his support. Otherwise, the exhibition which we make of those graces will be but a mangled and miserable copy of what at first was only a faint imitation of Him who knew no sin; in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, but who yet was made like unto his brethren, and exhibited humanity in its noblest and most perfect form. No mere reflection of his brightness should be suffered to intercept. our steadfast gaze at the great fountain of all light and life. It is as if we should darken our windows and light up a taper, when all creation is glowing in the brilliance of the noonday sun.

Now this is God's wisdom and mercy for us. The scheme of the gospel is God in man, not man reduplicated; it is man formed on God, in every case of regeneration, not on man; after God, not after man. God-ward, true religion in man is entire dependence; man-ward, it is entire independence and originality. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new, and all things are of God: God in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, God in Christ purifying us unto himself, new creating us by his Spirit, God in Christ as our example, bringing us into the possession and reflection of his own. image.

By various maxims, forms, and rules,
That pass for wisdom in the schools,
I strove my passions to restrain,
But all my efforts proved in vain.
But since the Saviour I have known,
My rules are all reduced to one;
To keep my Lord by faith in view;—
This strength supplies, and motives too.

I see him lead a suffering life,
Patient amidst reproach and strife;
And from his pattern courage take,
To bear and suffer for his sake.
Upon the Cross I see him bleed,
And by the sight from guilt am freed;
This sight destroys the life of sin,
And quickens heavenly life within.

CHAPTER XI.

Counterfeit Bills.-The religion of imitation, not experience.-Faith trembling and self-distrustful, unbelief presuming and self-confident.

AMONG the exploits of faith enumerated by the Apostle Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews, we find the crossing of the Red Sea put down to the credit of the Israelites, in a striking contrast with the ineffectual attempt of the Egyptians to do the same. "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land; which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned." This last clause of the fate of the Egyptians is not a mere expletive. It is difficult to see why the Apostle should bestow this notice upon the Egyptians buried in the sea, while the people of God had gone triumphantly over, unless there were some additional illustrations of the nature of faith to be gained by such contrast. Accordingly, as it is an instance of precisely the same act, performed by believers and unbelievers, with results precisely and to the uttermost extreme opposite, it shows in the strongest manner the comprehensive and decisive nature and operation of the principle of faith, as determining the character and destiny. The same things done in faith and done without faith are entirely different. Externally, they may be precisely the same things in every respect, and yet no two things could be more dissimilar. In the one case they are righteousness and peace, in the other they are guilt and condemnation; in the one case they are life, in the other, death. This law or principle runs through the whole character and exercises of our

spiritual being; and it is the nature of our spiritual being which determines that of our temporal. As a man thinketh in his heart towards God and eternity, so is he in reality towards man and the things of this world. If his spiritual being is not under the law of faith and love, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, then his whole being, spiritual and temporal, is under the law of sin and death. There is nothing good in him, and nothing of life. in him, if there be not goodness and life towards God.

Now to illustrate the nature of faith and unbelief in particular duties, let us take that of prayer. The great work of faith is to come to Christ, to rest on Christ, to be acquainted with Christ, to realize his preciousness, to have the life hid with him in God. Now this communion of the soul with Christ and this life of the soul in and upon him, is maintained mainly by prayer. A man comes to Christ by prayer in the first instance; coming to Christ by prayer may be the very first exercise of faith; faith indeed is just a believing look of the soul to Christ, and this look itself is prayer. The soul may begin the form of prayer without faith, and may continue the exercise of prayer, in form, without faith; and ordinarily the soul, when first convinced of sin, does begin in this way; begins prayer ignorantly and in unbelief, before it looks to Christ, and rests on Christ, and finds Christ, savingly and by faith.

The first time a soul cries out Lord have mercy on me, it does not always see Christ. It may use the language of one looking towards Christ, but at first it is in great blindness. Nevertheless, the instructions in the gospel are so plain on this point, every soul is pointed so directly to Christ, and all ministers and Christians and new converts unite with such earnestness in urging the convicted sinner to the Saviour, that a soul with the least degree of sincerity cannot help endeavoring to find Christ, cannot help looking in that direction, however ignorantly and blindly. Although scarcely knowing as yet what to make of Christ, and feeling as though it were addressing a deity

in the dark, a being of whose existence it is hardly convinced, or has hardly any conception, the wounded soul nevertheless cries out in bitterness, Lord have mercy on me!

Now it is ordinarily while in this attitude, while in the repetition of these efforts after Christ, while endeavoring thus, according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Word, to look towards Christ, that the soul of the sinner catches the first real, believing, understanding glimpse of Christ. It begins to find him in prayer, and in most cases the discovery is very gradual; it is not a sudden finding, a burst of light from heaven, but a light that comes little by little, often increasing like the dawn. With every sincere effort of the soul in prayer there is more and more knowledge and comfort, more and more spiritual discernment, more and more sight of Christ, and not a mere feeling after him, if haply the soul might find him. Thus the soul becomes acquainted with him in prayer, learns the language and experience of the Christian in prayer, has the affections drawn out after Christ in prayer, is educated by the Holy Spirit in prayer, grows up into the Christian life in prayer, becomes exercised, drilled, so to speak, as a soldier, in the Christian conflict in prayer, passes the Red Sea, by faith, in prayer.

All this discipline, with some, is more gradual, with others more rapid; but ordinarily it begins in blind and self-despairing efforts; efforts in which the soul experiences nothing but the sense of sin and unbelief, insensibility and blindness, and seems to itself, even in the work of prayer, to be almost an atheist, to be praying without even believing in the being of a God or a Saviour. It is thus taught how great a thing is faith, how divine a gift of God to the soul, and how much faith it needs simply to believe that God is, and that he is the rewarder of all who diligently seek him. Ordinarily the practical conscious life and comfort of the soul in prayer, and the experience of faith in prayer, and the growth of the soul in the sight and know

ledge of Christ in prayer are as gradual and from as hidden, small, and blind beginnings, as the growth of a plant from the imperceptible and decaying germ in the earth, decaying, yet quickening, and showing itself to sight, first the little, delicate, tender blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in the ear. So the beginnings of Christ in the soul grow out of the decaying of self and the quickening of grace, and they show themselves and are found out and developed in the exercises of the soul in prayer.

Then having thus found Christ in prayer, the soul continues to commune with him in prayer, to throw itself upon him in prayer, daily, to walk with him by a life of faith in prayer, and to serve him by prayer, obedience, and the watchful performance of duty. It does all this now, more and more, not to find Christ, but as having found him, not to purchase anything, but out of love, as loving him, and being loved by him, not to gain pardon and heaven, by merit, but to obey Christ and to please him, to be made more and more like him, and to be filled more and more with his fulness, in his knowledge and love. This is the life of faith, entered into and maintained, mainly through the instrumentality of prayer. Prayer itself is a life.

But now, here is another path, although apparently the same way. Another man attempts to come to Christ by prayer, but without faith; to come to Christ and to enter heaven by prayer, just as you would expect to enter to the enjoyment of a feast or the exhibition of a great picture, by having bought your ticket, and presented it at the door of entrance. Every time such a soul comes to prayer, it is so much work done for wages expected. There is no humble, penitent looking of the soul to Christ in this case, and no sincere endeavor to look to him and rely upon him; and therefore, while this is the attitude of the soul, there can be no sight of him, no finding of him, no acquaintance with him. Christ is not what the soul is seeking, in such a case, but safety; not holiness and healing by Christ, but