and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven;" when we bless his holy name for those who are departed from this life in his faith and fear; when we look onwards to those who shall fill our place on earth when it shall know us no more, when with hearts yearning towards those whom we are now endeavouring to bring up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, we hope for the day when we together with them, may be admitted to his presence, and say "behold me and the children whom thou hast given me," then the truth writes itself on our souls, that verily there is a holy universal church, as members of which we have fellowship one with another, and that truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with the Son, and with the Holy Ghost. I have now done what I proposed to myself, in commenting on such words and terms of the Creed, as I thought might thus receive light on their force and meaning. You will remember that on more than this I did not now offer to venture.

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At the end of the repetition of the Creed in the catechism, the learner is asked-"What dost thou chiefly learn in these articles of thy belief?" To which he answers. "First, I learn to believe in God the Father, who hath made me and all the world. Secondly, in God the Son, who hath re

deemed me and all mankind. Thirdly, in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me and all the elect people of God." Children themselves may here notice that the parts here stated as respectively belonging to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are joined to their names, not because they are declared in words in the preceding form of belief, for this is not altogether done there, but because they are the truths respecting them, which we gather from scripture, and which this question serves suitably to bring forward. They may also notice that the world, that is the universe, the same as heaven and earth in the Creed, was at one past act made by the Father, that out of the world or universe, all mankind were redeemed by one past act of the Son, and that out of all mankind, the elect, or chosen people of God, are continually in the progress of being sanctified, or made holy, by the present operation of the Holy Ghost.

Brethren, of all matters, those of which I have now been speaking, bring down and humble the spirit, for they pass man's understanding. It is awful, with the weakness of human reason, to dare to discourse on the being and nature of God. In approaching such points, well may we cry, Who is sufficient for these things? Thou art in heaven and we are on earth, and I am of unclean lips.

Most sincerely am I convinced how feeble and poor has been my attempt, to make better understood by you, some points in your profession of faith. Still do I hope it may not be altogether worthless. At any rate you may have been reflecting on the truths which you avow. You give them assent or credit.

Well-but is this full faith or belief? By no means. The deep and original sense of faith is the making real and actual what the mind understands, the first import of belief is the giving life or vitality to what the imagination conceives. Never allow faith to be degraded into the mere understanding and admission of a barren truth. The belief which you profess should be that, according to which, man with the heart believeth unto righteousness; that which by grace and God's gift, is made the way to salvation. Great indeed is the work of faith, from which, as suits our present subject, let us single out, and for a moment notice, that it is the life-giving principle of obedience, and leads to the keeping of God's holy will and commandments. By faith the child is prompted, when, having learned its duty to God and its neighbour, it is led, according to its own simple language, to do as it is bid; by faith the Christian of riper years is shielded and supported, when on being tempted he ex

claims,-How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? Faith has to fight its course through the world, and in this life perpetually to do battle against the powers of sin and hell. But though its march be noiseless, though, like as with Him who is its author, its voice be not heard in the streets, though its action be so gentle as not to break the bruised reed, and its step so soft as not to quench the smoking flax, yet doth it go forth, conquering and to conquer. In the outset it is enlisted under the banner of the Saviour, and in the end, "who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"

ON THE CHURCH CATECHISM.

LECTURE III.

OBEDIENCE. THE COMMANDMENTS.

MATTHEW Xix, 17.

"If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."

THE foregoing words are from the mouth of the Lord Jesus himself, and seem particularly suitable for heading a discourse on the scriptural rules of human duty, known as the Decalogue or Ten Commandments. They plainly belong and apply to those very rules, which therefore acquire the utmost conceivable sanction and obligation. As these commandments are confessedly opposed to all sin, and as the observance of them is thus solemnly enjoined on the man who would enter into eternal life, a stop in the first place is set at once against the daring and deadly presumption that Christians have any liberty to sin, because they are not under the law, but under grace. From the passage of scripture where this text is