warrant at all.

Here, therefore, the Spirit ranges the next to the Father; while in some passages the Son is placed First, and the Father Second, and the Spirit Third.

The great object of all election is the glory of God. The glory of God is a happy, holy thing, the reflection of Himself. Hence, it runs thus, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit." It is a wise and blessed provision that there is a Being, a part of that very God, who chose us on the one hand, and then requires holiness of us on the other, whose very office and prerogative it is to make us what God meant us to be when He chose us; and without which He will never admit us into His presence and His kingdom.

How the Spirit carries on His sanctifying work, it is not for me, now, to consider. Only let me say this much. It is by implanting a new life, new principles, with new affections within a man's breast, which then act with a three-fold influence. First, they occupy the heart; then they keep down and restrain the evil that was, and is still there; and then they gather up and absorb the bad nature, purify and elevate it towards the character of the divine; that is sanctification.

It is a work slow, gradual, daily, progressive to the end, carried on with deep struggle, but with a certainty of success, because though in us, and though a part of us, it is not us, but it is another who has taken possession of us, and who uses us, and it is a means to an end which must be; for the satisfaction of the Father in His electing, the satisfaction of Christ in His redeeming, and the satisfaction of the Holy Ghost in His transforming grace;-" Elect,

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit."

Persons speak of the cautionary character of these words; how election thus has its condition, holiness, and its proof. But I had rather see what gives force to the consolation,-You were elected that you might go through all this burning process of your sanctification. For it you were chosen. The fore-ordaining makes the discipline, and you are sure of the final issue of a discipline which was before ordained for a sacred purpose, "Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit."

"Unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." What child of God does not wish, above all other wishes, a mind conformed, a will subdued, a life set to the mind, and to the will, and to the life of Christ? It is the joy of angels, the affection of the saints, the only liberty of man, the true position of a Christian, the soul's one resting-place,—“ obedience." What a peace lies in that assurance, that for this obedience, you were elected; for this very obedience you were created in Christ Jesus; -God willed it, God purposed it, God means it; and what an incentive to the composure of a holy confidence,-I was elected to be a true servant of God.

But is this obedience final? Is anything I can do, or feel, or be, the last process in God's great plan? Thank God no. There is something better than it, and beyond it, "Unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."

There is a washing in the fountain of Christ's cleansing blood; i.e., there is an acceptance of God's method for the salvation of a sinner, and a personal application of the

death of Christ as our atonement, which justifies us, which admits us into God's favor, which makes us capable of God's love, which puts us in the relation to Him of free, forgiven, accepted, beloved sons and daughters. That is the all-effectual baptism of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But I do not think that this is exactly the "sprinkling" of which St. Peter is here speaking. Here it is the last touch of Christ's purifying grace; it is the cleansing and beautifying of our poor, defiled obedience; it is the "perfecting for ever them that are sanctified."

It is just what we all want, and feel we want, before we can meet God, and stand in His presence. It is that cleansing even of our sanctification. It is the crown of all truth, it is the topstone of all creation, it is the glorifying blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Once, and once only, in the Old Testament, the Jews were sprinkled with blood. It was just as God was descending on Mount Sinai to speak to them :-" And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, 'Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.' And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness."

The day is not now far off when there shall be another grand assembly; and Daniel's vision will be fulfilled, "I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand

K

thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened."

Who that has not a "sprinkled" soul will dare to stand before that throne in that high conclave? That will be the moment to know the comfort, and the strength, and the refuge of the mighty Trinity. "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."

XIX.

The Guiding Star.

"And, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.”—Matthew ii. 9.

THE

HERE are great difficulties about the Epiphany.
No one can exactly explain how it was.
And yet

to the Magi themselves, it was the simplest and clearest thing possible.

So it always is. There is a manifestation of truth; but it by no means follows that it is manifest how it was manifested. God makes something very clear to you; but if you examine it afterwards,-how you arrived at that clearness,—you will get at once into mysteries,— the processes are the most intricate,—you lose yourself in Subtleties. Nevertheless, the result is certain, and the path which led you to it, is at the time, straightly easy.

To make and have an Epiphany ourselves, is a much easier thing than to understand the Epiphany of "the wise men."

The only way to reach to the understanding of any passage of the Bible, is to go to it very practically. us try now so to study the Epiphany.

Let

It was quite in accordance with the whole counsel and mind of God that when Christ was born, He was revealed -first to the Jews, and afterwards to the Gentiles,-to "the shepherds," and then to "the wise men." And I