us, which no other consideration could prevent. Thus we reason,-If salvation be an act so free, so full, extended to the dead, to the vile, then I who am the chief of sinners may have hope, for God's eternal purpose may be magnified in me. 1 Pet. i. 2. 1 Cor. vi. 11. It is thus likewise that we obtain a power to propose the doctrine of election to others in a way that corresponds with the Lord's own method. We can do it confidently, because it has been displayed in ourselves. We can do it charitably on the same ground. It furnishes us with hopes towards the most wretched, and with motives for perseverance in seeking the wanderer's soul, knowing that this way of salvation renders man in any state an object that may yet be gathered in by God's invincible power.

The atonement is also most appreciated when its value is learnt through painful mortifying experience. Precious indeed is that blood of Jesus which we believe is able to save such filthy guilty sinners as we now find ourselves to be! Blessed is the revelation of such a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, wherein the defilements which are daily contracted may all be washed away! And whilst combining the sense of sin with faith in this provision, the cry is emphatically uttered, "wash me, and I shall be clean." Psalm li. 7.

Nor less important is the saving estimation of Christ's justifying righteousness, which is obtained through the knowledge of our painful short com

ings. Never do we powerfully apprehend this glorious provision until we are made conscious of the imperfections attending our best works: but when in the midst of every upright fervent pursuit of the divine life, we are convinced that we fail in the measure which God's righteous law demands, then it is that we hail the infinitely perfect merit in which the law is magnified and we are secured.

How otherwise than by the experience of our weakness could we be brought habitually to rest upon the strength of the Lord? How vain are all the theoretic views we obtain of human impotency! how inefficacious the mere convictions of sin, to produce in us simple affiance in the Holy Ghost! Until we are sensible of our helplessness, through the knowledge of our insufficiency, to contend against the smallest sin in our own power, we will not truly accept the covenant proffer of sufficiency in the Holy Ghost. But when we have been made to groan under the weight of corruption; to lament over the wounds and bruises which have attended our independence, and to see how we fall when we attempt to walk alone, we then gratefully accept the arm of our beloved, gladly receive the privilege of becoming strong in the Holy Ghost, and learn to count this part of the covenant design inestimably precious.

If such be the advantages derived from the painful sense of personal misery, surely we shall admit that this dispensation is in love. Let us

therefore endeavour to overcome the dejection which assails us on these occasions, and never be discouraged by the strength of our foes. "Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world." If we wait upon the Lord, we shall renew our strength, and in due time we shall mount up as with the wings of an eagle. Isa. xl. 29. Our God will ere long put a new song into our mouths, and teach us to exclaim with other saints, "Blessed be the Lord my strength, who teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight." Psalm cxliv. 1. There is no evil so much to be dreaded by the Christian as distrust of the issue of the conflict. Such fears are generated by unbelief and always weaken our hands. They are likewise very frequently consequent upon some lurking temptation to insincerity in the warfare. So long as we will rely upon the promise of our God, we have every consideration which may stimulate us to cheerfulness and expectation; for although the Lord bear long with his people's cries, he will avenge them, and that speedily. Luke xviii. 1. Neither is there any heart too vile for him whose work is grace; nor any sin too strong for him whose power is infinite. Let us therefore when distressed by these exercises run unto the Name of our Lord, for He is a strong tower; and patiently wait until he is pleased to sanctify the discipline to our advance in consolation and the joy of faith. Gal. v. 16. vi. 9. Heb. vii, 25.

1

THE HEART'S CONTRITION.

PSALM li. 9.

IN our last view of the soul as brought under the Spirit's gracious operations, we beheld the believer in very interesting and affecting circumstances. Having received the divine unction upon the faculty of his will, and in this grace made uprightly desirous to embrace the service of the cross; and having, as the result of this determination, resolutely entered the scene of conflict, where we saw him encountering his spiritual adversaries in the midst of painful experience : now for the first time made sensible of the strength of his foes, and mortified to discern the weakness of his own powers, the bitter cry of “ O wretched man that I am," bursting from his lips, and desolation of heart attending his anxious steps.

We must now inquire into the result of this mortification: which I conceive to be an advanced experience of a state of deep contrition and brokenness of heart. To some persons who view the subject of Christian exercise superficially, it may possibly appear unnecessary to consider a state of contrition separately from that which we have already traced. They may be disposed to ask, what more is necessary, in order to constitute

a man areal penitent and broken hearted, than that he should be convicted, willing, and abased? To the reflective mind, however, it will appear, that there is something very essential to a truly penitential frame of soul, which has not yet been before us. We have seen how it is possible for a man to be convicted without being willing, and willing without being humbled by discoveries of his own impotency. And it is equally true, that he may be humbled and abased in the knowledge of self, without being really prostrated before God, in what the divine standard will acknowledge as contrition. Many there are who, under the unfeigned persuasion of their own misery, will utter bitter cries and lamentations, who nevertheless are in no degree self emptied: and without some degree of this disposition, there is not any genuine brokenness of heart.

This consideration renders it very important that we understand the grace of penitence in a scriptural light. There is much more belonging to this disposition as a grace of the Spirit than is usually admitted. And error in these subjects is productive of the most wretched consequences to -thousands of souls.

It is true that by repentance, as generally understood, we mean a certain change of mind, or opinion, or judgment, and in some cases an attendant change of conduct. Men, in interests of a temporal nature, may frequently be troubled by a sense of having committed an error of judg