gious biography. It is here intended only to mark the wonted stages of that "way which they had not known," by which God is pleased to "lead the blind" to light and life; and not to narrate the incidents which befall each pilgrim by the way. It is enough that these usual stages are passed, to convince the traveller that he is in the right path, and is advancing towards the city of his destined inheritance: or if the spiritual life, like the natural, be compared to a voyage, it is enough that the Christian steers the appointed course, and finds the proper soundings, and observes the first great land-marks, to convince him that he is near, and may hope to reach, "the haven where he would be." And it is to be noted, that any thing more special than this, in Christian experience, is to be learned by personal experience, and not from books. Let no one here expect then, an exact delineation of what may be termed the topography of his own heart. It is better known to himself than it could be to the writer; but better still to his God. For that, therefore, let him look inward upon himself, and upward to the mercy-seat;

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commune with his own heart, and with his God," and thus discover what grace has done for his own soul.

There is one solemn conviction, under which the reader is requested to prosecute all inquiries on this important subject, and that is, that the ordinary grace of God's Spirit is, under the

Gospel, freely offered to all; but that it must be specially appropriated and improved by all, in order to be availing to their salvation. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall. And the great law by which is regulated the continuance and increase, or the decrease and removal of grace, is this" For to every one that hath, shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath."

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CHAPTER II.

THE HONEST AND GOOD HEART.

"But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it."

Thy heart is not right in the sight of God."

"Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to come and seek the Lord."

"Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and

hypocrisies, and envies, and evil speakings, as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby."

To those who are wedded to human systems, the "honest and good heart" mentioned by the Saviour, would, perhaps, give rise to no small degree of speculation. By one class of interpreters it might perhaps be considered as bearing very decisive testimony to the idea of natural innocence and excellence, independently of Divine assistance; while theologians of an opposite school might find it hard to understand and explain, how "the heart" could be "honest and good," before the reception of the good seed of the word, and consequently not indebted to it for its goodness.

God

The triumph of the one, and the difficulty of the other, will vanish, when it is remembered, that, in this instructive parable, the good seed sown is the word of truth, the spoken or preached word, and not the ordinary grace of God. The parable itself contradicts the idea of intuitive religiousness. Righteousness was not the spontaneous growth of the heart, nay, even the very seeds of excellence were not there sown. sowed them; and if he had not, there would have been no spiritual harvest. The "honest and good heart" can be construed into nothing more than a state of willingness to receive and preparedness to cherish, the good seed of the word: and lest corrupt nature should hence take to itself undue credit, it would be easy to prove that even for this favourable state or disposition, it was indebted to the prior care and culture of the Great Spiritual Husbandman.

I shall not contend for a neutral ground in religion a state or territory midway between belief and unbelief, in which we belong neither to God nor the world, neither to Christ nor Belial. This would be inconsistent with his own strong expression" He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad." Still, in many cases, there is something which very closely approximates to this neutrality. The soul is disarmed of positive and active opposition, but has not as yet yielded cheerful, positive,

sporting in the sun-beam at "the noon-day," and brooding over a devoted spot under the dusky cover of the night; although it taints the air, yet has it no individual influence, until it is received into the system; and then, before as yet its symptoms are fully developed, the first ground for suspicion that it is secretly and insidiously at work, is furnished by the fact of a dulness of mind and spirit, a general languor and restlessness, seemingly without cause, and yet beyond control. Even so, when the powerful but not malignant influence of the Divine Word and Spirit is abroad, until it is appropriated, until it takes hold upon the individual man, it is to him as though it were not; and when it does first seize upon the moral system, we see not usually the more marked symptoms of compunction and self-abhorrence, but only a strange and apparently causeless disarrangement of the moral feelings-a vague uneasiness-an incipient change, of which time and results are to show whether it shall be for the better or the worse. In fact, the exhibition of these primary influences of grace are altogether anomalous, and defy all regular classification. The mind and heart are then in their agitation, and it is not until this subsides that we can ascertain the level at which they will stand, or speak with precision of the deposit that will be left at their subsidence.

Among those who have evidently been "pricked