in the God of my salvation." This is faith in God, and not merely in God's blessings; it is faith and joy in God, irrespective of his blessings.

This is the faith inculcated in Isaiah: "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." Yes! when he can see and feel nothing of good, then let him trust in the name and attributes of goodness, even in the name of the Lord, which is pledged for his deliverance; so doing, he trusts in the reality of goodness, and is stayed upon his God. Let Jehovah, though invisible, let God in Christ, though now hidden for a season, yet the God of mercy, of redemption, of salvation to sinners, be the stay and support of the soul. But let it not run, in the midst of spiritual darkness, to sensible supports, or to the guidance and comfort of lights and fires manufactured for that purpose, and not of God. Let it not run to selfgratification, or to men's promises or flatteries, or to anything out of God's Word. For God hath said, by the side of the same command for the soul to be stayed upon himself, Behold, all ye that kindle a fire (in such a time of darkness), and compass yourselves about with sparks (your own poor, miserable fire-works); walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled; but to do that is your delusion and destruction; it may be rejoicing in self for a little time, but the end is death; for this shall shall lie down in sorrow. Sorrow indeed it is to be left of God, left to self, sinful, miserable self! But this trust in the simple name of God as revealed in his Word is faith, genuine faith, acceptable faith. It is faith in God, not merely in God's comforts. It will be seen at once that this comprises submission, a disposition sweetly resigned to God's will. If He leave but himself, the afflicted, sorrowing soul says, he may take what he will away. And he cannot take away himself. His Word forbids that. He has never promised in his

ye have at my hands; ye

Word any particular comforts, at the particular times of my will; but he has promised himself to all who put their trust in him; and come what may, my soul resteth upon God. My soul, rest thou only upon God, for my expectation and my hope are from him!

66

Now this is a thing that we learn only from experience; for ordinarily we set out with very different expectations. We know the theory of faith, and we speculate well, and mean to act accordingly; but when trial and difficulty come, we are very much surprised at it. By and by they are offended." Particular navigation on the seas of life by God's Word is a very different thing from the study of spiritual trigonometry and quadrants at school. When overtaken by a storm, instead of saying, Now is the time foretold, when God would exercise my faith, now is the time to prove my trust to be in him, and not in calm weather, we say, How shall I get rid of this trial? How clear up this storm, or fly from it? We think too much of present quietude and peace, look too much after it, and regret its loss too bitterly. Like Jonah, we are apt to be exceedingly glad of the gourd when it comes, and exceedingly angry when it is taken away.

But God does never too long continue his trying discipline; it is not all work and no play, but simply toil and trial for the purpose of teaching faith, and when that is somewhat accomplished, God's wisdom and love are glad to bestow blessings. He healed the fountain of Marah in the desert, when his people could not drink of it until he had poured his blessing upon the waters. It was infinitely better to have bitter water with God's healing, than the best of water without God. The very trials and disappointments of a Christian, if God comes with them, are better than all the blessings of the worldling. It was better to have the disappointment at first, and God's interposition afterwards, than to have found a sweet fountain at once. And then, at the next move, they were brought of God to a most

refreshing and desirable station, where were twelve wells of water, and three-score and ten palm trees.

Their bitter disappointment at first, and God's merciful interposition, had begun to teach them that everything of good must come from God. They were beginning to learn this great lesson of faith; and now these twelve wells and seventy palm trees were from him also; and his previous discipline with them made them feel this. And if they should again forget this dependence, God would again have to bring them to their senses by severe trial. It is one of the lessons of faith the most seldom or at least perhaps the latest learned, and also it is one of the greatest proofs of faith, to receive our daily mercies as from God. This is the life of faith amidst sense. What are our daily mercies, but daily miracles, daily and remarkable interpositions of God's mercy, preventing the ordinary course of nature? We need to see and to feel this. The ordinary course, seeing that we are sinners, would be for God's wrath to descend upon us, and all our mercies to be taken away. It is quite out of the course of nature for us, a rebellious race, to receive mercies, and it is only by God's interposition in Christ that we do receive them; a greater miracle by far, than when God interposed to heal the fountain in the desert. Justice to the full would be the course of nature, but the supernatural cross intervenes, and miracles of mercy are wrought for us. Our life is a perpetual miracle. It is a proof of faith to feel this, and it is a blessed life of faith to live thus upon God.

But the things we are familiar with seem things of course; we lose the sense of novelty, and when that is gone, of God's interposition. While that sense of novelty lasts, blessings may seem something miraculous. And if we could carry into life only a child's sense of the marvellous, we should have more faith, we should see God more clearly. But we lose the sense of freshness in God's mercies, and then the sense of God. Just so it was with

the Hebrews. Forty years, every morning, they found the ground covered with manna for their food. They almost ceased to think of it as a miracle. And indeed our experience of God's mercy in every way is almost as miraculous as theirs of God's daily manna. But after a while it becomes so familiar, that we almost cease to remember God in it. Yet we ought to live upon God, and not by bread alone; we ought to see God in all our mercies. They are given to lead us to God, given as links of intercourse with him, given as a discipline, leading to something better.

The purpose of these mercies, especially our spiritual mercies, is not so much present enjoyment, as strength to go on. God's love, in this world, is a discipline. The Mount of Transfiguration, if we are admitted to it, is not a place to stay in, but to be refreshed in, for the trials and duties of our pilgrimage. There may be an encampment, but that is all. We must strike our tents, and go on. Our Blessed Lord said, as he was about to be betrayed into the hands of sinners, and just as he was establishing the sacred sacramental institution as a gift of remembrance, of refreshment, of strength, of spiritual life, for his church in all ages, With desire have I desired to eat this passover with you, before I suffer. May we not suppose that with this desire of such solemn and sweet communion with those whom Christ so tenderly loved, there was mingled the feeling that that sacred season and ordinance itself celebrated at that hour, would prove, even for him, a preparation and support for the great conflict and agony even unto death, on which he was now to enter for their sakes!

CHAPTER XVI.

Faith an in-working law, with the obedience voluntary; not a despotism, with the obedience compulsory or irresistible.-God working in man both to will and to do. Deceitfulness and danger of the idea of perfection attained.

THE only true theory of our mental philosophy is that which represents the will as co-present, and co-active in all the movements of the understanding and the affections. There can be no separation; otherwise, the mind is insane. Our whole character, our whole habit, style, and continued activity of being, are voluntary; nor is this voluntariness in the least intermitted or suspended by the operations of Divine Grace, no more than the current of a river is intermitted, when its channel, and perhaps its properties, are entirely changed. It may have flowed muddy, and now flows clear; it may have flowed North, towards the pole, and now flows South, towards the tropics; but the current and its law of activity are the same. And so it is with the everlasting, indestructible activity of our personal free will. It is never so active as when God acts in it, and is the fountain of its power.

So Paul says, in Colossians i. 29, in allusion to the advancement of the work of God's grace in men's souls, "Whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." There is in this passage, taken in connexion with two other grand illustrious passages from Paul's Epistles, a remarkable epitome of the way of God's grace with man's will, God's sovereignty with man's free agency, God's Omnipotence with man's