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it from your thoughts, or class it with your infirmities, and desire to be "clothed with the righteousness of Christ," "that the shame of your nakedness do not appear."

And this, if you have made a good practical use of the text, shall indeed be your wedding garment; for, "To him that worketh not, but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith shall be counted unto him for righteousness."

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SERMON VIII.

THE CHRISTIAN COVENANT.

HEBREWS, X. 16.

This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember

no more.

"ENTER not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified." This is the true spirit of Christian prayer. It is the pass-word at the gate of our heavenly city: for it contains not only the evidence of a contrite spirit, itself of so great price in the eye of the Lord, but also, entire trust in him,

whose blood alone can wash out the sentence which judgment writes against us. That man indeed is a stranger to the religion of Jesus Christ who is not convinced of the utter fruitlessness of every attempt to save himself by his own righteousness. In his spiritual ignorance, such an one may flatter himself that his merits deserve reward; but the true Christian, whose light shines far brighter before men, sees his own case very differently. He does not learn the way of salvation by consulting his proud and deceitful heart; but by listening to Christ," the word of God;" and Christ teaches that "whoso humbleth himself shall be exalted." Instead of imitating the many who read the scriptures by the false fire of their own carnal imaginations, he takes the pure light of truth into the secret chambers of his soul, and makes a full discovery of its corruption and weakness. He knows that "in himself dwelleth no good thing;" he knows that the holiest, best thing that he can perform, if considered as the purchase of salvation, is unprofitable; and so far from presuming upon

his good works, as if they could give him a right to heaven, he humbly hopes that the sinfulness with which they are mixed up may be overlooked, for the merits of Christ, his Saviour. He knows that while in the eye of man, he is building up a Christian character honourable and correct, the hours which he believes most acceptable to God are overbalanced by days of negligence and offending. While bystanders believe that he is reaching the goal in the race that is set before him, he knows too surely that his progress, if to that he must look for salvation, is the progress of one climbing a hill of ice, whereon almost every step forward is followed by many that slide backward. And this knowledge is the ground of all the comfort which the gospel affords him; for without it he would never have hearkened to his Redeemer's sweet invitation, "Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will refresh you."

It often happens that the best of men are suffered to fall into iniquities which render them a shame to themselves, a sorrow to

Christian brethren, and a scoff to fools. Nay, what is more remarkable, the men whom scripture holds up to us as the objects of God's especial regard, and the noblest examples of holy living, have each, once at least, committed a deadly sin in their course of righteousness; and that sin the very last, which from their respective characters, we could have supposed possible. David, the sweet singer of Israel, whose harp sounded continually to songs of holy profession, who declared that for its pureness he loved the commandment of God, making all the day long his study in it-David was obliged to humble himself before the prophet of the Lord as an adulterer and a murderer. Abraham, the father of the faithful, twice gave up his trust in God, and sought safety in a lie. Moses, whose peculiar character was meekness, "was angered at the waters of strife, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips." St. John, the beloved disciple, of whose preaching the chief and almost the only subject was love, would have called down fire from heaven upon those who rejected