ever.

souls, presenting influences and opportunities of heaven, like the glorious autumn Sabbath with its crystal atmosphere, its heavenly repose, its serene and sacred light; days given of God in mercy to the soul for its growth in God's own likeness. There is a season of such visitation for every soul, but certainly it is not often repeated, it may never return, and therefore, if neglected, is neglected for And if the work of grace be not begun in life, it will neither be begun nor completed in eternity. Habit, the habit of grace as well as sense, is a thing of time. The formation of character takes time; a character for heaven as well as hell. If the heavenly work be begun in season, it is well. But if not, then you are taking all the time of your probation for evil; and if the period for the growth of good be passed, you are lost; it is the destruction of the soul for ever. Then cometh the end. The angels are the reapers. Let both grow, tares and wheat, together until the harvest.

CHAPTER X.

Individuality and independence.-God in man, not man reduplicated.-Entire dependence God-ward, entire independence and originality, man-ward.— Helps from Christian biographies.--Supremacy and power of Christ's example.

FAITH in Christ is in every man who possesses it the most purely original and independent part of his character. Indeed, reliance upon Christ is a man's only originality and independence; everything else, in the whole empire of sin and the experience of fallen beings, he learns from his fellow-men and imitates. His faith is his own, taught and produced in him only by the Holy Spirit. Work out your own salvation, for it is God that worketh in you. There is great emphasis in this text upon that word own.

Work out your own salvation, each for himself, in reliance only on God, not upon man, not upon one another. Individual dependence upon God in Christ is the great lesson of the gospel; an independence of man and a dependence on God as entire and perfect, as if each individual were the only being to be saved in the world, the only one under Christian duties and responsibilities. Every soul is to work out its own salvation, in a dependence on God as independent of man, as if there were no other soul in the same conflict, or that had ever passed through it. The instrumentalities of men upon one another are simply God's agencies to accomplish this individual work. All the complications and responsibilities of society, and of social duties, are just a series of the

demands, the causes, and occasions of individual effort. The world is a great school, a spiritual gymnasium for the soul. All things are meant to bring men to God. Jacob's ladder is not merely let down from heaven; life itself and all things in it are such a ladder if there be a dreaming soul, and a disposition to see and use all things in the light of heaven. Men, events, blessings, trials, relationships, necessities, dependencies, charities, duties, cares, and businesses, may be steps in the ladder, with angels ascending and descending.

The gospel distribution of responsibility throws at the same time all upon one, and one upon all. It does this in a way that is almost contradictory. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden. If every man is to bear his own burden, it might be asked, how can each bear the other's? And again, if ye bear one another's burdens, how can each have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another? The truth is, here is the very perfection of society, set down in these brief items; the perfection at once of dependence and independence, of personal and mutual responsibility and accountability. In this kingdom of heaven upon earth, formed by each one having as much at heart the welfare of others as his own, each individual is to regard all others as so many reduplicates of self, to be blest and benefited, and every individual is to avoid throwing his own burdens upon others. Each is to prove his own work, and not leave it to be accomplished by others, and at the same time each is to help all others as often as he can find opportunity. And the opportunity to bless others is to be regarded as itself one of the greatest of blessings. This, I say, is the society of heaven; this is perfect love, casting out fear; this would put a stop to human misery, and make angels out of men.

Now in this state of things, the more earnestly a man endeavors to prove his own work, and to have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another, the more he will have rejoicing in others' holiness as the fruit of his own. The more a man relies solely upon God, the more he will have others relying on himself, or thrown upon himself to be blest by him. It is one of the rewards of such independence of man in reliance upon God, one of the rewards of eminent piety in proving its own work, to be constituted a great instrumentality of God in winning other souls to piety and heaven. The more entirely and thoroughly a man, in humble dependence upon God, does his own work, the more he will help others to do their work, and the more of others' work God will enable him to do, and give him opportunity to do, for God. This, I say, is a great reward of original, laborious, deep piety, You may see it in the case of such men as Baxter and Bunyan, Halyburton, Edwards, and Payson. Never leaving other men to bear their burdens, but always going to God alone with them, and looking to God's discipline and Christ's example, not man's, God has given them, in consequence, the inestimable privilege of bearing the burdens and blessing the souls of very many others, so fulfilling the law of Christ. And though they have now rested from their labors, as we call labor, yet still in their works they are the burdenbearers of the Christian world; in their works they are still going about doing good, and in some measure, like Christ himself, bearing men's infirmities, and healing their sicknesses. In this sense, though they rest from their labors, their works still follow them.

But piety cannot be gained by proxy; and although God makes use of these secondary instrumentalities to bring men to himself, it is a great evil, when men rely upon the instrumentalities instead of God, and imitate Christ's agencies instead of Christ. A secondary and second rate piety is the consequence, instead of original and deep experience. Men cease to prove their own work,

and to have rejoicing in themselves alone. Their piety becomes a superficial imitation, not of the Author and Finisher of our Faith, but of poor creatures like themselves. It is the copy of a copy, and perhaps the very imperfections are imitated. Men use the language and adopt the phrases taught by the piety of others, without the fire of that piety to give life and meaning to the language. The expressions of religious experience are the work of foreign or external and artificial training, and not fresh. from the heart. Imitative diaries become common, - with the same complaints, the same confessions, the same mournings, the same forms of prayer. Religious experience becomes a monotonous stereotype, a fashion, a prevailing manner, not a living spirit and a new creation.

But the Christian conflict cannot be imitated. The soul must not merely speculate about it, nor gaze upon others' record of it, but engage in it, each soul for itself. So run I, not as uncertainly, said the apostle; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. The closest watching of the Christian pilgrimage, the most accurate acquaintance with its theory, will be of no avail without this. One soul cannot be inspired by the fire of another's piety, nor possess its elements, except by an original personal application. to the Word and Spirit of God. The world may cry,

Give us of your oil; but the answer ever must be, Go ye and buy for yourselves. We are to look to the Author and Finisher. Faith must be faith in Christ, not in Richard Baxter.

Nothing can be an element of life and power in the Christian but what is thus original. There may be great speculative knowledge without this, but it will be inert and cold. Only that which comes burning from the heart will reach the heart. The fire of God's Word must be a fire of experience, a fire of faith, in the Christian's own soul, as a flame in one's bones, before it can be like the fire and the hammer upon other souls. What a man has gained for himself, with great care and labor, he will value