misnamed by us, is now in our own hearts, condemning evil and reproaching us for yielding to it, and holding out to us a fearful looking for of judgment if we continue in it. Let us listen to Him; He hath come in the name of the Lord to bless us, by turning us away from our iniquities.

The Bible tells us of things which are true in our own hearts, it does not make them true. It is in this respect like a book on anatomy, which describes the various organs of our system, as the heart and the liver, &c., but it cannot make them, nor give them if they are awanting. So the Bible can tell me that the power which condemns sin within me is the living Word of God, in my mouth and in my heart, but it does not put it there-it may tell me that I have a Saviour, but it does not make a Saviour-it may tell me that what I have long known in my own heart under another character, under a false and mistaken character, as a task-master and rebuker only, is really my Saviour and my God; but if there were no such rebuker really in me, this information would be of no use to me.

Persons professing Christianity often speak of the natural conscience, as they call it, dis

respectfully, and yet all the true Christianity that ever finds a place in man's heart must enter through that door. That is the point

of connection between God and man, the place of meeting,-there it is where man either receives God, or rejects Him. What they mean to condemn is the misjudgment which a man, whilst he still lives in the flesh, forms of what the voice speaks within him. The light shineth in the darkness, but the darkness comprehendeth it not. Whilst the

man is living in the purpose to keep his own way and will, he is living in the darkness, and cannot truly comprehend even what he sees of the light; but, when he truly desires to be directed by that condemning light within him, then he comes into the light, and will be enabled more and more to comprehend it. This is the retribution which is continually going on in man's life, and its equity rests on the fact of his really possessing a capacity to take part with, and yield himself either to the Spirit of God, or to the spirit of dark

ness.

Theologians say well when they say that man by the fall lost all power of doing good; but surely they say not well when they do not acknowledge that, through the redemp

tion, this power has been restored, with advantage. For what else can be the meaning of these words, "Where sin abounded, there hath grace much more abounded." And I appeal to every candid reader of the Bible, whether he does not feel that these words might be rightly taken as the sample, and text, and epigraph of the whole book. There is a spiritual seed given through Jesus to every man, at the commencement of his life, that he may trade with it; and according to his faithfulness or unfaithfulness in using it, so is his capacity for receiving a farther blessing. He may at any time turn from his unfaithfulness, and then he is capable of a farther blessing; but whilst he refuses to hear the voice, he is necessarily rejecting all blessings.

The

There is much important instruction on this subject, namely, the fact of man's responsibility and the ground of it, in the 13th chapter of the Gospel by Matthew. continual retribution with which God meets us at every step of the inner history of our own hearts, is very strikingly and solemnly set before us in the reason which Jesus gives for speaking to the people in parables. "It is given to you (the disciples,) to know the

In

mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given; for whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance, but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I unto them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." John viii. 31, Jesus said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." These are the persons to whom it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." John vii. 17. "Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that which he hath;" (Matt. xiii. 12;) that is, whosoever is faithful in using that which is given to him, he shall receive more, and whosoever is unfaithful, he shall lose even that which he hath.

This word which Jesus then spoke, as the reason of the difference of his dealing with the disciples and with the multitude, is the same word which we find given in Matt. xxv. 29, as

the equitable ground of the sentence to be pronounced at the last judgment, on the unprofitable servant who had neglected his talent. The man had a talent entrusted to him to trade with, and he hid it in the earth. There was a voice of God speaking in him, saying, "I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt go, and I will guide thee with mine eye; be not like unto horse and mule that have no understanding❞—so that he might have had a special direction from God at each step, and might have walked in conscious fellowship with God, the whole of the way, and yet he did it not, but being in honour, he had no understanding, but walked as the beasts that perish.

The talent was the true light, and by hiding it in the earth, he made himself dark; and the Judge, in taking it from him, and casting him into outer darkness, only gave him what he had himself chosen, rendering to him his own double. "He seeing saw not, and hearing heard not ;" that is, whilst he had the power of seeing the light and hearing the voice, he used it not, and so threw away the honour in which he was placed. During his life, it was not taken from him, but though it remained with him, and though the power