evil are mixed together? Human infirmity blinds them on one side or the other, and they do not detect themselves to be wrong: they have heard the Commandments, and been told the general rules of holy living; but they do not discern the particulars which are included in them.

But we have the same nature as they; and we may well conclude that the same thing will be happening with ourselves, unless we take pains to meditate and search into the instructions for daily life, which God has given us.

As years advance, circumstances change: fresh laws of the Scripture present themselves to our acceptance, and old ones impress us in a way which they did not before. And, as we read with attentive eyes, the standard of holiness moves on before us, and every step which we practise reveals another; and God's word acquires fresh meanings, although the letter is unchanged, and

so,

it becomes a weapon in our hands, such as the current opinions of the world will never supply to us. And it is mighty through Him, when we return to it again and again, with teachable hearts, to see the progress of a Christian soul further unfolded to us.

Again, our resolutions, thus, directed, become mighty through God, when they are declared to Him in our prayers, and become associated in our minds with His Presence and help.

Where we have been willing to let His word instruct us, we find out duties by seeing and feeling that we have come short of them.

We behold, in that mirror, some disposition to be lovely and good; and see, at the same moment that we have not attained it, or but defectively.

And Conscience whispers to us, 'This part of your character is a failure, because you have been moulding it only by yourself. The Master's hand is not in this. Mistrust yourself, and seek His help if others succeed better this was the secret of it, that they intreated the assistance of God.'

Such prayer, is the weapon which every teacher, from the humblest believer, up to God's Blessed Son, is invariable in beseeching us to use.

The more specifically we ask for help concerning the duties which await us every day, and the temptations which we know will return, the more sure we shall become of spiritual progress; because we know that the grace of God has prevailed in so many of our fellow-creatures. And this habit of associating our Creator's assistance with definite daily acts of our life has, naturally as it were, this great blessing, that it brings Him again to our recollection, when the hour arrives. We see Him watching us, we know that His help is ready, and that He is

interested in our success. Is it possible, that we should remember these things, and fail of progress?

Our spiritual armoury has yet another resource. If, even then, we feel unsupported and hesitating, God's Blessed Son presents Himself to us as a companion and friend. 'Lo! I am with you alway,' He seems to say; 'See Me, I walk beside you,-I that partook your nature and shared your trials, and conquered them by faith, by religious means, by addressing Myself also to our Heavenly Father, as you have done; I did not neglect those weapons; and I am still the companion, the secret Intercessor of every humble disciple of Mine who does the same; I was ever in the synagogue and the temple; I pondered upon the Scriptures; I withdrew Myself from men to watch and pray; I interceded both for friends and enemies; I looked unto the hope that was set before Me; and now My Spirit abides with every man who reads the history of My Life on earth, in order that the like habits may be found in him.

Then surely, brethren, we need not undervalue the wisdom and pious care of those who proposed the season of Lent for our improvement. Let us resolve, that it shall unfailingly contribute to us, to the conquest of those sins which still beset us, and the casting out of those dispositions which are unfit for heaven.

All great and glaring iniquities of our past life, it is to be hoped, we have already condemned. May the remembrance of them for ever keep us humble!

But let us go on to look with anxiety at those which we have less regarded. Let us reflect on God's laws, lest there be any which we have not yet detected.

Let us believe, that many an unobserved believer in Christ has reached here on earth such measures of confidence towards God, and grateful love of Him,-such constant thought of Him, as to our weaker spirit would seem impossible, such hopes, that they are continually mounting to greater degrees of devotion and courageous holiness.

And the door is still open to us also, and the means are here; and the reward is the same, and their love is looking for our companionship: if only we will use the time, and to-day, while it is called 'To-day,' 'be followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises of God.'

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XVII.

GENTLENESS.

'Put them in mind. . . . to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men.'— Titus, iii. 1, 2.

T will often happen to a Christian Minister, that he will find occasion to be addressing others upon some point of morals in which he is very sensible of his own deficiency. I do not think you would wish a sincere man to turn away from the study of a Christian duty, because he often fails of it himself; nor, possibly, would you think him the worse teacher, because he had yet much to learn, and was, as it were, at the beginning of a holy habit, and not the perfection of it.

all

Let us inwardly pray to God, that we may, of us, be fellow-learners, and strive that we may make progress together.

For, brethren, if I have not entire confidence in myself, be assured that I have great confidence you. The events of the last fortnight* in this

in

*This refers to the time of the first Church Mission held in Northampton, 1876.