in fact, the conduct which Christianity had required and approved.

The apostle Paul, from Paul, from a conscientious motive, imbrued his hands in the blood of the first Christians. He lived to weep over

his mistake, and to supplicate pardon where he had expected praise. Hence, in the expression before us, he speaks of acting not "by fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God." He had become acquainted with the distinction between a deluded and an enlightened conscience; between bigotry and religion; between ignorance and knowledge. "Fleshly wisdom" may pass current for conscientiousness, but it has no right to the name. It is rather human policy, social arrangement, worldly wisdom, blind prejudice, a preference for falsehood; passion, not reason; low views, not religion. Let no man claim for himself, under the light of Christianity, the virtue of real integrity, who is not a teachable and anxious disciple in the school of Christ. He who confidently determines, where he ought humbly to inquire; he who rests upon his own opinion, where he ought to seek the judgment of God; he who makes his wishes the interpreters of God's word; he who spurns in practice the influence of divine grace, and throws back the light which that grace would shed upon his path, can never be, in the fair meaning of the words, a conscientious man If his heart con

demn him not, it is because that heart is darkened by passion and pride; and the silence of his conscience is the deepest calamity by which he can be assailed. Conscience, like the hand, becomes skilful and accurate by practice. He who longs to be right, and labours to be right, and prays to be right, becomes more and more honest before God. His convictions become more and more the decisions of God; and the voice which speaks to him from within, is the same voice which addresses him from the pages of revelation.

The genuine testimony of conscience is thus the inward witness which the individual receives, that he is acting to the best of his belief of the will of God. And that belief is valuable, and not delusive, precisely as it is the result of patient inquiry-of humble and incessant prayer -of habitual watchfulness against the bias of sensual and earthly inclinations; and of a candid reference to the whole revelation of God. It disclaims the conceits of fleshly wisdom; it concedes the ignorance and depravity of the heart; it submits gladly to the grace of God, and hides every word of that God within the sacred recesses of the bosom, in order that it may there become a light unto the feet, and a lamp unto the path.

II. Let us, in the next place, consider THE

CONNECTION OF THIS TESTIMONY

SCIENCE WITH OUR TRUE FELICITY.

OF CON

"Our rejoicing," says the apostle, "is this, the testimony of our conscience." Few will deny the pleasure to be derived from the consciousness of acting rightly. Regret, remorse, self-contempt, are the keenest stings which ever scourge the breast. In their full exercise, they are the "worm which never dies, the flame which is never quenched." The opposite sensations, the testimony of conscience, the approbation of the monitor within us, is as the sunshine of the heart. Even a deluded conscience has its enjoyments: the deficiency of these is chiefly to be found in their limited duration. Time will destroy-the judgment of God will overthrow them. The witness, however, which comes from God, the dictate of conscience, as it is enlightened by God's word, and consecrated by the Spirit which dwelleth in us, is the voice of truth, which our connection with eternity will not gainsay. It is the peace which God himself imparts. It is the quietness which lives amidst the very shock of internal suffering, and bereavement, and pain. It is the ratification which God deigns to afford to the worth and efficacy of his promises; it is the record of truth; the witness within us that we are the children of God.

More particularly of this testimony of conscience, as to its connection with our happiness, we may say, in the first place, that it is a proof to us of the conversion of our hearts to God. He that has within his bosom the sacred conviction, that, amidst all his infirmities, he has a settled determination to consecrate his life to God; to shelter his soul beneath the great atonement, and to have his conversation in the world not after the inclinations of his earthly nature, but according to the dictates of the grace of God; such a man feels that he has received a spiritual character, which marks him to be born of God: hè is enabled to say, with the apostle, "Now are we the sons of God!"

2. And this conversion of heart he cannot but regard as a token of the divine love and care. "Behold what manner of love," says the same apostle, "the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God!"

To contemplate this change of condition, this passing from death to life, as the result of compassion and love on the part of God, is surely to approach near to the sources of genuine felicity. To be able to connect our moral history with this "election of God," with this manifestation of paternal kindness, with this healing of the worst diseases of our spiritual nature; this is to discover around us the very light of God's coun

tenance, to walk beneath his guidance and to be the objects of his unchanging love and care!

3. Again, this testimony of conscience will be ever united to the anticipation of fuller conformity to the divine image in a better and higher world.

A Christian is training up for eternal glory and felicity. Every part of his spiritual education has a reference to the future. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; and every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." The testimony of an honest and healed conscience is thus connected with the future as well as with the past. The grace already conferred is productive of a hope of glory yet to be enjoyed. How intimately, then, is this testimony of sincerity allied to the soul's reasons for rejoicing! It is, in fact, a continual feast. It is ever united to the fuller results of almighty love, in the presentation of the soul "faultless before the throne, with exceeding joy!"

4. It may yet further be remarked, that this witness within, renders evidence to our spiritual sympathy with the great design of God in the promotion of human happiness. The apostle Paul evidently has this view, when he says to the Corinthians, "we have thus had our conversation