Christianity, that it is by "beholding with open face, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord," that we are changed into the same image, by the Lord the Spirit. He will, indeed, give law its place, and chastisement its place, and both promises and warnings their place, in making us partakers of the Divine holiness: but He will not allow one of them, nor even the whole of them, to displace the Saviour. He will make Him all in all, in the midst of all the means by which He sanctifies our heart and character.

Now, even if we meant well in trying to be holy, on the strength of the one motive which first struck us, it is no wonder that its original influence has not kept up as it began. The Holy Spirit will not permit even the holy fear of not " seeing the Lord" at last, to exempt us from the duty of contemplating "the glory of the Lord" now.

It

may suit our sloth, or our convenience, or

our self-complacency, to take for granted that we can go on very well in following Holiness, by remembering its necessity as meetness for. heaven but this does not suit the glory of Christ; and, therefore, the Spirit will not work long, nor witness much, with this single fact, solemn as it is. By some process of conviction or chastisement, He will compel us to look sharply and seriously about us, for something more than a vague fear of hell, or a faint hope of heaven, as the means of sanctification. In a word, CHRIST must be "made unto us sanctification," as well as "wisdom, righteousness, and redemption." 1 Cor. i. 30.

Does this throw any light upon your case? You have both wondered and wept, because you have often found yourself going back, rather than forward, in piety; although you were not conscious of having given up or lost sight of any of the holy motives you began

with. You have never changed your opinion of the beauty of holiness, nor lost your conviction of its necessity; and yet neither your opinion nor your persuasion has kept you up to the mark of your first efforts, in running the race set before you. You "did run well,” when you began to follow holiness; but you have often slackened your pace, and even slumbered by the way. "What did hinder you?" for you did not intend to stop, nor expect to tire, nor did you even imagine that you could "weary in well doing."

Now, any one can tell you, or you can easily tell yourself, in explanation of this falling off, that you allowed some wrong habit or temper to grow upon you, or took up unduly with some earthly comfort, and thus grieved the Holy Spirit. And there is but too much truth in this account. It is not, however, the true explanation of your declensions. It is, in fact,

itself, a part of your falling off, and not the real cause of it. That lay, in not "looking unto Jesus as the Author and Finisher" of your holiness, as well as of your faith. You ran, even whilst you "did run well," looking to Him for righteousness, far more than for sanctification. You did not, indeed, overlook either His image or His example; but they haḍ obtained from you nothing like the same degree of attention, which you gave to His atonement and intercession. For once that you have tried to cast yourself into "the mould " of His image, you have cast yourself a thousand times upon His merits and grace. Not, however, that you have done the latter too often. No, indeed! Nor can you ever do it too often. But you have done the former too seldom, or too slightly. So, alas, have I!

Here, then, is the real cause of declension in piety; our leading fault and our chief defect

are not confronted with the image of Christ from day to day, but left to the mere restraint of ordinary motives; and, as these are hardly sufficient to sustain even what is best and strongest in our character, it is no wonder that what is worst and weakest grows upon us, and thus brings the very spirit of piety to a low ebb. In a word; our besetting sin cannot be overcome, nor our weak side cured, by leaving them to take their chance, in common with those points of our character which are easily kept right. What is bad cannot be remedied, by the force of the general considerations which support what is good about us; any more than food can heal a wound, or clothing cure a fever. It is medicine, not food, that cures bodily disease and it is the special, not the general motives to holiness, that can alone remove moral defects,

It is, I am aware, much more common, in