PRESS FORWARD. The disciple of Jesus desires to be perfect; to be more and more conformed to the image of Christ. He presses after this. It is his grand inquiry, how to be, and how to live, more like a child of God.

Mark the way of the upright. As you trace his steps through this dreary pilgrimage, sometimes he wanders from the path; sometimes he halts and tires. His progress is far from being uniformly rapid, and often far from being percep tible, either by himself or others. Sometimes his motion is retrograde. There are seasons when, instead of advancing, he is the subject of great defection. Still it is true, that on the whole, he advances. If you compare his present state and character with what they were a considerable length of time past, you will find that he has made gradual progress. I know there are seasons-dark and gloomy seasons, seasons of guilt and declension-when the real Christian will make this comparison at the expense of his hopes. Be it so. Seasons of guilt and declension, ought to be seasons of darkness. I know too that there are seasons, when he is liable to discouragement, because he does not always experience that light and joy which crowned the

day of his espousals. This is a serious error. There is a glow of affection, a flush of joy, which is felt by the young convert, as he is just ushered into the world of grace, which perhaps may not be felt at any future period of his life. And you cannot from this draw the inference that he has made no advance. All this may be true, while there is a power of feeling, a strength of affection, in the saint who has passed through the wilderness and knows the trials of the way, to which the young convert is a stranger. As he ascends the mount, his eye is fixed; his step is more vigorous; and his path brighter and brighter. He remembers his devious steps, and how he traced them back with tears. But the trials of the way are forgotten. He is rising to that brightness of purity, which "sheds the lustre of eternity" on his character, and aiming at the crown of righteousness which fadeth not away.

Here then is another test of the genuineness of your religion. I am aware that it is a severe one. But it is one which bears the seal of truth; and we must not shrink from it. Professing Christians are apt to place too much confidence on their past experience, and think little of the present; to think much on what they imagine

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to have been their conversion, their first work, and then give up the business of self-examination, and allow themselves to droop and decline. But the question is, what is your present character? "Grace is the evidence of grace." know it is true, that he who is once a Christian is always a Christian; but it is also true, that he who is not now a Christian never was a Christian. Examine yourself, therefore, and see whether you be in the faith. The best evidence in the world that you are, is that you grow in grace.

Now apply the principle. Have you, on the whole, since you first began to hope that you were united to the Lord Jesus Christ, been growing in grace? The question is plain and decisive...

Do you never hunger and thirst after righteousness? Do you never see the seasons when you are conscious of the most sensible desires after increasing conformity to God?

Do you never feel the burden of remaining corruption, and ardently desire to be delivered from its power? Do you never find you never find your heart

drawn out in fervent supplication for sanctifying

grace, as well as pardoning mercy?

Do you now desire to press forward, to renounce every thing, and to take God for all your portion? Do you strive to live nearer to Him, and are you resolved to persevere to the end, in a life of faith in Him who loved gave himself for you?

you and

If you can ingenuously answer these questions in the affirmative, you are not destitute of evidence, that you have passed from death unto life. But if you know nothing of all this, cast away your vain confidence. No man living in spiritual sloth, and making no new advances, ought to flatter himself that he is inte rested in the blessings of the great salvation. The man who is satisfied, because he thinks he is safe; who feels that he has religion enough, because he thinks he has enough to save him from hell; is as ignorant of the power, as he is a stranger to the consolation, of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

ESSAY XV.

PRACTICAL OBEDIENCE.

You have no right to call me, Lord, Lord, saith the Saviour, unless you do the things which I say. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. You cannot claim the character, you cannot share the privileges of my people, without yielding a cordial, an habitual and persevering obedience to the divine commandments.

After all that can be said of the nature of the Christian graces; after every effort to discriminate between true religion and false; the spirit of obedience to the Divine commands is the grand test of the genuineness of our faith. By their fruits ye shall know them. The plain and decisive