stancy of its actings. Because David was so passionately moved for Absalom, Joab concludes that if he had lived, and all the people died, it would have pleased him well; but that was argued more like a soldier than a logician.”

If your love be constant in its abidings, faithful in its actings, and honest in its character, you need not distrust it on account of certain more burning heats, which temporarily and wickedly inflame the mind. Avoid these as sinful, but do not therefore doubt the truthfulness of your attachment to your Master. True grace may be in the soul without being apparent, for, as Baxter truly observes, "grace is never apparent and sensible to the soul but while it is in action." Fire may be in the flint, and yet. be unseen except when occasion shall bring it out. As Dr. Sibbs observes in his Soul's Conflict, "There is sometimes grief for sin in us, when we think there is none;" so may it be with love which may be there, but not discoverable till some circumstance shall lead to its discovery. The eminent Puritan pertinently remarks:-"You may go seeking for the hare or partridge many hours, and never find them while they lie close and stir not; but when once the hare betakes himself to his legs, and the bird to her wings, then you see them presently. So long as a Christian hath his graces in lively action, so long, for the most part, he is assured of them. How can you doubt whether you love God in the

act of loving? Or whether you believe in the very act of believing? If, therefore, you would be assured whether this sacred fire be kindled in your hearts, blow it up, get it into a flame, and then you will know; believe till you feel that you do believe; and love till you feel that you love." Seek to keep your graces in action by living near to the author of them. Live very near to Jesus, and think much of his love to you: thus will your love to him become more deep and fervent.

We pause here, and pray the most gracious Father of all good to accept our love, as he has already accepted us, in the Beloved; and we humbly crave the benign influence of his Holy Spirit, that we may be made perfect in love, and may glorify him to whom we now present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service.

"Jesu, thy boundless love to me

No thought can reach, no tongue declare;
O knit my thankful heart to thee,

And reign without a rival there:
Thine wholly, thine alone I am;
Be thou alone my constant flame

O grant that nothing in my soul
May dwell, but thy pure love alone:
O may thy love possess me whole,

My joy, my treasure, and my crown;
Strange flames far from my heart remove;
My every act, word, thought be love!".

TO THE UNCONVERTED READER.

Again we turn to thee; and art thou still where we left thee? still without hope, still unforgiven? Surely, then, thou hast been condemning thyself while reading these signs of grace in others. Such experience is too high for thee, thou canst no more attain unto it than a stone to sensibility; but, remember, it is not too high for the Lord. He can renew thee, and make thee know the highest enjoyment of the saints. He alone can do it, therefore despair of thine own strength; but He can accomplish it, therefore hope in omnipotent grace. Thou art in a wrong state, and thou knowest it: how fearful will it be if thou shouldst remain the same until death! Yet most assuredly thou wilt, unless Divine love shall change thee. See, then, how absolutely thou art in the hands of God. Labour to feel this. Seek to know the power of this dread but certain fact-that thou liest entirely at his pleasure; and there is nothing more likely to hum

ble and subdue thee than the thoughts which it will beget within thee.

Know and tremble, hear and be afraid. Bow thyself before the Most High, and confess his justice should He destroy thee, and admire his grace which proclaims pardon to thee. Think not that the works of believers are their salvation; but seek first the root of their graces, which lies in Christ, not in themselves. This thou canst get nowhere but at the footstool of mercy from the hand of Jesus. Thou art shut up to one door of life, and that door is Christ crucified. Receive him as God's free gift and thine undeserved boon. Renounce every other refuge, and embrace the Lord Jesus as thine only hope. Venture thy soul in his hands. Sink or swim, let Him be thine only support and he will never fail thee.

BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THOU

SHALT BE SAVED.

VIII.

LOVE'S LOGIC.

"The upright love thee."-SOL. SONG, i. 4.

THE motives of love are in a great degree the measure of its growth. The advanced believer loves his Lord for higher reasons than those which. move the heart of the young convert. His affection is not more sincere or earnest, but it is, or ought to be, more steadfast and unvarying, because experience has enabled the understanding to adduce more abundant reasons for the soul's attachment. All true love to the Redeemer is acceptable to him, and it is to us an infallible evidence of our safety in him. We are far from depreciating the value or suspecting the sincerity of the warm emotions of the newly enlightened, although we prefer the more intelligent and less interested attachment of the well-instructed Christian. Let none doubt the reality of their piety because they are unable to mount to all the heights, or dive into