reason worthy of his highest admiration, is also transcendently delightful as an exhibition of the glories of Him who formed that plan in the counsels of eternity. But the Being who is thus revealing himself on every side, in forms of wisdom and beauty and love, makes the Christian long to see more of his superlative excellency, and excites within his breast an irrepressible desire to stand, and gaze, and adore, in the unveiled presence of the Heavenly Majesty.

2. A second cause of the Christian's thirsting for God is found in his love for the Divine Being. We do not of course love every thing we admire. But in the case of the Christian, admiration and affection for God always co-exist. Yet the two states of mind are distinct, and each one is a separate cord drawing the saint upward to the bosom of his heavenly Father. As the beauty and glory of the Divine attributes inspire a longing after God, so does love. But love is much the stronger influence. Admiration of God is the gratification of the natural sentiment of taste a pleasure like that which we derive from viewing a master-piece of art; and this admiration would doubtless be felt by every human being, could he be brought to contemplate the Divine perfections apart from his relations to the Divine government as a sinner. But love to God is a very different thing. It has reference to no one property or attribute in particular, but to the whole being of Jehovah. It is a certain sweet complacency in God, a delightful satisfaction in him as suited to the nature and wants of the soul. It implies that the soul sympathizes with God, and is happy in him as a friend whose natural and moral qualities it approves and loves to contemplate. Love signifies an indefinable union to the object of affection, which union, although indefinable, is conscious, heartfelt, voluntarily perpetuated, and blissful. The abstract nature of the emotion is the same in all cases of cordial attachment between intelligent beings, however it may differ in intensity, or in its moral quality. It always has the property, if circumstances admit, of drawing the person loving into the society of the person loved. In the instance before us, the renewed man is habitually attracted towards his God by the mysterious power of a holy affection. He longs for the Divine presence, that he may sit and gaze on Him whom his soul loveth. He thirsts for communion with God, that he may indulge in that free and delightful outpouring of heart before him, which so refreshes the spirit of a sympathetic being. He deeply desires a smile of love from Him whose favor he deems better than life. He feels that the society of the perfect God would render him happy to the extent of his capacity; that companionship with God would be consummate bliss. Unsanctified men are charmed by the inferior objects of earth, by wealth, honor, pleasure, or some endeared fellow-creature.

But the Christian's heart inclines to God as his source of supreme delight. Under the power of temptation he may seem for a season to forget his Maker, and to be insensible to his most sweet attractions. But he will assuredly break away from the evil snare, and rise again to luxuriate in the presence and fellowship of Jehovah. He cannot be long detained from this fountain of pure and heavenly joy. Absence from Him on whom his best affections rest embitters existence, and makes him cry out, as David did, "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?"

3. This thirsting for God often arises from a lively sense of Divine goodness in the dispensation of both temporal and spiritual benefits.

Under the teaching of the Word and Spirit of God, the Christian learns to regard all his blessings as the fruit of the lovingkindness of the Lord. From the same sources he also learns his own utter unworthiness, and the infinite exaltation and adorableness of the Giver. And these considerations all combine to form in his mind the most enlarged idea of Jehovah's love to him. That such a being as God should grant even the smallest favor to so guilty a creature as himself is amazing; but the pouring of an unbroken stream of mercy and tenderness on him, from the cradle to the grave, is love that surpasses all power of description. But if the blessings strewn along the daily paths of life are so unspeakable, how can the gift of eternal salvation be adequately expressed? Now, all this goodness of God causes the Christian's heart to swell with the liveliest gratitude to the infinite Author of his happiness. But gratitude demands expression, and awakens a strong desire to behold the beloved benefactor. Accordingly, the grateful heart of the Christian thirsts for the presence of his bountiful and most gracious God, that he may praise him for his matchless love, and enjoy a near vision of his transcendent excellence. What Christian is he who does not delight to bow before his Maker, and offer up to him the most warm-hearted thanksgiving for his unmeasured munificence? What Christian is he who has not, at least occasionally, an intense longing to see that wonderful God who, although seated on the throne of supreme dominion, yet deigns to notice and bless the sinful children of men of whom he is one?

4. The thirsting for God of which we are treating often springs from the Christian's deep sense of his wants as a sinner.

Of every true child of God these three things may be affirmed: he feels his guilt in the sight of God; he hates his sins; he finds he pursuit of holiness an arduous and sometimes a discouraging work.

Impelled onward to a stern conflict with every kind of iniquity,

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he makes alarming discoveries of his own guilt and weakness, and so learns his great need of help from the Lord his strength. He is conscious indeed of an unfeigned love of holiness, but, alas! the remains of his former depravity, and that moral weakness which depravity has induced, retard his progress towards that heavenly perfection for which he toils, and so oppress his heart as to elicit many a deep-drawn sigh for the presence and communion of God. He cannot relinquish the hope of attaining holiness and heaven; but so busy and artful is the infernal tempter, so many and powerful are his inward corruptions, so feeble are his purposes, and so multiplied and various the evil influences of the world, that he is too often forced almost to despair of success, and to feel that, if saved at all, he will be only scarcely saved. But in the midst of all his darkness and despondency, the Holy Ghost, whose temple he is, directs his thoughts to God, and reminds him that help may be found in Him. And most ardently does he thirst for the comfort which the presence of his Maker will afford. Most sincerely can he adopt the sentiment of the hymn:

"Oh that I knew the sacred place
Where I might find my God!
I'd spread my wants before his face,
And pour my woes abroad.

"I'd tell him how my sins arise,
What sorrows I sustain;

How grace decays, and comfort dies,
And leaves my heart in pain,"

He is sinful and imperfect, but that God to whom he lifts his longing eyes is absolutely holy, and has boundless strength. In the mere thought of such a Being he finds his courage and strength renewed; but if he could approach the very presence of Jehovah and tell him of his numberless sorrows, then, he thinks, he would find a complete and sweet relief from all his troubles. Hence he thus addresses himself: "My soul, wait thou only upon God, for all my expectation is from him. Thou art nothing but a poor, feeble, guilty thing, and must perish if left alone; but thy God will sustain thee and comfort thee, if thou wilt but look to him with persevering faith. Hope thou in God, O my soul, and speedily he will shed about thee the rays of his presence, and satisfy thy deep and ardent thirst."

5. The Christian's thirsting for God is frequently produced by a conviction of the inadequacy of his inward sources of happiness, and of the unsatisfying nature of all sublunary enjoyments. Conscious of deep cravings, he yet plainly sees that in himself there would be nothing equal to his wants, even if his nature had not been impaired by sin. his desires, now that all his powers are vitiated by his parStill more unable is he to satisfy ticipation in the universal sinfulness of our race. Neither as

he is, nor as he will be when made perfect, can he supply the large demands of his soul for happiness. He knows he cannot be fully satisfied in himself, however his powers may expand in the progress of his existence. God has endowed him with capacities for enjoyment which no internal resources can ever fill up. But his external means of happiness are equally insufficientfar from commensurate with his wants. Nothing on earth can make him completely blessed. No means of sensual pleasure, no intellectual treasures and employments, no social institutions, no one of all the comforts and joys of this life, nor all of them most felicitously combined and made as permanent as his own existence, can by any possibility meet the demands of his soul, and obliterate all sense of want. These things will render him happy in a degree, but he longs for something in addition to them all. God has made him for some other, higher enjoyment, and he has discovered the fact by his own experience.

On both these accounts, then, because of the limited resources of his own nature, and because of the comparative emptiness of all earthly pleasures, he thirsts for God as the only exhaustless fountain of delight. In Him he knows there is a fulness of high and holy blessedness which the universe besides cannot afford. Therefore he panteth after God. He longs with an intense outgoing of soul for the presence, fellowship, smiles, and love of his Divine Parent, as the only objects within the entire range of created and uncreated things that can actually satisfy his immortal desires. He feels that he was made to be happy, supremely happy, in God, and to be miserable without God, even though he were owner of the world. Therefore, when led away from this fountain of living waters by the force of some evil propensity, as he returns from his waywardness he is pained not only by keen remorse for his iniquity, but by bitter self-reproach and shame for his folly, because a little reflection would have taught him that to wander from God a single step, is to leave the most pure and exalted joy for the beggarly elements of wretchedness and woe. And all such experience should serve to bind him more closely to his Maker, cause him to dwell more constantly under the shadow of His wings, and to derive his most delightful pleasures from that communion with God which is freely allowed to every faithful follower of Christ.

6. This thirsting for God is a consequence of the afflictions which the Christian is called to endure.

It is an ordinance of God that every child of Adam, the Christian as well as others, shall suffer many sorrows. They are incident to every sphere of life; no combination of circumstances can exclude them,-no forethought, care, and prudence can forestall them. But afflictions, although as keenly felt by him as by other men, cause the Christian to look upward to God for con

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solation and relief. He does not, indeed, undervalue human sympathy and aid, nor is he unaffected by the consideration that his sufferings will in due time come to an end. He knows that the richest balm for all his sorrows is in God, and that the Divine Physician can make even his wounds and bruises a means of health and vigor. Therefore he greatly desires to be admitted into communion with Jehovah, in order to find rest and refreshment from the weariness of life, alleviation of all his woes, and grace to turn them to the profit of his soul. He doubts not that God sympathizes in his trials far more deeply than his fellowmen, that he understands the, nature and degree of all human misery, that he is a compassionate Father especially to the children of his grace, and that he is infinitely skilful in healing the griefs of the broken spirit. Hence he thirsts for God.

Affliction also forcibly reminds the Christian of his sins, humbles him in view of them, and so brings him to God in confession and supplication, aud the most sincere and earnest expres:sions of sorrow, faith, and love.

Affliction, too, recalls the earthly sufferings of the blessed 'Saviour, and melts the heart by affecting remembrances of that redeeming love which made him willing to undergo such deep and dreadful woes for the sake of sinners worthy to perish.

Such, then, are some of the causes from which result that powerful longing of the renewed soul which the pious Psalmist styles "panting, or thirsting, after God."

II. Let us now proceed to the other main division of the subject, and consider the means by which the Christian seeks to gratify this spiritual thirst.

On this topic we remark in general that the Christian resorts, for the purpose now stated, to all those modes of communion with God which Scripture and an enlightened and sanctified reason suggest. Among them are—

1. The studious reading of God's Word. The Bible is a revelation of Jehovah to man, and as such is to be regarded as the voice of the Deity whispering in the ears of his earthly creatures. In this book are made known the perfect will of God, and the way of salvation; and in these, so fully set forth as they are, there may be seen reflected the glorious image of the Creator. The Christian, then, studying the Word of inspiration in all its parts and mutual connections, with that spirit which prompted the language of our text, will feel that he is having intercourse with God, that he is looking in on the Divine mind, and reading the wonderful workings of that mind towards the children of men. As he discovers a new doctrine, or takes a novel view of a familiar one, his heart is delighted with the discovery, as revealing to him fresh knowledge of his adorable God. Nor does the study grow irksome, for while it gratifies his thirsting for God, it