labors. But he will never again put his works in the place of Jesus, as his Saviour from sin.

This traces in lines clear and distinct on our chart, one of the by-ways-that of works for others as a means of sanctifying ourselves.

Another is that of looking to books, or men, or both, for the light of the way which God alone can give.

Another is that of taking a bold stand for stigmatized truths and unpopular reforms, as a means of humbling ourselves in the dust, and so of sanctifying ourselves to the Lord.

Another is that of increased punctiliousness in the observance of rites and ceremonies, and all the minor matters of the law. The anise-and-minttithing way of the Pharisees of old, and the tractarian way of the Pharisees of our own day, upon the principle that perfection, in external sanctity, will sanctify the heart.

Another is that of praying for the Holy Spirit to come and work in us some certain states of mind and heart which we imagine to be sanctification, or holiness, seeking to be made consciously holy. Praying for the Spirit and prescribing to Him His work. Whereas, when he comes it is to work according to his own good pleasure -not according to ours--and to make us conscious of our unholiness, that we may find our holiness in Christ, not in ourselves.

A DELIGHTFUL WORK.

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Now to illustrate these by-ways one by one, each by a life sketch, would be easy, and not without interest and profit, but it would require a volume almost.

There are those who have tried nearly every byway of them all run each out in turn to the bitter end of disappointment, before finally going to Jesus as the way. One such would give us a complete chart of them all in the single sketch of his own blunderings. Such a one is at hand.

THE PASTOR.

He is no blunderer either, in other matters. Few more careful, or wise, or discreet, than he. Abundant success in his pastoral work shows that. And yet he calls himself, as we shall have occasion to see in the end, in view of the long succession of blunders he made in his efforts to learn the way of sanctification experimentally,—a fool. How and when and where he was convinced, is not at all essential to our chart. Possibly it may have been in connexion with a very delightful work amongst the students of another of our Theological Seminaries. Such a work there was, and in it many of the young gentlemen came to see and understand the way of sanctification by faith, and to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and the pastor knew much of this work and commended it publicly. It would be a glorious thing, if from year to year, each and all

of our schools of the prophets could be baptized in

this way.

Possibly it was the conscious leanness of his own soul which made him hunger and thirst for the precious things of God. Not that he was not a devoted Christian and minister. There was no apparent lack of this kind. Indeed he was far more than most others a faithful, earnest, tender, thorough, pastor and preacher, and for this very reason, he would be the more likely to feel deeply his own want of this very experience of the way of sanctification. Those who are most earnest in pressing forward, come soonest into the light, which reveals their own pollutions. The laggards among the prophets, are not apt to have visions of God in his exalted purity and glory making them exclaim, "Woe is me! for 1 am a man of unclean lips." Such a vision with the live coal from the altar to take away our sins, would be a blessing of unspeakable value to every ambassador of Christ, and there are many who would welcome it, gladly. Perhaps it was the increasing desire to do good, and to learn the way to gain the power from God to do it. Such aspirations are indeed angel visitants-not few or far between-in the pastor's heart.

But, however it was, at the time our sketch commences, the pastor had become deeply convinced and was earnestly longing for the experience in question. He was a student, and student-like, his first resort was to books. Whatever his own library contained,

or the book stores could supply, or other libraries could lend, he got and devoured, upon the subject of the higher forms of Christian experience. He pored over the memoirs and writings of the most noted in each of the three classes we have named. "Lutheran," "Wesleyan," and "Oberlinian." He ranged about and fed with the greediness of Pharaoh's lean kine, and gained - as much—but no more by it. He read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested, the experiences of all he could hear about, who had found the way to the tree of life and fattened upon its twelve manner of fruits but he was lean as ever.

His church had reason to know something of this. If he devoured books as the silk worm does mulberry leaves, for his own food, it gave material for the pulpit and the prayer meeting, which like the cocoons of the silk worm, the people had occasion to spin and weave into close fitting garments for themselves. Like others who write bitter things against themselves, he of course told his people over and over, that they were no better than they ought to be, and were in great need of a deeper work of grace as well as himself. Like Leigh Richmond under conviction, unconverted but preaching, he preached his people into convictions like his own, but had no power to point them the way out; for as yet, and for a long while, he did not know it himself.

Meanwhile, he wrote to the living, or visited them, from whom he hoped to receive light. But neither the illustrious dead by their memoirs, nor the living by their words, could give him the fight of the way of life. They could tell him what to do- could tell him to consecrate himself, and to believe; but they could not make him understand. The Lord alone could do that, and he had not yet learned to go as a child and ask the way.

Strange we are so slow to learn that the Lord alone can open the eyes of the blind, unstop the ears of the deaf, and set the prisoner free!

All books, like the book in the Apocalypse, are sealed, until they are opened by Him who sits upon the throne. And the living teacher, though he were an Isaiah, is no better than the dumb, until our ears are opened by the Lord to hear, and our hearts to understand his words. The word of God itself, is only a dead letter to us, until we look to the living Saviour for light, and he then makes it a quickening spirit.

The pastor failed to look to Jesus directly for the light, and so every book from the Bible downwards failed to give it to him.

Baffled in this quarter he turned to another. His next movement was that of humbling himself by taking a bold stand for unpopular truths and reforms. Pulpit and platform and press, groaned under his appeals. He challenged the world to say what it pleased about him, and let them know that