change, many a man has, by great spiritual effort, broken loose from some evil habit and become entirely changed. And, with the Word of God in my hands, I dare not deny the possibility of sudden conversions. The first step in any great act of reformation must be taken in a moment; and in the return of the soul to God, the first step is one of the most important. Could anything have been swifter than the act of mind that brought the dying thief home to God, and gave him a peace that passed all understanding? Could anything have been more sudden than the act of mind that transformed Saul the persecutor into Paul the preacher ? And it may be so with some whom I address. You may not merely cry, with so many, "O that I had wings like a dove," but you may even now return to God who is your rest. One look to Jesus will do it, and the unrest of a life-time will give place to joy and peace in believing.

And what are the wings that bear the soul to its rest? We can understand how the dove wings its way homeward. We can understand how the wanderer returns home-but how does the soul get back to God? or, in other words, how does the soul become reconciled to God, and how does it realise deliverance from trial? To this I answer, the soul returns to God on the wings of faith. A great modern critic has given a beautiful description of the dove's wing; but no language can sufficiently describe the nature and simplicity of faith. It is on the wings of faith that the soul makes much of its progress in knowledge; and for the most important of all knowledge, the knowledge of the way of salvation, it must make use of the same means, for that is the revelation from God Himself. In order to reach some distant land, we must have perfect confidence in the directions of those who have already visited it, and have furnished us with all the necessary information. And in order to return to God, we must attend to and believe the directions given us in His word, which are so plain that "he who runs may read." And what are these? The way to heaven lies through the valley of repentance, past the cross of Christ, into the highway of holiness. The truth revealed for the salvation of the sinner is the good news of the Gospel,that the love of God has provided, in the death of His Son, an atonement for the sin of the world; and pardon is offered to every individual who trusts the work of Jesus for his salvation.

Thus it is that the penitent soul may mount, in a moment, from the pit of ruin to the rest of home, and the prodigal may return home on the wings of faith with swifter motion than

the dove to its rest. Then come and be at rest. Do not delay. Come, rise up from your sin and worldliness, from your vanities and follies, and, with the wings of a dove, fly away and be at rest.

Again, the soul is borne to rest on the wings of hope. I have heard that the blind do often in sleep receive their eyesight, that is, in sleep-life, the pictures presented to the mind are those impressed on it when they enjoyed their sight; and they take pleasure in dwelling on these old mind-pictures. A man acts in a somewhat similar manner. When his life is compassed with care and sorrow, when he is brought through severe trials, he rises on the wings of hope, and, viewing the land of rest and peace to which he is fast travelling, he anticipates the joy of perfect rest. Like Moses, he climbs his Pisgah, and views the good land into which he will soon enter. How easy it is thus to escape from the sorrows of the present. The body may be imprisoned, but the soul flies away on the wings of a dove to its rest. A prisoner in Patmos, John soared on the wings of hope, and experienced the peace and joy of heaven. Bunyan's soul had many a happy flight into heaven when he sat in his cell in Bedford Gaol, and from many a sick bed has the wearied spirit been borne, on the wings of hope, to the mansions of the Father's house.

And lastly, the soul separated from the body will rise on angel's wings to God. The hour dreaded by so many is the hour expected by the Christian. It is the time when his desire is about to be fulfilled. Often has he cried, in weariness and distress, "O “O that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away and be at rest," and now he gets them. Death removes all hindrances. Death the doors of the cage, and the soul mounts to God. opens Blessed be God for the assurance, that the glorious life of His people will begin at death; that, when the heart ceases to beat, the spirit wings its flight to God. The one moment, the sufferer has cried, "O that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away and be at rest;" the next, the free spirit has entered into rest; for, says the Book of God, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours." That, indeed, is to come; but to all of you, I do once more offer a present rest, the earnest and the foretaste of the eternal. To all of you, I do once more address the Master's invitation, " Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

CHRIST OUR ADVOCATE WITH

THE FATHER:

A SERMON.

BY

REV. JAMES FENTON, M.A.

DUNDEE.

"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world."-1 JOHN ii. 1, 2.

THE Christian life is variously regarded by the New Testament writers as a walk, a race, a warfare, a passing through the fire, and a fellowship. These expressions suggest to us appropriate analogies between our natural life and the workings of our spiritual nature. What a man experiences in his struggle for life in the world, the soul experiences in its struggle for life in God. This experience, in its relation to God, is aptly described as a walk or fellowship with Him; and, in its relation to our spiritual aims and difficulties, as a race, a warfare, a passing through the fire.

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Now, although our spiritual life is all these and more, and although all these views of it may have been occasionally present to the minds of the New Testament writers, yet each of them has his own favourite view of it, to which he often returns. To Paul, for example, whose life was an intensely active one, and whose mind was of an argumentative cast, it is especially a race and a warfare. "So run, that ye may obtain," he says. Forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark." "Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life." And when, as the close of his earthly career drew nigh, he looked back upon the years he had spent in the service of his Lord and Saviour, he still regarded them as a time of warfare and pressing forward under difficulties, -"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have

kept the faith." To Peter, again, who was of a fiery and impulsive nature, the spiritual life was a passing through the fire. It is he who writes, "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ." "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you." And, as if all outward nature were but a symbol of the believer's inner life, he reveals to us that the new heavens and the new earth will appear only after the old have passed through the fire. "Seeing, then, that these things shall be dissolved," he says, "what manner of persons ought ye to be, in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for, and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." And now to John, the writer of this epistle, the spiritual life was, above all things, as it was to Enoch, a walk or fellowship with God. He it was, you remember, that leaned upon the bosom of our Lord as they reclined at the Last Supper; and the idea of nearness to Christ, which this act suggests, was that which rose above all others in the mind of John, as he thought of the countless blessings of a Christian life. This is clearly shewn in the preceding chapter of this epistle: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." To John, all believers were but one society or brotherhood, having fellowship one with another, through their common fellowship with a Heavenly Father and His Divine Son. They were one family, under one Father, admitted to everlasting communion with the Father through the one Mediator Jesus Christ. This fellowship, you will observe, is possessed by the believer here and now. Truly our fellowship is with the Father;" not shall be. Doubtless, it shall be enjoyed also in the new heavens and the new earth, but it begins now. No sooner do we rest upon Christ for our salvation than the Father begins to commune with us, and we with Him. This same truth is again taught us by John in his gospel: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life," hath it now, though not in that fulness which shall be enjoyed in a state of perfection hereafter. And this is everlasting life, to know,-to have an intimate acquaintance, a close and near fellowship with,-" the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." This, in

John's view, is the chiefest glory in a believer's life. Nothing can for a moment be compared with the joy of knowing that, even upon earth, the Father and Son are with us, revealing to us by degrees the blessedness of a sinless character and the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom, talking with us by the way as we journey on towards our everlasting home. This is what our spiritual life ought to be—a walk with God in light, where there is no suspicion, no misunderstanding, no distrust. And this it shall be in perfection hereafter. But alas! it is not altogether this upon earth. There are occasional misunderstandings on our part; for we sometimes think that the Father has forgotten to be gracious, and that His dealings with us in providence and grace are not actuated by love. And there are occasions when the Father does leave off communing with us, and retires within the veil into His holy habitation. As He says in Jer. xl. 47, "I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage, I have given the dearly-beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies."

I. The fact and presence of sin.

Now, whence come these misconceptions and hard thoughts on our part, and these withdrawals on the part of God? Whence come these breaks in our fellowship? From the presence of sin in the believer's soul. Sin is darkness, while God is light. And "what communion hath light with darkness?" "God is light," says John, "and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth." While the sun is shining upon this side of the globe, we have light; but away on the other side it is night; because the whole earth lies between it and the sun. And so, between the unregenerate man and God there lies the whole world of evil, with its depths of corruption and mountains of guilt; accordingly he walks in darkness, and, except he be brought back to the light, darkness must be his everlasting portion. But even over him who has been brought back and may, in general terms, be said to walk in the light, there hangs an occasional gloom. Why is this? Not that God the Light has lost His power, but because sin has risen like smoke, or the vapour which forms the clouds, and dimmed to his eye the lustre of the Divine glory. It is sin in the believer's heart which produces mistrust and disagreement, and, since "two cannot walk together except they be agreed," his walk or fellowship with God is, for the time, clouded or broken off. The apostle, knowing