ascribe the little progress vital christianity has made in the world. It is [this] that imboldens the scoffer, encourages the infidel, the profligate, the votaries of paganism, and seals the eyes of the impenitent in every nation in deeper and more death-like slumber: "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written."* The time is coming when the Lord Jesus will vindicate the honour of that name which wicked men have disgraced. It had been better for them not to have named the name of Christ, than, having named it, not to depart from all evil.

IV. Let me take occasion from these words to urge you to become christians in reality and truth. The name, without the reality, will only augment your guilt and aggravate your doom; but the possession of genuine religion will add unspeakably to your happiness both here, and hereafter. To be a partaker of Christ is to be at peace with God; to have peace of conscience, to possess a beneficial interest in all things, and an assured hope of life everlasting. He came that you might have life, and more than life. He came to give rest to your souls, to afford you strong consolation under the sorrows of the world, support in the hour of death, and an entrance, when your mortal course is ended, into the glory to be revealed. He is ready to vanquish your spiritual enemies for you, to cleanse you from all your impurities, purge

*Rom. ii. 24.

you from all your guilt, and make you "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." While the bare profession of christianity will bestow neither profit nor delight, the possession of it in reality will be replete with both, and will afford the "promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. "'* It will deliver you from a thousand snares against which there is no other relief; emancipate you from the bondage of a multitude of degrading passions, and invest you with the "glorious liberty of the children of God." However lightly you may esteem it now, be assured that the moment is coming when, to belong to Christ, to be in union with him, will be felt to be a greater happiness than to be master of the world. Every other honour will fade; every other distinction will pass away; every other enjoyment be exhausted; while the crown of righteousness which Christ will give to his sincere followers will shine with undecaying brightness through the ages of eternity. Let the young be persuaded it will add unspeakable grace to the charms of youth; temper its vivacity with wisdom, tincture its passions with innocence, and form it for a happy, useful, and honourable life. It will be an ornament to youth, a safe directory in the active pursuits of life, a staff and a consolation amidst the decays and infirmities of age. To see you set out in the ways of Christ will afford the highest satisfaction to the church of God; the 1 Tim. iv. 8.

most exalted pleasure to your parents, who watch every movement of your mind with parental solicitude, ready to rejoice over you with transport when they can say of any of you, as it was said

of Saul, "Behold, he prayeth."

V. We cannot but look back with regret to the period when the followers of Christ were known by no other name. Happy period; when, instead of being rent into a thousand parts, and split into innumerable divisions, the church of Christ was "one fold under one Shepherd!" The seamless coat of the Redeemer was of one entire piece from the top to the bottom. The world was divided into two grand parties-christians and pagans. This happy state, we have no doubt, will occur again: "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord."*

In consequence of a more copious communication of the Spirit, some of our differences of opinion will be removed, and "the shepherds will see eye to eye," and others of them will be lost in the indulgence of christian charity, in the noble oblivion of love.

In the mean time, if party names must subsist, let us carefully watch against a party spirit; let Isaiah xi. 6, 8, 9.

us direct our chief attention to what constitutes a christian, and learn to prize most highly those great truths in which all good men are agreed. In a settled persuasion, that what is disputed or obscure in the system of christianity is, in that proportion, of little importance, compared to those fundamental truths which are inscribed on the page of revelation as with a sunbeam; whenever we see a christian, let us esteem, let us love him; and though he be weak in faith, receive him, "not to doubtful disputation."

XXXVI.

ON LOVE OF THE BRETHREN, AS A CRITERION OF A STATE OF SALVATION.

1 JOHN iii. 14.-We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.

As it is an inquiry of the highest moment whether we are in a state of acceptance with God, or under condemnation, we ought carefully to attend to the marks and criterions by which these two opposite states are distinguished in the word of God. The scripture abounds with directions on this subject; so that if we remain in an habitual state of suspense and uncertainty, it is not to be ascribed to deficiency of light in the sacred oracles, but must be imputed, for the most part at least, to the want of strict and impartial inquiry. Too many professors of christianity content themselves without attaining a satisfactory

evidence of their real character in the sight of God; hoping all is well, without resting on sure and solid grounds: by which, if their religion is really vain, they incur the charge of presumption; and, if it is genuine, deprive themselves of the richest source of comfort, as well as of motives to the most ardent gratitude. For how is it possible to praise God for a favour which we are not certain we have received? Or if a feeble hope is entitled to devout acknowledgement, our praises must be faint and languid in proportion to the mixture of darkness and uncertainty which attends it. We are exhorted to give all diligence, that we may obtain the full assurance of hope: we should never read in the writings of this eminent apostle the rapturous exclamation, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God,”* had he been in that state of suspense respecting his prospects for eternity, in which too many christians allow themselves to remain.

With a view to assist the professors of the gospel, in their attempts to ascertain their real condition, we request your serious attention while we endeavour to explain and illustrate the criterion of character the apostle suggests in the text : 'Hereby we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren."

Death and life are the two extremes set before us; spiritual death, and spiritual life: for in this sense,

* 1 John iii. 1.