Let us then, in conclusion, shortly apply the great lesson before us. And here it is obvious that I can address myself only to the converted and renewed people of God; and for this simple reason, that, as we have seen from the twelfth and thirteenth articles, that none others but they who are really justified before God can perform what Holy Scripture and our Church denominates, "Good Works." To you, then, we would not be content to say, you must be just, and honourable, and charitable, and amiable, and condescending, and humble, and meek, and affectionate, and true: but we would say more than this; we would say with the Apostle, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think of and practise those things." Yea, we may go further still, and say, with that most divine Master, "What do ye more than others?" implying, in the strongest possible manner, that the followers of God must not only believe more, but they must do more than others. So far from the free salvation of which you are the blessed subjects, exonerating you in any the smallest degree, from these first duties, which it is the boast of the world (though God knows it is an empty boast) that they perform-more, infinitely more, is expected from the godly man, than is ever aimed at by the worldly man. Is the man of the world, for instance, punctual in all his engagements, upright and honourable in every thing which he undertakes? You must be more scrupulously so; you must excel in the measure of good works, as much as you, undoubtedly, already excel in the motive of good works. He performs all these duties because they are expected of him by his fellow-men; because they are part and parcel of that code of honour, to which every highminded man in the world considers himself amenable, and without a scrupulous attention to which, he could not, for a single day, maintain his footing in society. You are expected to perform them, and if you are sincere followers of God, you will perform them as the fruits of a true and lively faith. Knowing how much God has done for you, utterly undeserving, you will endeavour to act in such a manner towards your fellow-men, though equally undeserving, not as shall best serve your interests in a selfish world, but that shall be most acceptable to the nature and purity of a God of justice, and a God of love. Gratitude alone would ensure this at your hands; for, knowing what you have received, you should always be asking "What shall I render?" But more than gratitude demands it; your good works must be the fruits and evidence of your gratitude: but they must also be more-they must be the fruits of a true and lively faith. Without holiness no man can see the Lord; and has not the Word of God itself declared, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the door of salvation only unto them that obey him?

We do not scruple, therefore, to tell you, that "Faith without works is dead, being alone;" that you may boast of the highest spiritual attainments, and the most exalted faith, and the deepest experience, and yet wanting those Christian virtues which endear man to his fellows, and which liken him to the meek, and lowly, and forgiving, and compassionate Redeemer, you are, in reality, destitute of that saving faith from which they necessarily spring, and you have, therefore, neither part nor lot in the salvation which it secures.

My Christian brethren I own I feel it necessary to speak strongly upon this subject, because we firmly believe, that one unholy, inconsistent, or even fruitless, professor of religion, does more injury to the true cause of the Redeemer, than many open profligates. And yet, alas, are there none such fruitless, inconsistent, professors among ourselves? Are there none who, holding all the great and saving truths of the Gospel with the most perfect accuracy, yet may they not learn many a lesson of amiability, of disinterestedness, and humility, of brotherly kindness, and affectionate forbearance, from some who are not yet known to be partakers of the grace of Christ? Are there none who would feel it very difficult, in looking back only on the week which has just closed on us, to distinguish a single good work, or single fruit of faith, laid by them as a thank-offering upon the altar of their God? Surely these things ought not so to be; for is it not thus, my Christian brethren, that we cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of," the truth of our God to be blasphemed, the Saviour to be wounded in the house of his friends, and the preaching of the everlasting Gospel, with its one great truth-justification by faith alone, to be treated by the infidel and the malevolent, as an unholy and licentious falsehood.

If, therefore, you love the truth, as it is in Christ Jesus, if you love the Saviour who proclaimed it, if you love your own souls and your own eternity, you must be "unwearied," as the Apostle says, in well-doing: whether it be the spiritual duties, or the temporal duties, that the occasion demands, be first and foremost in them all. "Whatsoever your hand findeth you to do, do it with all your might;" letting "your light so shine before men, that they seeing your good works, may glorify," not you, but "your Father which is in heaven:" being "filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus. Christ unto the glory and praise of God."

COMING TO CHRIST.

HON. AND REV. B. W. NOEL, A.M.

ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL, BEDFORD ROW, JULY 13, 1834.

"And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague."—MARK, v. 34.

OUR course were a very melancholy one, my brethren, through this world, if we had not to do with a Saviour who abounds in grace and mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ is overflowing with kindness to all that seek his blessing; and, therefore, though we are weak, and live in the midst of an ensnaring world, and though we have many sins to deplore, and for which we all have need of forgiveness, yet with such a Saviour our souls may be kept in peace, because we are assured that he is at all times ready to receive us on our application to him for pardon and for peace, in the exercise of faith.

This very consolatory truth is brought to our view most instructively, in that brief narrative, of which the text that I have read forms a part. The poor woman, to whom our Lord addressed the words of my text, had been infirm and sick for many years; had tried various remedies, which were of no avail; and after she had spent all she had in endeavouring to effect a cure, and was nothing better, but rather grew worse, then, when other physicians failed, she had recourse to Jesus Christ. She believed him to be, from the evidence that had been brought before her, a prophet sent from God; and thinking that he could accomplish for her a cure, like that which she had heard had been accomplished in the case of others, she at once determined to seek relief from him. Therefore, apparently too humble to address him in person, or to suppose his attention should be occupied with her, she said, “If I may but touch his clothes, I shall be whole." She believed that he was so holy a person, and one whom God so blessed, that that act, if accompanied by faith, and originated in faith, would receive that blessing from God, which she had heard had been experienced by others. She therefore came to Jesus, and while the crowds thronged around him, and pressed him on every side, she touched the hem of his garment, and was immediately healed.

There is, my brethren, a much closer analogy between our case and hers, than some of us may, perhaps, at first sight, be disposed to believe: and it is that analogy that makes the narrative so instructive to us. In the first place, like her, we have a need of Christ. Unless we find spiritual healing from him, we shall find it nowhere else. Whatever be the spiritual disorder we have to

lament, we shall in vain look for a cure to any human device, or any method of

our own.

If any in this assembly are still destitute of the pardon of God for their sins, by what means shall they secure the forgiveness they hope for? Can they ever render him a service which can atone for the past? Is it possible that they shall not still accumulate guilt upon guilt; and if they look to their own conduct, must they not ever find reason for the divine anger, rather than any justification of the past? So that, if any need the pardon of their sins from a holy God, they have a need of Christ.

If any in this assembly are seeking that renewal of their nature which is necessary to fit them for the employment and blessedness of the heavenly world, how can they attain it? Is there anything in their own resolutions? Are their resolutions strong enough, or their efforts sufficiently efficacious, to effect a change of the heart, the mind, and the life? They will ever, in proportion to their efforts, discover the prevalency of evil; sin will ever have the dominion over them, as long as they have no better strength than their own; the corruptions of their nature will hurry them still to transgressions, while perhaps proudly imagining that a little more diligence, and a little more resolution, will secure the change they feel will be necessary ere they can reach eternal glory. If they are proudly expecting that change from themselves, they will find, alas, to their own cost, that sin is stronger than their resolution, and to the last they will remain as ungodly, and as far from heaven, as they are at this moment. So that, if any seek a renewal of his nature, he has a need of Christ.

If any are already changed by divine grace, and have received the pardon of their sins, through Christ, yet still in that conflict which it is ordained they shall wage with remaining sins, can they have success, have they ever realized success, through their own exertions? Have they not again and again found, that "without me they can do nothing;" so that those who are engaged in any kind of spiritual conflict with sin within them, have as much at this day, as at the first hour when they believed in Christ, a need of him? In all our spiritual distresses and dangers, we have an absolute need of Christ. Our blessings, brethren, from the first to the last, come exclusively from him; he is the origin of all. If one believer is distinguished from another by pre-eminence in any grace, he owes it exclusively to the Saviour. There may be a difference between the brilliancy of the diamond and the pebble, but both derive their brilliancy and colour, whatever it may be, from the light that is around them: in darkness they will be equally undistinguished. And it is so with the graces of Christ's people; one has more of humility, and gratitude, and devotedness than another; but it is all from Christ, without whom they would be equally colourless, without virtue, without grace, without hope. From him exclusively all our blessings are derived.

And it is necessary, in order to secure these blessings, that we should have a sense of our need. Without such a sense, that woman would never have sought relief from him; and without that sense of our need, we shall never heartily apply to Christ for the blessings that we require. As long as we suppose that a slight change, or a little penitence, and a little contrition, will bring for us the blessings, whatever they are, of a spiritual kind, which we

need, so long, not heartily applying to Christ Jesus for the blessings that we want, we shall go empty away. And thus, there is a deep sense of need, when a person has experienced his own weakness, and feels the burden of his guilt, whether believer, or whether still unrenewed, if he once find that he has no other resource but in Christ, and that Christ's help is absolutely needful for his welfare in both worlds, when he is urged by strong necessity to betake himself to that Christ, that he may find in him the blessing which he requires.

Again, like her, we have nothing to offer for the blessing we desire. She brought to him no payment for that which she sought; if it was to be bestowed, it was to be bestowed freely. It is so with all our mercies; we can offer nothing to Christ; and, blessed be his name, he requires nothing from us. Did he ask us to atone for our long negligence, or our inconsistencies, we must remain still destitute of the slightest blessing from him: but he asks nothing; what he gives he gives freely. It is the characteristic of the Gospel, that Christ's people receive all and return nothing. It is the characteristic of the Christian, that he is replenished with the graces of Christ; it is this more than anything else, marks the Christian-that he receives all from Christ. It is true he is made active, grateful, devoted; it is true he renounces sin, and mortifies all that is earthly within him: but still this adds nothing to the Saviour; it is rather the effect of his gifts than a payment for them: the Christian renounces it all. Some persons speak as though they were Christians, because they have adopted a certain set of opinions; whereas that marks any one to be a Christian, that he has found his all in Christ, and looks nowhere else for his blessing-that he is empty, guilty, weak, miserable, deserving of the eternal displeasure of God, but has found in Christ his all-sufficient Saviour-and whose religion is, to receive the blessings that he freely gives, gratefully and humbly, without pride. Thus, brethren, we come to him as she came, to receive our mercies freely.

Again, there is this further resemblance between her case and ours, that, like her, we come to a willing benefactor; one who is more ready to bless us than we are to bless. And this is strictly true; true beyond all that we can imagine. I am persuaded, that it is as much the nature of Christ to diffuse blessings to all who ask him, as it is for the sun to diffuse its beams on all the objects beneath and if any one lacketh that blessing from Christ, it is because he has intercepted the rays that come from him, that would otherwise beam upon his soul: it is not because Christ is unwilling to bless, but he is unwilling to be blessed. In trifling, in levity, in scorn, in self-righteousness, in sin, he has enclosed himself as within the massive walls of a dungeon; and he can have no cause to complain if he has not the light of the sun. Jesus Christ is ready to bless such, and he is ready to bless all; he is waiting to be gracious. He has told us again and again, it is his delight to bring back returning sinners; that his object was to come and make the ignorant wise, to make the rebellious loyal, to make those who are the heirs of hell the heirs of heaven: he came to seek those that were lost; and it is the will of our blessed Master in heaven to bless all ; there is no need for any to go empty away. But if self-righteousness, and scorn, and the love of this present world, will hinder men from applying to Christ, it is fitting they go without the blessing. But we are sure that it is his nature to bless, it is his will to bless; and he is occupied, daily and hourly, in drawing