It is this solemn consideration which leads us to the query, why our resolutions so frequently remain without results? We learn the answer to this query in Psalm 119: 67, where the Psalmist makes this confession," Before I was humbled, I went astray; but now I keep thy word." We are unable to determine, whether or not those words of the Psalmist came from that deeply fallen and deeply humbled monarch, who has pictured before us, in so elevating a manner, the pains of sin as being the triumph of grace. It may be admitted, that they are not the words of David, yet they express, as many passages which actually do belong to him, the royal Psalmist's experience of life. In the innocence of piety, he had once sung his songs by the herds of his father; he had sung in childlike confidence; The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.' But the authority and splendor of the throne had dazzled his eyes; in this point and that he had become lifted up in pride; and his ability to gratify himself in all things had prepared the way for the deepest fall; even for the sin with the wife of Uriah; for a fall so deep, that if we look at the outward act, perhaps there is no one of us who would not be better than he. Severe accusations are often raised among us against the royal sinner on account of this fall. How could we put a light estimate upon this guilt which he had contracted, when he himself regarded it as so heinous, that he cried out; -While I chose to conceal my sin, my bones wasted away, by means of my daily groaning; for day and night was thy hand upon me heavily, so that my moisture was consumed, as in a summer's drought." If now he condemned himself, we for the same reason cannot acquit him. There are two things, however, which we must not forget. Should we forget the strong temptation, which the unlimited power of an eastern monarch brought with it? and should we further forget the pains of the repentance, which produced so much subsequent fruit?-He, the absolute monarch, hid his head in shame, when Nathan the prophet said to him, to his face, thou art the man! and he lay in the dust before God, even till he obtained forgiveness again, and was able to cry;- Happy is he whose transgressions are pardoned, whose sin is blotted out;now I keep thy word.' The man, who can say this in the presence of God, and with a consciousness of all those affections within him which are opposed to God, must be a man in whom every resolution has its See Note H, at the close of the Sermons. "Ps. 32: 3, 4.

yea

and amen. The question, therefore, why our resolutions have so frequently no results, is at length answered for us in these words, -because our sins do not humble us in the right way; or, more particularly, because we do not humble ourselves; do not humble ourselves before God, do not humble ourselves in faith.

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say, in the first place, our resolutions are so frequently unproductive of results, because we do not humble ourselves for our faults. The desire of pleasure is deeply implanted in human nature. How completely bound, as it were with cords, does a man feel, when he is not permitted to enjoy himself. The youth above all others has this feeling, when all his senses are in vigorous play, and life opens before him with its hundred avenues. This love of pleasure when considered in its elements, is not to be entirely condemned. Our God is called the blessed King of all kings; and shall not this most blessed of all, who communicates from himself all other good to his subjects, communicate also his happiness to them? But humility for our faults and sins causes pain. It does cause pain, pain indeed, when the severe, holy eye of conscience opens itself wide upon us, and darts its rays of rebuke like consuming lightning upon our conduct, and wakes up the spirit of self-impeachment and shame, and penitence, and self-condemnation. Christian humility for our sins causes not merely a simple, but a variously compounded pain. And it is through fear of this, that men generally recoil from beginning an earnest christian life. Through fear of this, they remain in such a state, that the best resolutions are attended with no good consequences. If the man is no longer sensual, yet he has no heart to be spiritual; for his life perpetually oscillates between heaven and earth, between yea and nay. There is no better description of this state, than in these words of the apostle : We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For I know not what I hate, that I do.' This is

I

"The heart of

do; for what I would, I do not; but what that human heart, of which it is said by the poet :man is an apple, driven over the level heath by a storm ;" and again," The heart of man is like water, rising and sinking in a boiling cauldron." Truly, the disgust, the impotence, the loathing which such a divided, distracted life brings with it, is much more intolerable than the pain of humiliation and penitence. Be men, therefore; ye who are tossed hither and thither between heaven

11 Tim. 6: 15.

and earth, collect your strength, and make choice of that death, through which you must pass on your way to life. For it is no otherwise than has been said by the poet ;-"We have a twofold nature; yet the same law is observed in one as in the other; the path to real joy winds only through death and sorrow." As in the present condition of human nature, it is the law of true life that it shall lead through death; the same is likewise the law of moral freedom, which is itself the truest life-it also leads through death, through self-mortification. Natural life then and natural desire must die; not so as to be annihilated altogether, but only so as to be extricated from what opposes the spiritual; for even in this natural desire and this natural life, as you see it before you, there is concealed a germ of true life. This is most plainly expressed in the words of our Lord, Whoever seeketh to preserve his life, shall lose it, and whoever will lose his life, shall save it.' Mark this expression, my brethren, we shall obtain the life of our souls, our natural life, if we will subject it to the death of penitence and humiliation. Then will it strip off its outward covering and rise from the dead, spiritually and in truth. Brethren, in the hours of self-impeachment and selfcondemnation, when our natural desires and pleasures are surrendered up to death, then the death of our souls does not take place, not by any means; then rather we obtain for them a new life. Why do you so dread the pain of humbling yourselves, when according to the words of the Saviour, you shall obtain thereby true life to your spirits!

We have thus far made our appeal to the man who stands without, to him who does not live spiritually; but we also make the same appeal to those who are permitted to say, that the life in God and with God has commenced in them. For who is there among us, that has never been called to mourn over resolutions fruitless in good, purposes leading to no fulfilment? Can we without a falsehood say with Paul, I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me?' And yet this cheerful, victorious courage is an essential characteristic of christian faith! But does any one of you imagine, that only such ardent men as Paul, could speak thus triumphantly? Hear then how John exclaims in the same cheerful confidence,Our faith is the victory which hath overcome the world, for he who is in us, is stronger than he who is in the world.' How many of us, I ask once more, can utter such an expression without an inward

falsehood? What then is the reason why even in our life, resolutions have no good effect, purposes are not fulfilled? Because we want the right kind of humility. We have indeed humbled ourselves; we are no longer like the world who live without conviction of sin; we have, in the general, a consciousness of human guilt and sinfulness; but we do not discern and rebuke our sins in their individual occurrence, we do not humble ourselves for them every day and every hour. Are there not multitudes even among the better inclined, upon whom, in many parts of their character, we see some old habit and vice, making unresisted but injurious advances; even the very vice which is most thoroughly melted into their natures, and which should therefore be most earnestly opposed? We always acknowledge in the general, 'yes, we are sinners,' and even more particularly, 'I am a sinner;' but on what points I am daily a sinner, on what side my daily inclination and conduct is dark with wickedness, we do not inquire.. Brethren, where this is the case, the new life in Christ can be no source of triumphant power to our resolutions. Why not? Because in our inmost soul there is a want of truth, and where truth is wanting, there power also is wanting. We are altogether, déceitful, so long as our self-accusation and self-rebuke are confined merely to sinfulness in the general, and do not affect the boughs and branches of actual sin which shoot out in the life. There are some Christians, upon whom the enjoyment of sense seems to have at present exactly the same claims which it had in their unconverted life. There are Christians, who yield to impatience, to anger, to slothfulness, exactly as if they were the children of the world; and—would you be true Christians? Would you be disciples of him who has said of hypocrites, by their fruits ye shall know them?' My friends, even such a certainty of overcoming the world as Paul and John had, does not exclude daily humiliation. You know that Paul says, I mortify my body, and subdue it, so that I may not preach the Gospel to others and be myself cast away; that he confesses, Not that I have already attained; one thing I say, I forget what is behind, and strive for that which is before, and run toward the mark set before me.' You understand also what the Lord means when he says,- Whoever will follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

1

1 Luke 9: 23.

He speaks here of daily denying one's self, of daily bearing one's cross. Must it not necessarily belong to the christian life, to sit, daily in judgment upon one's own soul, to humble one's self daily for everything which is so displeasing to Jehovah ?

as

But such humiliation as we here describe is, in the second place, a humiliation before God. We must, I say, humble ourselves before God; that is, our grief for sin must be in view of the fact, that we have grieved our Maker, and this our grief must be expressed in a confession before Him. A certain kind of grief for sins and vices is indeed experienced by all, but it is difficult to believe in how many cases this is simply and solely a humiliation and grief for the sake of men, for the sake of the injury and the shame which we have prepared for ourselves in the sight of others. Yea so incessantly do we glance our eyes toward men, that we may say it would be a very great advance in piety, if one should attain such a state as to grieve over each of his iniquities, simply because it had offended his God and Lord. Even from early childhood, we are instructed in these modern times, to fix our eyes, in committing iniquity, only upon the opinions of our fellow mortals. It is no longer said, formerly, to the child, do not that thing, the beloved Lord sees it ;' it is now said, be well behaved; what will the people say! And so, therefore, we grow up; our glance directed always to men alone, and if we are ever ashamed of our vices, it is on account of the eye of man, and not on account of that eye, which seeth the hidden recess of the heart. Oh that you might again understand, what is the high and holy meaning of the word-religion! What meaning has it other than-regard for God! It is such a disposition of the inner man, as leads him to look through all things, through nature, through art, through his goods, through his palaces, through his tears of joy, and through his tears of sorrow, through all-to God. But if there must be religion, a regard to God, even in our sorrow for sin, how should it be exercised? Our sorrow must arise from this, that our iniquities have grieved our Maker. What says David, when he had committed a grievous crime against men? Lord, against thee only have I sinned,' he cries. Not that he wished to hide from himself the truth that he had committed a sad offence against his brother; but the fact that he had, in sinning against his brother, sinned also against the commandment of his Creator, this is the sting which most deeply pierces his conscience;

his fellow