lave the rocks, to bear on its bosom the ship of the merchant, the weeds of sea. We complain, as our fathers; let us rather rejoice, for questions less weighty than these have in other ages been disposed of only with the point of the sword, and the thunder of cannon-put off, not settled.

If the opinions advanced in this Discourse be correct, then Religion is above all institutions, and can never fail; they shall perish, but Religion endure they shall wax old as a garment; they shall be changed, and the places that knew them shall know them no more for ever; but Religion is ever the same, and its years shall have no end.

CHAPTER IX.

ALL BELIEVERS ARE ENTITLED TO ETERNAL LIFE AND MAY BE VIEWED AS SAVED.

GOD, as a God of mercy and grace, reconciles man to

Himself, through Jesus Christ; all that are putting their trust in Him as a God of this nature are Christians, and are to be received as such. The distinction which God has Himself made is clearly laid before us in the two following passages, John iii. 3-6, " He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life;" and Heb. iii. 16, and some "could not enter in because of unbelief". By this we are bound to regard all, without exception, who profess belief in Christ, as saved men and women; this is evidently what Christ means in the sermon on the mount, when he says, Matt. vii. 12, "Judge not, that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again". Christ came to save sinners as such, and unbelief is the only sin that a professing Christian can be condemned for. Good and bad, rich and poor, old and young, are all included in God's promise "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John iii. 15); and it is in opposition to His command that we judge and condemn any. If some of us have attained to the assurance by faith, which all are entitled to, we are no better in God's sight than the very weakest believer. Whatever our

state may be, it is Christ's death that hath saved our soul. Man is either saved or lost, in a scriptural sense, because Christ died for us. God did not send us here, and give us strong faith, to judge and condemn our weaker brother, but to bear his infirmities by taking him by the hand as a sinner, saved of grace, as much entitled to heaven as any of us. For Christ died to save all as sinners, and though any one should fall seventy times seven, if he says he repents, the Master's command is, forgive him; and He, the Lord Jesus, is not less merciful than He would have us to be. This also is surely what He means when He says, "He that is greatest among you let him be your servant". It is much more difficult to get men, as sinners, to believe that they are saved, than that they are to try to save themselves; they think that because Christ condemns sin, He hates the sinner. A sense of the iron grasp of sin often keeps men silent; because they feel sin so strong within them, they fear God, and will not trust Him. But when they once draw nigh to God, with the "Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief," the light begins to come, and the sinner thus approaching, will soon realise in his inmost heart the promise fulfilled in his case, that "He that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. iv. 5); and with joy and gladness he will feel the truth of the Gospel, and hail the glad tidings as the source of the new joy he possesseth. As a sinner, saved by grace, he will hate sin now; because he is saved, and not because he is lost or may be lost. Oh that we Christians that know this would teach men and women to realise it, and

treat all as Christians who profess the name of Christ, and do our duty to them as Christians, thus doing to others as we would have others to do to us! Then the spirit of Christ would be seen and felt amongst us; envy, and malice, and evil-speaking would disappear. The same eternal home is to belong to all that believe; then why not act as if we felt it here, and now, seeing this is truth, and we cannot change truth? We are all one in Christ; Christ is our only hope; we are acccpted in Him; it is Christ on the cross that saved us; we are all saved or lost alike. We that enjoy much of the Master's presence, should have stronger faith than some; and though that does not make us any better in His sight, it makes us happier here, and it ought to make us more useful; for what we take in of life by faith, we ought to give out by energy in sympathy: we have got much, and much therefore shall have to account for.

ourselves, is not that text in Matt.

We may well ask xvii. 30, where the

Master says, "Many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first," applicable to us? You, who do not know that you are saved, though saved as much as we, little know what we have to strive against, and how often we feel just like the Pharisee, though we are no better than the vilest that are trusting to a God of mercy. Nay, we sometimes feel and act just as if Goď had given to us authority to make the distinction, by saying this one is saved, and that one is lost, which is just assuming the part of God, and judging man; we have no authority for that. We may reprove each other of sin, as Christians; that is all God would have us do: He alone can condemn or acquit. The world must take

us as it finds us that is to say, the world that Christ came to save, it is to be our judge and must judge us by our actions; now and here it is the Master's command that it be so. The righteous and the wicked live together, and God alone can or may separate them. It is in this way only that strong faith can be of any use to the world; not to condemn, but to acquit. We have authority from God to call all Christian brethren and sisters that profess the name of Christ, and to tell them that it is their belief in Christ that saves them; and because they believe they are indeed saved, John iii. 36, and are as much entitled to heaven as any saint on earth. Being saved because Christ died, we have no merit in ourselves, and can have no merit. Christ came to save sinners; and when that is accepted we receive the benefit of His death. It is the weakest and the worst that the Christian of strong faith is sent to comfort; not to condemn, but to acquit on the ground of their belief, and that alone. When we act thus we are indeed ministering spirits, doing His work in His name, not judging, but acquitting. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. (John iii. 17). We must get men to believe that first; and when they realise it, their own consciences, thus enlightened by the Comforter, will reprove them of sin. We that have found mercy may direct them to this power within them, as the evidence of Christ in them, and as the fruit of their belief causing the spirit to war against the flesh. Further we may show that, in so far as they yield to this influence in striving against what they feel to be wrong, they are working with Christ as