beloved, it was not chance, but the purpose of God. If I am placed in peril, in the van of the battle, in the midst of contagion, I know that all is arranged, I enjoy the comfort and all the conscious safety of it. And thus election to a believer is a sweet spring of comfort. But election dabbled with and canvassed by men who have not learned the alphabet of Christianity, only puzzles them and keeps them from pondering truths more suitable to their case. We cannot comprehend it - this is very true; but it is declared in the Bible, and therefore it is the mind of God. Another mistake is sometimes perpetrated on the subject of faith. Many persons say faith now takes the place of works. The old law was, "Justified by works;" the new law, they say, is, "Justified by faith;" and they substitute the word "faith" for the word "works," and then as before. Now that is not the fact. Faith has no more merit than works; it is no more the ground of our acceptance than works. If it were so we should be now saved by intellectual acumen, sifting and believing truth, instead of being saved by good works, paying the price of heaven, and so reaching it. But that is absurd; it would now be orthodoxy of creed as the ground of salvation, instead of orthodoxy of life as of old. How then does faith save us? It saves us as the instrument. If you put money into the hand of a poor man, it is not his hand that he thanks, but you. If you give bread to a starving man, it is not the trencher on which it lies that he thanks, but the donor. And when you obtain eternal life through faith, it is not faith that you thank, but the gift of that righteousness which is unto all and upon all; and faith you recognize as a divine and precious instrument, that concurs with you in regarding Christ as all and in all. Some people have a very erroneous idea of the study of a portion of the word of God called prophecy. They say, "Oh, it is so perilous, a field of snares and pitfalls, Others say can see the that our best way is never to read it at all." again, "It is so plain and luminous, that we future as transparently as we see the present." Both go to extremes. Not to read what God has thought fit to inspire; not to read that of which God has said, "Blessed is he that readeth," seems to be monstrous. It is not Protestant. But on the other hand, to attempt to play the prophet instead of the humble interpreter, and to predict future events instead of simply proclaiming what is written, is a very different thing. But surely a Christian man and a Christian minister may say, "Fallible as I am, liable to mistake, still more liable where the field is difficult and the subject is dark, and the future is the scene of operation; I may yet say, if these principles of interpretation be correct — and I speak as to reasonable men, judge ye-if my reasoning, deductions, and explanations be correct, then such and such dates reach such and such periods, such and such events are at hand;" this is rational, submissive, and dutiful. It is one thing to foretell; it is quite a different thing to forthtell. And even when we forthtell, we must not dogmatize where much is confessedly obscure, but be content to read, and pray, and knock, and wait, if peradventure God will open up the truth more fully. In proving all things, recollect there is a distinction of some value. Some questions are worth proving, some are not worth proving, and we have no time, in this rushing and impetuous age, to spare for needless ordeals. For instance, whether the church should be Episcopal or Presbyterial; whether you should pray with a liturgy or without one; whether you should kneel at the Lord's table or sit at the Lord's table · are questions for the preference of taste, not for controversial and bitter discussion. Men have prayed with a liturgy as well as those who have prayed without Christians have commemorated their blessed Re one. deemer kneeling as devoutly as those that have done it sit ting. It is not the form that is of value; "My son, give me thine heart," is the great requirement in every act and exercise. Far better to expend your energy in testing and deciding great questions, than in quarrelling about minute and evanescent details. And, in the second place, learn from all of this the great doctrine of personal responsibility. It is not, Believe your priest, and he will take the charge of your soul. It is not, Believe the church, and the church will be answerable, if anybody is answerable. Christianity is a personal thing between the individual and Christ, and you can no more denude yourself of your responsibility, than you can denude yourself of your immortality. In the next place, let us learn that the Bible is a very plain and intelligible book. If it be a book for the people, it is intelligible. The Bible was written to the laity; its Epistles are addressed to laymen; and it is to laymen that an apostle says, "If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel than that ye have received, let him be anathema." The Bible, therefore, is intelligible; the Bible ought to be in the hands of the people; and thank God, the shewbread that was stored in the holy place of old, for the few, is now the daily bread of growing millions. Thank God, that the lamp of a nation has now become the light of all mankind. As long as we keep within that book, we are invincible; the moment that we go for our religion outside of it, like Samson shorn of his hair, we become frail like other men. No antiquity must weigh one straw with you in ascertaining what is true. Many say, That is the old religion, and this is the new; you answer, The inveteracy of error may equal the antiquity of truth. No degree of age turns error into truth. Our real question ought not to be, How old is it? but, How does it accord with God's holy word? All that is old is not true; all that is true is really old. In the next place, no minister upon earth, however gifted, eloquent, or good, must be to you the standard of truth, the rule of faith, the oracle which you are to obey. You may hear often a minister you love; you may listen to a preacher whose instructions do you good; and it is the best test of all preaching, that they do so. But if you take what he says, because he says it, then you will be a follower of that minister, and his name entailed upon your sect will be your only heritage. But if you take what the preacher says, not because he says it, but because to your minds and consciences he has proved it by God's holy word to be true, then you have got an apostolical succession of the noblest stamp. Like the Bereans, you are more noble than the rest; for when an apostle preached, they searched the Scriptures, whether these things were so; and therefore many of them believed. Investigation leads to Christianity, not to scepticism. CHAPTER VIII. ABSTAIN FROM ALL APPEARANCE OF EVIL. "Know nought but truth, feel nought but love, Ere aimed at on earth." "Abstain from all appearance of evil."-1 THESS. v. 22. In this passage there are suggested two distinct ideas; suggested, if not contained, in it. The Greek word used here for appearance is eudos, it means often a form, a shape; sometimes the shape of a thing when the substance is present; and not unfrequently the shape or appearance of a thing when the substance is not actually present. If the word be used in this sense of shape or kind, it would mean here, "Abstain from all kind of evil;" that is, from every shape, development, and form of it; from every thing that is evil in whatever shape it appear; whether in the shape of dishonesty, of untruth, or in any other shape; abstain from it. But this strikes us as somewhat like tautology or unnecessary repetition of what the apostle has said before. To abstain from all evil, would have expressed sufficiently the idea, without using a word at least equivocal in our understanding of it, from all appearance of evil. It seems, therefore, far more probable that the meaning is, Abstain from, strongly abjure, avoid by every possible means, every thing, |