even Satan can have no power over us, except as he is aided by our own culpable remissness, or the treachery of our hearts.

I mention, lastly, DESERTION, OR THE HIDING OF GOD'S COUNTENANCE. When he hides his face, who then can behold him? This was the affecting cause of Job's extreme depression. O that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat! Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him : on the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him. David likewise frequently complains bitterly of the divine dereliction. He was an exile from God's house and reproached by God's enemies; till at last, trembling in his mind lest he should be cast away from the divine presence, he asks, How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? The Church also in the Prophet was dejected, when God in a little wrath hid his face from her for a moment. We must remember also that our Lord, in the hour of his sufferings, complained of no other part of the cup of sorrow; but that when his heavenly Father withdrew the light of his favour, he exclaimed in unspeakable anguish, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Under circumstances then of spiritual desertion the Christian sinks often into a depression of heart which weighs heavily upon him, fills him with the most gloomy forebodings, and interrupts all sensible communion between him and his God.

But enough has been said on the causes of this distemper. It varies so greatly in the detail of almost every case, that only a general description of some of the more common occasions of it has been attempted.

I proceed therefore to consider,

III. THE CURE OF THIS DISEASE.

There are three very different methods adopted in the cure of religious melancholy: the one by the worldly person; the second by the inconsiderate but well-meaning Christian friend; the third by the faithful minister of the word of God.

The WORLDLY PERSON may have a sincere compassion for the dejected Christian, but, not understanding the case, cannot direct him to the proper cure. He considers religious depression as a vapour, a morbid state of the imagination. He is disposed to laugh at the terrors which are felt, and to propose diversion, pleasure, company, dissipation, and a round of business and engagements, as the appropriate remedy. When these injudicious methods are employed, the effect may be easily conjectured. They may remove lowness of spirits for a time, but it is by generating a still more dangerous disease, by producing unconcern as to the state of the mind, a disregard of God, and an insensibility of conscience, which, if they continue, must issue in the absolute ruin of the soul. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks; walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled; this shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.

A second mode is adopted by the INCONSIDERATE : RELIGIOUS FRIEND. Without weighing different circumstances, he proposes the same remedy indiscriminately in every instance. He would comfort at all events, and through all impediments. He soothes and lulls the negligent Christian without an adequate knowledge of his disease. He exhorts him to joy in believing, and if there are insuperable obstacles to his immediately complying with this exhortation, he abandons him as desperate.

times he will overthrow many important doctrines of the Gospel, in order to establish the point in hand.

Instead of examining the several causes of the depression, and applying the appropriate means, first for removing such causes, and then for administering comfort, he gives such an exhibition of the Gospel as indirectly encourages sin, separating its consolations from that diligence in renouncing evil habits, and in using the appointed means of grace, which always accompanies and adorns a true faith in the promises of Christ. This is to administer an opiate, which composes by stupifying. This is to heal the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

THE FAITHFUL MINISTER OF THE WORD of God

proceeds in another method. With all the compassion for the depressed Christian, and all the attachment to the doctrines of grace which any person can feel; he is anxious on the one hand to preserve uninjured the spirituality of the sufferer's mind; and on the other not to speak peace and comfort to him, except on solid and scriptural grounds. He endeavours to discern things that differ, and to show himself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

If the distressed Christian, then, seems to him to labour under bodily maladies or the effects of superstition, the minister will recommend in the first instance, A DUE ATTENTION TO THE HEALTH, AND A MORE CORRECT KNOWLEDGE OF THE WILL OF GOD. If a man's spirits are broken by excessive labour or study, he will advise him to seek relaxation, before he can expect serenity of mind. If a debilitated frame disorder, as it will do, the religious affections, he will direct him to distinguish between the natural consequences of bodily disease, and the effects of the displeasure of God. If superstitious fears harass him, he will disclose the error, and exhort him to

T

study the Bible: To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this rule, it is because they have no light in them.

In cases of distress which seem to spring from a misapprehension of the plan of the Gospel, the minister will delight to EXPATIATE ON THE LOVE OF GOD in Christ Jesus. This he will display to the fainting heart of the penitent. He will tell him that God delighteth in mercy; that he has no pleasure in the death of a sinner; that he beseeches and entreats sinners to be reconciled; that the most stupendous exhibition of his grace was in his so loving the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life; that the spring and source of redemption itself was the immeasurable love and kindness of God our Saviour towards man. He will point the dejected penitent to the parables of the lost sheep and of the prodigal son, and will ask him whether the joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, and the compassion of the father of the prodigal when he saw him a great way off and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him, do not show the unspeakable love of God.

THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE DEATH AND INTERCESSION OF THE SAVIOUR is, also, a topic calculated to relieve this particular case. What can exceed the merits of our incarnate Lord? What surpass the virtue of his sacrifice? Who can condemn those whom he justifies? Is he not God as well as man? Is not his death a propitiation for the sins of the whole world? Did he not die the just for the unjust? Was not the law fulfilled by him, the moral government of God honoured, justice appeased, truth satisfied, and the demands of holiness answered? Is not Christ now in heaven as our intercessor; and can he not save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him? Shall a man presume to

say, that his sins in particular are too great to be expiated by the blood of the Redeemer? Does not this savour more of self-importance than of humility?

THE FREE AND UNLIMITED INVITATION to sinners to approach this adorable Saviour is likewise an appropriate means of relief here. Whosoever will, let him come. Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Come unto

me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. Let the dejected inquirer listen to these accents of mercy. Let him acknowledge the misery and disappointment which attend his efforts to become really holy on his present plan. Let him venture confidently on the grace of Christ. A free and full salvation through the sacrifice of the cross is offered to him. He is a miserably weak and wretched being. For such a fallen creature to purchase heaven, or to change his own heart, or practise the duties of Christianity of himself, is impossible. He can do nothing that is free from sin, even although deliverance from eternal ruin were to be the consequence. Let him then, with his anxious and horror-struck mind, cast himself at the feet of his Saviour for free justification and effectual help, humbly imploring the divine Spirit to give him

the

peace and consolation arising from a sense of the pardon of his sins by the death of Christ, and strength to serve and obey him in newness of life.

But in the case of dejection of mind arising from some course of sin which has been secretly or openly committed, the minister of God's word must adopt another method. The grace and privileges of the Gospel are not the right topics to be employed, at least in the first instance. The conscience must, rather, be awakened to do its office. The whole state of the heart and conduct must be searched