the consciousness of present friendship. "Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,"-there is past forgiveness ! -"by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand,”—there is present friendship!" and rejoice in hope of the glory of God,"there is future Assurance! Which hope, the Apostle declares yet further, is not shaken by tribulation, does not make us hold down our heads with shame and disappointment, "because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us," because the declarations of God's pardoning mercy pervade and fill the honesthearted Christian, and produce that buoyant consciousness of safety which exclaims in each successive trial, "If God be for us who can be against us ?" "He that spared no this own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ?" "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, other creature, shall be able to separate us

nor any

Shall tribulation,

from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!"

But remember equally, how this Hope must be preserved from day to day. It must be preserved by preservation of the heart from sin, and of the conscience from defilement. Its life depends upon the death of its antagonist principle. And this antagonist principle is invigorated by every successive fall from moral excellence, nay flourishes of itself when there is merely negligence, and want of growth in moral excellence. The Hope we speak of is the hope of holiness, and therefore it cannot be otherwise than a holy Hope, and with Holiness only can it dwell. "The hope of the righteous shall be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked shall perish." "Can the rush grow up without mire? Can the flag grow without water? Whilst it is yet in its greenness and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb. So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite's hope shall perish; whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web." O forget not that it is the Holy Ghost whose power makes the Christian's hope abound, and that the Holy Ghost can never dwell in an unholy heart. It is "through the Spirit that we wait for the hope of righteousness by faith," and this Spirit lusteth against the flesh and pro

by

-

duceth all the fruits of righteousness. It is "the Holy Spirit of God whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption," and this Spirit is soon grieved "bitterness and wrath, and clamour, and evil speaking," by every evil thought, and temper, and desire. O then for careful, jealous cherishing of his gentle inspirations! O for daily nourishment of all those dispositions in the midst of which, as in the temple of his holiness, he loves to dwell! The assurance of our hope must vary as the experience of our sanctification. And it is only as we can say, with all the conscious integrity of St. Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith," that we can also say, with all the full assurance of St. Paul, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day !"

PART III.

THE NOURISHMENT

OF

THE SPIRITUAL LIFE.

The counsels of Religion are not to be applied to the distempers of the soul as men used to take hellebore, but they must dwell together with the Spirit of a man, and be twisted about his understanding for ever; they must be used like nourishmentthat is, by a daily care and meditation not like a single medicine and in the actual pressure of a present necessity.

BISHOP J. TAYLOR.

What then remains ?-To seek

Those helps, for his occasions ever near,
Who lacks not will to use them; vows, renewed
On the first motion of a holy thought;
Vigils of contemplation; praise; and prayer,
A stream, which, from the fountain of the heart,
Issuing, however feebly, nowhere flows

Without access of unexpected strength.

WORDSWORTH.

Qu'est ce donc qu'un homme qui, reconnoissant l'Etre supreme, ne le prie pas? C'est un infortuné qui n'a point de Dieu; qui vit tout seul dans l'univers; qui ne tient à aucun être hors de lui; qui rétombant sur son propre cœur n'y trouve que lui-même, c'est à dire ses peines, ses dégouts, ses inquietudes, ses terreurs, avec quoi il puisse s'entretenir. C'est un infortuné .... qui vit dans l'univers comme un homme que l'hasard avoit jeté tout seul dans une île réculée et inaccessible, où il seroit sans maitre, sans souverain, sans soin, sans discipline, sans attendre de ressource, sans se promettre une meilleure destinée, sans porter ses vœux et ses souhaits au dela du vaste abîme qui l'environnerait, et sans chercher d'autre adoucissement à l'infortune de sa condition qu'une molle indolence.

MASSILLON.