the church, which is Christ's mystical body, as the members are in the human body. Each member has its own place and office, which have been appointed it of God, and in which he has put it. There it is contented, and does its appointed duty; and in that duty, better than in any other, it promotes the good of the whole body. God deals out to every believer the measure of faith which he possesses, thus fitting him for certain duties which are required of him. And it is when the believer, looking at the measure of his faith, cheerfully contents himself with his appropriate station, and performs its duties, that the body of Christ is edified. Wherefore, O child of God, seek to understand | fire, prepared for the devil and his angels? Sinwhat grace hath made thee, that, on the one ner, sinner, canst thou endure these things? hand, thou mayest not affect too high a place, nor Darest thou venture on the dangerous experienvy them above thee; and that, on the other ment of stretching thyself on a death-bed, and hand, thou mayest not keep back from the service looking back on a life devoted to the world, spent of God any thing which he hath made thee, or in sinning; and forward to the dark gulf which given thee. God dealeth out to thee whatever is yawning to receive thee? Or sensible of thy measure of faith thou possessest-faith through sinfulness and danger, art thou earnestly and which all other spiritual blessings come to thee, anxiously inquiring about a way of salvation? Beand this, when only wrath and wretchedness were hold the word of God meets thine inquiry, with thy merited portion. Deep, then, be thy humi- this plain declaration, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus liation; great thy gratitude. And far away from Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' thee be wrath, and envy, and contention Seek to find thy place, and to do thy work in it quietly, diligently, faithfully; for thy God hath appointed it to thee for thine own real interests, and the good of all. TWENTY-SECOND DAY.-MORNING. be saved,' Acts xvi. 31. What The Lord Jesus Christ.' He is the eternal Son of God. He assumed human nature. He was made under the law. In the room and stead of sinners he perfectly obeyed the law, and he suffered the punishment due to their transgressions. In that finished work of his he both purchased pardon for fallen man, and merited heaven for him. And now he hath ascended up on high, leading captivity captive; and he hath received gifts for men. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt for all thine iniquities, and merit to entitle thee He hath forgiveness, O sinner, to heaven. He hath the Holy Spirit without SINNER, we have a word of warning and exhor-measure to deliver thee from the pollution of sin. tation for thee. Thus saith the Lord, 'The soul that sinneth, it shall die.' Hast thou not sinned ten thousand times? Shalt thou not die, then, as the Lord hath said? Thus saith the Lord, "The wicked shall be turned into hell.' Hast thou not done wickedness; and thinkest thou that, in opposition to this word of the Lord, thou shalt escape the hell here threatened? The hour of death is at hand; art thou fully prepared to meet it? The great judgment-day will soon be here; canst thou endure the searching scrutiny of Jehovah Jesus, the God and Saviour, whose offered kindness thou hast treated with cold indifference, or contemptuous neglect? They come, they come; death, judgment, eternity. The angel's hand is uplifted, and concerning thee he is about to swear that time shall be no longer. Darest thou die, sinner? Darest thou lay down thy body in the dust, and start forth a disembodied spirit into the immediate presence of God? This thou must assuredly do, ere many days pass by. Thou canst not by any means avoid it. Think of thy body awakening from the deep slumber of the grave amidst the convulsions of dissolving worlds. Think of opening thine eyes, as thou risest from the dust of death, on him whom thou art now despising and piercing, as he cometh then in all the pomp, and glory, and power, of the world's great Judge. Darest thou meet his frown? Canst thou endure to depart, loaded with his curse, into the blackness of darkness, and the everlasting Thou seest thy heart full of corruption, thy life I know that convinced sinners and mourning Christians often see, as it were, a great gulf between the Saviour and themselves. They see their own corruption and danger, and they see Jesus Christ to be a great and glorious Saviour; but they can see no connection between him and them, and they ask, 'How are we to be benefited by what the Son of God hath done?' Is this thy case? Dost thou say, I perceive that I am a ruined sinner deserving hell, and I |