sanctuary, whilst he persists in sinning against light and conviction.

These solemn facts ought never to be forgotten: but except as tests of character, and warnings of danger, what have they to do with your case? You want to be saved from sin, as well as from the curse. You are willing and solicitous to be holy, as well as safe. It is not because some vice still enslaves you, that you are afraid lest your prayers should not be answered, or that your faith may prove vain. Your fear arises chiefly from what you have been as a sinner, and from what you are as a penitent. The past alarms you by its guilt, and the present by its imperfections. It is not, however, actual nor habitual sinning now, that clouds your mind with doubts and fears. Your present difficulty (and it is a pressing one) is to see how prayers, so imperfect as yours, can be answered or accepted by God, especially as you are not sure that you pray in faith. Here is your chief discouragement: not only all the " plagues" of your heart seem to forbid hope; but you suspect that it is still "

an evil

heart of unbelief;" and, knowing that without faith it is impossible to please God, you are thus afraid at times to hope or pray. And yet you cannot give up either altogether. Well, you have no occasion to give up hoping or praying; for praying with the heart is believing with the heart.

Now

This is, I am aware, merely bringing the matter to the same point again, without any additional proof of the truth of that point. More proof is, however, at hand. nothing can be conceived as more opposite or unlike to unbelief than humble prayer, in the name of Christ, for a holy salvation. Whatever difficulty you may find, therefore in calling such prayer faith, it is certainly impossible to call it unbelief, without violating all propriety. UNBELIEF, even when in its softest form, is careless about salvationindifferent to the Saviour-averse to prayer heedless of holiness, and not afraid of the wrath to come. Unbelief is not ashamed of itself--nor much shocked at sin, except when sin is very gross indeed. Unbelief has no ardent longings after union with Christ or

communion with God. Unbelief does not try to get hold of the promises, nor pray for their fulfilment. Unbelief does not weep at the foot of the cross, nor rejoice to go to the mercy-seat.

This is UNBELIEF. But this is not the state of your mind towards the salvation or the service of God and the Lamb. Almost the very reverse of this is the real state of your feelings and desires. Thank God, therefore, and take courage!

No. IV.

PRAYER, PROOF OF THE WORK AND WITNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

WHOEVER has a praying spirit has both the work and the witness of the Holy Spirit begun within him. All real suppliants are really partakers of the Spirit of grace and supplication. Were this well understood and habitually remembered, by the prayerful, it would both confirm their love to prayer, and settle that absorbing question-Am I born again of the Spirit? This solemn question has often made you solemn. It has occasionally agitated your whole soul. No wonder for "if any man" however moral or amiable, "have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his :" Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom

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of God. Ever since you read those solemn oracles, so as to mark and inwardly digest them, you have felt that saving piety is more than a mere good character, and that personal religion is more than the discharge of religious duties. These "true sayings of God," have turned your attention in upon the state of your heart, as well as out upon the state of your morals. You feel now that you must "be born again," if you would enter the kingdom of God. Your convictions on this point are gone so far beyond those of Nicodemus, that it is needless to say unto you, "Marvel not that ye must be born again." You have ceased to "marvel" at the necessity of a change of heart, ever since you discovered the plagues of your own heart. Any marvelling you ever felt has given place to praying for a new heart, and a right spirit, To be the subject of the work and witness of the Holy Spirit is now your chief concern, and your daily prayer. And your chief fear is, lest that Spirit, whom you have grieved so often, and neglected so long, should refuse to take away the heart of stone, or to give

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