A broken heart and a contrite spirit are, in the sight of God of great price, but if any man thinks himself to have attained perfection, he is not very likely to be in the exercise of a broken heart or of a contrite spirit, nor indeed in the exercise of true faith in Christ for justification.

You will observe that this Flatterer, robed in white, pretending to great strictness, spirituality and holiness, carried the Pilgrims seemingly onwards towards the Celestial City, but left them with their faces direct from Zion, instead of heavenward. Now this has been the case with so many persons, who have at first professed to have attained perfection, and believed that they sought it, that it would seem as if Bunyan must have had in his eye the very error we are contemplating. From the belief in one's own perfection, it is often but a single step to the monstrous conclusion that the soul cannot sin, that whatever the body does, the soul cannot be defiled thereby, or made guilty; that the law of God is no more a rule of conduct, and that its commands may be broken at pleasure without sin. This is doubtless one tendency of a self-righteous spirit. They who trust simply and solely in Christ and his righteousness for salvation have often been accused by selfrighteous moralists, of "making void the law;" but in point of fact, it is they only who establish the law; it is nothing but the love of Christ, and Faith in his merits, in his blood, that ever produces any morality required by the law. On the other hand, they who trust in their own merits, and they who pretend to a perfection of their own, are always

perverting, and so making void, both the law and the Gospel, and sometimes they do openly and plainly trample all its requisitions under their feet. So true it is, that pride goeth before destuction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Our entire reliance upon Christ as himself, our Saviour, our only Saviour, is beautifully expressed in one of Herbert's sweet though quaint pieces, entitled, The Hold-Fast. Christ is the Hold-Fast; He is the fast and firm Holder of what is ours; but what is ours is his, and ours only as it comes from him, so that we have nothing in ourselves, even to trust in him being his. What is ours in ourselves what is ours in him is

is weakness and sin;

strength and righteousness; so he is our Hold

Fast.

I threatened to observe the strict decree

Of my dear God with all my power and might:

But I was told by one it could not be :

Yet I might trust in God to be my light.

Then will I trust, said I, in him alone,

Nay, e'en to trust in him was also his :
We must confess that nothing is our own.
Then I confess that he my succour is.

But to have nought is ours, not to confess

That we have nought. I stood amazed at this,

Much troubled, till I heard a friend express,

That all things were ours by being his.

What Adam had and forfeited for all,

Christ keepeth now, who cannot fail or fall.

While Christian and Hopeful were struggling in this net, there came a bright Shining One, with a whip of small cord in his hand, who questioned them as to how they came there, and what they were doing. When they had told all, and had

been reminded that if they had diligently perused the note of the way given them by the Shepherds, they would not have fallen into this snare; this Shining One made them lie down, and submit to a sore, though loving chastisement. By this is figured the discipline of the good Spirit of the Lord with his children, when they in any manner go astray, and also the loving kindness of the Lord, even in the chastisement of his people. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. He restoreth my soul, saith David, and leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. So were these two erring disciples, who had now insensibly been beguiled away from Christ and his righteousness into flattering, delusive opinions of their own attainments, whipped back by the Shining One into the path of humility, faith, truth, and duty. So great is "the love of the Spirit," so sweet and long-suffering the patience and the mercy of the Lord.

Few passages are more instructive than that which in this stage of the pilgrimage contains the character of Little-Faith, and the story of the robbery he suffered. This man fell asleep in DeadMan's Lane, not far from Broadway Gate. He had certainly no business in that place, where so many murders were committed, and to sleep there was above all unsafe. So three desperate villains, Faint-Heart, Mistrust, and Guilt, set upon him, and robbed him of all his ready money, and left him half dead. There are a great many Little-Faiths in our pilgrimage, and though they do not all sleep in Dead-Man's Lane, yet they go doubting and trembling through life. Faint-Heart,

Mistrust, and Guilt clog their footsteps, and their faith in Christ is not strong enough to triumph over these enemies and make them flee. So they go burdened with sin, and literally mourning after Christ, rather than believing in him. Yet, this mourning after Christ is something precious; it is infinitely better than hardness and indifference of heart, or false security, and infinitely better, also, than a dangerous, false confidence, or a joy that has not a scriptural foundation.

Little-Faith had a tender conscience, which made him bewail his sinful sleep, and all his failings by the way. Little-Faith's spending money, that is, almost all the present comfort of a hope in Christ, with those foretastes of heaven, which are the earnest of the Spirit, was taken from him by those desperate robbers; but his costly jewels they did not find, or else did not value them, as they were good only at the Celestial City; that is, these robbers, Faint-Heart, Mistrust, and Guilt, did not take away those graces of the Spirit, by which Little-Faith's soul was really united to Christ, though they did steal from him his own present evidences, so that he went on distressed and troubled in his pilgrimage, and a beggar to the day of his death.

There was one good thing about Little-Faith, and that was his sincerity; he had indeed little faith, but what he had was real faith, and no trust in his own merits. Now, if from our faith as Christians, all foreign ingredients were abstracted, all mixture of self-righteousness and vainconfidence, it is to be feared very few of us would

be found with much to boast above Little-Faith; if every thing were taken from the grace which we hope is in our hearts, but only what is "believing, true, and clean," what is sincere, without offence, and pure before God, the residue might be found but a very small modicum. Should all the wood, hay and stubble be burned up, which we have builded on the foundation that is laid for us, how much gold, silver, and precious stones would be found remainining, we might fear to know. If Guilt, Mistrust and Faint-Heart were to set upon us as they did upon Little-Faith, would they take merely our spending money, and leave us our jewels, or would they take jewels and all?

Hopeful seemed to think if he had been in Little-Faith's place, he would not have given up so easily; but Christian bade him beware of selfconfidence, for it was a very different thing to hear of these villains who attacked Little-Faith, and to be attacked by them oneself. No man could tell the wonderful fearfulness of that combat, but he who has been in it. Great-Grace himself, by whose coming up the desperate rogues were frightened away from Little-Faith, though excellent good at his weapons, would very likely get a fall, if Guilt, Faint-Heart and Mistrust got within him, not being kept at his sword's point; and when a man is down, and three such wretches upon him, what can he do? Peter once thought he would never give up; he was ready to try what he could do even to go to prison and to death, but when these grim robbers came upon him, "though some do say that he is the Prince of the Apostles, they handled