of truth upon the heart. It speaks to the heart; and under the influence of the Holy Spirit the heart responds. But it does respond. It is not senseless, passive, inanimate. Whilst it receives, it also takes. There is an active stretching out of the hand of faith, to lay hold of what God offers and bestows.

And thus men become, indeed, God's creatures: not merely by creation, of which they were unconscious; but by adoption, in which they have exercised a part, and their own will has had a share.

Why then are infants baptized, and received into covenant with Christ, when, by reason of their tender age, they cannot exercise this faith? Because they promise it by their sureties, which promise, when they come to age, themselves are bound to perform. No man who has arrived at years of understanding, has scriptural ground to be satisfied with his state, without a sense of this adoption: a consciousness that the word of truth hath said to him, Here is eternal life; and that the answer of his heart has been, True, Lord, "this is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Lord, we believe; help thou our unbelief, and enable us to prove in ourselves the power of thy word unto salvation.

For salvation is the merciful purpose for which the word of truth is given, and the "new creature" formed. It is not intended to stop short of this. It is intended to restrain all those passions, and correct all those affections, which are contrary to holiness, disapproved of God, and unsuitable to his heavenly kingdom. And some of these St. James proceeds to show, as is the manner of all the apostles: who

set forth, first, the mercy of God; then its effects and consequences.

19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

20. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

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He speaks, probably, of a case in which they were particularly tempted, and liable to offend they were contentious, impatient, vehement against opposition. Such was the Jewish character; we see it in all the gospel history: and they were Jews by birth, to whom James was writing. Those who condemned our Lord, professed to be zealous for God. "He has spoken blasphemy." By our law he ought to die." You would suppose they were working the righteousness of God. So those who put Stephen to death had the honour of Moses in their mouths, and pretended to vindicate their law, as if "doing God service." Something of this spirit might remain in the Jewish Christians after they had been begotten by the word of truth. So St. James reminds them that "the fruit of the Spirit is peace:" that "the wisdom from above is peaceable:" that the weapons of christian "warfare are not carnal:" that we must "in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves:" for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. And then including all in one comprehensive sentence, he adds:

21. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

The engrafted word-How exact the image! The

purpose of a graft is to produce fruit of a new nature it changes the produce of the same stem. And so the word of truth: new qualities succeed the old and corrupt disposition: what in Saul was unholy violence, in Paul became earnest zeal: and so instead of filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, instead of all that impurity and overflowing vice with which the natural heart too much abounds, there arise goodness, and meekness, and godliness, and temperance, and purity.

Such is the effect of the engrafted word; and thus it is able to save the soul, by bringing the soul into a condition to be saved; and out of which it cannot be saved; for "without holiness no man shall see the Lord."

And thus, in conclusion, our thoughts are carried beyond this world of difficulty and trial, and fixed upon a very different state of being, when holiness will no more need to be engrafted on the soul as a produce new and strange; it will be its own proper nature, when the spirit is made perfect. Here the word of truth has to contend with falsehood;-to disperse error;-to subdue a stubborn heart, too often unwilling to believe:-there all will be truth, things seen as they are, no longer through a glass darkly. Here, too, the corrupt nature struggles against the engrafted nature, and one is sadly marred and injured by the other :-there that beautiful promise will be realised, “Thy people shall be all righteous." "For there shall in no wise enter into that kingdom anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie."

Wherefore, as the apostle argues, lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

LECTURE VI.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEARERS AND DOERS OF THE WORD.

JAMES i. 22-25.

22. But be ye doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Persons, then, may deceive themselves: be mistaken as to their spiritual state; falsely persuaded that all is well with them, on some grounds which are not safe and solid, and will not support them in the day of trial.

This agrees both with Scripture and experience. There are regular hearers of the word, who yet derive no profit from hearing. Nay, is not their condition still more dangerous? "If I had not come,' said the Lord Jesus," and spoken unto them,”—if they had not heard-" they had not had sin:"— they would have been comparatively blameless : "but now they have no cloke for their sins."

In what manner it happens that men are not doers of the word, but hearers only, St. James sets forth by an example.

1 John xv. 22.

23. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

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There are two modes of looking into a glass. One without purpose, and casual; as the apostle says, straightway forgetting what we saw the other for a known and certain purpose: for the sake of comparing what we are with what we desire to be. So there are two modes of hearing divine truth. In the one case we hear, and think no more of what we heard. In the other case, we hear the word, and compare it with what we are: and daily strive to resemble more and more the image presented to us there.

Many fail to do this, who are constant hearers of the word. Christ Jesus is evidently set before their eyes, as the Saviour of all that "receive him." But they do not apply to themselves the redemption he has wrought, that their own guilt may be removed, their own sinfulness remedied. So, again they hear the truth, which declares that human nature is corrupt, "deserving God's wrath and condemnation." And they do not deny it. But they do not seek that their own corrupt nature may be renewed, and made meet for the presence of God. They hear of the wickedness of the world, and the danger of setting our affections there still they follow the course of the world, as if it had no dangers. They hear of eternal life; and look to it, as to something which is to succeed this present state, as youth succeeds to infancy, and age to manhood: but there

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