ill-temper. Beware, my Christian brethren, of this delusion. Enter upon the cultivation of the Christian grace we have been contemplating, in the spirit of those who "first gave their own selves to God." Remember the declaration, "The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." Surrender self as the best preparation for cleaving firmly, affectionately, and devotedly to God.

2. And lastly. I would caution persons of a very different class, not to confound the infirmities of a mind really devoted to God, with the spirit of indecision and inconstancy we have been considering. It is true, my Christian brethren, of the fallen soul, that, till it escapes from the body, many of its infirmities will continue to cling to it. They are to be considered as rather subdued than extirpated; and new causes and excitements frequently and unexpectedly call them into action. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other." In the midst of much infirmity, if only that infirmity is resisted, lamented, repented of, and carried to the cross of Christ for pardon, and to the Spirit of God for the healing influence of his grace, you may still be warranted in adopting the words of another offender, "Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." At the same time, my Christian brethren, it is our common duty to act upon the persuasion that, under God, higher attainments in religion, and a more entire decision of character, are possible to us. If prophets, and apostles, and the servants of the Redeemer, in all ages and countries, are to be believed, it is not the miserable destiny of human creatures to live on in a state

of suspense and vacillation, of hesitation and doubt. If they are to be believed, we are not thrown out into the wide ocean of trial and temptation, there to toss, hopeless and helpless, without pilot, or rudder, or compass. The "Father of mercies" has bent an eye of compassion upon us, and has "devised means" whereby the weakest of us may be making every day new conquests over the corruptions of our nature. Away, then, with all apology for habitual indecision and inactivity in the things of God and eternity. If the Lord be God, serve him." Bring your doubts and your difficulties simply and honestly to the altar of the Lord; and fire shall, as in the case of the sacrifice of the prophet, descend to consume them. Pray and labour earnestly to obtain fixed principles; and you shall, by the very same grant, obtain, to a great extent, settled and immoveable peace. Cultivate the faith, imitate the life, and cherish the affections and temper, of the great Apostle of the Gentiles; and you shall be enabled, with growing confidence of soul, to adopt his language; "I am persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

SERMON II.

ON THE RIGHT RECEPTION OF THE WORD OF

GOD.

JAMES i. 21.

Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

Ir was the notion of a large body of heathen philosophers, that the gods, having created the world, with its inhabitants, launched them into the region of infinite space, to pursue their course without any guide or control from above. If this conception were just, nothing would remain for us, but, with the glimmering lamp of reason in our hands, to search out for ourselves the path of duty, and the sources of peace and joy. But if, as every Christian, on the strongest evidence, is persuaded, the merciful Being who originally framed us has supplied us with a Book designed for our complete guidance and control, then it must be our first duty to consider both the contents of the volume, and the manner in which it is to be received. Negligence of this Sacred Record is a folly of the same order with his who, in a voyage of the utmost intricacy and peril, drives the pilot from the helm, and resolves to steer by the light of his own conjectures. How tremendous, then, is the infatuation of those who are suffering the Volume of

Truth to slumber in dishonour upon their shelves, and are substituting, for its holy lessons, the dictates of custom, or fancy, or convenience, or mere worldly wisdom!

The object of the present discourse, my Christian brethren, is, under the Divine blessing, to cherish your reverence and love for the holy Scriptures. Let me beg of you to unite your prayers with my own, that the Spirit of Truth may preserve us from error in our observations on a topic of such vital importance.

The text appears to me well suited to the object we have in view; and it may be desirable, in examining it, to consider,

I. THE TITLE here given TO THE HOLY SCRIP

TURES.

II. THE POWER ASCRIBED to them.

III. THE MODE IN WHICH THEY ARE TO BE APPLI

ED TO THE SOUL.

IV. THE DISPOSITION OF MIND WITH WHICH THEY OUGHT TO BE RECEIVED.

I. And, first, we are to consider THE TITLE HERE GIVEN TO THE HOLY Scriptures.

They are called in the text, by way of emphasis, "the Word." And the holy Bible is, in fact, "the word," as distinguished from every other. Every book, which proceeds from fallen and fallible man, and which pretends to communicate to us a knowledge of our present duties or our future destinies, bears on its pages abundant evidence of the ignorance, the weakness, and corruption of its author. This, on the contrary, is the word of Him with whom it is impossible to It is the only volume in which the great Author of our being, the God of Truth, has con

err.

E

descended to reveal himself, and to make known his will to his creatures. It is, in fact, nothing less than His own mind, embodied for our guidance, and consolation, and eternal benefit.

Consider, my Christian brethren, the immeasurable value of such a guide as the Book of God. Remove it, and what other teacher would be found who could discharge the same office in a fallen world? Reason cannot; for it is necessarily in darkness with respect to the things of God, till the Holy Spirit, by the aid of Scripture, enlightens it. Human instructors cannot, for they can teach us only as far as they themselves are taught of God. Their writings, if of any value, are, at best, but streams from this heavenly fountain, and are strongly tinged with the impurities of the soil through which they flow. The Scriptures, on the contrary, leave us nothing to desire. They are an unerring guide both of our faith and our conduct. They show us our relations to God; they trace out the path which can alone lead us to him; they discover to us the perils of our state, and the means of rescue; they point to every disease of the soul, and to the tender hand of the Physician who can heal them; they disentangle the knots by which the conscience is perplexed; they bind up the wounds by which the heart is lacerated.

But why should I multiply arguments on so plain a point? Nothing but our long familiarity with the word of God can account for the little emotion with which we are apt to regard it. Conceive the very same intelligence to be transmitted by some new means from heaven to earth. Suppose, for instance, the Divine Author of the Scriptures to announce his design to appear at a