out by the sanctifying Spirit of God, and the soil of the heart which sin hath cursed will soon be cleansed and brought into high cultivation like the garden of the Lord. You ought to have experienced this before this time: but thank God you may have it now. Do you believe in Christ? Then ask and receive, that your joy may be full. But, on the other hand, if you neglect this, the Good Spirit will be grieved, his gracious influence withdrawn, spiritual life become extinct, and the pollution of sin diffused through the soul as much as before.

Let your prayers keep pace with the following :-"The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." God will most certainly answer: for the following verse says, "Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it."

Low views of the salvation of the Gospel, the privileges of our perfect dispensation, and a defective experience, are inseparably connected together. Such views qualify us for other things rather than the following: "Be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so, as ye have us for ensamples." Our knowledge of the truth, our Christian experience and lives, must be such as to enable us consistently with the Bible to adopt the above language of St. Paul in addressing others. There are many exceeding great and precious promises, that we might be made partakers of the Divine nature! And there is the blood of Christ with its infinite efficacy! The sanctifying Spirit with his Almighty energy! And God the Father with all his truth, faithfulness, goodness, willingness, readiness, loving-kindness, and tender mercy! Prayer is drawing near to him— Faith is taking hold of him-The blessing is yours-Believe it! All fulness dwells in Christ, and all in him is mine. Faith secures the answer to "Create in me a clean heart, O God," &c.

CHAPTER XI.

THE INFALLIBLE RULE.

AND what do you call the Infallible Rule? The Bible, and nothing else. "To the LAW and to the TESTIMONY: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”—Isaiah viii. 20.

The word of God is the only proper rule of human conduct. God's law requires nothing short of loving him supremely, and demonstrating that supremeness of affection by fulfilling all his requirements :-that we should love our neighbour as ourselves, and prove that sort of love by doing to others as we would they should do unto us. This is the Law and the Testimony.

This whole-heart-love to God is naturally demanded from his creatures by his very nature, character, attributes, and the relation which he bears to us and we to him. God must have his due. Anything short of the whole heart is unreasonable and wicked.

As to the law which requires the love of our neighbour, says one, "He that loves his neighbour as himself, is at the extent of the commandment: he that does more, breaks. I would so love others, as not to injure myself; but so myself, as I might be helpful to others." An inspired writer goes much farther than even that: "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life

for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

Do I love my God supremely? Then I shall keep all his commandments, and perform all my actions with an eye to his glory. Do I love myself in body and soul, and prove it by using every means to promote my temporal and spiritual comfort? Just so I am to love my neighbour, and prove it by using every means in my power to promote his happiness temporally and spiritually. This is the tenor of the law and testimony, and is demanded by the old and new testament. This pure affection accords fully with the emergency of the case. Look at the relation which we bear to each other. Look at the course to be pursued necessary for the happiness of one another. Loving one another is a source of comforts upon which ten thousand enjoyments depend, and upon the violation of which hangs ten thousand miseries among mankind. Let me exhibit perfect equity toward my neighbour, and my neighbour toward me, and all is perfect harmony the world through. The contrary makes our wretched rebellious world what it is. "Love is the fulfilling of the law." This must be felt and practised now, because the law demands and the world needs it now. Let it be done, and every man feels, talks, and acts, like God.

"The testimony" of God is his covenant with his people to bless them, to do them exceeding good, to save them to the uttermost, or to re-form them after his own moral likeThe covenant which God hath made with his people "I will put my laws in their minds, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they

ness.

is,

shall be to me a people. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." This is just the salvation wanted. It includes the destruction of all sin, and an implantation of the

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root and principle of perfect obedience-LOVE. Here the laws of sin are reversed, and the laws of love put in the mind to govern the whole being in all its inward workings and outward movements. Every moral as well as intellectual power is here properly regulated. Light Divine is in the head-Love Divine is in the heart-Holiness is inscribed on all !

God says, in the sixth verse of the thirtieth chapter of Deuteronomy, "And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God WITH ALL THY HEART AND WITH ALL THY SOUL, that thou mayest live." Here, you see, is taught the purification from all sin, and the possession and practice of perfect love. It is, in my opinion, far more difficult to mistake than to understand the meaning of the law and testimony of God. A man running may read it. How is it possible for a man to understand that, by the whole heart God only means a part of it? What serious Christian would call into question the sincerity of the Father of Mercies? Or even suppose that the God of holiness and truth is merely joking with his creatures? God is in earnest: and the oracles of truth are both unequivocal and unmistakable in their definitions of human duty and salvation. "The wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err."

"The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not stray,
His method so plain, so easy the way:

The simplest believer his promise may prove,
And drink of the river of Jesus's love."

"The Law and the Testimony" is the only rule of faith and standard of holiness. This very thing is acknowledged by those Christians who deny the doctrine of entire sanctification in this life. What an amazing inconsistency! The blessing is held up before the mind that we may see it-it is repeatedly promised to us now, that we may believe and

receive it. We are to believe for it now, and receive it accordingly. He that believeth is saved, and hath the witness in himself. Experimental sanctification immediately follows the hearty belief of God's testimony: sin is purged out, and love is brought in. Practical sanctification is the after work, by which inward holiness is outwardly developed in a course of obedience, flowing freely from a purified and loving soul.

Prejudice, whether resulting from a defective or erroneous religious education, or resulting from imperfect or false religious notions of our own conceiving, hoodwinks the understanding; wilful unbelief of the doctrine of holiness under such circumstances, rears up a stubborn barrier between the soul and a qualification for heaven: hence, nothing is of greater importance to those who would be taught of God, than coming to the Bible without their prejudices, determining to give it an impartial perusal, and then submit the judgment and heart to its apprehended teachings.

The enlightened professor of Christianity who harbours any sin, disbelieves any promise, and refuses to come up to the scripture standard of holiness, viz. : "Doing all things to the glory of God," is living in unbelief and plain rebellion. Is such a professor saved? I answer, No. Would such an one go to heaven were he to die in such a state? I reply by asking, Can a man get to heaven in unbelief and rebellion? No man can live in a justified state while he lives in the omission of his known duty, much less still who indulges in any known sin. The law says, Thou shalt love perfectly. The testimony says, “Let us go on unto perfection." To obey, gains to disobey, loses.

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Our duty and experience in divine things are not to be measured by the theories of men, by the examples of men, nor by the experience of our neighbours, but by the square