in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward." He here refers to that sympathy, which, as a Christian pastor, he had felt with their advancement to the same ultimate glory, the prospect of which cheered his own pathway through this wilderness. And truly the joys of Christian sympathy are among the noblest emotions by which the spirit of man can be excited. This is the peculiar joy of Christ, when he "shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied." And he that can link to the testimony of conscience the remembrance of a deep interest in the spiritual condition of others, receives evidence thereby to his participation in the very highest purposes of God towards his creatures. Now surely these various reasons substantiate the assertion of the apostle, that the testimony of conscience is a reasonable ground of happiness. My rejoicing is this"-" I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, I have fought a good fight; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness!"

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III. But it remains that we consider THE CONSISTENCY OF THIS TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE WITH THOSE EMINENT VIRTUES OF CHRISTIANITY, HUMILITY AND SELF-ABASE

MENT BEFORE GOD.

"He that exalteth himself shall be abased." But how different is the whole train of thought and sensation connected with this testimony of

VOL. II.

E

conscience to that manifested by the Pharisee! He contemplated his virtues as his own, and was elated by them. The Christian views all the change wrought in him, and all the graces manifested by him, not as the result of worldly wisdom, but of the grace of God. While the joy belongs to himself, the glory belongs to God. When he looks at his own propensities; when he considers the patient tenderness which he has so often thwarted; the spiritual influence which he has so often grieved; when he considers how ill he has requited his generous Benefactor, and how unprofitably he has often used the singular and high advantages conferred on him, he will be ready to groan in his spirit, and to smite upon his breast, saying, "God be merciful unto me a sinner!" And this very humility will frequently be the deepest, when he is enabled to contemplate the most steadily the work of grace within his soul. When he retraces the past; when he compares the levity, frivolity, worldliness, and pride of his former condition, with the present unfeigned breathings of his heart after spiritual purity and godliness; when he contrasts the associations of ambition and the admitted workings of pride, with his present desire to be conformed to God's image, and to do his will, as his highest notion of felicity; in all these cases he still accredits the sentiment of the apostle on another occasion:

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By the grace of God I am what I am;" and in doing this he feels that his joy in the view of God's mercy is purely a joy given him by God, and is augmented by the conviction that his own demerits called rather for judgment than for mercy. Oh! this is the blessed character of spiritual joy-that it lives and grows in the element of humility, and is ever recognised by the soul as the free and sovereign gift of God!

The blood of the

It is of the last importance to mark the distinction between good works, and good feelings, as a ground of acceptance with God, and as an evidence of sanctification by the grace of God. As ruined sinners we have no claim upon God's regard. It is at the Cross alone we find the sources of hope and peace. Redeemer is the fountain in which the stains of sin are washed away. The claim on our part to eternal felicity is ever connected with the merits and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. In reference to the ground of his acceptance, these are the words of the same apostle, who here speaks of the testimony of his conscience. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." "What things were gain to me, those I now count loss for Christ: yea, doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of

Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God, by faith." In reference to his own natural condition, he exclaimed, on another occasion,

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Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death!" But when he spoke of God's work of grace and mercy on his soul; when he referred to his "election of God;" to the transforming efficacy of God's spirit upon his heart; to the intercourse he had enjoyed with God; to the unremitted toils which he had undergone in the service of his Lord, he then knew that gratitude was not inconsistent with humility; that while he was permitted to trace up all to God, as the source of his hope, and peace, and strength, and holiness; he was also permitted to thank his God for the sacred and hallowed result, and to connect the spiritual discipline of his soul, through which he had already passed, with the fuller and more glorious manifestation of the love of God, when the Saviour shall return, in the clouds and glory of heaven, to say to his redeemed, "Enter ye into the joy of your Lord!"

Thus, my brethren, in perfect consistency

with the deepest self-abasement, is the testimony of conscience a fruitful source of the Christian's joy.

The service of Christ is in truth a rich and productive service. Its joys, indeed, are not external, and therefore the world despises, and seeks them not. They are not the growth of earth, and therefore they are contemned by those who cull exclusively the withering flowers which grow around them. But though they are internal and spiritual, they are precious to the children of God. When God speaks to the soul-when the doctrines of grace cease to be mere opinions, and become the effectual instruments by which the great Teacher and Comforter renews the fallen nature of man; when, amidst the many and bitter struggles which the heart carries on with its baser propensities, God gradually accords the victory, and the spiritual character assumes daily, under his influence, a firmer attitude in her progress to the final triumphs of eternity; when prayer and praise, when faith, and hope, and charity, excite and purify the heart, and the work of God advances with unequal, indeed, but decided steps, then God imparts a peace, which the world, with all its emoluments, cannot give, nor with all its oppositions take away!

Oh blessed, then, are those who have the testimony of conscience that they belong to