presents, in itself, reasons for acting.

These we must thoroughly embrace: that is, not merely believe that they are true; but receive them into our soul, and place them at the springs of action, that we may be moved by them; thus giving them a sort of existence in our own spirit; imbibing them; receiving them into our inmost nature.

The "word of hearing" is to be "mixed with faith" in the hearer.

There are two ways of believing, very different, to which, unhappily, the same word is usually applied. By the first, we look, as it were, at the word without us, and admit its truth. And this may take place whenever it is presented. Just as we see our own image formed in the mirror when we stand before it. But the mirror receives not the image; and when we pass away, the reflection ceases. Something of this sort constitutes what many call faith, deceiving their ownselves.

There is, secondly, to borrow a word from material objects, as we are obliged to do to aid us in speaking of the operations of mind, there is a reception of the truth. The Scripture illustrates this by referring to seed sown in a suitable soil. Seed may be most accurately reflected from a mirror; but no growth is occasioned thus. It grows when it is sown.

So as to food. And truth is compared to aliment. Food nourishes, not by being seen, examined, understood. You may perish while these processes are going on. You receive it. It is mixed up with the wonderful menstruum which, as it were, dissolves it in the stomach, and thus, having become duly prepared, it is taken up into the entire system.

These are only illustrations; but they may aid you in the apprehension of this momentous doctrine. The truth, presented from without, is to be admitted to your soul, your conscience; to be mixed with faith; so that whenever it presents itself, it may present itself in combination with faith. The word of hearing profits when it becomes the word believed, thoroughly and from the heart believed. Truth believed is sent throughout the soul, and thus does it profit

us.

We are moved by it: moved with hope, moved with fear, moved with desire, moved with aversion. Whatever

the truth does, it does by being thus believed. If not thus believed, it is the mere outward word; the unheeded message, the neglected salvation. It does not profit you.

But your unbelief shall not make the truth of God powerless. It shall be powerful to condemn, if your hardness of heart made it, as to you, powerless to profit and save. Look at it. See how it will bear on your case at the day of judgment. Divine promises, threatenings, commands, all were slighted. You put away the word of God, hardening your heart; till that terrible doom came on you, that God swore in his wrath you should not enter into his rest. Recollect that the fact of the Gospel being preached to you, though it make no difference in your character, yet it does in your state in relation to God and eternity. The Apostle says, literally, not that the Gospel is preached to you, but that you are evangelized; addressed by a "word of hearing " that brings before you a collection of good things, and is, therefore, a system of good tidings. This places obligations on you, and adds to your responsibility. You shall go as thus evangelized before God in judgment; and how shall you escape, if you be found to have neglected so great salvation? O harden not your hearts! Pray for a tender heart. The seed grows not on the rock. Break up the fallow ground of your heart. Seek to God for an honest and good heart to receive with meekness the engrafted word.

And cherish it. Believe it fully. Believe it in earnest. Believe it in all its portions. Let every grain take root downward, and bring forth fruit upward. The spiritual truth, embraced by such a spiritual faith, shall profit you every way. Its present influence on your holiness and comfort shall be mighty. It shall bring you to endless peace and joy in the heavenly Canaan.

TRUE HAPPINESS.

"And he went on his way rejoicing."—ACTs viii. 39.

THE very sound of such a text must be pleasant. We can scarcely refrain from expressing the wish, while traversing

the wilderness of life, and approaching the end of our journey, "May it thus be with us. May we go on our way rejoicing." The wish is natural. It may be realized. The God of nature is the God of grace. The provisions of his mercy exactly meet the wants and wishes of the nature which he has given. He has even laid us under obligation to be happy. That which under one aspect appears as an exalted privilege, under a second, appears as our bounden duty. So that all considerations combine to call for our most serious attention to the subject suggested by the interesting and instructive language of the text.

"And he went on his way rejoicing." Who did so? And under what circumstances?

These inquiries direct us to the foregoing history,-a history full of important lessons, but which I can now only consider as it bears on the subject on which I have proposed to discourse.

Go back to verse 26.-Philip receives orders from an angel to go in a certain direction. He went, not knowing as yet the object of his mission. This was soon made known.

A man of Ethiopia,-from the direction in which he was travelling, most probably from the modern Abyssinia,-one of great authority, had been to Jerusalem to worship. Abyssinian tradition says, that the Queen of Sheba had carried back to her own country the knowledge of the true God, and the rites of Jewish worship. This high-treasurer of the Queen in his elevated post, preserved his thoughtfulness and piety. He had taken a long journey by land; then, probably, from Alexandria to Gaza, by sea: a journey of trouble, expense, and danger; and all from religious feeling. Religious considerations were with him evidently supreme, not subordinate: his mind desired the truth; his conscience was obedient to its disclosures.

He was now on his return: and see the state of his mind, by his travelling employment. He sat in his chariot, reading the Scriptures; and at this particular period, he was reading the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah's prophecy. He was reading aloud, evidently full of thought.

Philip saw the chariot, and was commanded to approach.

He did so, and heard the words whose meaning he himself so well understood: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter," &c. What would be Philip's feelings! What a joyful prospect of usefulness opened before him! He entered into conversation. He took the text thus supplied, and preached JESUS. The whole doctrine of Christ, and salvation by him, would be included in such a discourse. And the good man to whom it was addressed, saw that it was the truth; that which he had desired and sought. He plainly saw that there was a something in Judaism as yet undiscovered by him: as the traveller sees the ground on which he stands connected with what is concealed by a dense mist hanging on the earth, the dispersion of which would be the discovery of the landscape, and the immediate perception of its undeniable connexion with that which was seen before. Philip's discourse dispersed the mists; opened out to clear view the whole plan of salvation, as shadowed in the olden dispensation. All was conviction and light. The believer in Moses at once believed in Christ. He was baptized. And now Philip's work was done. The two separated: Philip, to preach Jesus still; the newly-made Christian, to fill up the duties pointed out by his providential situation. What they were we know not. He goes away, not only not disconsolate, but not even doubtful; he goes on his way "rejoicing," -in the truth he had found, and in that glorious Saviour whom that truth disclosed, and in that blessed salvation which he had already begun to enjoy. He had entered into the gracious kingdom of God, or rather, it was set up in his own soul; and that kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. He saw there was a glorious kingdom in eternity; and he rejoiced, in hope of the glory of God. Joy was his, as to the present; joy, as to the future: and thus, like the true Christian pilgrim, in departing from Philip, "he went on his way rejoicing."

And now, let us look at ourselves. We are going on our providential way; living out our time; each moment lessening our distance from the solemn close of life's pilgrimage. We go on our way. That is unavoidable. But in what manner?

There is a false joy; and many "go on their way rejoicing" You must not say, The feeling is everything; the source, nothing. Even where it so, yet the joy which will not bear sober thought, which reflection will not justify, is not the joy for a rational being. And the joy which death finally interrupts and destroys, is not the joy for an immortal being. But even more than this, joy from earthly sources has a most pernicious effect on the feelings and character: it is not fit for a moral probationer, on trial for eternity, and drawing near to the judgment-seat of God. Hearken to the word of God in your case.

Read Isai. xlviii. 21, 22; Isai. 1. 11; Isai. xvii. 10, 11; Eccles. xi. 8, 9. Consider this. Your joy is vain, and sinful: you may in life receive your good things: how terrible to have your evil things hereafter and for ever!

But there are those who go on their way in trouble and heaviness. There are few who go on in unbroken joy. The seemingly joyous have their cares, their distastes, their miseries. Some have so much as to look at nothing else. They even say, that "man was made to mourn." And sometimes, melancholy proof is given that the sorrow of the world worketh death. Rachel weeps for her children, and

will not be comforted. angrily wishes for death.

Jonah faints under the heat, and

You are as truly in mistake as the other. They live on the joys of earth, plucking its flowers; while you only gather its bitter herbs. Both are wrong. Man was made for joy. Occasions of joy are provided for man. True joy can only arise from the communion of the soul with God; and according to his own holy and most merciful appointment, that can only be by receiving the atonement. He who does this, walks in the light of the Lord; and as the risen sun has its rays reflected from the whole earth, so the light of God's countenance brightens the path on which we walk, and all around us.

True religion, as implying reconciliation to God, devout submission to his will, and the Scripture-taught knowledge of his truth, is true happiness. It will bear reflection. It aids in purifying the character, and preparing for the joys of