spiritual grace, which manifests to all believers things not seen by sense or natural reason, but which are opened by the revelation of God. It teaches that which human reason cannot discover by its own light. By this we receive Christ as revealed by the prophets. By faith we believe that Christ is the Saviour, that he saves his people from sin, from hell, and from destruction. Through it we believe not only that by his death he hath merited salvation for them, but that he applies the purchased redemption by shedding abroad the Holy Ghost into their hearts, and that he maintains and constantly preserves the graces implanted thereby.

We must be cautious however not to mistake the power of faith. By grace are we saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. Faith is the instrument ap

plying to us the grace of God and salvation through Christ. And that hot of ourselves, not for our own worth, nor by our own strength; no, that we are saved, is the gift of God. It is a condition indeed on our part whereby we come to be partakers of the blessings of the new cove

nant.

When the sinner feels the error of his ways; when he hears the tremendous utterance of the law, thou shalt surely die; when he is released from every false hope, and the earnest enquiry of his heart is, what shall I do to be saved? it is then his faith may be said to commence. Borne down by a sense of sin, and knowing that he is in danger of eternal death, the unhappy offender looks round for aid, conscious that he cannot recover himself. To man it is needless to apply, for he sees and is convinced that every mortal has of

fended. O wretched man that he is, who shall deliver him from the body of this death? With the apostle he must then answer, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He applies himself to the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. He knows! no helper but Jesus. To Jesus he flies, and upon him alone he relies He it is who of God is made unto him wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. The principal mean by which we come to the knowledge of God and an acquaintance with his will is the Son of God, for no man knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. The same also is our righteousness, for by him alone can we stand before God justified and accepted, since God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemning sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the

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law might be fulfilled in us. He is our sanctification also; for when we are believers, then are we renewed and sanctified by his Spirit. Being such, we are washed and are sanctified. We are washed not only with the baptism of water, but with the baptism of the blood of Christ, and with the baptism of the Holy Ghost, born again of the water and the Spirit. Thus we are not only washed, but sanctified; we are then filled with new spiritual habits through the renewing of the Holy Ghost. And Christ will be our redemption. Enslaved, as by nature we are, to the power of our lusts and the dominion of Satan, through Christ we obtain complete redemption. Our bodies will be raised through him who is the resurrection and the life, and our souls glorified, because them whom he justified, them he also glorified.

Fellow traveller, does not the

scenery here become more interesting to us, and the prospect more delight ful? Sinners as we are, we are not without hope. If, like Saul, we have persecuted Christ, does not a light from heaven shine around us? Are we not directed, are we not told what we must do, to be recovered from our blindness? To Jesus in his Gospel we must go. We are there told, that Christ the Son is allsufficient to save, and that he is appointed by the Father for this glorious purpose. Convinced as we are that we cannot renew our own nature, that we cannot so mortify the sin and defilement of our souls as to fit them for God and heaven, we are yet assured that divine grace can and will do this. In his Gospel we learn that Christ has cancelled our guilt by his sacrifice; that, if we believe in him, he will by his Spirit begin a work of grace in us, will