the comfort that arises from the fact-that the

blood of Christ can cleanse from all sin, and

grace teach them to ly" in the world.

"live soberly and honest

Any comfort which does not stop crime is a curse. But, on the other hand, the man who brings both the gospel and the law to bear upon all his affairs, to regulate his expenditure, to form his promises, to moderate his desires, to bind his soul to the example of his Saviour that man will not pray without comfort, nor communicate without enjoyment. Others may pretend, but he will "truly" say, My "fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."

Again in God there is none of the darkness of passion. He is "slow to anger," and never angry without a just cause. It is not mistakes nor trifles that he takes offence at. And even when he is justly angry, he does not abandon the offender at once. Thus God is "in the light; " and in all this he is our example. "Walking in the light as he is in the light," in this respect, is essential to fellowship with him; for the God of love will not countenance an angry man. Such is his

aversion to all strife between brethren, that he commands the offender to leave the altar and his gift too, until he is reconciled to his brother. He even suspends forgiveness upon forgiving. But even if this were not the case, nor God to hide his countenance from the angry, anger itself would disable us from seeing the face of God. It is physically, as well as morally, impossible to pray in a passion.

Well might Jeremy Taylor say, "Prayer is the daughter of charity, and the sister of meekness; and he that prays to God in an angry spirit, is like him who retires into a battle to meditate, and sets up his closet in the out quarters of an enemy, and chooses a frontier garrison to be wise in. Anger is a perfect alienation of the mind from prayer; and therefore is contrary to that attention which presents our prayers in a right line to heaven. For so I have seen a lark rising from his bed of grass, and soaring upwards, singing as he rises, and hopes to get to heaven, and climb above the clouds. But the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighings of an eastern wind, and his motion made

irregular and inconstant; descending more, at every breath of the tempest, than he could recover by the libration and frequent weighing of his wings; till the little creature was forced to sit down and pant, and stay till the storm was over; and then-it made a prosperous flight, and did rise and sing as if it had learned music and motion from an angel, as he passed sometimes through the air, about his ministeries here below.

"So is the prayer of a good man, when anger raises a tempest and overcomes him. Then his prayer was broken, and his thoughts were troubled, and his words went up towards a cloud; and his thoughts pulled them back again, and made them without intention. And the good man sighs for his infirmity; but must be content to lose the prayer; and he must recover it when his anger is removed, and his spirit is becalmed, and made even as the brow of Jesus, and smooth like the heart of God: and then it ascends to heaven upon the wings of the holy dove, and dwells with God, till it returns like the useful bee, laden with a blessing and the dew of heaven."

No. VII.

A DEVOTIONAL SPIRIT ESSENTIAL TO THE

ENJOYMENT OF THE PROMISES.

NOTHING is more obvious than that eternal things are not seen in their true light, by the generality of mankind. Men could not act as they do, if they saw eternal realities in the light of revelation. Accordingly, whenever any great truth shines out upon them with unusual clearness, they change, or resolve to change, their line of conduct. They can neither act nor feel as usual, while that truth is before them in its brightness and solemnity. It is master, whilst it can keep on the meridian of their minds. It is, therefore, self-evident, that if all the great truths of the gospel were vividly and habitually before their minds, a change of conduct and feeling would be the inevitable effect. No man could go on in sin

or sloth, who saw, as in sunlight, the fatal and eternal consequences of neglecting the great salvation. No man could "halt between two opinions," who saw the two worlds, Heaven and Hell, as God has exhibited them in his own word. They are not seen in His "light," by any one who trifles with them. It is the light of custom-of convenience-of passion, that is upon eternal things, whenever they are unfelt or uninfluential. The indifference which some manifest, and the indecision which marks others, is, therefore, the exact measure of their spiritual blindness. They may not be ignorant, but what they know they have not weighed nor searched out for themselves. Their knowledge has been forced upon them by circumstances, or picked up by accident and at second-hand. It is not the fruit of searching the Scriptures, nor of serious consideration, nor of secret prayer. They have just light enough to render their indifference and indecision highly criminal, and utterly inexcusable; but not light enough to terminate them, nor even to keep them from growing worse. For it is quite possible for an undecided man to become insensible, and