will but confirm the truth for ever and ever,-" The just shall live by his faith."

But see the critical question in all this, "Who are the just?" which we see to be, in other words, "Who are the living?" Now that man is "just," who, dealing fairly and justly by his Creator, takes God at His word, and without a question, accepts all the promises. Is it not the height of injustice to act otherwise by God? The relation with God thus being right, that man is "just" who conducts himself in all things, honestly and honorably to his fellow-men,-a man of truth,-a man discharging his relative duties accurately, a man righteous in his words and thoughts to God and man. And then, because no man is or can be righteous either to God or man, therefore he is "just," who having put on the Lord Jesus Christ, has clothed himself with the righteousness of God. This is the man,-he who, honoring God, unhesitatingly trusts Him, that what He has said, He will also do,—and who is faithful in all his duties to man, because he believes God, and who after all, is nothing but a poor, miserable sinner, therefore covers himself and wraps himself in the perfect obedience of his Saviour,-this is the man of whom God says,-"The just shall live by his faith."

I need scarcely say to any one in this congregation that no man is justified for his "faith." Whenever you read in the Bible, the expression "by faith," you will always best understand it by substituting the other preposition, which might be equally used,-"through faith,"—"The just shall live 'through' his faith."

Causally, and originally, we are saved by the eternal love of God the Father. Meritoriously, we are saved through the blood of Jesus Christ. Efficiently, we are

saved through the operation of the Holy Ghost. mentally, we are saved by "faith."

saved by good works.

Instru

Evidentially, we are

But though it be only instrumentally, yet since it is the only instrument on our side,-(on God's side, ordinances, especially the sacrament, are the instruments)-but since faith is the only instrument on our side,—what shall we do to promote faith? I say "promote," for you must never forget that faith is a pure gift of God. But how shall we promote it? Some, conscientiously and religiously, but as it seems to me, with a mistaken judgment, advise to cultivate faith by aids addressed to the senses, pictures, or crosses, or many emblems of form and color. But if faith is the power of the realization of the unseen, are not what are called helps really hinderances? For what we have to do is to form the habit of mental action, and making inward pictures. And everything that speaks to the outward senses, is, in so far, not encouraging the habit of mental action, but rather putting it aside.

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as

It is very difficult, not to say impossible, to draw definite. lines on this subject. Some outward aids to faith, acting through the senses, God Himself has ordained, as in the sacraments. But we are practically safe, I think, to throw the bias on the side of habituating the mind to act only with the unseen. And beyond a doubt, the conceptions which the religious mind, taught of God, will form of the grand realities of the things which belong to another world, are far truer and sublimer than any which can be delineated or symbolized by any human art.

Cultivate, therefore, the inward acts, and do the outward acts of faith. For if faith cherishes holiness, so does holiness cherish faith. Bring Christ often before your

spiritual view, now in His walk, with that lovely bearing and that radiant smile, -now on His cross, with those five wounds pouring out their precious streams,-now in His intercession, with your name breathed upon His lips,—now in His Second Advent, with all His saints and angels coming, now on His everlasting throne. Throw yourself upon Christ absolutely. Imitate His life, because there is no better way to learn to rest upon His death. Feed upon promises, and use well the measure given, and it will be a measure always increasing.

And if you are a child of God, depend upon it, God will take care to teach you "faith." This is why one poor man is made to live, almost every day of his life, from hand to mouth. This is why another has one whom he loved translated from the tangible to the intangible. This is why another is shut out into the most inextricable straits. This is why another is put to walk in the dark, under spiritual desolation. It is a Father teaching "faith."

And what and if, after all, you feel, "I cannot believe?" Then do as you would do if you did believe. Have faith that you have faith, though you cannot see your faith. Perhaps after all, this may be the highest faith in the whole world. And you may come in at last richly and abundantly to the promise,-"The just shall live by his faith."

XXII.

A Sorrowful Departure.

"But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions."-MATTHEW xix. 22.

I

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WISH to endeavor to unroll that young man's sorrow.

And perhaps we shall find that it was not quite as simple as it at first sight appears. No doubt, partly, he was sorry" at the thought of giving up those large possessions," of which he was naturally fond. It is likely that when our Saviour proposed to him to "leave everything and follow Him," a dreary image at once stood before his mind of poverty, contrasting with all his luxurious comfort,-and contempt to be taken in exchange for a good public position. He might fancy himself an indigent man, walking about the streets with those. illiterate fishermen, the scorn of every body. No wonder he was saddened at the prospect !

But "sorrow" is seldom a single principle. It will generally bear to be, and it will be the better for being broken up, and resolved into its constituent parts. And it scarcely admits of a question, that the young ruler was also grieved at the idea of losing heaven. He was

evidently an earnest-minded man. He was what we call a real enquirer after truth. His going up to Christ running,—his reverential posture, casting himself upon his knees, his kind and respectful address to Him,-his

short and emphatic way of putting his questions,-everything shows reality. It would appear evident also that he was that which is the first great essential in the pursuit of all divine knowledge,—a moral man. And all this was so lovely, that Christ, who not only had the keenest sense of the beautiful, but the quickest perception to discover it, even when it lay in its most latent germ, as he looked upon him, “loved him.”

But now there opened to the young man's mind some of the difficulty which there always is in the attainment of everything which is really worth having. The eternal life, which his ardent feelings had pictured to him as something easy and near at hand,-seemed to retire back. from him behind the mountains of self-sacrifice which Christ laid across his path. And when he saw the difficulties which intervened, and perhaps in an inward consciousness of his own weakness, felt all which he had desired unattainable, he “sorrowed" again at the thought that he must give up that which he had learnt to be the only thing worth getting,-heaven.

And we should stop quite short of the truth if we conceived that the young man's "sorrow" ended here. You may rely upon it that part of his " sorrow was the discovery which he was making at that moment of his own heart. He had seen the object which he knew he ought to seek,-he had had set before him the price, the terms on which that object might be secured,—and he could not bear it. He could not submit to the conditions to which, at the same time, he was perfectly conscious that he ought to submit,—and he was miserable that he could not do it, a conviction of his own folly and wickedness oppressed him even at the moment that the