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rivalry with that which welcomes the returning prodigal. Answer these two questions, we beseech thee, What doth it profit thee to sin against God? and, What shall it profit thee, at last, if thou shouldst gain the whole world and lose thine own soul? Will a few carnal merriments repay thee for unnumbered woes? Will transient sunlight make amends for everlasting darkness? Will wealth, or honour, or ambition, or lust, furnish thee with an easy pillow when thou shalt make thy bed in hell? In hell thou shalt be if thou hast not Christ. Oh! remember God is just; and, because he will be just, PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD!

V.

JOY AT CONVERSION.

"The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad." Ps. cxxvi. 3.

"O love, thou bottomless abyss!
My sins are swallowed up in thee;
Covered is my unrighteousness,
Nor spot of guilt remains on me;

While Jesus' blood, through earth and skies,

Mercy, free, boundless mercy cries.

With faith I plunge me in this sea;
Here is my hope, my joy, my rest;
Hither when hell assails I flee;
I look into my Saviour's breast;
Away, sad doubt, and anxious fear!
Mercy is all that's written there.
Fixed on this ground will I remain,
Though my heart fail, and flesh decay;
This anchor shall my soul sustain,
When earth's foundations melt away,
Mercy's full power I then shall prove,
Loved with an everlasting love."

He who dares to prescribe one uniform standard of experience for the childron of God, is either grievously ignorant or hopelessly full of self-esteem. Facts teach us that in the highway to heaven there are many paths, not all equally near to the middle of the road, but nevertheless trodden by the feet of real pilgrims. Uniformity is not God's rule; in grace as well as providence he delights to display the most charming variety. In the matter of conversion this holds good of its attendant rejoicing, for all do not alike sing aloud the same rapturous song. All are glad, but all are not alike so. is quiet, another excitable; one is constitutionally cheerful, another is inclined to melancholy: these will necessarily feel different degrees of spiritual ecstasy, and will have their own peculiar modes of expressing their sense of peace with God.

One

It is true, God usually displays unto the newly regenerate much of the riches of his grace; but there are many who must be content to wait for this till a future period. Though he dearly loves every penitent soul, yet he does not always manifest that love. God is a free agent to work where he will and when he will, and to reveal his love even to his own elect in his own chosen seasons. One of the best of the Puritans hath wisely written, "God oftentimes works grace in a silent and secret way, and takes sometimes five, sometimes ten, sometimes twenty years-yea, sometimes more—

before he will make a clear and satisfying report of his own work upon the soul. It is one thing for God to work a work of grace upon the soul, and another thing for God to show the soul that work. Though our graces are our best jewels, yet they are sometimes at first conversion so weak and imperfect that we are not able to see their lustre." All rules have exceptions; so we find there are some who do not rejoice with this joy of harvest, which many of us have the privilege of remembering.

Let none conceive, therefore, that we think our book to be an infallible map from which none will differ; on the contrary, we shall feel happy if it shall suit the experience of even a few, and shall break the chains of any who are enslaved by the system of spiritual standards set up by certain men against whom it enters its earnest protest. Like the tyrant Procrustes, some classes of religionists measure all men by themselves, and insist that an inch of divergence from their own views must entail upon us present and eternal severance from those whom they delight to speak of as the peculiar people, who through much tribulation must enter the kingdom of heaven. Thus much by way of caution; we now proceed.

The style of our last chapter scarcely allowed us to ask the question, Whence this happiness? or if it suggested itself, we were too much in haste to

express our gladness to reply to the inquiry. We will now, however, sit down coolly and calmly to review the causes of that exceeding great joy; and, if possible, to discover God's design in affording us such a season of refreshing. Those who are now mourning the loss of the peaceful hours, sweet still to their memory, may perhaps be cheered by the Ebenezers then erected, and by them may be guided again to the Delectable Mountains. Great Light of the soul, illuminate us each while meditating on thy former mercies!

I. We shall discuss the causes of the happiness which usually attends a sense of pardon. The study of experience is one far more calculated to excite our admiration of the wisdom, love, aud power of God than the most profound researches which contemplate only the wonders of nature and art. It is to be regretted that master-minds have not arisen who could reduce a science so eminently practical and useful into some kind of order, and render it as rich in its literature as the science of medicine or the study of mind. An exceedingly valuable volume might be written as a book of spiritual family medicine for the people of God, describing each of the diseases to which the saint is subject, with its cause, symptoms, and cure; and enumerating the stages of the growth of the healthy believer. Such a compilation would be exceed

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