Would he cultivate purity of heart; the way to do it is "purifying his heart by faith." Would he be sanctified; he is "sanctified by faith that is in Christ." Would he have fellowship with God; he has access by faith to this grace wherein he stands." Would he rise above the disheartening impression of his own insufficiency, and possess a state of mind that gives way to no depression, and has no place for discouragement; his language is, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." He "walks by faith, and not by sight." He lives by faith, for "it is not he that lives, but Christ that liveth in him." Would he overcome difficulty and conflict; "if he have faith as a grain of mustard seed," he shall say to mountains of difficulty, be rooted up and cast into the sea. The conscience is impressed, the heart influenced, the life controlled by faith. By the power of faith, the Christian becomes another man; has new objects of pursuit, and new aims and ends controlling his whole being. It is only under the influence of faith that men live to any good purpose. Even upon worldly and secular principles, faith, destitute as it is of spirituality, is a most powerful principle of action. Men who, in the common affairs of life, wait for the evidence of their senses or their personal experience before they act, have very little efficiency of character. They must often go forward relying upon the testimony of their fellow-men, and in the spirit of confidence. If we analyze the conduct of mankind, or our own, we shall find that even this irreligious faith is the great stimulus to effort, and that where a man is so cautious as to have none of it, he never acts at all. How much rather, then, shall the faith of the Christian, relying as it does, with the most perfect certitude, upon the veracity of God, and the perfect sufficiency of the great redemption, give force and

energy to his character. He lives by the "faith of things unseen." His faith has a foreseeing eye, lighting up all his subsequent course, throwing the interest and excitement of the present over the future, and urging him to live well and live for eternity. His faith terminates in great objects, and all is deception to it and a lie, that does not lead him to great pursuits. It is not broken cisterns that he now goes to, nor resources of earthly wisdom and strength to which he repairs. It is not a blind credulity that influences him, nor a vain and rash presumption; but a satisfied faith in the promise of God. He does not throw away his reason when he comes to the Cross, but first satisfies his reason with the truth and reality of that great sacrifice, and then subjects it to faith in the divine testimony. He does not renounce present interests, nor the world, any farther than they countervail the claims of him who was crucified; and where they do this, faith outweighs and overpowers them all. Other things influence him, but not as faith influences him. Faith extends its influence over his whole character, and in yielding to this influence, he forms a character which nothing else can form. Read the eleventh chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, and there mark the character and achievements of faith, expressing itself, too, only under a dispensation of types and prefigurations, and "like some sickly plant, nourished only under the shadow of better things to come." Faith was the distinctive characteristic of the sacrifice offered by Abel, the first recorded sacrifice ever offered in this apostate world; "and by it, he being dead, yet speaketh." Faith was the heaven-descended attendant of Enoch while "he walked with God," and conducted him so gently, and with such invisible power, through the dark valley, that he did not see death. Faith directed Noah to the ark that

bore him above the deluge to the shores of a new world. Faith threw her vivid light on the path of Abraham when "he went out, not knowing whither he went," and cheered the darkness of the hour when he offered up the child of promise, "accounting that God was able to raise him even from the dead." Faith gave reality to the hopes of Joseph, when in his last hours he "made mention of the departing of the children of Israel" for the land given to their fathers. Faith elevated the views of Moses above the honors of the Egyptian court, and enabled him to "endure as seeing him who is invisible." Well does the apostle say, "time would fail him" to enumerate the achievements of faith. The high and holy character which it is the design of the Gospel to impart, cannot be possessed without giving faith preeminence, receiving, as it does, new impulses from every exercise of its power, and every view of the Cross.

Would you possess this faith, it is to the Cross alone that we may direct you. Thither come, and as you look up, say with Job, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes!" Here there is a view of God that wins its way to the heart. Here the entrance of his word giveth light, and you may read the record, "There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." Here you may apprehend the Saviour as your surety and substitute, and may say, "Though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Behold God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation."

"The moment a sinner believes,

And trusts in his crucified God, His pardon at once he receivesRedemption in full, through his blood.

""Tis faith that still leads us along,
And lives under pressure and load;
That makes us in weakness more strong,
And leads the soul upward to God.

"It treads on the world, and on hell, It vanquishes death and despair; And oh, let us wonder to tell,

It wrestles and conquers by prayer.

"Permits a vile worm of the dust

With God to commune as a friend;

To hope his forgiveness as just,

And look for his love to the end.

"It says to the mountains, 'Depart,' That stand between God and the soul;

It binds up the broken in heart,

And makes wounded consciences whole.

"Bids sins of a crimson-like die

Be spotless as snow, and as white;
And raises the sinner on high,

To dwell with the angels of light."

CHAPTER IX.

THE INQUIRING SINNER DIRECTED TO THE CROSS.

Ir is no uncommon occurrence for persons of every age, and every rank, in human society, to look at the subject of religion with interest and solicitude. This always has been the case, to a greater or less degree, where the Cross of Christ is faithfully preached, and accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit. Wherever the spirit of inquiry on this subject exists, it implies that the inquirer is sensible of his lost condition, and is seeking the way of life. He is no longer thoughtless and unconcerned; he has done trifling with God and making light of sin, and is now awake, alive, and in earnest for the salvation of his soul. His iniquities are gone up over his head; he has the evidence within himself that "God is angry with the wicked every day," and he is ready to cry out with one of old, "When I suffer thy terrors I am distracted." It is no feigned distress which he expresses; "The arrows of the Almighty stick fast within him, the poison whereof drinketh up his spirits." Although he feels the burden of his sins, and is conscious of his obligations to turn from them unto God; yet, because he is not a converted man, he would, notwithstanding, fain "break these bands asunder, and cast away these cords from him." There is no class of men more restive under a sense of moral obligation, than those who are convinced of sin,