lity in what they say and do. That sweet, humble air and mien is beyond their art, being not led by the Spirit, or naturally guided to a behaviour becoming holy humility, by the vigour of a lowly spirit within them. And therefore, they have no other way but to be much in declaring that they are humble, and telling how they were humbled to the dust on such and such times."

Lastly, examine yourselves strictly, my brethren, and see whether you can find a deep and affectionate interest in the spiritual welfare of those who are united to you by natural relationship, who have as it were, the first natural claim upon you. If you find in yourself any thing like indifference about them; or if you are conscious of any bitterness of spirit towards them because they despise or disregard the holy principles by which you seek to regulate your life, look narrowly into your own heart, and give not over your search into its depths, till, with God's help, you have cast out a spirit so utterly opposed to the kind and loving spirit of the Lord you profess to serve. Whenever, indeed, we feel within us any degree of bitterness and unkind indifference, we shall do well to look back into the early history of our ruined race, and to study the account which we there have of the first springing up of this corrupt disposition, of its growth, and of its deadly effects. And as we meditate upon the

hatred of Cain, or the mockings of Ishmael, or the heart-burning jealousies of the brethren of Joseph, or the envious murmurings of Miriam and Aaron, we shall come to a settled conviction that there is not a disposition natural to man, however lovely it may appear in some individuals from a happy combination of circumstances, or it may be from mere bodily constitution, which does not need to be put upon the basis of high principle to God, and to be made the subject of the regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit. Where this new principle has been received and these holy influences experienced, the proof will be seen as in the case of Andrew. Yes, my friends, I say to each of you, when you have once learned to know Christ Jesus to be the power of God to your own salvation, you will not rest till it might be recorded of you, as it was of Andrew, "He first findeth his own brother Simon," and "he brought him to Jesus." Oh, you know not how much, under God, may depend upon a like mode of conduct in yourself. Who would have thought, had he stood an observer of the interview between these two brothers, when perhaps the homely and unlettered fisherman of Bethsaida listened, as he sat mending his nets, to the news which his brother had brought him-listened till his whole attention was drawn away from his employment,

and the nets fell from his hand, and rising up, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, and went forth at once with his brother to meet Jesus-who would have thought that one of the chief pillars of the church of the living God-the church of the Firstborn-then received his first outward call; and that in the person of that poor, honesthearted, but determined man, there stood one of the holiest of all saints-one of the most glorious of all martyrs.

O Almighty God, of whose only gift it cometh that those whom Thou hast chosen in Christ, through grace obey Thy calling, and walk religiously in good works; give unto us, we beseech Thee, grace to obey that holy calling, to become Thy children by adoption, to be made like the image of Thy only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; and at length, by Thy mercy, to obtain everlasting felicity, through our ever-living Mediator, Jesus Christ. Amen.

SERMON XXI.

THE ANOINTING SPIRIT.

1 JOHN II. 27.

"But the anointing which ye have received of Him, abideth in you; and ye need not that any man teach you. But, as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him."

IT is of deep importance that a congregation of worshippers of the eternal Godhead, should have clear views of the way of salvation through Jesus Christ, and of the covenant made by the Father with His eternal Son; that they should understand the way in which a sinner is justified before God, his soul regenerated, himself converted, his heart sanctified. It is of deep importance that they should learn to trace back the whole and every part of the glorious scheme of salvation, to its only source-the free grace and electing love of the Father, who would

have all men to be saved, but who will save none in sin, and none out of Christ; and who ordains that every heir of glory should be not merely chosen to be happy with the blessed in heaven, but holy with the holy on earth: that he should be in fact chosen to be conformed to the image of His own pure and spotless Son.

There is a truth which we are apt to forget, which is this, that the clearest statements of christian doctrine without they are preached by the Spirit of God to the heart are a dead letter from the lips of the minister, as St. Augustine has finely said, "He hath his seat in heaven, who teacheth the hearts of men." The word of God, in fact, if it is to be really effective to the conversion of the sinner's heart, and the salvation of his soul, is ever experienced to be the sword of the Spirit, quick, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The Holy Bible was written as no other book was ever written, and it must be read and listened to with the consciousness of this fact full before us, that no man can say, that Jesus-the Mediator of the only covenant through which a sinner can obtain eternal life-is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. You are all now