breathe on the "slain" in heart, and they shall become the living and vigorous citizens of the spiritual commonwealth, and good soldiers of the Cross of Christ.

III. But it is added, in the third place, by the Apostle, "Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.":

7

In this expression, as if afraid of appearing for an instant to ascribe either the origin or progress of this revival in his soul to any merit or power of his own, he recals the declaration just before made: "I live-yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." In other words, it is, not from myself, but from the Spirit of Christ, that I derive these new sensations, capacities, tastes, and desires; this peace, and love, and joy. It is He who has touched my conscience, softened my heart, purified my taste, invested me with the faculties of a child of God, and an heir of the kingdom of heaven. Like the daughter of Jairus, I lay on the bed of death: he called me, and I arose to life, and liberty, and joy.

In this passage, we have exhibited to us

one of those convictions which genuine religion never fails to fasten upon the mind, that every real advance and improvement in temper and character is to be ascribed, not to man, but to God; not to the fitful and feeble exertions of a fallen heart, but to the power which originally "moved upon the face of the waters; which framed the earth, and threw the starry arch over its wide surface. You would call the cultivator of the ground a madman, who should declare, that the first bursting of the corn from its wintry shell, and its subsequent progress to all the beauty and wealth of the harvest, was the effect exclusively, or even mainly, of his own watchfulness, or labour, or skill. But I cannot doubt that the presumption of the man who ascribes the work of religion, either in his own soul or that of others, to human power or intelligence, is equally preposterous in the sight of God. In both cases, watchfulness and labour are indispensable-and let no man madly expect the harvest who will not cultivate the soil-but in neither case the harvest be attributed, exclusively,

may

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or mainly, to this vigilance and industry. In the one instance, the sun of the material heavens must shine, and the air breathe, and the dews descend; and in the othér, the Sun of Righteousness" must "arise, with healing in his wings," and the Spirit breathe on the cold and barren surface, and the dew of heavenly grace descend. And the heart, really acquainted with the sources of its own progress and recovery, will never fail, I believe, joyfully to adopt the language of the Psalmist; "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be the praise."

IV. But observe, fourthly, the particular channel through which the Apostle considers this sacred influence to be communicated to his soul: The life," he adds, "which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and himself for me." gave

It is, then, "faith" the principle so often despised, derided, and calumniated by the children of men which the Apostle considers as the medium of communication

between the Spirit of God and the soul of his creatures. 66 Faith," says Hooker, "is the hand by which we put on Christ" -or, in other words, the hand by which we are united to him, by which we avail ourselves of his atonement and intercession, and draw from the fountain of his and love.

power

'And what,' it may be asked, 'is faith?' I answer, that, in the sense in which it is here introduced, and in which it is most commonly used in the New Testa ment, it means, not merely an implicit confidence in the truth of the sacred record, but also an implicit confidence in the sufficiency of that scheme of salvation which is revealed in that record, and which is wrought out for us by the death of the Son of God on the cross.-In this view of the nature of faith, will not a close investigation of the history and movements of your own minds confirm the statement of the text? Is it not when your belief in the Book of God is weak, when doubts as to its authenticity or truth are suggested to the soul by the great

enemy, that the life of religion languishes, and the better affections of the soul dwindle and decay? And is it not, on the contrary, when faith is strong and clear; when the veil which is interposed between this world and the world of light seems to be in some measure withdrawn; when faith gives a "substance to things hoped for," and an "evidence to things not seen;" that every good feeling awakes in the mind; that you find a fresh vigour breathed into every affection of the soul; and that you are enabled to break from the chains of your corruption, and expatiate in the glorious liberty of the children of God?

I know that the man of the world will object to this statement; and that he will object to it probably on the ground, that he himself is wholly ignorant of the power of faith which it has now been my object to describe. But, my brethren, does the blind man comprehend the delight which he who is possessed of the organs of sight finds in the verdure of nature, in the broad hills which repose upon the dark blue sky,