verted so cares for and cleaves to before it experiences conversion? It is the present evil world—the creature the things of sight: it is selfish gratification, and sinful self-indulgence; it is the three great sins of nature "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life:" these are its idols these its cares and occupations. Mark this progress of sin in its first great exemplification-Cain, and his posterity. Cain "went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod"-the land of wandering: here was the act of departure. Cain there builded a city, and called it after his son's name: here was the pride of life. Lamech "took him two wives; and Jubal, the son of one of them, invented musical instruments-the harp, and the tabret, and the viol to be thereafter in the feasts of those who regard not the Lord's operations: in all this we have the lust of the flesh. Tubal, the son of the other wife of Lamech, invented laborious manufactures, in the which men have ever since "risen up early and late taken rest, and eaten the bread of carefulness:" herein was the lust of the eye. And in these three channels of creature-enjoyment and employment was the second principle of sin: the heart departed from God formed its idol in the creature. Then the third act soon follows. God sends his curse on that idol, and makes that creature, judicially, the instrument of moral depravity. The two great overtures of moral turpitude in man's use of the creature are lust and blood-guiltiness: Cain stands forth as the first human murderer; Lamech, besides that iniquity, heads the list as the first adulterer.* This it is, then, to which the heart of man has turned. It has gone away from the Creator, and then turned to the creature; and that, moreover, in its forbidden and degraded use. "All we," says the prophet, "like sheep have gone astray;" and then-"have turned every one to his own way." Having lost the light of the Divine countenance, men go up and down in the world, saying "who will show us any good?" Having "changed," says the apostle, "the truth of God into *See Gen. iv, 16-24. a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, God gave them up to vile affections-gave them over to a reprobate mind."* This is the state of mankind. But the grace of God, which is by the gospel of Jesus Christ, pursues his wandering creature, and overtakes him in the journey of life, and arrests his career of vanity, and claims his departed affections. Then he is turned from those objects of carnal interest and caused to return to God. From hastening downward to hell in the broad road of destruction, his face is turned Zion-ward, and his purpose God-ward, in the narrow path of salvation. And this is effected by the two great moral levers which work for God in the gospel, and by which it is exactly adapted to be a dispensation to man as a fallen but a voluntary agent. These are the motive of gratitude and the overture of power. The former is to work in man's heart, when the dying love of the Redeemer is exhibited to his attention, connected with a view of his own undeserving and apostacy. The latter is the strength of the Holy Ghost, purchased by the suffering of Jesus "even for the rebellious,"+ that the weakness of the creature might be countervailed by the arm of the Almighty, and his sinful dispositions be subdued in him, and his carnal will be converted. This is the meaning, then, of the term conversion ;-the heart is turned from the creature as its idol and sinful occupation-it is returned, through Divine grace, by the means of the motive of gratitude, through the manifestation of power, to God from whom it had departed. Then the distracted, empty, unsatiated spirit attains to the end it was created for, and finds, in a manifested present God made known through the Manhood Word, the fountain of life and happiness, the treasury of help for its fallen circumstances, the stay of unshaken confidence, and the only indestructible dwelling-place of its permanent, eternal repose. 2. It remains that we add to this view of the proper meaning of conversion a summary of the parallels of scriptural Is. liii, vi. Psa. iv. 6. Rom. i. 25, 26, 28. + Ps. lxviii. 18. 66 66 66 a -re interpretation. Simple citation shall suffice for it. Conver sion is interpreted in Scripture by the following names and emblems. It is called being "born again”—becoming " new creature"-being begotten by the word of truth”being reconciled to God"-being "brought nigh by the blood of the cross"-" repenting"-" awaking out of sleep" -“turning from dead works to serve the living God”— ceiving 'a new heart and a new spirit—a heart of flesh instead of" the natural heart-" the heart of stone."* It is described as the becoming "a Jew inwardly by the circumcision of the heart”—as the "being quickened,” that is, raised to life, when "dead in sins and trespasses❞—as the having "the blind eyes opened," and the deaf ears unstopped to "know the joyful sound"- -as the being "foreknown, predestinated, called, justified, and glorified."+ Yea, it is represented as the being "risen with Christ"-" sitting with Christ in heavenly places"-having "Christ dwelling in the heart by faith," and "formed within as the hope of glory"-becoming, in fact, a “habitation for God through the Spirit"that "Spirit to dwell with us, and be in us," and the Father himself and our Lord to "come unto us, and make their abode with us." In short, induction is endless. The same may be said of this, as of the answer of prayer to believers, for in truth they are one," exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us."+ II. Let us come to our second particular. Reducing the subject of conversion, as it stands represented in Scripture, to matter of prevalent experience, we have to lament, and proposed to account for, its small comparative attainment. To those who are candid and, at the same time, seriously thoughtful enquirers, who have not accustomed themselves to follow the beaten track of the average order of minds, by receiving principles they know not wherefore, and adopting habits they * John iii. 3. 2 Cor. v. 17. James i. 18. 2 Cor. v. 20. 17, 23. Eph. iii. 20. Eph. ii. 13. Rom. viii. 30. John xiv. know not why; but who have made it their practice to take the word of God in its broad, veracious statements, and then to compare it with actual experience in human life surrounding them;-to such it will immediately, on reading the Scripture statements of the greatness of the work of conversion in the ancient times, be matter of notice, and cause of deep lamentation, and subject of earnest enquiry, that it is not so with us now, neither has been for ages. There are, indeed, two sorts of lookers-on upon experience, not, indeed, lookers-into it, situated at opposite extremes, who will dispose of this difficulty in a very summary manner. The bold, enthusiastic, sanguine, but often well-meaning, will tell us there is no real declension, no deterioration of numbers, or powers, or proofs by living epistles, from what was exhibited in the primitive spreading of the Gospel. Such can tell of 6 revivals,' which no sober mind can value, because they are often geographically distant from enquiry, and because, when they are nearer, they do not bear examination: the unfledged, ill-taught multitude subside to their former stillness, and the boasted Pentecost ends in universal discouragement. On the other hand, the indolent, phlegmatic, judgment-proud, temporizing labourers in our Lord's vineyard reduce the mountain to a mole-hill with one universal, convenient nostrum for all such rising disquietudes, the times are changed.' Monstrous apathy! and, alas! too prevalent in all of us! the selfish idleness of our fallen nature! Is, then, the soul of an immortal less precious in value now than it was some centuries gone? Is the work of salvation gradually losing its worthiness, as every age which passes removes us further from the period when that work was undertaken, and its sufferings borne by the Redeemer ? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Is the Lord at the Father's right hand in glory a less prevailing Intercessor ? Is the Spirit who governs and guides the Church in any, even the smallest measure, less the "promise of the Father"-less willing and able to speed the labourers of Christ in reaping the world's harvest ? Or has our Lord revoked his faithful promise to be with them always in their labours even to the world's termination? God forbid it. B 5 Between these extremes, however, an anxious truth presents itself to the thoughtful, and sober-minded, who make the Scripture their only competent directory. They see, with their eyes open, that real conversion has lost its ground in the world to a most awful extremity, compared with its former progress; that as to numbers it is inconceivably small-that in kind it is painfully degraded; that the Gospel does not, as it once did, nor in a hundredth measure, ride forth conquering and to conquer to the world's evangelization. As for the true Zion, it is "left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city." They see this fact, they lament it, and they set themselves, in their minds, to search out and find the cause of it. They know that once there was a time, at the beginning of the career of Christianity, when there "were added in a day to the Church three thousand souls ;" and these not merely in numbers, but for continued faithfulness and eminent holy living:-they "continued steadfastly" and "daily,"-" praising God" and living in Christian love. And they know, from the same word, that the consequence of all this fidelity and fervent unanimity was a daily addition to the Church of such as should be saved.' They know that wherever the apostles came, "multitudes were added to the Church, both of men and women;"+t-that Philip "preached Christ at Samaria, and the people with one accord gave heed, and there was great joy in that city ;"+-that Peter "tarried at Joppa, and many believed in the Lord;"§-that from thence he was fetched to Cæsarea, and there "the Holy Ghost fell upon all that heard him ;"|| that Paul, and all the apostles, had abundant fruit of their labours, and a door opened of the Lord, at every city they visited ;-in short, that wherever the disciples, over and above the apostles, were scattered by Saul's persecution," preaching the Lord Jesus, the hand of the Lord was with them; and a great number believed, and turned to the Lord.' 66 Those, we say, who reverence Scripture know all this, and have thought seriously about it; and they turn with a |