verts, "boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering."

But against this faith Satan directs his utmost enmity. He leads men to doubt the efficacy of our Redeemer's sacrifice, to think little about it; to trust rather in their own good deeds, than in the imputed righteousness of the Saviour's obedience. And this is the hardest struggle we have to undergo. For when once our faith is firm and settled, its fruits will necessarily spring up and abound in a life of piety and devotion. Men too often imagine, that it is the easiest thing in the world to believe. Now the fact is the very reverse of this; for every believer has experienced, that nothing is more difficult. He has found it easier even to subdue his passions, to observe the moral law in all its branches, than sincerely and unhesitatingly to believe, with all his heart and all his soul, in the efficacy of that one great atonement for sin, made on the hill of Calvary. Like the afflicted parent in the gospel, who besought our Lord to drive the dumb spirit from

his son; many a time has he exclaimed, whilst the conflict between his faith, and the doubts by which the tempter has sought to weaken and destroy it, has been going on; "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." Hence then, we may determine, whether our faith be that true and lively faith, that living principle of gratitude and love, which overcometh the world and has for its end salvation; or whether it be a mere speculative acknowledgment of a truth which we dare not deny, but which we receive with thankless and indifferent hearts. For we may rest assured, that, if our faith never has any conflicts to sustain; if it lies dormant as it were beneath the surface, and receives no shock from the many foes by which it is assailed; if it never feels itself called upon to stand in its own defence, and resist the insidious artifices of the foe; such faith is but faith in name, and not that, through which we may be made wise unto salvation. Depend upon it, the believer's pilgrimage is a toilsome and a stirring one; one in which every faculty of his soul must be engaged, every hope of his heart interested. And you may be as certain, that, where the work of salvation never costs you a moment's thought, never puts you to a moment's pain, God is not working in you, nor are you, to use St. Paul's emphatic language, "labourers together with him."

To what purpose then do these observations tend? To a double one, my brethren. They may, by God's help, rouse the lukewarm and careless from their danger. They may persuade the secure and high-minded to mistrust the strength of their own resources, and flee for help to that only city of refuge, which God has appointed for the sinner's shelter. And should there be one hearer before me, who doubts the efficacy of the Redeemer's atonement, who looks to him with no eye of faith and love; they may, perhaps, soften his stubborn heart, and bring him before the footstool of that Saviour, in whom he has hitherto refused to believe, with the contrite ejaculation of the apostle "my Lord and my God." And they may also serve to convey comfort to some weary pilgrim, whose heart is ready to faint, and spirit to fail, in the conflict of faith in which he is engaged; because they may convince him, that the very anxieties and fears which assail him, are precisely those of which the apostle spoke in the text, and against which he exhorted his disciples to " quit themselves like men." Fight then," my brethren, "the good fight of faith." Be not disheartened by any dangers that may assault, or fears that may afflict you. Transfer to your spiritual labours, the diligence and zeal, which you now employ only in those of a temporal nature. Satan indeed is watching

you with a malignant eye, in the hope that your feet will stumble, and your hearts be dismayed. But be of good courage; there is another eye which never slumbers, resting upon you, an arm which is never weary, upraised to help you. The Redeemer, in whose mercy you confide, the Eternal Son of the Eternal God, who, wondrous and unspeakable as the mystery is, has bought us with the price of his own blood, is reigning ever in heaven, to bestow a crown of righteousness upon those, who "have fought the good fight," have finished their course with joy, and kept the faith until the end.

SERMON XIX.

1 THESSALONIANS V, 21.

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good,

THE desire of religious knowledge is a sentiment necessary to the soul's health of every member of a Christian, community. Each individual amongst us is, or at least ought to be, equally interested with his neighbour in this hunger and thirst after righteousness. The Scriptures tell us plainly that we are justified by faith alone. How necessary, then, is it for us to know what is that faith, through which our imperfect service will be accepted by God. That, from want of a due and impartial consideration of this saving principle, men are led into strange and perilous errors, the testimony of our own experience sufficiently shews. The great and precious truths of salvation through the merits and atonement of the blood of Christ, are presumptuously denied by no