listening to good discourses. Again, a man may have a fair and comfortable hope that by pressing forward in the way of GOD's commandments he shall attain to everlasting life through the mercy of GOD; and this hope (as it is sometimes exchanged for despair in the case of those who sin it away, so in some cases it) may be made to give way to certainty of salvation which despises hope. "For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" All these are great changes of feeling.

Again a man may at one time be morose and ill-natured, peevish, cross, fretful; and he may afterwards become good-natured, kind, and easytempered. This is a great change of disposition; and may arise from some change of feeling, such as I have mentioned; as for instance, a man may be peevish and cross, while he is low-spirited, and desponding about himself, but pleasant and kind, when he is more hopeful, and cheerful.

Now any one of these changes may take place in a man, or all of them successively; and yet he may be no more like a little child than he was before. All these changes may take place, or a number of others like them, and a man may be no nearer the kingdom of heaven than he was before. Nay, he may be further off. S. Peter fell when he was confident. S. Mary Magdalene was forgiven while she wept. The publican was 'justified while he dared not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven. The Pharisee was condemned while he said, "GOD, I thank Thee."

Change of feeling, then, is in itself nothinggood in its place, nothing by itself. Feelings are like shadows, alike from different causes. A foolish wooden figure, and a real living man, will cast shadows exactly alike. A handsome figure in the place of a distorted ugly one, will cast a

handsome shadow, whether it is made of flesh and blood, and vivified by an immortal spirit, or whether it is made of senseless clay. So change of feeling is no sure sign of change of heart.

And, especially, no feelings are more apt to change, and change suddenly, without cause, or with no good cause, than our feelings about ourselves.

Therefore let no person congratulate himself on the certainty of having been converted, because he has experienced in himself a great change of feeling. However well satisfied he may be with his own state, however happy in his prospects, there is no hope of salvation for him except through continued repentance for his sins past, continued prayer for pardon; and a continued stedfast purpose to lead a new life with all humility of heart, distrusting himself, thinking meanly of himself, fearing to offend GOD, fearing by sin to lose eternal life, and cleaving with a holy purpose to Him Who died for him, and for Whose sake he hopes to be accepted at the last day.

On the other hand, let no humble and obedient Christian be discouraged from patiently persevering in the narrow path by doubts and fears, because he cannot boast of those happy feelings of assurance, which some persons so boldly claim to themselves. They who are most faithful, most painstaking, most childlike, most humble, are frequently most distrustful of themselves; too much alive to the holiness of GOD to imagine that they are perfect: and too modest to claim the certainty of that eternal reward which CHRIST is preparing for them.

Let us, my brethren, cheerfully cast in our lot with those blessed Saints, who are content with S. Paul, forgetting those things which are behind,

to press forward to those which are before, looking unto JESUS, the Author and Finisher of our faith: not too proud to pray for mercy; not too confident to hope for heaven. Let us steadily refuse to exchange a good hope for a mere feeling of certainty, which will be sure to prove deceitful, and fail us when most we need support. Such a confidence as this would probably fail us on the bed of death, and certainly would in the day of judgment.

PART II.

"Turn thou to thy GOD: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy GOD continually."-Hos. xii. 6.

HAVING thus seen what conversion is not, let us now go on to inquire what true conversion is. It is not a mere change of feeling; what is it? What is that conversion which is spoken of in the word of GOD?

Taken in its whole meaning, it is, from being bad to become good: it is to be wholly changed; from being unholy to become holy; from being servants of sin to become servants of righteousness; from being earthly to become heavenly. This is the whole of conversion: and this great work is only accomplished in a whole life. By degrees we are moulded and fashioned (as clay in the hands of the potter,) into what we are to be hereafter by grace upon grace, and by one holy deed after another, through the successive stages of the Christian life this great work proceeds: They go from strength to strength, until before the GOD of gods appeareth every one of them in Sion."

66

:

But of course every good work on earth has a beginning and in Christians the good work of their salvation begins in their baptism. Washed in those cleansing waters, which CHRIST has sanctified, they come forth, as the Psalmist foretold, "whiter than snow," clothed in white robes, and all radiant with the glorious light of God's favour.

And when baptized children are docile and obedient from the first, and continue faithful to the last, like the ninety and nine in the wilderness, which went not astray, then the good work in them goes on uninterruptedly through their whole life: gently and equably the grace of God is showered upon them, falling lightly and softly, like the pure flakes of snow, and sinking silently and surely into the inmost recesses of their hearts: their spiritual life flows on calmly and evenly, like a clear and gently flowing stream, noiselessly, or with pleasant murmur, pursuing its appointed way, glowing in the bright rays of the sun, and spreading verdure and gladness around; its banks adorned with lovely flowers, and shaded with fruit-bearing trees. But when men have forsaken the good and right way, and have followed their own devices, and fallen into grievous sin, and chosen to delight themselves in every evil work; or when they have been careless, and indifferent about avoiding wrong and doing right; and have lived forgetful of God, and neglecting their own souls; then, of course, a great and thorough change is needed before they can be again upon the road to heaven: and this change must have a beginning: and this beginning of a new course of life may be called conversion, as it frequently is.

So then, if the whole meaning of conversion is that entire change which takes place in all those who are delivered from sin and misery, and perfected for heaven; yet the word is commonly used to signify the beginnings of a better life in those who have hitherto lived wickedly. In both these uses the word has really the same meaning, that is, change in the deeper sense it means a change of nature; in the more common sense a change of living, the first beginnings of a holier life.

: