it. If it follow you, do not boast of it, or seem to prize it too highly. Humility is BECOMING; a vain and proud bearing is disgusting and ruinous. Show no anxiety to preserve it; use no unworthy means to increase it; gladly share it with your aspiring brother. Never, O never, entertain an uneasy feeling at the possibility of an eclipse from a neighbouring luminary, or discover, by detraction, a spirit mean and paltry. May God bless and prosper thee, my brother, a thousand fold! Amen and amen!

So far as I can learn, the preachers in both Circuits in Sheffield have but one sentiment respecting the revival; that it is of God. Some of them seem better qualified than others to enter into an extraordinary work of this kind; but we have no opposition, no backbiting, nor evil surmising; no "acting of one character before the public, and another in the select circle." Thank God, I believe we have nothing of the kind. Rather, there seems to be an emulation among them, at least so far as myself and the revival are concerned,—and this is all I have to do with,-to illustrate that pretty idea of an old divine: "The ministers of the gospel, who are styled angels in the holy scripture, ought to resemble the cherubims of the ark, which cast a gracious aspect one upon the other." Yours, &c.,

J. C.

LETTER XIX.

TO ***

**

DEAR FRIEND,

Sheffield, June 26, 1844.

A GOOD man once said to an antagonist of his : "It is easier to raise a dust than to answer an argument."

Of the former, there is no deficiency in your letter. I shall use the "besom" of another to sweep away part of it; and after that, may possibly lay the rest with a sprinkling of " the waters of the sanctuary." Travellers inform us, that vegetation is so quick and powerful in some climates, that the seeds of some vegetables yield a salad in less than twenty-four hours. Should a northern philosopher say, impossible, and should an English gardener exclaim against such mushroom salad, they would only expose their prejudices, as do those who deny instantaneous justification, or mock at the possibility of the instantaneous destruction of indwelling sin.

You inquire: " Is not a total death to sin the argument of the apostle, in the sixth chapter to the Romans?" Certainly. "Is not dying a gradual process?" Not always. Some die in a moment. When I was in the city of Cork, some time since, a man fell from the third story of a building;—a quiver was all; he was in eternity in a moment. A short time ago, in a town where I was holding special services, a man in good health, while standing at the door of an hotel, dropped down dead in a moment. John the Baptist, St. James, and St. Paul were all beheaded; and this was the work but of a moment. What, then, becomes of the gradual process in such cases; and they are very numerous? But is the term gradual, in the sense you mean, in any case, strictly correct? The sick man may, indeed, be gradually approaching death, but he is not dead until his soul is separated from the body; and this takes place in a single instant of time. There is a last moment, we all allow, when the soul still holds its possession of the body, and a first moment when the body is " tenantless" of the immortal guest. It is clear, then, that death is instantaneous, although the approach to it is gradual. You must, therefore, perceive that your argument is good for

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nothing; it is, in fact, "worse than nothing" in reference to your " position," as it proves, to a demonstration, all that I said in the sermon in question. The apostle, in the sixth of Romans, speaks of some, and of himself among the rest, who had experienced a total death to sin; and inquires," How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ?" A last moment there was, in the history of these believers, when they were not dead to sin. There was a first moment when they were as dead to sin as the body is dead when the soul is separated from it. "If sin cease before death," says Mr. Wesley, "it must, in the nature of the case, be instantaneous. There must be a last moment when sin exists in the soul, and a first moment when it does not exist." But all this, you will perceive, does not preclude the gradual work. From the instant that the penitent sinner is justified does the gradual work of mortification to sin make progress in his soul. But, as in the case of the dying person already alluded to, he gradually approaches nearer and nearer the hour of deliverance; an instant arrives when "cruel sin subsists no more." So true is that fine sentiment of some writer: "The work of purification is gradual in preparation, but instantaneous in reception; and the more earnestly we long for this unspeakable blessing, the more swiftly the preparation increases."

You say, "If there is not some unavoidable neces-sity for the gradual destruction of sin in our nature, why is it that God does not at once accomplish that for us which none but himself can ?" There is an error couched in the above question, which evidently embarrasses your judgment. The postponement of the destruction of sin does not arise from any indisposition on the part of God; nor, I may add, from any unalterable and insurmountable law of our nature, which necessitates a gradual death to sin; but simply from the want of faith on the part of the Christian himself.

Faith is the condition: " Purifying their hearts by faith." Acts xv. 9. The blessing is given in the moment that he believes; but it is always withheld in the absence of faith. Why this is so is not now the question. I only state a scriptural fact; and one that never fails in Christian experience. We know that the tides of the ocean follow the progress of the waxing and waning moon; but, by what secret springs of nature the phenomenon is produced, or why God has suspended these fluctuations upon a law like that of gravitation, the wisest are unable to determine.

3rd.

Our Lord expressly declares: "What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Mark xi. 24. This is directly to the point. Faith has never been better defined than in this glorious promise. It is here presented stripped of all obscurity. He that can trust in Christ's veracity, as he does in his divinity, can have no difficulty here in believing for a clean heart. Here we have, 1st. Desire, as a qualification. When this is sincere, as desire generally is, it brings every qualification necessary. 2nd. Prayer, as a means. A believing reception of the things prayed for: "Believe that ye receive." 4th. The confidence of faith honoured:"And ye shall have them." The promise is conditional; when the conditions are fulfilled, it is absolute. The hardness of the heart, or want of feeling, can be no obstacle, so long as the person consciously desires, fervently prays, and believingly persists in the confidence: " DO RECEIVE." In that instant the remarkable promise in the thirty-sixth chapter of the Prophecy of Ezekiel is fulfilled in the soul:" Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will

give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." The sentiment of Dr. Clarke is worthy of your attention : "We are to come to God for an instantaneous and complete purification from all sin, as for instantaneous pardon. In no part of the scriptures are we directed to seek reinission of sins seriatim, one now, and another then, and so on. Neither in any part are we directed to seek holiness by gradation. Neither a gradation pardon, nor a gradation purification, exist in the Bible." The penitent sinner, who is sincerely seeking salvation, approaches nearer and nearer to pardon; but when that pardon takes place, it is instantaneous. There must, if he receive forgiveness at all, be a last moment when he is unforgiven, and a first when he is forgiven. A believer, also, so long as he is faithful to the grace of God, gradually dies to sin; but if a total death to sin occur in this life, and, from your free reference to the sixth of Romans, it is evident you believe this, it must necessarily be instantaneous. If there was a last and a first moment, with regard to his justification, there must be a last moment and a first with regard to his purification. I could extend these remarks to a considerable length, but I doubt whether I could place the matter in any clearer light.

When turning over some of my papers to-day, I happened to find a few valuable remarks, which I copied some years ago, from the writings of the Rev. John Fletcher. I shall do myself the pleasure of copying them for your consideration, as I do not remember the particular page of his Works to which I could direct you to find them. I pray they may be rendered a blessing to you. Amen! "For where is the absurdity of this doctrine? If the light of a candle, brought into a dark room, can instantly expel the darkness; and if, upon opening the shutters at noon, your