color and character. Worship is the language of the heart -right, if the heart is right-wrong, if the heart is wrong. Our meditation of God should be profoundly reverent— adoring-of ourselves, humble, repentant, abasing. Of prayer itself we should think, not merely or chiefly as duty, but as privilege as the means of obtaining blessings. We have done nothing, when we go through the form ever so seriously, if we get no answer. It is the channel of communication with God. We get by prayer, grace, pardon, and eternal life, if at all. Our meditation must take in their vital importance.

We must pray for proper objects, expecting to receive. Prayer is unmeaning without this. We should expect the best gifts, because they come from God. It is worthy of God to give them. It pleases and honors him, that we expect great things at his hands. He has promised, and we insult him by doubting. Our ill-desert has no part in the matter, and we must rise above its influence by

Faith. This is the victory of faith. The greater our guilt and ill-desert, the more gracious the pardon the more glorious the mercy of God. We must "meditate" of him as a great King, of princely liberality-as claiming praise for clemency and forgiveness.

We should inculcate on our hearts lessons of lowliest humility. We are guilty-helpless-unprofitable-hell-deserving-unfit to speak to God-to look toward his throne. All this we must feel deeply-overwhelmingly, so as to make us dumb—prostrate in the dust-only stammering, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Spare, for thy mercy's sake." "Show compassion, that thy name may be praised." And from this depth of despair must we rise to undoubting confidence" come boldly to the throne of grace," "believing that we receive." This is the condition of success, and a hard condition it would be, but that "God is our strength." "Our meditation" must recognize him as such. Through

Him we can "do all things." We can pull down strong-holds -can bear temptations-can perfectly love him—can turn away from all sin-rise above all weakness-rejoice in all pain and loss. This is the secret, and the power of faith. It enlists Omnipotence on the side of our weakness. It brings Infinite Wisdom into our counsels.

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Finally, our "meditation" must dwell on Him as our Redeemer"-the propitiation for our sins-the Captain of our salvation-our Intercessor and Priest. In him we find pardon, and are as just persons before God. Through him our sincere, humble offerings are fit to be received of God. We have refuge in him and cleansing. The more distinctly we recognize Christ and his great atonement, the more powerful and "acceptable" will be our prayers.

XXIX.

GOOD WORKS NOT GROUNDS OF ACCEPTANCE, BUT MEASURES OF REWARD.

Rich in good works: ready to distribute, willing to communicate. Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.-1 TIM., vi., 18, 19.

THIS text inculcates the duty of engaging in good works habitually and on the most liberal scale, on the ground of their connection with future happiness. It thus involves the celebrated question about the value and efficacy of good works, on which so many books have been made, and so many controversies held-a question which, to this day, divides the Christian Church into parties, and stamps large denominations with their most distinguishing peculiarities.

The true scriptural doctrine will be reached by the two propositions :

Good works are not grounds of acceptance;
They are measures of reward.

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The true and only ground of a sinner's reconciliation with God, and acceptance into the divine favor, is the atonement of Christ, and God's free, sovereign grace exercised on that account; and there is no point on which the divine honor is more jealous and uncompromising. By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." "Not of works, lest any man should boast." The boon of the divine favor is too precious to be given in exchange for such performances as ours. Not by silver and gold-not by perishable goods, but "by the precious blood of Christ." "Ye are bought with a price."

As good works are not the grounds of our acceptance, neither are they agents or instruments in it, or preparations for it. Indeed, they have no religious character at all previous to our acceptance, which is solely by faith in Jesus Christ. Our entire character, our whole history, previous to that event, is sinful; and faith alone, by which we are justified, can redeem our best actions from the taint of our fallen nature. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin."

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Our acceptance, then, has no connection with any good works-with any act or quality on our part but repentance and faith. It is God's free gift to the believer, made to him for Christ's sake alone. The sinner is likely to find a Savior-the troubled one peace, with a readiness and satisfaction proportioned to the deep conviction to the clear apprehension he has on this point. He offends God and insults the Savior by the slightest thought that he presents some consideration for the boon sought in his good character or works.

Yet good works are, in the divine economy, and through grace, rewardable. The Bible is full of this doctrine, and we are not at liberty to overlook or slight it. We are accepted through Christ's merits alone, and, through the same mer

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When we have done all, Our Lord is under no obli

We have only done what it

itorious provision, the acts of obedience and charity which we perform are accepted also, and become the means not only of our growth in grace, but of enhancing our future happiness. Men are to be judged "according to their works." A cup of cold water given to a disciple in the name of a disciple shall not lose its reward. The alms-deeds of Cornelius the centurion came up before God as a memorial. I have said it is through Christ's merits alone that our good works are rewarded. They have no inherent merit. we are unprofitable servants." gation to thank us or reward us. was our duty to do. All this is true, yet God will do what he has promised, and we shall be rewarded according to these works. The glories of the future will be proportioned to the Christian virtues of the present. "He that sows sparingly will reap sparingly." Through God's infinite mercy by Christ, we are allowed to sow on earth for a future harvest. Whether the crown of our eternal rejoicing shall be bright or dimshall glitter with many or few stars, depends on ourselves. We can lay up a "good foundation against the time to come,' or neglect it. We can insure a rich inheritance, or we may defraud ourselves of countless treasures.

I can not help thinking that this scriptural doctrine ought to be more insisted upon. It by no means endangers the gracious character of the dispensation under which we live. It is itself an extension of it, since our best works can have no merit but through the infinite merit of Christ. We must not lose, through fear of imaginary danger, the benefit of one of the strongest incitements to duty, and one perpetually urged by the writers of the New Testament as well as by our Lord. In God's economy, all good actions are rewarded; they make heaven more joyful-they enrich eternity. Men thus "lay hold on eternal life.” They lay up treasure in heaven." They provide friends "to receive them into everlasting habitations."

The view here taken of good works tends to produce a deep impression of their importance in the divine economy. "Herein is my

God's own glory is promoted by them. Father glorified that ye bear much fruit." Christians are God's representatives in the world, and his honor is intrusted to their keeping. The intelligent universe forms, and must form, its opinions of the Creator from His works. Man, the

noblest of them all, has betrayed his trust and dishonored his master. Should the universe form its notions of God from our sinful, selfish career, it would think lightly of his wisdom, and purity, and benevolence. God has a peculiar people, however, of whom he is not ashamed. They are lights— cities on the hill top; they bear His image, and they “are spectacles to men and angels." They represent God. They are Christ's agents and embassadors. He is never so honored as by those who do most good. The piety of the heart is not enough for this purpose. It can not be seen if it proceed not to good works. Here is the sphere and medium of manifestation. Men who "see our good works glorify God." The infidel must admit that this is religion, pure and undefiled, "to visit the widow and the fatherless in their affliction"—to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, teach the ignorant-train the rising generation to knowledge and holiness. God expects us to honor him in this way. We are false to

his honor if we do not. The man who, "according to what he hath," does most, most honors God. He will have us “abound in this work of the Lord-rich in good works""bring forth much fruit." Every benevolent effort, every pious gift, tells here, and swells the tribute paid by the Church below to its ascended Head.

The importance of "good works" in God's scheme is farther seen in the fact that his plans are left dependent on our co-operation. He is a God of benevolence, and will have all wants redressed, and yet he has allowed the world to be full of misery. There is bread enough, and to spare, and