the Gospel. What would you have, that the glorious Gospel does not promise? Depend upon it, you are seeking some unpromised form of the hope of salvation, or some disproportionate degree of that good hope, if you find it almost impossible to hope for your own salvation. It would be utterly impossible for you to despair or despond, if you wanted nothing but what is promised.

Be not offended nor surprised, if I suspect you of wanting more. I do so, because I think favourably, upon the whole, of your motives and spirit, in attaching a very high meaning to Christian hope. This is far wiser than taking low views of it. You are, indeed, quite right in feeling quite sure, that there should be a very great difference between natural hope and spiritual hope. That kind of hope which you could keep up without much difficulty, whilst you were careless or formal, ought not to

satisfy you, now that you know the evil of sin, and the infinite value of the soul and salvation. That "great salvation" deserves and requires a "good hope," in more senses than the goodness of either its practical influence or its humble spirit: it ought also to be grateful and joyful. Well; it may be both, without being all that you mean by "a good hope through grace."

Let me explain myself freely on this point. We are very prone to fix the meaning of hope, from our first taste of the joy of salvation. But this, however well meant, is unwise. It is unwarranted. There is more than hope, in the relief which is usually obtained from the first sight of the glory and grace of the Saviour. The Holy Spirit often renders that discovery of the Cross so cheering, or so charming, that the whole soul is absorbed and transported with it. We can think of nothing else. We can wish

for nothing more. It is heaven on earth. We

could take an eternity of it.

"That holy calm within the breast,

Seems the dear pledge of heavenly rest.”

contrite ones.

But although this be hope, it is also much more than hope. It is that joy of salvation, by which God revives and wins the heart of the It is that manifestation of Himself, by which he proves to us that he " giveth grace to the humble." It is that "demonstration of the Spirit," which places beyond all doubt, both the reality and the blessedness of vital godliness. In a word; it is the strong consolation of a dying saint, given to a sinking penitent, that she may know and never forget the worth of Christ.

Now we ought to be very thankful for this timely and complete discovery of the all-sufficiency of the atoning sacrifice. It is a fine security, for ever after, against false doctrine and

superficial experience. It is not, however, a security against practical error. Accordingly, one of two errors is often fallen into, when this high state of enjoyment falls away. It does subside and then, we either count nothing hope, which does not come up to it; or we do no more in religion, than just enough to be somewhat in the way, or not exactly out of the way, of finding it again. And thus it is, that some sink into despondency, and others into heartless formality. One becomes sad, and another inconsistent: and both from the same cause, they cannot hope as they once did. The hope (as they call it) which first cheered the spirits of the one, and inspired the diligence of the other, is gone: and because they cannot get it back, they both go back; the one into the region of doubts and fears, and the other into the region of declension.

Now, which of these states are you in?

Whichever it be, there is but one remedy. You must regard something else as the hope of salvation, than a return of the precise kind and degree of joy, which you first called hope. I do not say, that that joy will never revisit your spirit. I do not think (as Sheshbazzar would have said) that the candle of the Lord will never shine upon you again, as it did when it was first lighted. But I do both say and think, that it will not do so, whilst you are merely waiting for it. You must be humble enough to begin with the sinner's hope, and to go on with the pilgrim's hope, if you would be happy in your own mind again. And, why not be thus humble and content? What right has any one to make terms with God, for faith or obedience?

Just look at such conduct, in two cases. What would you think of a woman who could in words,-" "I have not that comfort in

say