THE CHARACTERISTICS

OF

A TRUE STATE OF GRACE.

ST. PAUL, in writing to his beloved Timothy (2 Eph. i. 12), exultingly exclaims, "I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." By this he intends to say, 'Such is my decision with respect to the person of Him to whom I firmly cling; my investigation is terminated; I know the rock of my salvation.' He is no longer in doubt how it is with respect to himself, or concerning what he has to expect in futu re he is most vitally conscious of his acceptance with God, and already beholds his crown of life laid up for him in the safest keeping. Admirable and enviable state!—a state in which the individual binds death and Satan to his triumphal car, and victoriously soars above the sorrows of this present state, like the solar eagle above the mists of the Alpine vales. Our soul thirsts also after such a state, and in these sultry and oppressive seasons, more than

ever.

Truly, it is an excellent thing that the heart be established. We have recently selected a path, calculated to conduct us nearer to this blissful aim. The object is serious and important, and we felt ourselves incited to attain to it by the eventful period in which we live. We universally felt, in the most lively manner, that in this critical and dangerous season, everything depended upon being firmly assured of our faith-of our having an immutable ground of consolation and of hope to stand uponand of being able to walk safely and stedfastly upon it. We therefore resolved to undertake a revision of our most essential convictions, and the basis on which they rested; to inspect the armour in which we intended to face the troubles of the future, and the terrors of approaching death; and especially subject the fundamental articles of our faith-the article of the infallibility of Scripture, of the existence of a living God, and of a Saviour who is personally near us-to a new examination, in order to ascertain, with certainty, whether they are founded upon a reality, and may be depended upon, or otherwise for we were fully conscious, that we had now to do with a vital apprehension of these elements of the Christian religion, and that he who is firmly rooted in them will overcome the world and every foe.

We therefore proposed a threefold question. We inquired whether the Bible-this basis of our

consolation—was in reality only an uncertain and wavering foundation, as thousands at present assert; or whether it indubitably legitimated itself in all its parts as a Divine revelation. We inquired, whether those doctrines, which are dearest to us, and serve more especially as a resting-place for us in this stormy period, are in fact, as many would induce us to believe, only phantoms of the imagination, and human inventions, or whether they are founded on the word of God. We inquired, whether the reasons by which we feel justified in numbering ourselves with the people of God, were really destitute of stability and of demonstration; or whether we had judged correctly. You know the cheering results at which we arrived by investigating the first of these points. We found that the Scriptures, in more than one respect, bore the impress of an immediate Divine revelation on their forehead; and that, to express it in the mildest terms, it was irrational to refuse credence to them. You know how the second question was decided, so that our most estimable articles of the propitiation of Christ, justification, and of our preservation in grace, were founded in the most unequivocal manner upon the letter of Scripture. The truth of the object of our faith, therefore, is placed beyond a doubt. We know in what, and on whom, we believe. But the third question still remains unanswered. Are we justified in reckoning ourselves amongst the child

ren of God and the heirs of heaven? This we shall now investigate. May God grant that we may arrive at equally as pleasing a result with reference to this point, as we did with regard to the others!

2 COR. xiii. 5.

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ?

THAT to which the Apostle urges us, in the words we have read, is the duty of recollection, introversion, and self-examination. He calls upon us to prove our own selves, and ascertain whether we may correctly number ourselves with God's people, or are only so in name, and belong to those that are without. Let us, therefore, listen to the Apostolic admonition, and undertake this most serious occupation, whatever the result may be. We do not inquire of any human system, nor of traditionary doctrine; but of the word of God itself, whence it is that we may infer that we are really in a state of grace; and after having ascertained it, we will try our hearts by the criterion we have found, and judge of ourselves according to it.

Which are, therefore, the characteristics of a true state of grace?,

In replying to this question, we will consider,

I. The characteristics which are not requi

site;

II. Those which are insufficient ;

III. Those which are satisfactory, and at the same time indispensable.

I.

First of all, my friends, a word of consolation to us all. There have been, and still are, those who, from ignorance of the Scriptures, seek to render the appropriation of the evangelical promises dependent upon conditions, which we must reject as unscriptural and extravagant. Such persons assert that we must attain to great heights in spirituality, before we can number ourselves with the children of God. Acccording to them, we must purchase the consciousness of Divine adoption by the performance of certain moral obligations which no one on earth ever accomplished. If we are terrified at the difficulty of such superhuman requirements, and anxiously exclaim, 'Who then may believe that he is saved?' we receive the discouraging reply, 'Truly, only a few;' and the church of God is represented to us as an olive-tree after the harvest, with here and there a berry-but all besides is only fuel for the flame.

Persons, who, though they have an idea of the holiness of Jehovah, are still ignorant of the article of justification by faith, may easily be led to