achieve wonderful success with the mere power of truth. If, then, you are really bent on reforming your own souls and those of your countrymen at large, close your debating societies, shut up your places of empty discussion and hypocritical talk, and go forth, humbly and earnestly, to perform your respective duties with sincere faith in truth; and I assure you, your success will vastly exceed your most sanguine expectations.

Faith is preceded by sincere penitence, which paves the way for it. Before the heart is converted to God through faith, it first feels the enormity of its wickedness, looks with abhorrence upon the black spots of its past life, and smarts under a keen sense of its own worthlessness; and the more it does so, the more it learns to distrust self, and repose faith and trust in God as its only refuge and hope. As in the history of the world, so in the history of individuals, John the Baptist precedes Jesus Christ, and prepares the way for him. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," is a universal call to all mankind; for none is fitted to enter that kingdom, or receive the gospel of saving faith unless and until he repents. There must be a plentiful shower of the waters of true penitence to soften the hard heart of the sinner before the seed of regeneration can germinate and fructify. John baptizes men with the water of repentance, and as soon as his work is over, Jesus baptizes them with the fire of faith into new life. Remember that repentance is only a preparatory process, and you are not to stop there. John does not regenerate you; he does not give you rest or peace. He simply awakes you from your death-like sleep with his solemn and stirring call, that you may rise and be led by him unto Jesus, whose mission it is to give

peace and life everlasting. True repentance is thus only a preliminary and preparatory training. Many are apt to forget this, and have recourse to repentance as a price for salvation. Proud even in their so-called humility, they mourn awhile, and perhaps shed tears in abundance over their past transgressions, with a view to wash off their impurities thereby. But such sentimentalism, however profound-such anguish, however deepcannot save the soul so long as there is no faith. Such self-sufficient abnormal repentance is as unavailing as knowledge or good works without faith; for all these are the fruitless efforts after salvation of that proud religion of the world of which I have spoken before, which makes man his own saviour. Hence is it that many repent for their sins, and yet are not saved; for their penitence means nothing more than a painful consciousness of sin, and a determination to amend their life by dint of their own efforts. It is pride in sackcloth and mourning, it is arrogance in tears. But true penitence humbles man to the dust, and makes him put his entire trust in the Lord for the purpose of salvation. As such, repentance is essential to faith; for not till man's proud head is humbled down under an overpowering sense of his own unworthiness would he cling to God's feet-not till he distrusts himself would he trust the redeeming and all-sufficient grace of God. Repentance begins. the good work of conversion, which faith and prayer carry on. By opening the eyes of the sinner to his iniquities, it fosters a longing for deliverance ; faith and prayer act as guides, and safely lead the penitent sinner into the kingdom of heaven, where he is regenerated by divine grace.

Let us now proceed to enquire what is the exact

nature of that state of regenerate existence into which faith leads us. What are the characteristics and criteria of regeneration? Regeneration, as I have already said, means the death of the carnal nature which we have in common with the lower animals, and the establishment in its place of a complete spiritual life in God. It involves two facts, one negative, and the other positive, and is capable of two corresponding tests. In order that a man may be regenerated, he must destroy his carnal nature, he must be dead to the senses, to self, and to the world. Mere abstinence from corrupt indulgences will not do; there must be an entire annihilation of the sensual, selfish, and worldly cravings and propensities of the heart. To make the matter clearer, the regenerate man is unto the world and its temptations. an altogether dead man. Place before him all the treasures of the world, they do not excite his ayarice; ply his senses with the most enticing objects of sensual delight, his senses cannot even feel their influence; offer him all manner of selfish enjoyments, these have no power over him; for all his senses and carnal affections and self-love are dead, and he is as impervious to temptation as a dead body. No man can be accounted regenerate who does not assume this attitude in relation to the various temptations of the world; for if the carnal propensities are in the least inflamed or excited thereby, that would be a sure indication of the presence of carnal life. In short, neither he who seeks safety in avoiding temptations, nor he who only now and then overcomes them, but he who is altogether above the liability to temptation, is entitled to be called regenerate. But I have only described the negative side of the process of regeneration.

The soul is not only to be dead to the world, but alive unto God and truth; it must not only retire from the world, but enter into the kingdom of heaven. To stop short at the negative work, as some unfortunately do, is asceticism-mere self-mortification. This is unnatural, and cannot be the end of human existence. In the natural course of man's progress it is invariably the case, that so soon as the body dies the spirit rises regenerated; that in proportion to the mortification of the carnal is the development of the spiritual life; and that the further the soul is from the world the nearer it is to the kingdom of God. In fact, carnal death and spiritual life go together, and are inseparable in the normal development of the soul; they are only two sides, as it were, of the same spiritual fact. The realization of this fact in its entirety and fulness in our life constitutes regeneration, and is the true criterion by which it is to be tested. There are many in each of the various religious denominations in the world who fondly imagine they are amongst the regenerate, on the strength of certain doctrines they have embraced, or certain deeds they have performed, or certain moral excellences they have acquired; and oh ! how proud and boastful they are of their imagined redemption, and how complacently they congratulate themselves on it! The application of the rigid test just mentioned would, however, dispel in a moment the charms of their fatal delusion, and expose the hollowness of their pretensions. Have they wholly given up their carnal life? Do they live in God? If not, they are far from the kingdom of heaven, whatever other merits they may happen to

possess.

But what is it to live in God? To understand this properly it is only necessary, I think to apply to the

soul in its relations to God all our ideas of bodily life in relation to the world. If it is true, as you all must admit, that the body is governed and preserved mainly by instincts, it is equally true that man's spiritual nature is in the same manner, and to the same extent, governed and preserved by spiritual instincts. As the body seeketh food under the irrepressible instinct of hunger, so the spiritual man hungereth after God and righteousness. As the body ever seeks carnal pleasure with passionate ardour, so the soul, when regenerated, enthusiastically pursues spiritual joys; and as the body rejoices in the riches and felicities of the world, so doth the soul "rejoice in the Lord always." Mark the analogy. In both cases you see the free, natural, spontaneous, and impulsive action of instincts and passions, whether as regards the preservations of life, or the pursuit and enjoyment of happiness; there is no cold. calculation, no inferential process of logic. In short, he indeed lives carnally who lives in the world and loves it; so he is truly regenerate who lives in God and loves Him. Spiritual life is as natural to the soul as carnal life is to the body, and just as pleasant and attractive. Then are men said to live regenerate in God when they think His separation to be death, and, therefore, ever cling to Him as their "meat and drink ;" when duty becomes desirable and human will harmonizes with God's; when He becomes unto them. the light of their eyes and the joy of their hearts; and when, removed altogether from the world, they live day and night in holy and sweet divine communion in the kingdom of heaven within.

How beautiful and simple, and yet how significant, are the words of Christ as to the nature of those who are regenerated! "Except ye be converted," says he," and become as little children, ye cannot enter the