cause his gospel is preached to the poor, and not many of the noble and great are made sharers in its blessings? Or is it because the greatest criminal brought on the scaffold to undergo the sentence of the law, may be made a sharer in his grace, by accepting him as his righteousness? But your own hearts tell you that these are not so much your offence as this awful declaration: "Without holiness none shall see God." It is his holiness that offends you, though he is the Saviour of sinners, and in the days of his flesh mingled with them to lead them unto righteousness; still the place of rest he hath prepared for his friends is holy, and nothing unclean shall enter there.

Without faith we cannot receive any benefit from the mediatorial sufferings of Jesus Christ, because if we believe not that he shed his blood for the remission of sin, and that our sins shall be pardoned, and we accepted as righteous, our characters remain the same unchanged; by unbelief we reject the witness of the spirit, and contemn his power of raising the dead in sin up to a new life; but by believing we become sharers of all the promises God hath given in his word. The act of believing introduces us to a new life; in unbelief we were

enemies to God, and ignorant of the fatal effects of sin; but in believing we are made friends of God, and his spirit enlightens our understandings, and

we see that sin is death and that eternal; let us therefore pray that his grace may strengthen us to overcome all iniquity, that we purify ourselves as he is pure.

LETTER XX.

"What is mistrustful of its latent worth,
We hide our single talent in the earth;
And what if self is pamper'd, not denied!
What if the flesh is never crucified !

What if the world is hidden in the heart,
Will it be,Come, ye blessed, or Depart ?""

Edinburgh, 2d November, 1821. FROM the general wish to appear young, and the blush that tinges the fair one's cheek when reminded that her days are numbering, it is a powerful evidence that the faith of the gospel is not reduced to practice; every year that passes over our head should make us rejoice that we are nearing Emanuel's land.

To get entirely free from the false systems of the world's opinions, it is necessary to bear ourselves above the world's daring, to be guided only by that light which came down from heaven. True happiness flows neither from the world's opinion of us, nor from its riches or pleasures; but, from that undisturbed tranquillity of soul, which the fluctua

tions of life, and the fears of death cannot destroy; it is only the soul that enjoys peace with God, that can be a sharer in this peace which passeth all understanding.

To the men of the world the accounts of the joys of the martyrs under the greatest trials, even in the flames, must appear fabulous. They cannot think of joy under corporeal suffering; but experienced Christians have felt in their own lives, that the peace of God in the souls of believers is undisturbed by the world's afflictions, or corporeal sufferings; and that it creates such a joy as overbalances all the light afflictions of this life; what, then, must it be in futurity, when there shall be no sorrow to sour the cup of bliss?

Pleasing is the dawn of day, refreshing is the breeze of the morning, and how enchanting to hear the lark's song of praise to its Maker; but still more pleasing is the new birth in the soul, and more refreshing the still small voice of the Gospel; it rouses every faculty in our souls to imitate the sweet songsters of the morning in singing Jehovah's praise. The darkest hour of midnight precedes the dawn; the gilding of the horizon and the tinge on the mountains announce the sun's rising. darker far is the unregenerate soul, and brighter far the coming of the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his beams: glad must that heart be that

But

feels the invigorating influences of his rays, it must produce joy unbounded.

There is a time of joy to the Christian which the world can never taste; it is in the sanctuary of retirement when the world is shut out, and the soul is in converse with Deity; it is then Jesus manifests himself to them that love him, filling their souls with heavenly joy. The men of the world boast of their favours from the great, and this year how did the Irish papers teem with the praises of his present Majesty, because he condescended to visit their shore? And how was every little mark of distinction he chose to confer carefully recorded, and proudly boasted of. Shall they who worship the passing pleasures of sense be the only persons to laud what they esteem? Ought not Christians to tell of all the glory of the King of kings, and proclaim the beauty of the Lord; when the lofty One condescends to visit the humble and contrite soul, it is becoming in the humble to give the praise to whom it is due.

When the souls of believers are turned from their sins unto holiness, should they not give God the glory? Even the world perceives the change which has taken place in their character; they see not the cause, and then give the praise to the individual. Would it not be an act of justice in that person to acknowledge, that of himself he is altogether vile,