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enemy, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly as Christians, all the consolations of Christ are ours: we may rely firmly on the faithfulness of God: we may humbly trust that we shall be kept by his power, through faith, unto salvation." Having now completed my design in these sermons, it only remains for me briefly to apply what has been said to different classes of persons.

I. The merely nominal Christian must surely see how vain is his religion. His conscience must tell him that he knows nothing of that ardent pursuit after growing holiness, which has been described. He may believe in Christianity, because he was born in a Christian country, or because he has studied the evidences of it. He may be decent in his outward conduct, just in his dealings, amiable in his tempers, kind to the poor, and attentive to certain religious observances. But if this is all; if he has never felt himself to be a sinner before God, the subject of spiritual death; if he has never deeply repented of sin, and, despairing of help from any other quarter, come to Christ for pardon and peace through the blood of the atonement; if he has never seen the necessity of an entire change of heart, and under this conviction earnestly sought the influence of the Holy Spirit of God to renew him in the spirit of his mind; if he has formed no determination to run, with the eagerness of a racer, after the highest measures of faith, love, and spiritual obedience ;-then is he a Christian only in name. He has "a form of godliness without the power."

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"Awake, then, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.' I cannot call on thee to grow in grace, for it is too evident that thou art as yet "without God in the world." But I call on thee to" repent, and turn to God." I call on thee to " believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that thou mayest be saved." I bid thee to CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 113.

remember, that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord;" that "Christ is the way, the truth, and the life; and that no man cometh unto the Father but by him ;" and that " except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God." "To-day, then, if thou wilt hear his voice, harden not thine heart." The course is yet open. Thou mayest yet enter upon it, by the grace of the Holy Spirit; and run, like the blessed Apostle, towards eternal glory. The prize is placed full in view. And all who begin the course of faith in Christ, and go forward in it by constant advances in grace, shall at length receive" the crown of life."

II. The subject of growth in grace may well alarm the declining Christian. Let such "remember how they have received and heard, and hold fast, and repent." Let them be "watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die." You were once simple, and fervent, and holy. You were once separated from the world and its pleasures. You once delighted in communion with God and conversation with his people. You were once diligent, punctual, and watchful in the use of the means of grace. You avoided the beginnings of sin, like poison. You renounced what you found to hinder you in the ways of God. You adorned religion in your family, in the church, and in the world. You walked humbly with God. Your whole soul was in a good measure fixed on pressing forward toward heaven. In a word, you could say, with the apostle, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." what is now your spirit as a Christian? What your vigilance, your spirituality, your love, your holiness? Have you not been gradually declining in your religious character? Is there not some secret de2Q

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cay, which has long been withering all the beauty of your profession, and at last left little more than a shadow of your former self? It may be, you do not now hold the truths of the Gospel in their full and genuine extent, or you may have learnt to pervert them to purposes of licentiousness. Or, supposing your notions remain correct, they are now, perhaps, little more than a matter of speculation. Their life and power áre gone. And what has been the gradual effect of this change on the state of your heart, and on your conduct? Let conscience testify whe ther your dispositions are as holy as they once were, and whether your conduct is as consistent and spiritual. It is true, you may confess your sinfulness, and state many truths concerning the imperfection of the best characters. But is not this now become a sort of excuse for sin? And does it not supply the place of exertion, and watchfulness, and mortification? The active Christian, indeed, makes similar acknowledgments; but then he cannot be easy under the sense of remaining corruption: he loathes it as the most painful disease, and labours to gain a growing victory over it. You, on on the other hand, can remain indolent, dull, and formal: your confessions are rather intended to prove your orthodoxy, and obtain applause, than to express real humility.

Consider, then, "from whence thou hast fallen, and be zealous, and repent." Separate from your secret sins. Enter on a new course of prayer and self-examination. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Pray for the Holy Spirit of God to return to your heart. Your decline began in your closet your recovery must begin there too. Remember, if you watch not, Christ will come upon you as a thief, and you shall not know what hour he will come upon you." Begin then again to run the race set before you. Let a sense of your past miscarriages humble you in the

dust, and lead you to quicken your pace for the time to come. Thus you may hope that God will at length restore to you the joys of his salvation," that he will "heal your backslidings, and love you freely."

III. Young and inexperienced Christians may learn, from what has been said, how much is before them. The danger of their state arises very much from their being, when they least suspect it, "wise in their own conceit." It is most important for them to remember, that they are to be learners all their life; that at present they are only entering on the race, and know scarcely any thing of its real nature and difficulties; that the prime grace of Christianity is genuine lowliness and humiliation of soul; and that there is no more certain way of hindering themselves in their course, than to imagine that they have already completed it. Let, then, the young Christian keep his eye on the character of the Apostle Paul. Let him "count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ;" let him make it his first concern, "to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." In the strength of that Saviour, to whom he will thus be united, let him then fix his whole soul, like the racer in the Olympic games, on growing in faith, love, and obedience; and thus let him eagerly "reach forth unto the things that are before," resolving to prefer to every other pursuit, that of the "prize of his high calling in Christ Jesus."

IV. Lastly, The advanced Christian may derive, from what has been offered, some useful reflections.

1st. How excellent and efficacious is real Christianity!-What other system can pretend to put a man on that ardent pursuit of holiness which has been described? What a solid foundation does it also lay for humility! It is vital Christianity alone, which makes this grace

to be a point of the first moment in the disposition of fallen man; and it is vital Christianity alone, which can produce it: for, as we have seen, while it holds out to the believer every encouragement, and bestows on him the most exalted privileges, it still keeps him lowly in his own eyes; ever sensible of his great imperfection, ever intent on higher measures of obedience, ever dissatisfied with himself, and ever panting after the perfection of holiness in a glorious resurrection.

there is between us and all this blesseduess. Let us "" sufferings of this present life not count the worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us!" Let us be "looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ!" Let the thoughts of heaven warm and animate our hearts as we run the hea

2d. How essential are the doctrines of grace to the promotion of Christian duties!—No man would contend for these doctrines as matters of opinion merely. The reason why Christians contend for the fundamental truths of original sin, salva tion by grace, justification by faith alone, illumination and strength by the influences of the Holy Ghost; in a word, for "eternal life being the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord," is this, that without the belief of these truths there can be no real godliness. It is only by receiving these truths cordially, through the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and acting upon them continually, that a man can enter on the race to heaven, or press forward in it, or reach at length eternal glory.

Vocations,

3d. How obvious a duty is tenderness and forbearance to others!--As we are still imperfect, there will be failings in the best of men; and differences of opinion, and evils of various kiuds, will spring up. Let the Christian then be tender-hearted; forgiving injuries, forgetting pro "bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things." Especially, if any man be overtaken in a fault, let them which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering themselves, lest they also be tempted." Gal. vi.1. Finally, How delightful will heaven be Let us think on the glory, the bliss, the company, the employ ments of that divine abode, which is the prize of our high calling! Let as often consider what a short space

venly race! Let the prospects of glory be our "song in the house of our ed on Christ, our "great high-priest, pilgrimage!" Let our faith be fixwho is over the house of God;" and who, as" the forerunner, has for us entered within the veil." And let us be assured, that, when "Christ, who is our life, shall appear, thenshall we also appear with him in glory;" and there for ever sing, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and

ever. Amen."

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

A FRIEND of mine, who was some weeks since presented to a living, has put a question to me, which I think you so much better qualified to answer than I am, that I resolve to turn it over to you. His query is this: "In what degree ought a minister, appointed to a cure where the peculiar doctrines of Christianity have been either wholly neglected, or negligently stated, by the preceding minister, to bring these doctrines at once before his audience? Should his ministry commence with broadly stating his difference of opinion with some of his brethren; and earnestly inculcating the doctrines of justification by faith alone, conversion by the Spirit of God, the freeness of divine grace, and the practical consequences which flow from these doctrines: or should he begin by stating the points on which he and his new flock are speculatively agreed, and endeavouring to con