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though they are not permitted to remain on earth to manifest it. Except by the poor weeping mother, who derives comfort from the consideration I have introduced, the case of infants is less thought of than that of adult persons. With regard to these last, many persons ask, with Nicodemus, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" Our Lord goes on to say, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit," or, as it might be rendered, "the water of the Spirit" the water being the emblem, and the Spirit the reality— "he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Then He goes on to amplify, in a manner which I wish you seriously to study, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Now you all know what it is to have fleshly feelings, fleshly appetites, fleshly emotions, first created, and then called forth into exercise upon things in nature. Do you know what it is, according to the second part of our Lord's illustration, to be spiritually-minded-" that which is born of the Spirit is spirit"-to be blessed with spiritual perceptions, with spiritual feelings, with spiritual faculties, to have energies and powers, with which we walk spiritually, talk spiritually, eat spiritually, drink spiritually, and do all things spiritually? "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." If you were to walk with me hence to Camberwell Green, you would be able to tell what walking with me is. Can you tell me what it is to "walk with God" as Enoch and Noah are said to have done? Do you know what it is to eat the body and drink the blood of the Son of God? Do you know what it is to "hunger and thirst after righteousness?"

Moreover, the believing family of God, having a spiritual existence, cannot but desire spiritual company, to be associated with those who have most of heaven in their experience, and, inasmuch as they can find none else high enough in this attainment, they crave to walk with God Himself, to sit with the Father in heavenly places, to live under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, day by day, as those who are anointed with fresh oil, till they become like the persons to whom John said, "Ye have an unction from the Holy One." If you ask me how a man can be saved, I reply that he must be chosen by the Father, renewed by the regenerating operations of the Holy Ghost: there is only one point more, and that is, that he must be redeemed. If I am asked why I have put the redeeming third, I answer, that though we are accustomed to speak of the Persons of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in that order, there are places not a few, in the New Testament, in which that order is reversed, partly for this simple reason, that from one of the Persons of the Trinity being placed before the other, it should not be supposed that superior honour is due to Him; and, therefore, sometimes the Spirit is spoken of first as giving us the spirit of prayer; the Saviour, second, as the medium of access to the Father, while the consummation of that attainment is in the Person of the Father. Moreover, believers are spoken of as "chosen to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit." I merely name these texts to show that, from the reversing or changing of the order of the words in various places, we may learn the important lesson that there is an equality of honour due to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three distinct Persons constituting the undivided self-existent essence. All the honours of the Father must be paid to the Son equally; and he who

honours Him can do so only by the power of the Holy Ghost, for it is said, "No man can call Jesus Lord except by the power of the Holy Ghost." I do not know what some do with regard to the doctrine of the Trinity. I can find no promise at all but what is yea and amen in Christ Jesus, to the glory of the Father by the Holy Ghost. I can find no part, no feature of Christianity, without the doctrine of the Trinity. I have often said, and do this morning maintain, that there is but a step between the glorious doctrine of the Trinity and downright Atheism. Which side you stand upon, my friends, I must leave between God and your own souls; but do not call yourselves Christians if you are not Trinitarians; do not call yourselves Christians if you believe not the statement of St. John, "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one." You cannot answer the question proposed in my text, "Who, then, can be saved?" until the Father's choice is admitted, until the Spirit's power is felt, until the redemption that is in Christ Jesus is relied upon and confided in for everlasting life.

But we will not dwell further on this point. Let me proceed with another thought before I pass on to the third head. Whatever men may say of traditions, we reject them as vain; we draw all our lessons from Scripture. When the prophet Isaiah is commissioned to speak of the way of holiness and life, the way of salvation, after saying that "no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast," he says, "the redeemed of the Lord shall walk there ;" and not only are they to walk there, but they are so to walk as to "come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads." So that "the redeemed of the Lord" are spoken of in Scripture as the very persons who are to be saved and shall be saved. When Jehovah means to make them His servants, He sends down His Spirit to effect their heavenly birth, and as soon as they are His servants, it is manifest they are redeemed. Therefore is it said to John, in Patmos, that those who surround the throne of God and the Lamb are "redeemed from among men;" and we know that their redemption is by the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb slain, without spot and without blemish.

III.-Now let us proceed to the third particular of our subject. You know I told you that the knowledge of our being saved is attainable in our personal experience. Perhaps you will ask me how. I will tell you in as brief terms as I can.

First, it is by imputation being appropriated. I do not mean imputation being acknowledged as an actual thing, but appropriated. I am very fond of that word "appropriated;" I cannot live without it; and though some divines tell us there is no such thing as appropriated faith, I know that there is. They may tell me there is no such thing as bread, but I know that I have had some for my breakfast this morning. Now there is a difference between admitting a doctrine and appropriating it as our own. I may approve of the doctrine of imputation as set down in Scripture, but to appropriate it as my own is quite another thing. If you ask me what I mean by imputation being appropriated, I answer, that all my sins are seen by my faith as imputed to Christ-placed upon Him. Then, on the other hand, my faith eyes all Christ's merit, all Christ's obedience, all Christ's payment, all Christ's victory, all Christ's perfect work as imputed to me. My transgressions and sins are imputed to Him; His sinless obedience

and satisfactory atonement are imputed to me, and my faith appropriating in both cases, there is now no condemnation. In the appropriation of this imputation of righteousness unto me, I go to court dressed, and so present myself before the throne of God, and I have appropriating faith enough to believe-call me presumptuous if you like that God sees me in that righteousness of Christ as spotless as Christ Himself, having "neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing." Taking this view of appropriation, though I cannot bring the wealth of this young man, though I cannot bring any human attainments which I can rely upon, yet I can bring the perfect righteousness of the Son of God, which is "unto all and upon all them that believe;" and having that imputed unto me and upon me, I can go to God dressed in it and say, "Look, O Lord, upon the face of thine Anointed." Now what think you about possessing knowledge of this standing personally yourselves? Have you really been dealing with God in this imputed righteousness of Christ alone, to the utter rejection of everything in the creature? believing that blessed declaration, "My people shall be satisfied with my goodness."

Now go on to mark another thing, whereby the knowledge may be personally and spiritually nourished and cultivated. Mark, I want some close investigations both for you and for myself. When we get into the company of spiritual persons, and enter a little into features of experience, it is not a very difficult matter to be sifting in spiritual conversation; but that is quite a different thing from the holy habit of cultivating spirituality, pursuing such courses as are likely to promote spiritual enjoyment, associating with persons whose conversation is likely to make us more spiritually minded, which is "life and peace," and so getting more peace, more devotedness to God. Moreover, in the use of appointed means, I am told in this precious book, the "diligent soul shall be made fat;" of course in a spiritual sense. Now I want this to be more manifest and conspicuous. I desire that whenever the house of God is open, and the truth of God proclaimed, your seat may be occupied, and no trifle may detain you at home. I know there are impossibilities. I know that matters which are unavoidable sometimes detain the people of God from the house of God, but I do not believe there are half so many as there are made to be and pretended to be. If you are cultivating the right spirit, the truths which you hear here will tend to fan it into exercise in the things and ways of God; and therefore I would have you more diligent in the use of the means of grace.

Moreover, I think that if many of my hearers were cultivating spirituality, I should see them more frequently at the prayer-meetings. Let us look to the Bible for promises and comforts, which shine like brilliant diamonds on the inspired page; and then let us ask for these blessings to be poured out on the Church and on individuals; and thus shall we cultivate spirituality. Oh, my hearers, there is nothing which I dread more than a Laodicean sleep-a tame lethargic Christianity. I want every opportunity to be appropriated and used. Your feeling should be, "The King has spread His table, and I am going to partake there;" there may be something in my brother's prayers for me to plead before God; and if I am called to offer a word, something in my humble experience may meet the case of a child of God like myself. We must seek to be of one heart and

one mind, as those who love the Lord. If you were to cultivate this spirituality-some of you may call this language legal, if you likeyou would not go from day to day like Pharaoh's lean kine. May God Almighty write this on your hearts, and make you to feel the value of the means of grace while you have them. I do not believe it will be long; for no doubt Popish persecution will break out here when driven from other countries. Forgive this honest plain dealing. If I did not love you I should not speak to you thus.

Bear in mind that this high-toned spirituality is only to be obtained, and only to be maintained, by the power of the Holy Ghost taking of the things of Christ and showing them unto us, yea, causing us to receive, out of the fulness of Christ, grace for grace; then all His own graces are called into exercise in the soul, and growth in grace, with increasing usefulness, is the result. All is barrenness with us "until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high;" then, and not till then, the wilderness becomes a fruitful field. While, therefore, I exhort you to make diligent use of the means of grace, I urge, also, that your entire dependence be placed upon the continual operations of the Holy Ghost, that God, in all things, may be glorified as you advance

homeward.

Now one word more. You have the knowledge rendered permanent; you have the sacred assurance that you really are among the saved. Then what think you of translation to a better state of things being a subject of perpetual anticipation? Oh! my soul has been striving and craving to live in that state for a long while. May God Almighty keep me upon Mount Tabor. I want my soul to be satisfied that one translation has taken place, and then to live in anticipation of another. "He has delivered us from the power of darkness," says the apostle, "and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.' Now, have you been translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son upon earth? and are you waiting in sweet assurance of translation to the kingdom of glory hereafter? Oh! if you desire to be found, as our Lord directed in the parable, with your loins girt and your lamps trimmed, and ye yourselves like unto those who wait for their Lord, you should be as lights shining before men, with the eyes of faith anticipating Christ's coming, and anticipating the blessedness of being at home with the Lord. Have you got your certificate ready to present at the gate? You know that it is not an uncommon thing for a person in a crowd to keep his ticket squeezed between his fingers, ready to be presented in a moment. That is what I want you to do, so that when the messenger says, "The Master calls for you," you may be able to say, "Here is my certificate, written with the finger of God upon the fleshly table of my heart." Oh, the blessedness of waiting for the salvation of God, of looking out for the moment when we shall be like Him, and see Him as He is! You who have no such evidences, I charge you, in the name of the living God, seriously to ask yourselves, "Is it possible that I can be saved?" It is not possible without spiritual life, without regeneration. You who possess these evidences, or anything like them, bless and praise God for them, cry unto Him to give you a sufficient supply of grace to glorify His name in your bodies and your spirits until you shall be glorified with Him above.

May He bless these few hints, and His great name shall have all the glory.

THE 521ST HYMN OF GROVE CHAPEL HYMNS.

LOVE's ocean fulness now I sing,

In God my Father-Christ my King;
O Holy Ghost, my heart inspire
With holy and seraphic fire!

Belov'd in Christ ere time began,
Sav'd in the Father's cov'nant plan;
Then call'd in time by special grace,
And made a holy, happy race.

We'll sing Jehovah's fixed decree,
To give salvation full and free;

To all His Church in Christ foreknown,
Predestinated to a throne.

For ever shall His purpose stand;
His saints are safe in Jesu's hand;
He saves-He calls-He holds them fast,
And home they shall be brought at last.

Come, thirsty souls, and drink the bliss
Which flows from such a source as this;
Run up the streams-explore the spring,
Of boundless love and mercy sing.

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