should give thanks; what have we that we have not received?

And if we have been strengthened against our natural corruption for any painful and self-denying duty; reproving sin, going contrary to the course of this world, crossing our previous inclination, and sacrificing our worldly interests, here is fresh cause of praise and gratitude to him who has strengthened us with might, by his Spirit in the inner man.

And if, after all our rebellions, all our backslidings, all our grievous falls, and the dishonour we have put on his name by our inconsistencies, we are still in the way to Zion, with our faces heavenward, more humbled, but more decided-more sensible of sin, but more firm for God-oh, to what can we attribute it but that God has upheld us by his free Spirit! Let us, then, give all thanks to his great and glorious Let us glory in the Lord alone.

name.

And if he has given us his Spirit so far, what joyful hope should it excite for the time to come! Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Christ. What exulting hopes should this seal and earnest of the Spirit raise within us! The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God. The work of the Spirit is the very beginning of the glory to come. All our aspirations after God, our desires of conformity to him, our concurrence in his plans, our oneness of mind with him, what is it but the very seed of a future tree of glory, which, however it may be buried and die here, will rise, and grow, and spread with everlasting beauty and majesty in the coming kingdom of Christ, at the resur

rection of the saints, on the speedy return of our Redeemer ?

THANKSGIVING TO GOD.

Glory be to thee, O heavenly Father, for all those inestimable blessings which I have received through thine own Spirit.

Thou hast taught me to see, in the works of creation and in every living being, the power of thy Spirit: thou sendest forth thy Spirit, and they are created. I will sing, then, unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises unto my God while I have my being.

I magnify thee for that love of the Spirit which raised up holy patriarchs and prophets, apostles and evangelists, and gave them the word of inspiration to be a light to our feet, and a lamp to our paths.

I thank thee, O Holy Ghost, for all those mighty works which they wrought, that we might be sure that it is thy word which they have delivered to us.

More especially to thee, O Holy Ghost, be all praise for that wondrous love to which we owe the incarnation of our Divine Redeemer, and his being anointed with thy grace without measure to work miracles, and to offer himself without spot to God, and that he was declared the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead. And thanks, unutterable thanks, be unto thee, that thus Jesus became the Mediator to convey to us sinners the unsearchable riches of thy grace.

Thou hast opened my eyes to see this thy love, and my own great blindness, and hardness of heart, and perverseness, in slighting and rebelling against so

much love. O more and more come into my heart! shed abroad there the love of God; humble me more; fill me with the sense of the loving-kindness of God our Saviour towards me; that I may, with full purpose of heart, cleave to him, and live wholly to the praise of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three persons in one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

CHAPTER IX.

CHRIST, OUR LIFE.

1. The actual Condition of Men.-2. Our Recovery in Christ.--3. The Life which we have in Christ.-4. The Receiving of Christ.— 5. The Risen Life on Earth.-6. The Power by which this Life is sustained.

1. THE ACTUAL CONDITION OF MEN IN GENERAL. THERE is a life peculiar to the genuine Christian; and unspeakably important for our present and final happiness it is that we should know what this life is, and enter into its reality and blessedness, in our own actual enjoyment of it. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son hath not life: such is the scripture testimony. To guide and assist you in attaining this life will be the object of several successive chapters, beginning with Christ, our life. We will first give an account of our loss of this life.

Let us notice the actual facts now existing in

the sight of every one. Sin is the defect of perfect obedience to God's will, and all mankind are, without exception, thus sinful with respect to their Crea

tor. This is not confined to any particular class of men, or to any particular nation. All have done what, in their natural conscience, however little that may have been enlightened by the knowledge of his will, they knew to be wrong before God. We appeal to every conscience in proof of this. There is an universal tendency to sin; the cause must be general which produces so general an effect. The nature of a thing must be judged by its effects-universal sinfulness proves man's universal tendency to sin. All have sinned from their early youth, continually, and progressively. As soon as a child begins to act he begins to sin, and if left to his natural disposition without restraint, goes on in sin. We find the same evil tendency through all the periods of life. As we know that a river steadily proceeding, and growing stronger and deeper as it flows, must have springs by which it is fed, so are we sure that a constant and growing tendency in man must have original sources of evil. The fact that all men sin in spite of the clearest convictions of reason, proves the same truth. See the idolatry of so many millions of our race. See the natural carelessness of every mind, even in Christian lands, to spiritual things. See their dislike to communion with God, and their alienation of mind from him.

Look again at this stream of sin swelling over every boundary and check with which, in the providence of God, it has been met. The deluge, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the separation of the Jews for God with astonishing miracles; their captivity, their deliverance, the gift of God's only Son to die for sin, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the fulness of God's word, the taking of a people out of