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Now, as it was by looking to the terms of the message, according to the meaning of these terms, that we attempted to trace the connexion between faith and hope; so it is in this, and in no other way, that we would trace the connexion between faith and obedience. The accompaniment of such a term as that of "whoever," with the invitation of the Gospel, gives me to understand of that invitation as directed specifically to myself, and my heart responds to it accordingly. And the accompaniment of such a sentence with the same invitation, as that "he who turneth to Christ must depart from his iniquities," gives me to understand, that while I look to heaven with the delightful sensation of hope in my bosom, I must also look to it with the diligence of an intent and busy traveller, who knows that in moving thitherward, he must move himself away from the habit and character and earthly desires of a world lying in wickedness. This is the way, and we know of no other, by which faith and obedience are so linked together, as that when the one enters the heart, the other forthwith comes out on the history. It is done by the power of a whole faith in a whole testimony. It is by keeping the ear of the mind open to the whole utterance of that voice which hath spoken to us from heaven. It is by treating God's communications as Abraham of old did. When he heard God say, "This is the land which I give unto thee," he rejoiced in hope; and when he heard him. say, "Walk thou before me, and be thou perfect," he went forth in obedience. tian, who can both look with glad anticipation to eternal life as the gift of God through Jesus Christ

And so with the Chris

our Lord, and who can labour with assiduity for the same eternal life, as knowing that the unholy and the unheavenly shall never enter thereinto. It is the word which causes him to hope-and it is also the word which causes him to obey. It at one time is the word of promise, and at another the word of authority—and he, an honest believer, listens to both, and proceeds upon both. With the docility of a little child, he accommodates his responses to the lesson that is set before him-and, at one and the same time, is he the most joyful in hope and the most devoted in service.

To illustrate and enforce this latter and most important topic, forms the principal subject of the following excellent Treatise of the Rev. ARCHIBALD HALL, "On the Faith and Influence of the Gospel." His great design is to elucidate the nature of true faith, and to show its practical influence on the heart and character of the believer. The attentive reader will not fail to perceive, that a real and appropriating faith of the truths of the Gospel, is a very different thing from the mere mental perception of these truths, or the cold and intellectual abstractions about which the mind may be busied, but which minister neither peace nor hope to the mind, nor exert any sanctifying or subduing power over the heart and affections.

There are no two terms in the whole New Testament, which stand more frequently and familiarly associated with each other, than faith and obedience. Wherever the privileges and blessings of the Gospel are truly appropriated by faith, the precepts of the Gospel maintain their authority over the conduct of the believer. Whenever the peace of the Gospel

takes up its residence in the heart, the practice of the Gospel comes out in living exemplification on the personal character and accomplishments of the believer. It is thus that faith demonstrates its existence in the heart, by its operation on the character. It forms, indeed, the principal excellence of the following Treatise, that it exhibits the intimate connexion which subsists between faith and obedience. It shows, that though faith be a simple principle, yet the object of faith is the whole testimony of God. That faith has to do not merely with one set of truths, but that it has to do with all the truths which are contained in the whole of God's revelation. That while the truth, that "Christ died for our sins," exerts its appropriate influence on the mind of the believer, and he is thus made to feel the charm of the peace-speaking blood of Christ, the truth, that "without holiness no man can see the Lord," also exerts its appropriate influence on his mind; and he is thus urged on to "perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord." When the believer is made to know, that "there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus," he is also made to know, that " they walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It is thus that his mind comes under the various influences, which the various truths of God's testimony are fitted to exercise over it; and while he is a trusting and rejoicing disciple, he is, at the same time, a watchful, praying, and obedient disciple.

But faith, by opening up a new region of manifestation to the mind of a believer, brings his heart into contact with those motives and influences which give rise to the new obedience of the Gospel. When contemplating Jesus Christ and him crucified, he

builds on this all his hopes of acceptance before God, he finds not only peace, but a purifying influence descend on his heart. It removes the spirit of bondage and of fear, which weighed down the soul to the inactivity of despair, and introduces the spirit of love and adoption, which makes him run with alacrity in the way of all God's commandments. So long as the question of his guilt remained unsettled, instead of loving, he could only dread, the Being whom he had offended; but when a sense of forgiveness enters his heart, he enters, with hopeful and assured footsteps, on a course of cheerful obedience. When love to God, which the consciousness of guilt kept away, is introduced into his soul by faith in the atoning blood of Christ, the inspiration of a new and invigorating principle takes possession of the believer, and he becomes animated with the life and the love of real godliness. Faith in the doctrine of the atonement is as much the turning point of a new character, as of a new hope. It is here Gospel obedience takes its commencement, because it is here that filial love and confidence in God take their rise. Christ came not only to redeem us from all iniquity, but to "purify us unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." The reception of Christ is always accompanied with the gift of the renewing Spirit, whose peculiar office it is to promote our growth in grace, and to perfect us in holiness; and the genuine believer will always experience the truth and the reality of the Apostle's declaration" If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature."

EDINBURGH, March, 1881.

T. C.

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