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see a man that told me all that ever I did; is not this the Christ ?”—Yes, he is the Christ: the book which reveals this, is the word of God-the religion which proceeds on the knowledge of the human heart, is the true religion. Your general impression of awe and confidence, produced by the perusal of the Bible, is now deepened into some personal conviction of sinfulness. The single part of it which you have taken and verified by your own state and character, gives you an assurance that it is the word of God, more practical and of another kind from that which sprung from the general comparison of the parts of the Revelation with each other, and your discovery of its unity, harmony, and high end. You have now found out your disease, and are in a way to a cure. You now see how unreasonable was your former state of mind, when you had only an educational prejudice in favour of Christianity, when you cherished doubts, and rested satisfied in ignorance of the Bible and of yourself. You see also the unreasonableness of the conduct of others, who are acting now as you yourself once acted. You see how entirely their aversion from the holy character of God, and the humiliating doctrine of man's apostacy from him, springs from that very depravity which they deny, and accounts to you for their negligence and unbelief. You see, in a word, that this one truth of man's corruption, opens the whole state of the world, of the heart, of the scheme of redemption, of the necessities and the miseries of man, of the ends and importance of Revelation.

But I hasten

III. To offer another direction. PRAY FERVENTLY TO GOD FOR HIS GRACE TO ACCOMPANY YOUR ENDEAVOURS.

Careless and profane people never pray; the proud and thoughtless never pray; the supercilious inquirer never prays. Formerly you never prayed. You may have admitted generally, on the footing of natural

conscience, the obligation of prayer to God, the Creator and Preserver of all men. You could not help in theory admitting this, especially with the reflex light of Christianity cast about you. But you never prayed. You may have addressed the supreme Being in a form of devotion; but you never prayed. You may have uttered a sigh of anguish, a bitter complaint, an insulated application for some temporal deliverance; but you never prayed-that is, you never besought Almighty God in earnest for spiritual benefits. You never fervently and humbly begged of God, as the Father of mercies, for the blessings of instruction, spiritual strength, the forgiveness of sins, salvation.

But now you are prepared and disposed to this duty. You want to make the trial of the sacred influences of Christianity. You want to get rid of doubt and hesitation, and to feel the obligations of revealed religion. You are struck with the general impression of the Bible. You are penetrated with the view which it presents of your own heart. There is a sympathy now created, or rather beginning to be created, between the truths of Revelation and your state of mind.

Study, then, in the next place, what the Bible says on the subject of prayer. Make the prayers found there your own. Turn to the Book of Psalms, and say from your own heart, "Lord, open thou mine eyes, that I may see wondrous things in thy law."" "Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God; thy Spirit is good, lead me into the land of uprightness."

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Open the Prophets. Pray with Isaiah, "Let me come and go up to thy mountain, O Lord, to thy house, O God of Jacob; and do thou teach me of thy ways, that I may walk in thy paths." "" Pray according to the promise in Ezekiel, "Give me, O Lord, a new heart, and put a new spirit within me, and take 10 Psalm cxliv. 10.

9 Psalm cxix. 18.

11 Isaiah ii. 3.

away the stony heart out of my flesh, and give me a heart of flesh." 12

Go to the Gospels. Read the blessed Saviour's promises made to prayer; especially of the gift of the Holy Spirit" Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For if ye, being evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven, give HIS HOLY SPIRIT TO THEM THAT ASK HIM. Approach, then, and make your prayer; ask, seek, knock. Pray especially for the Holy Spirit to assist, to illuminate, to renew you; to produce in you all those effects which in your reading of the Bible, you observed were produced in the first Christian converts.

your own.

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From the Gospels, proceed to the Acts of the Apostles; read the inquiries, the prayers of the true penitents. Make those inquiries and those prayers Say with the hearers of St. Peter and the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do ?" 14 Say with the Philippian jailor," Sirs, what must I do to be saved ?" 15 Fall prostrate before the Almighty with Saul of Tarsus, and say, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" 16

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Then open the Epistles, and pray, as St. Paul does for the Ephesians, "That the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened :"17 or as the same apostle for the Colossians, "That you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." 18

Proceed thus in tracing the spirit of prayer diffused through the Bible, and adopt the forms there left for your direction. Prayer is the attitude in which revelation would place you. All its blessings are granted

12 Ezek. xxxvi. 26.

14 Acts ii. 37.

16 Acts ix. 6.

18 Col. i. 9.

13 Luke xi. 9-11.

15 Acts xvi. 30.

17 Eph. i. 18.

to prayer. Approach God thus, though it be with feebleness, with conscious demerit. You must depend upon his grace in your religious inquiries, as you must depend upon his providence in the natural duties and concerns of life. If you desire to make an experiment of the promises of Christianity, you must do it in the prescribed method; that method is self-renunciation-prayer for grace-sense of demerit-acknowledgment of weakness and guilt. If you come to the Bible in pride, you will depart empty away. The great God is not to be mocked, to be contemned, to be insulted by a worm like man. If he condescends to make promises of inward effects on the heart, of a seal of peace and consolation, of answers to prayer, of an experimental knowledge of the blessings of Christianity, these can only be had in a way of humility and supplication. They must be sought, not demanded; implored as a boon, not exacted as a right; obtained in the spirit of penitent contrition, not seized with the hand of presumption and self-conceit.

But I need not dwell on this. The discoveries you have made of your own heart, have levelled in the dust the high tower of pride and self-justification which you had built up, and have brought you to penitence. You are prepared to seek, with the eagerness of a beggar imploring an alms, the bounties of the divine grace. Already you begin to pray. Your heart desires, and expresses what it desires. Religion interests you. You feel your wants. All is in progress for your satisfaction.

IV. Let me advise you, in the next place, to wait for the gradual attainment of what you seek IN THE USE OF THE MEANS WHICH GOD HAS PROMISED TO BLESS, AND IN THE CONSCIENTIOUS PRACTICE OF DUTY AS YOU DISCOVER IT. The more you

study the Bible, the more you will see that you are placed in the midst of a system of means; that you

are under a moral government; that God bestows his blessings upon the waiting soul; that nothing can be done hastily or mechanically, but that we must act as reasonable and accountable beings, and humbly expect the blessings promised in the way prescribed. You are now prepared for this. Prayer is" waiting upon God, the attending daily at his gates, the watching at the posts of his doors." 19 Probably the idea you once formed of religious experience, was that of something violent, sudden, distinguishable at once from the operations of your own mind; something involving an irrational and unaccountable excitement; such is the notion which "the disputer of this world"20 forms of the experience of religion. You find it very different: you find the influences of grace are gradual, soft, imperceptible at the time, congruous with the rational nature of man, and chiefly to be traced in their effects; and yet mighty and efficacious; for as the wind "bloweth where it listeth, and we hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit."" In these means of grace-that is, in prayer, in reading God's word, in attending the public preaching of the gospel, in the conversation and advice of the pious-you must wait for further light; and you shall not wait in vain. In the expectations thus raised there is a pledge of their fulfilment.

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In the meanwhile, delay not the time to do what you know to be your duty, and to avoid what you know to be sin. "To him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God," the Almighty's promise. In doing the divine will, a thousand things will become more plain, and a thousand difficulties will sink before you. In attempting obedience, you will perceive more sensibly the truths already believed; especially that of your own corrup19 Prov. viii, 34.

21 John iii. 8.

20 1 Cor. i. 20.

22 Psalm 1.23.

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