"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God." James iv. 4. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is thisto visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." i. 27. Thus implicitly and clearly is the line of Christian duty, in reference to a believer's connexion with the world, laid down by the Holy Ghost; he cannot depart from it without grieving the Spirit, wounding his own soul, and compromising his Christian profession.

Grieve not, then, the Holy Spirit of God by any known inconsistency of conduct, any sinful conformity to the world, any inordinate pursuit of its wealth, its honors, its pleasures, its friendships, and its great things. Pray against the sin of covetousness, that canker-worm that feeds at the root of so many souls; pray against a love of dress, that sin that diverts the mind of so many professors from the simplicity of Christ, and takes the eye off from the true adornment;—pray against a thirst for light and trifling reading, that strange and sinful inconsistency of so many, the certain tendency of which is, to starve the life of God in the soul, to engender a distaste for spiritual aliment, for the word of God, for holy meditation, and for Divine communion and fellowship; yea, pray against the spirit of worldly, sinful conformity in everything, that the Holy Spirit be not grieved, and that Christ be not dishonored and crucified afresh in and through you. It is to

be feared that much of the professed Christianity of the day is of a compromising character. The spirit that marks so many is, "What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?" There is a betraying of Christ before the world-a bartering of Christianity for its good opinion, its places of honor, and influence, and emolument. The world, the flesh, and Satan, are ever on the alert to frame a bargain with a Christian professor for his religion. "What will you give me in return?" is the eager inquiry of many. Oh, awful state! oh, fearful deception! oh, fatal delusion! Reader! are you a professing Christian? Then guard against the least compromise of your principles, the least betrayal of Jesus, the first step in an inconsistency of walk: above all, pray and watch against a worldly Christianity, a Christianity that wears a fair exterior, so far as it is composed of attendance upon sanctuary services, and sacraments, and religious institutions, but which excludes from it the cross of the meek and lowly Lamb of God,—a Christianity which loves the world and the things of the world, makes a fair show in the flesh,' speaks well of Christ, and yet betrays him with a kiss.

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But let not this be the model of your religion. You are not of the world, even as Christ was not of the world if the world hate you, it hated him also before it hated you: if you were of the world, the world would love you. Marvel not at this! Do not expect more from the world than your Master received. The world that crowned your Lord with thorns, will never, if you "live godly in Christ Jesus," crown you with garlands: the world that crucified

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him, will never, if you are his consistent disciple, enthrone you. The world is the sworn enemy of your Saviour, let it not be your friend. No; come out of it, and be ye separate. Let your whole life be a solemn rebuke of it: let your integrity rebuke its want of principle, your sobriety rebuke its frivolousness, your upright sincerity rebuke its heartlessness, your crucifixion to it rebuke its emptiness, folly, and sinfulness,-let your dress, your spirit, your whole conversation evince what a splendid nothing is all its pomp, and glory, and pretension: so shall you resemble your Lord and Master,-he who loved you unto death, whose glory was in his humiliation, whose path was humble, lowly, and obscure, and whose death was the ignominious and accursed death of the cross: thus, too, you shall resemble his beloved apostle, who, taking his place by the cross, and looking down upon the world from the holy elevation where he stood, could exclaim, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."

The Spirit may be grieved by a slight put upon the means of grace: these are his channels for the conveyance of his covenant blessings into the soul. He works not by miracles now, but by instrumentalities, by various agencies and means: he communicates his blessings and transmits his voice through the world, the ministry, the mercy-seat, and various other channels which he has graciously provided for the spiritual nourishment of the Divine life in the soul. Slight them not, undervalue them not, neglect

them not. Look not for his blessing, nor expect to hear his voice, save as you are found walking in his own appointed way: you will grieve him, and cause him to withdraw his sensible presence, if any mean of grace is wilfully undervalued and neglected by you. These are the 'green pastures,' where the Shepherd causes his flock to rest at noon; these are the still waters,' where he leadeth their souls: and if the back is turned slightingly upon them, leanness and barrenness, coldness and death, must ensue. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint."

In a word; the Spirit is grieved by any deviation from the strict and holy walk of a child of God-by any sense of guilt retained upon the conscienceany sin unconfessed, unrepented, and unforsakenany known defilement of the temple he inhabitsany slight put upon Jesus-any neglect of the atoning blood-any light and trifling deportment-any uncharitable walk towards other Christians-any taking of the judgment-seat against them,-all these must be grieving to the Holy Spirit of God.

CHAPTER VII.

THE FRUITLESS AND THE FRUITFUL PROFESSOR.

"Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." -John xv. 2.

If there were any one feature in our Lord's ministrations more peculiarly impressive than another, it was the discriminating character that marked them. No one, on hearing him, could retire without the deep conviction that he was the man whose moral image Jesus had been drawing, and in such true and vivid resemblance, as to compel him to acknowledge the faithfulness of the portrait. There was no personality, no harshness, no unnecessary keenness in his reproof, no exaggeration of coloring, nothing overdrawn; but such a simple, faithful, scriptural dealing with human conscience, as either compelled his hearers to submit to his authority, and rank themselves among his followers, or to retire, silenced, self-accused, and self-condemned. Thus it is recorded at the conclusion of one of his discourses,— "And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them." Matt. xxi. 45; and on another occasion we read, as the result of one of his peculiar and emphatic modes of teaching,-" And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out