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cumstantially and clearly answered in the following verse--"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." To believe, in the full and scriptural sense of the word, is the one and the only means of salvation. "Without faith," says the Apostle, "it is impossible to please God." 'He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." The expression involes a great deal more than the mere reading or repeating a certain form of words: this is indeed a part, but, as we shall see, it is only a part, and not the more important part. A man may attend the House of God and unite in the response to every prayer and profession of belief, and yet be far, very far, from God. But a true, saving, justifying belief-such a belief as can immortally save the soul-must be made up from these four constitutional parts,―of credence, which is an act of the mind; of confession, which is an act of the mouth; of obedience, which is an act of the life; and of trust, which is an act of the heart.

Of these four elements of a true belief, the first is common to us all. We all credit in our minds the revelations which God has made of his Son. We admit that all men are sinners and need a Saviour. We believe that God in his infinite mercy has provided such a Saviour in his own Son. That "the word was made flesh and dwelt among us,' -"full of grace and truth." This first thing then we all do, and in doing this we do well, but we are not saved by this. Thou believest on God, thou doest well; the devils also believe and tremble.

The second, also, is common to us. We have all united in the utterance of the words "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God," and unless there be some here who have come with deceit and treachery upon their tongue, we have all confessed our belief in him. So far, again, we have all done well-we have done what was essential: for "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." But here, again, we do no more than was done by the infernal spirits themselves, who came out of the bodies whom they possesed, crying out and saying, "I know who thou art-the Holy One of God." They, too, confessed Messiah; but this very confession was itself the acknowledgment of their own crime and the anticipation of their punishment. We must, therefore, go beyond this to make up a true, saving, justifying faith-a belief that shall sustain our spirits while we live, and support our souls when we come to die: to make up this we must go far beyond the evil spirits. We must have the obedience of faith and the trust of faith.

By obedience we do not understand the outward act alone-this is indeed essential, but not exclusive-a thing needed, but not every thing needed. What Scripture calls obedience is the obedience of the heart, and as it is from the heart that all good doth proceed, so if the heart be purified the actions will be pure also.

Now, there are those who credit and confess the Lord Jesus, but who still lack obedience. We go no further-we find a brief description of it in the words that they are careful and troubled of the things of this world alone; they walk in a vain show and disquiet themselves

in vain; they do not seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, but, forgetting that the present world is merely a place of sojourning, they regard it as a place of rest.

If, then, we would not be of those who stop short at the step of faith, at which the evil spirits can attain, we ought to examine ourselves how it is with us. Do we make religion a constant and habitual concern ? Do we prepare ourselves by prayer for the duties and the dangers of every day as we engage in the active employments of life? Do we endeavour to prove to men that we walk worthy of our name as Christians? Do we treasure up God's word in our hearts? Do we seek to hold ourselves in continual preparation for our last hour? Do we labour so to live that we may not be afraid to die? It is not too much to say of such an obedience-nay, that the very desire to render such obedience because Christ requires it, is proof positive that we are under the guidance and teaching of God's Holy Spirit, and continuing thus to live, in dependence ever and only on Divine Grace, we shall be enabled to realize that trust which contains in itself the real secret of that peace which alone constitutes happiness; that which is a possession above all, because beyond all change; that which the world cannot give and most certainly cannot take away. For a right understanding of the nature of this truth, and for the manner in which it expresses itself, we must look to the word of God; and happy are we if we can find any thing like this in our own experience under all the trials of life, so that we may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." True, faith can say, "I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." They who have acquired or who are earnest in seeking this truth—they are, alone, whatever be their circumstances as to this world's goods, truly happy; and whatever their wisdom, as to this world's knowledge, truly wise. As there is no conceivable limit to the power of Jesus Christ to bless and to save, so neither is there any to his readiness to execute it for his people. can do all things," says the Apostle-and "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.' It was a trust like this which in days of old sustained those holy men "of whom the world was not worthy," through stripes and torture and the fires of martyrdom and a trust like this will sustain ourselves, if we be called to suffer what may well be called the martyrdom of the mortal life, the chamber of sickness, the agony of suffering, or the anguish of afflictions ten times told. The power of trust has been proved in those who believe in all varieties, and under every extremity of suffering: nor has the lapse of many centuries impaired its efficacy. And God Almighty grant that you who are "born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards," if you should be called upon to watch in silent anguish, the friend of your bosom carried to the cold and lifeless tomb; if the child, growing up to be the delight of the soul, is withered as an untimely flower; if you should be destined to prove this, God grant that you may prove the excellency of that faith which can support your spirits while you live; and in spite, too, of the terrors of the last enemy, will make you happy when you die.

"I

But there may be, and I trust there are some of you who are now

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asking in the heart? But how am I to attain this? Can we do this by our own help and our own strength? The religion which we profess, the church in which we are placed, teaches us that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves-But does she, therefore, sanction us in standing still and doing nothing? Does she absolve us from all effort in the one great concern of salvation? Her language is just the same as that of the Apostle-" Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." And if she calls to the dead, who shall she leave out? We may then say to you, who is there here that desires to be saved? Who is there that dreads to be lost? Cannot he attend upon the preaching of the Word? Cannot he search the Scriptures in the solitude of his own home? Cannot he enter into the straight way that leadeth unto life? At all events, cannot he try, and will it be of any avail, if the soul be irrecoverably lost, that the effort was not made only because he did not know as a matter of certainty that it would succeed? Such an excuse, though often made, is worthless, because it is false. It is a very common case, a man is labouring under a sudden and violent disease: he does not know how it came about; but does he, therefore, passively resign himself to it? Will he not use every effort to obtain a physician who, he thinks, can cure his malady? Does he not try with eagerness the medicine prescribed, though altogether ignorant of its properties and altogether uncertain of its effect? Just so it is with the disease of sin. Let no man say he cannot be healed until he has tried the Great Physician, and found that he who came to call sinners to repentance repudiates him. We know that our physician is omnipotent, we are sure that our medicine is infallible, -never was any penitent transgressor-no, not the dying thief upon the cross-rejected. However far he might have wandered, however late he might have returned, still there was salvation free and unbounded for him when he sought it-when he in penitence asked"What shall I do to be saved ?" No one could have seemed more remote from salvation than the man who asked it. Here you have a gaoler with an obdurate and unfeeling heart-one who had treated with wanton cruelty the apostles of the Lord Jesus-who, not content with obeying the savage dictates of his tyrant master, had exceeded his orders and had made fast the apostles' feet in the stocks; and one who at that instant, with a drawn sword in his hand ready to kill himself out of a false principle of honour, because he thought the apostles had escaped. Here was a man as far from salvation as a man could possibly be; and yet even he did not ask in vain the question of our text. And why? Because the God who had inspired him to propose the question had already prepared the apostles to answer it: and depend upon it, by the same grace, if any of you present are now asking the same question-" What shall I do to be saved?" you will receive as warm an answer to your own heart. The reply to this question, as we have it from the lips of those who spoke by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, is calculated to effect a two-fold purpose-to magnify the mercy of God and to meet the exigency of man,-"Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved."

If you desire to realize the benefit, you cannot think it too

much to implore the gift. It is quite a fallacy to argue that because we cannot of ourselves attain it, we are, therefore, to relax all endeavours to obtain it. If we cannot believe, we can at least humbly cry unto our God, "Lord help my unbelief.” The very perseverance in such a prayer indicates what the Lord expressly terms, "faith as a grain of mustard seed." Such faith leads us as it were by a single path to the true faith of the believer, and at last unites us to that little flock to whom it is his good pleasure to give his kingdom, and of whom he has said," My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand; my Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."

Let us not, therefore, brethren, attach ourselves to the hopes or the pleasures of a world that lieth in wickedness; but in order to be saved, let us do that which many have done-which all can do, and which none shall ever do in vain-let us pray. Faith truly sought, will not be sought in vain from Christ, who brings this with the sister's virtues of hope and charity. And "if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him ? "

But there are many of you, brethren, we nothing doubt, who have already done what must be done in order to attain salvation; who have both proposed the question and received the answer, and are daily acting in the spirit of it, if not with all the constancy which they could desire, yet with the approving testimony of those who behold what manner of persons in all holy conversation and godliness. There are many such here, and who are not putting their trust in any thing they do, not relying on any merits of their own, but simply on the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. There are many who have began and ended with God, so far at least as a frail mortal can, and yet have relied solely on their Saviour, and who have adorned and dignified the Christian character by the principles on which they act, doing justice with mercy, speaking truth. This is what we must do in order, though we are not saved because we do it. This is is at least our comfort that his grace is sufficient for us, and his strength is made perfect in weakness; and a patient continuance, in well-doing apart from the inward comfort it generates, is itself the evidence of true faith; and there is no room to doubt that so long as God is faithful to his promises we shall be blessed in it.

Are you then, brethren, doing this? Are you doing anything like this in order to be saved? Are you acting in the common intercourses of life with an habitual view to your sure reckoning-to your eternal destiny? Do you live under a practical consciousness that as every one of us must give, so you must give account of yourselves to God? If you do, we need not institute any scrutiny as to particular virtues or graces. Virtue consists in working out salvation, and for this reason God worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure, and therefore our course of action is necessarily swayed in all things with a true, honest, and pure principle. And here, too, we have the witness of those

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who are of the contrary part, who will be ashamed to speak evil of us, though they have not candour enough to acknowledge the good.

Oh, then, brethren, let not such a solemn enquiry so long be neglected. Oh, let it not be on the bed of death, when it shall be too late to receive an answer, that you ask for the first time the question"What shall I do to be saved?" Now is the time to ask-now is the time to answer, if you would have an answer of peace.-Now to God, &c.

A SERMON, BY THE REV. W. WILKINSON,

Preached at St. Mary, Aldermary, Sunday Afternoon, July 16, 1837.

"Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon."-Acts vii,-43.

Now, you perceive in the first place what the heart of man is, What is man in a state of nature? What is there he is not capable of? Let a parent now think of taking a child, a young child, and offering it up as a burnt offering to an idol alive, to be consumed before the idol to do it honour. Can you perceive anything beyond this that the devil may drive men to do? What is there that man is not capable of in a state of nature, if left by God and tempted of the devil? Let no one say, as it has often been said, "I know that such and such is the case, but my heart is good." Let no man say that his heart is good. God never told any son or daughter of Adam this; it has been told to you by your own heart, or by the devil himself, who is a liar from the beginning, and who is still a most active enemy of souls, and as powerful and malicious as ever. He is an evil angel excelling in strength. Man is altogether and completely gone-not only very far gone-but as far as possible gone from original righteousness. He has altogether lost the image of his Maker, and has stamped on him the image of his seducer, the prince of darkness. Let us believe Jehovah instead of the devil. God says, the heart of man in a state of nature is evil, "every imagination of the thought of the heart is only evil, and that continually," that it is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked."

But then, in the second place, you will see this truth implied in the contest: God punishes sin by leaving sinners to themselves, by giving them up to the prince of darkness, that they may bring on themselves the just fruits of their transgressions. God is said to have given up the Israelites to the host of heaven-to the worship of the sun, and moon, and stars; that is, he left them to act in compliance with their own sinful nature. St. Paul, in the New Testament, says, in the first chapter of Romans, that inasmuch as the heathens did not acknowledge God whose power and divinity they saw exemplified in his works, he gave them up to the lusts of their own hearts. And God, in his addresses to

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