which is indeed gross ignorance; they also walked after the desires of their own deceitful hearts, seeking that from the world which is only to be found in God, which is only permanently enjoyed in heaven, and which is only partaken of here when we continue in the doctrine of Christ. And thus many Christians have walked, and still do walk, after the desires of the flesh; after the lust of the eyes, that they may possess as much as possible of visible things; and after the pride of life, that by a vain pomp they may obtain honour from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, and pamper and indulge their perishing bodies. But who can enumerate the thousand desires from which the works of the flesh proceed, and which sway the conduct of men, when their hearts are not wholly set upon grace! This much is certain, that believers do walk according to such desires: according to those that swayed them in the time of their ignorance, when they knew not God and Christ. If this were not the case, then would not the apostle John have written: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof;"* nor would the apostle Paul say: "Walk in the Spirit, and fulfil not (margin) the lusts of the flesh." Neither should we have had the command, Walk not according to such desires.

Standing before you with these words of the apostle, I will not, in regard to any one among you, + Gal. v. 16.

* 1 John ii. 15-17.

who follows after the same desires that ruled his conduct when he was ignorant of God and of Christ, deny that he may be a Christian; but I hold up before you the command: "Do not walk according to such desires:" and whosoever hears this, and is not deeply humbled, but remains as he was before, walking according to his evil desires, then I say to such a one, that he despises not the word and command of man, but the word and command of God. I solemnly declare to all those who seek any other ground for their salvation than the sacrifice which Christ accomplished on the cross, to those whose hope is not wholly placed upon grace, to those who do not with their whole heart turn from their evil desires, but who walk according to the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, to all such I say, if you do not hearken to this apostolic command, your blood will be upon your own head.

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But many of will be smitten with remorse, and with contrite hearts exclaim, I have thus walked; and then ask with a sigh, How shall I attain to such grace, that I shall no longer walk according to the desires that ruled over me when I was in a state of ignorance? The answer is ready: You will at once leave off walking in this manner, when you firmly believe that this command of the apostle's is in reality the command of God, and when your hope is wholly fixed upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The power lies in the words themselves, when they are thus truly believed, when they are of more value

to you than your desires, when you see that these words are divine, and that you, on account of your evil desires, are worthy of condemnation; when you come with this confession before God, and fix your regards on the unfading inheritance prepared for you in heaven.

O! could we thoroughly apprehend this, we should perceive in this command a blessed gospel, an announcement of good tidings! But, alas! it is but too true that our desires assail us with such importunity, that we hang down our heads before such a command. Yet when we perceive the object this command has in view, that it is to rescue us, all unworthy as we are, from the dominion of our evil desires, and to bring us back to the blessed God, in order that we may with him possess for ever that which is above all things desirable, even the enjoyment of eternal peace in and with God, then do we rejoice in such words, and likewise in the following: "As he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation: because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy." And have we not all reason to do so? I readily admit, and have myself experienced it, that these apostolic words may sometimes come upon us, as if they rolled down thundering from Sinai, in order to plunge us into the abyss of destruction! There are times when a man, deeply convinced of sin, feeling himself utterly unholy and impure, on reading such words, is tempted by the devil to lose all courage, and despair of attaining salvation; he becomes absorbed in one desire, that of being holy, and sees at the same time the impossi

bility of ever being so; and when at such a time he comes upon some part of Scripture where holiness is commanded, he is ready to think that he must necessarily be lost. Suppose he opens the 20th chapter of Leviticus, which of all the abominations there will he not think he has perpetrated? Alas! what traces of them all does he find in his heart, and how many of them have come out in act, yea, even worse things than these! And then comes the command, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." Ah! he finds no holiness in himself; on the contrary, the most terrible sins, and yet he must be holy, as God is holy! It is as if he were in a death-struggle, strangled by the cord which he had grasped for safety! It is even so; he is either a hidden or an open transgressor of the salutary commands of God, and therefore he is plunged into anguish by words which in the end become truly delightful to humble souls. What can be more delightful than the words, "Be ye holy, for I am holy," as they are found in the 11th chapter of the same book of Leviticus, where we read the commands as to what animals the children of Israel were and

were not to eat? It there produces only godly sorrow, only confession of our own entire unworthiness, only thirst after true holiness; the light breaks in upon us, showing that God in a figure is commanding us to make Christ alone the food of our souls; and that like the clean animal that divides the hoof, when we have drunk of the brook of suffering we must not sink in the mud of God's wrath, but rise out of it again; and as the clean beast that

ruminates its food, so must we meditate on the will of God, that it may become part of our substance, and that we may derive life and nourishment therefrom. And when it thus becomes godly sorrow, and thirst after true holiness, a man soon gets into the meaning of the words, and understands them to mean: Turn away thine eyes from sin, and however sad thy condition is, draw near to God in Christ Jesus, and He will draw near to thee. "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," says our Lord to us; and the apostle John writes: "Little children, let no man deceive you ; he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous." What! to be perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect, to be righteous as God is righteous, to be holy in all our walk and conversation as the Lord is holy; shall we allow this to be so explained by the devil as to make us put aside God's commands, and betake ourselves to that mock holiness, accursed in His sight, which is wrought in the strength of nature, (which ever takes frightful revenge,) and then say to others: "Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou?" Or shall we so explain them, that we remain in our sins with the hopeless cry: "Woe is me! if such be the case, I shall never be saved?" I think our duty in reference to such words is, to gird up better the loins of our understanding, and to ask: Who says these words, and what does he say? and earnestly to regard His word, and then look upon ourselves and upon all around us. God, who is in himself allsufficient, who needs none of us, has he not in pure