Comparative power of God and man in the human heart. ourselves in the theoretical speculations to which it may give rise. The duties it requires, are plain and simple. Make effort yourself with patient fidelity, but feel at the same time a humble sense of your dependence upɔn God. The theory upon which these two duties are founded is lost in obscurity which the human mind cannot penetrate.

The words "work out," &c. seem to imply that the power necessary to change the heart rests with man, while the latter part of the verse, "for it is God," &c. seems to attribute it to God. How is this? what degree of agency has man himself in the production of those holy feelings which the Bible represents as necessary to salvation, and what part devolves upon the Creator? This is a question which, as has been already remarked, has come up in a thousand forms. It has been the foundation of many a captious cavil, as well as of many an honest doubt. If the Bible had taught us that man alone had power over his conduct, so as to be entirely independent of an over-ruling hand, we could understand it. Or if it had maintained that God reigned in the human heart, and controlled its emotions and feelings to such an extent as to free man from the responsibility, this too would be plain. But it takes neither of these grounds. In some passages it plainly teaches us that all the responsibility of human conduct rests upon the individual being who exhibits it. In other places we are informed that the great God is supreme in the moral as in the material world, and that he turns the hearts of men as surely and as easily as the rivers of water. And these two truths, so perplexing to philosophy, are brought, by a moral daring for which the Bible is remarkable, directly side by side in the passage before us. There is no softening of language to obscure the distinctness of the difficulty-there are no terms of limitation to bring it in within narrow bounds-there is no interpretation to

Difficulty theoretical.

None in practice.

explain, no qualifications to modify. But it stands fair and legible, and unalterable, upon the pages of the word of God, saying to us in language which we cannot misunderstand you must make active and earnest efforts yourselves in the pursuit of holiness-and you must still submit to the power that rules in your heart, and look for assistance to God, who works in you to will and to do.

It ought however to be said again and again, that the difficulty is not a practical, but a theoretical one. There is no difficulty in making the efforts required by the former part of the passage, and at the same time in feeling the dependence on God required in the latter. The dif ficulty is in understanding the principle upon which the two are founded. It seems to me that this is a very fundamental point. Persons seeking, or thinking that they are seeking to enter the kingdom of heaven, are often encumbered with these very difficulties. They cannot understand the comparative influence which God and man have over the human heart, and hence they remain at a stand, not knowing what to do. They forget that the difficulty, great as it is, is one of speculation, not of action, and therefore they ought not to waste a thought upon it, until at least they have made peace with God. Two separate duties are required. We can understand them well enough-and they are not inconsistent with each other. Exert yourselves to the utmost in seeking salvation. What difficulty is there in this? Place all your hope of success in God. What difficulty is there in this? And what difficulty is there in making exertion ourselves, and feeling reliance on God at the same time? There is none. It has been done a thousand times. It is doing by thousands now. It can be done by all. But we cannot understand, it may be said, the principle upon which these two duties are enjoined. True, we cannot understand it. The theory is involved in dark

Objects of this chapter.

1. Inquirers. Disobedient school-boy.

ness; in which any who choose may easily lose themselves. But the duties are plain. God has enjoined them, and, as dutiful children, we ought to feel that if he clearly tells us what we are to do, he may properly conceal in many cases the reasons of his requirements.

There are three or four very common evils, which, by taking up the subject of this chapter so formally, I have been wishing to remove. I will mention them.

1. The useless perplexity of religious inquirers. A young person, perhaps one of my readers, is almost persuaded to be a Christian. You reflect upon your lost condition as a sinner, and feel desolate and unhappy. You think of God's goodness to you, and are half inclined to come to him. Instead, however, of thinking only of your duty, and spending all your strength in resisting temptation, and in commencing a life of practical piety, you immediately sieze upon some theoretical difficulty connected with theology and trouble yourself about that. Perhaps you cannot understand how God influences the human heart, or how man can be accountable if the IIoly Spirit alone sanctifies. "How can I work out my own salvation," you say, "if it is God who worketh in me to will and to do?" Or perhaps you perplex your head about the magnitude or duration of future punishment, or the number who will be saved, as though the administration of Jehovah's government would come upon your shoulders if you became a Christian, and you must therefore understand thoroughly its principles before you incur such a responsibility. How absurd! Can you not trust God to manage his own empire, at least until after you have come yourself fully over to his side?

Suppose a child were to show a disobedient and rebellious spirit in school, and should be called upon by his teacher to reform, and should, after pausing a moment, begin to say, "I ought to conduct differently, I know, and

Present duty neglected by speculating on what may never take place.

I think seriously of returning to my duty. But there are some things about it which I do not understand."

if

"What things?" says the teacher.

"Why," says the boy, "I do not see what I should do you and my father were to command me to do opposite things. I do not clearly understand whom I ought to obey."

"Do you not know," replies 'he teacher, "that you now disobey me in cases where your father and myself both wish you to obey? Come and do your duty in these. You have nothing to do with such a question as you mention. Come and do your duty."

"But," says the boy, "there is another great difficulty, which I never could understand. Suppose my father or you should command me to do something wrong; then I should be bound to obey my father, and also bound not to do what is wrong. Now I cannot understand what I ought to do in such a case."

Thus he goes on. Instead of returning immediately to the right path, becon.ing a dutiful son and a docile pupil at once, in the thousand plain cases which are every day occurring, he looks every way in search of difficulties with which he hopes to perplex his teacher and excuse his neglect of duty.

Speculating inquirer, are you not doing the same? when it is most plainly your duty to begin to love God and serve him at once in the thousand plain instances which occur daily, instead of doing it with all your heart, trusting in God that he will do right,-do you not search through the whole administration of his government for fancied difficulties-difficulties to your feeble powersfeeble originally, but rendered feebler still by your continuance in sin? With these difficulties you embarrass yourself, and strive to perplex your minister, or your Sabbath school teacher, or your parent, and thus find a momentary respite from the reproaches of a wounded

Way to avoid them.

2. Perplexities of Christians. spirit by carrying the war away from your own conscience, which is the proper field, into your pastor's or your parent's intellect. While the argument is going on here, your sense of guilt subsides, conscience is seared, and you fall back to coldness and hardness of heart. Now why will you thus waste your time and your moral strength on questions in regard to which you have no responsibility, instead of walking in the plain path of duty, which lies open before you?

2. Useless perplexities of a Christian. In bringing up to view so plainly the insuperable difficulties connected with religious truth, I have been hoping to divert the minds of experienced Christians from being perplexed and embarrassed by them. Once make up your mind, fully and cordially, that there are depths which the sounding line of your intellect will not reach, and you will repose in the conviction that you do not and cannot now know, with a peace of mind which you cannot in any other way secure. How many persons perplex themselves again and again, and go on perplexing themselves all through life in fruitless endeavors to understand thoroughly the precise and exact relation which Jesus Christ bears to the Father. The Bible gives us, clearly, and in simple and definite language, all about the Savior which it is of practical importance for us to know. The Word was God, and the Word became flesh, or man. Now just be willing to stop here. "But no," says some one who loves his Savior, and wishes to understand his character, "I want to have clear ideas on this subject; I want to know precisely what relation he sustained to the Father before he became man. Was he in all respects identical? or was he a different being, or a different person; and what is the difference between a person and a being? When he became man, I want to know precisely how the two natures came together."

"You want to know; but how will you ascertain?