being carried on; he was blind, and can now see;-he was halt, and can now run;-he was withered and fruitless, and now brings forth fruit to the glory of God. This Physician we are invited to consult. Who will say, I have made my own heart clean; I need not a physician? We want not only pardon for past sins, -not only the blood of the cross,-but something more; that takes away sin, but not disease. For this, however, a remedy is provided in the sanctifying operations of the Holy Spirit. The soul put into Christ's hands, with all its plagues and wounds, he will treat tenderly, skilfully, and effectually. He will make you see and feel your plagues; will show you that in your flesh is no good thing; will scatter your own remedies, and apply his own. The medicine is his blood; the balm is his grace; the power is his Spirit which cleans the heart. The experience of his healing, the sensations of health, are not only delightful in themselves, as making us relish the things for which we were made, and in which the real happiness of our souls consists; but as pledges that shortly there shall be a perfect soundness,-a removal of the plague for ever. The land is not far off in which "the inhabitants never say I am sick." This Physician, now standing at our door, will presently come to judge us. How could we bear to stand beneath his piercing eye, while in stern rebuke he asks, "Was there no balm in Gilead,-was there no Physician there,-why, then, was not the health of your souls recovered?" St. Jude's, Glasgow, Oct. 1852. Epsom, May, 1853. Lyndhurst, July, 1853. NETHERBURY & BEAMINSTER TRACTS. No. 1. THE DISEASE AND CURE OF SOULS. THE mischief sin has occasioned by its entrance into this world, is most conspicuous in its effects on the soul. To the body it has been the cause of pain, disorder, and decay to the earth it has brought desolation and barrenness: God has cursed it for sin's sake. But these are not its worst effects. It has corrupted and destroyed that which cannot decay like the body, or dissolve like the earth,-man's undying soul. Sin has been the means of separating it from its God, and of dooming it to eternal death. Death is sin's wages, which man receives both in his body and in his soul. The one must be shattered and broken up, and lie in ashes: the other, which cannot thus perish, must pass away into a dark eternity, to a gloomy prison house, where no pleasure can again visit it, or any voice of joy be ever heard. This death of body and soul has passed on all men, and is ready to be executed on them, because all have sinned. I wish to direct your thoughts to the reality and nature and extent of that disorder of our souls, which, if unchecked and uncured, will lead to these fearful results. Few need to be stirred up to pay attention to a bodily disease, when it is likely to have fatal consequences. With what painful anxiety are the symptoms noted and watched; the mind knows no rest till they are removed or mitigated. But the disease preying on the soul is neither felt nor feared. Numbers |