hering that te Yg Gist - - B nan xv, 13. in a wel of siu. Spcenlaces on *ow dips, and foll of at to solve the p No ruan his den of moral e il is cessfully to grapple De mysteries. Phi nygg styrer and grow bind, ions endeavors to ing naze imancd inconsistencies v den vnd justice of al Infinite Peing who made us; a rahty, and refpice skepticism may assome to set domatic sheer, the p'uần rcaeling of the Word of God abject; buc 1 allar can blot out the feets of our cai t17. they are part and pared of our consciou. Less; at the of today, in guit 4 misery, in ostrov gorucat frota God dity to bola ss, os but the repieda, 20 exporuce of all the hm our fist parents came forth, sio-smutter, from Eden. hot with them the bitterness of the cur-e. Antagonism to Love de incarnate. Ever since, this has been the state of ng cutered into the word, and death by sin, dech jar að upu, all men, for test all live inned." two phori ost a jel, my behren, is de only antidote to sin--the wwld. God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto THE BELIEVER'S PRIVILEGE. BY E. YEATES REESE, D. D., EDITOR OF THE METHODIST PROTESTANT. Now, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.-Romans, xv, 13.' It is a sad truth that we live in a world of sin. Speculations on the assumed rectitude of human nature cannot change the realities of life. The melancholy evidences of a common proneness to evil are fearfully apparent everywhere. The slavery of sin is universal, and its consequent misery so darkens the pathway of man, from infancy to the tomb, that Inspiration has well recorded our present life, as "of few days, and full of trouble." The effort to solve the problem of the introduction of moral evil is utterly fruitless. No man has ever been able successfully to grapple with its subtle mysteries. Philosophy may stagger and grow blind, in its ambitious endeavors to harmonize imagined inconsistencies with the wisdom and justice of the Infinite Being who made us; a shallow, haughty, and self-complacent skepticism may assume to set aside, with dogmatic sneer, the plain teaching of the Word of God upon this subject; but nothing can blot out the facts of our existence. Here they are, part and parcel of our consciousness; and the experience of to-day, in guilt and misery, in estrangement from God and hostility to holiness, is but the reproduced experience of all the past. When our first parents came forth, sin-smitten, from Eden, they brought with them the bitterness of the curse. Antagonism to God had become incarnate. Ever since, this has been the state of man. "By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Our glorious Gospel, my brethren, is the only antidote to sin-the only hope of the world. God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. The phraseology of the Gospel is distinct and significant. It speaks of justification, regeneration, sanctification, thorough reformation; of holiness of heart and recovered happiness. It presents these as the legitimate workings of the grace of God that bringeth salvation. It proposes the mastery of the carnal, the re-creation of the spiritual. It takes away enmity, and enthrones in its stead a love of God's law. "A new heart will I give unto you;" and "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, and behold all things are become new." In its earnest and affectionate exhortations, its abundant and precious promises, it offers light to those in darkness, liberty to those in bondage, joy to the sorrowful, peace to the weary and heavy laden, hope to the despairing, and life and immortality to those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Christianity, then, is intended to affect human experience. To what extent, is a most momentous question. To determine truth in this particular, is to determine the worth of the Christian relation in its direct influence upon man's present state. Few subjects can be more worthy the attention of a Christian congregation; yet there is reason to apprehend that, even among believers, few subjects are more imperfectly understood. We are apt to measure the extent of both Christian responsibility and Christian experience by the illustrations of it which may immediately surround us. The spiritual life, however, in any congregation, may be very far below the scriptural standard, just as the sense of Christian responsibility frequently is; so that, in determining a question of this sort, we should look away from our immediate surroundings, beyond those living illustrations of its power, with which we come in social and fraternal contact, to higher, more certain, and infallible authority. It is not that I may be able to ascertain what spiritual victories my brother may have achieved, or what is the measure of my own experience, past or present; the great question is, what does our glorious Gospel propose to do for him who, in the use of all the means of grace afforded, trusts implicitly to its teachings, and yields himself to its full control? We all rejoice to believe that it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; but is there not reason to fear that we too often abridge the comprehensive significance of this and kindred passages, and in the blindness of unbelief, staggering at the promises, disregard its proffered blessings in the present, by setting its glorious conquests too remotely in the future; by recognising in its salvation too little mastery over present evil, too limited a control over the vicissitudes of every-day life, and their tendency to fill us with that distrust of Providence and sorrow of soul which so often afflict the poople of God? Christianity, my brethren, either proposes a high attainment of spiritual comfort in this life, to which all discomfort shall be subordinate, or it does not. It proposes to temper the fierceness of every assault of temptation, brighten the gloom of every cloud of sorrow, and, dwelling richly in the soul, diffuse there a peace which "nothing earthly gives or can destroy," or it does not. If it does not, then to aspire after it is zeal without knowledge; to preach it, is fanaticism. But if the Gospel does come to man with such a blessing; if its whispers of peace, and rest, and assurance, and confidence, and hope, and joy, and walking by faith, and not by sight; if its rejoicing in hope, its patience in tribulation, its thankfulness in all things, its abounding righteousness, be not unmeaning rhetoric, but absolute, significant, all-glorious truth-truth setting forth the common privilege of all partakers of a like precious faith, through the sacrifice and mediation of a common Saviour and High Priest-then is it evident that he is living immeasurably beneath his responsibility and privilege, who, bearing the name of Christ, does not press towards its attainment, seek after the glorious possession, until, placing his feet upon this high vantage ground of scriptural assurance, he shall be able to take to him the whole armor of God, that he may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. Have you never been struck, my brethren, with the wonderful zeal into which the Apostle Paul kindles, whenever this matter of Christian experience becomes the theme of his discourse? Next to direct allusion to the Cross-in which he saw symbolized all the stupendous achievements of the Son of God for us, both as it respects this life and that which is to come-there is nothing which so tasks, as it were, his marvellous power of exhaustive expression. The life of Christ in the soul, and its consequent victories over sin, as realized in the experience of him who goes forth to combat in the possession of weapons, mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, lifts him to a transport of utterance, in which words seem all too feeble to represent the vastness of his conceptions of the truth as it is in Jesus. The text is a specimen of that wonderful verbal compass for which Paul is so remarkable, suggesting even |