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you have prayed that the Lord will "deliver” you from "blindness of heart," in another from "hardness of heart," and in a third, that he will be pleased to "give you an heart to love and dread him, and diligently to live after his commandments." What follows from this, but that, by nature, our hearts are not only blind and hard, but utterly incapable of loving or dreading God? Innumerable are the other proofs of this which you assent to, every time you pour forth those deep breathings of humble and contrite souls contained in your liturgy.

And these proofs were drawn together by men eminently advanced in the knowledge and experience of divine things, as they are found in the pure word of life.

Now in what one doctrine do all these proofs concentre but this," except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God?" But this doctrine every unrenewed and unhumbled heart will spurn, yet there it stands spoken by the Saviour of the world! And it is from the refusal to bow down to it, that that cold, jejune, lifeless shadow of religion springs up which prevails around us but, blessed be God, that the work of regeneration has been accomplished, and is now accomplishing in many souls that receive Christ in his own way and fulness, as the only and all-sufficient Saviour.

Argument and reasoning may bring a man to

the outer porch of the temple, but they will never introduce him into the "holy of holies.” Argument and reasoning never yet enlarged a heart, or saved a soul. No! that is the Lord's own work, and he giveth not his work to another. By his Spirit acting on the heart, and restoring to it his own image, he first brings the sinner to the dust, in a sense of his own vileness, and then he carries on his work of mercy in the returning rebel, by admitting him to the privileges of the covenant in Christ, opening to him the wells of salvation, and leading him forward in a new and holy walk towards his eternal rest in heaven.— From this stupendous love of the Redeemer, none whatever are excluded but those who will not have him to reign over them, while to all who own their entire spiritual sickness and their need of a spiritual physician, the Lord has said, "a new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh."

you;

I now turn for a moment to those of you who have fled for peace and pardon to the Saviour,who have been brought to see how destitute you are in and of yourselves, of all claim or hope of acceptance with God-how utterly alienated you were from him by heart and nature-how vast a debt has been discharged for you by the ransoming blood of the cross, and how glorious is the

inheritance laid up for you in heaven, as his dear and restored people. Having had, as the apostle declares, "the eyes of your understanding enlightened," you now know the utter odiousness in God's sight of that sin which required so awful, so costly a sacrifice in its expiation. You have consequently that tender conscience which is the object of scorn and mockery to the perishing world around, but the sure badge of God's redeemed ones in every age. You are called out of the world which cannot but hate you, as it hated your Master before you; having, however, counted the cost, be faithful to your hopes, your views, and your privileges.

Put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand: be much and fervent in prayer, be frequent in the perusal of the word, be firm, be vigilant, be consistent. If you walk with God, heaven's own light will shine in all your path. In your contact with the people of this world, (and that contact you cannot altogether avoid, and in some senses perhaps you ought not wholly to avoid,) be especially wary that the lustre of your spirituality in heart and views be not tarnished. Such is the nature of your conflict of soul while here, that you will find it impossible to pass through this pilgrimage without seasons of distress, temptation, deadness and slumbering of spirit. In this tabernacle you groan, desiring to be clothed upon with that

which is from heaven, but then the principle of vitality is within you, and you will find that sustained from on high, to make you in the end "more than conquerors through him that loved you and gave himself for you." But beware of all secularity of spirit, all earthliness of heart. The world must be wholly "crucified" to you, and the living union with Christ your head, daily strengthened, promoted, and increased. If you do not find entire peace of conscience, it is because you have not entire sanctity of spirit. If you are not constantly on Pisgah, you will inevitably be in the wilderness. Do not, however, droop or be dismayed: a germ from above is within you; and what is within you planted by the Lord will be nurtured by the Lord, if you live constantly in his sight, in his fear, and in his love.

Go on, good soldier of Christ, and a few more fleeting years will bring you to the haven where you would be, and where, with your adored Leader, an eternity of joy and peace awaits you.

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SERMON XII.

THE FORGIVEN PENITENT.

ST. LUKE, vii. 50.

And he said unto the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace.

THE narrative from which these words are taken, is in many respects one of the most affecting to be found in holy writ. It portrays the boundless love of the Saviour to sinners, as it was shown towards an unhappy woman of a class usually the most spurned and the least pitied of the wretched children of iniquity. It is generally deemed to be the history of Mary Magdalene in its most touching and striking feature; her genuine conversion to God, when unfolded in the sincere outpourings of a grateful and devoted heart. Abounding as it does in instruction to us all, and beautifully illustrating the grace and glory of the gospel scheme of redemption, give me your at

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