whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." For this, he has commanded us by his Apostle "not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together," because "where two or three are gathered together in his name, there is he in the midst of them." For this, he gives the manifestation of the Spirit to every Christian man that he may profit his brethren therewith. And, therefore, to participate in this, we must be regular and frequent in public worship, in family and social prayer, in friendly Christian intercourse, thereby to imbibe and to sustain the Spiritual Life. We must place ourselves in the atmosphere of the Spirit if we would inhale the Spirit. The principle of Social interest which leads us to join ourselves to other men; the principle of Imitation which bends the mind unconsciously in the direction of those to whom we join ourselves; the principle of Sympathy which makes the slightest thought and feeling of our own mind to be increased to a fourfold intensity, by our consciousness of its participation by those around us;—of their being sensible themselves of this participation;—of their emotions being heightened by their sympathy with ours;-of their thus responding not to us alone, but to all the rest in mutual communion with us;- these several mighty means

of influence on the human heart, by which the Spirit of God communicates, as through the links of an electric chain, the principle of spiritual life, must all be grasped by us if we would thrill with fire from heaven.

But then, with both these means, we must unite Intercourse with God by secret Prayer. For Prayer re-acts upon all other influences and collects them into the unity of our own Spirit, and diffuses them through every power of the man. And Prayer brings down into the midst of every thought, and train of thought, the idea of God; reminds us that ourselves are in the presence and under the control of God; our circumstances have been all arranged by God; our opportunities of grace have been ordained by God; our teachers have been commissioned by God; our Christian friends are actuated and blessed by God; and thus infuses into the most ordinary objects, persons, and occurrences, the character and power of a divine communication to the soul. "Now, therefore," said Cornelius to St. Peter, we are all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of GOD." And what was the result of this devout infusion of the thought of God into all the words that Peter then addressed to them? - "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word."

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CHAPTER II.

THE PROCESS OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE.

THE Spiritual Life must, we have seen, from the very nature of our being, take its rise in the inscrutable depths of the human soul, and have its source in the secret inspiration of the Holy Ghost. But the developement of this life must not the less, from this same nature of our being, become manifest to the consciousness of the Individual; and the Process of that Developement will, moreover, from the general similarity of man to man, be, for the most part, similar in all religious minds. These are the two points which will occupy the present chapter.

And first, The Developement of Spiritual Life must become manifest to the consciousness of the individual in whom it is awakened. For deep and hidden as are the mass of our conceptions in the recesses of the Spirit, their workings and results become both seen and felt by that peculiar power of self-consciousness,-of introspection and inward

sense, with which we are endowed.

The essence

of Mind we cannot discover any more than we can the essences of the external world; but the phenomena of Mind are presented to the inward intuition just as the phenomena of matter are to the outward observation. We cannot possess vigorous thoughts, affections, and purposes, on any subject and of any kind, without becoming more or less conscious of their existence; that is, without a feeling and experience of the goings on within our mind. And as generally, on any subject that interests us, so particularly must there be such feeling and experience on the subject of Religion; if, indeed, this last have seized on our attention and have become alive in our heart. "Religious Experience" is, indeed, a phrase often mistaken and sometimes misused; but it expresses a fact, or series of facts, in the consciousness, without which no man can be saved. It denotes all those exercises of the mind and heart which indicate that Religion is not merely a profession and a creed, but an influence and a life. It expresses the finding in ourselves the realities, the things signified, of which words are but the shadows and the signs. And only, therefore, as we do find in ourselves (that is, experience,) these realities can we truly understand the words—that is, place under them a solid and substantial meaning whatever knowledge we

may have attained of their grammatical use and force. By experience only, either that of external sensation, or of internal consciousness, can we understand words, which are the signs of facts occurring in that sensation or that consciousness.

If

a man tells me of a bodily sensation—a head-ache, for example — I understand him only so far as that sensation has been present to myself; and I reply either "I cannot enter into your feelings, for I never experienced what a head-ache is," or "I understand you, for I have experienced the same.” If he speaks to me of esteem, gratitude, affection,which are mental sensations, sentiments, or feelings, I can answer "Yes, I know well what you mean, for I have experienced such sentiments myself." If he tells me of the glow of admiration which came over him at the contemplation of such or such a lovely scene; or of the thrill of pleasure which was awakened in him by such or such melodious sounds; here again I can believe he is not uttering rapturous nonsense; because I have myself experienced the same emotions. And just similarly in Religion: there are experiences of the conscience and the heart, by finding which within ourselves we can alone supply a meaning to the glowing words and images of Scripture, or can regard the men themselves who use those words as other than enthusiasts, of Oriental warmth of tem