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and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you. unto His kingdom and glory." This is, or at least, let me tell you, Inconsistent Christian! this ought to be the invariable effect of your most holy faith upon you. No state is more perilous for a man to be in than one in which his knowledge of the mind of God, as revealed in the Bible, is daily increasing, while there is no increasing effect upon his own conscience, no answer of a good conscience toward God. We must examine Our conscience daily, comparing it with the word of God, and praying that God the Spirit will search and convict it. Thus, we must daily examine ourselves, whether we are in the faith; thus we must prove our own selves; thus also learn to know ourselves, whether Jesus Christ be in us, or whether we be reprobates. We have in the words of the text one of the finest apologies (to use the word in its ancient sense,) for the christian life. St. Paul makes an open glorying of his most holy faith. The secret of the Lord, he seems to say, is one which is easily learnt, even the secret source of the holy, happy existence of a child of God. It may be hidden from the wise and prudent, from those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight; but the secret of the Lord is

with them that fear Him. His deep and sacred mysteries are made clear to the single-minded; for the once blinded eyes are enabled to see every object in the open daylight of the Sun of Righteousness. It is their Father's will to have it so with them; *" I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth," said our Lord Christ," that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes; even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." In that hour, we are told that the Man of Sorrows rejoiced in spirit. It is no

cause of wonder, therefore, that the deeply tried and much afflicted Apostle should echo the same joyful note of holy exultation, and exclaim, "For our rejoicing, our glorying, (for such is one sense of the word, kaukesis,) is this, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world."

This will be the case with the followers of Christ, as it was with their beloved Lord; for, do we not find it written in the scripture now under our consideration, "Not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God." O poor and afflicted followers of Jesus, here is high encouragement and consolation for you. The very words sound to us like a strain of music, at once inspiriting, and yet full of solemnity and

sweetness; fitted at once to raise the downcast spirits, and to soothe the troubled mind. call upon you to turn aside at once from the ways of fleshly wisdom, to leave unravelled the tangled and intricate perplexities among which you have been bewildered. We come before you with the open Bible, and with the finger resting on these words-" Not by fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God." We call upon you to rejoice with us, to glorify God with us. We ask you to come and sit at the feet of Jesus, to hear His word to learn of Him, that you may find rest unto your souls-to learn of Him, that you may sing the song of the Lamb in full and glorious strains of rejoicing. Even in this strange land of your mortal pilgrimage, you shall be enabled to sing the Lord's song, for you shall be taught of Him who "giveth songs in the night." O then, again and again let this be your enquiry-Is my every thought brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ? Is my conscience brought under the power of God the Holy Ghost? Does the Lord and Giver of life bear witness with my spirit that I am a child of God? Not, has the faith which I profess laid hold of my imagination, taken possession of my intellect? but, has the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ fastened conviction on my conscience, has it quickened, renewed and purified my conscience, brought

peace to my conscience, and enabled me to exclaim, "My rejoicing, my glorying, is this, even the testimony of my conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, I have had my conversation in the world."

Most gracious Father, who alone canst make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; fill us with the knowledge of Thy will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; make us fruitful in every good work ; strengthen us with all might according to Thy glorious power, unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SERMON XV.

TO BE GOOD, AND TO DO GOOD.

JAMES I. 27.

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

THERE cannot be a more fitting introduction to the words of the text than the words which are placed at the head of the chapter, that which is, in fact, called the table of contents. It is this: "We are to rejoice under the cross, to ask patience of God, and in our trials not to impute our weakness and sins unto Him, but rather to hearken to the word, to meditate in it, and to do thereafter; otherwise men may seem, but never be, truly religious." The Apostle was, in fact, giving the most wise and godly counsel to the professors of religion. He was shewing them what was not religion in those who called themselves christians. He then proceeded to shew them what religion really is. His words are few,

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