are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you

But the ills of man are various, and as various therefore are the consolations and the helps which the Gospel of Deliverance from those ills proclaims. Are we sensitive beings, and therefore wounded in every nerve by the physical evil which overspreads the earth? The Gospel tells us of a time when all tears shall be wiped from every eye, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Are we moral beings, and therefore shocked and humbled by the degradation and self-contradiction which we witness in ourselves and in mankind at large? The Gospel brings that healing medicine which can both soothe the diseased spirit and restore it ultimately to perfect health. And are we religious beings, formed to recognize a relation of ourselves and of the world to an unseen Creator and Governor, and therefore pained to see how little this relation is remembered, nay, how much that remembrance is shrunk from and opposed? The Gospel cheers us by unveiling our Heavenly Father now to the eye of faith, and promising that he shall hereafter break forth in unshrouded glory over all the earth. Only let us learn to know ourselves, and estimate aright the actual condition of mankind, and the remedy which that condition calls for; so shall we appreciate the worth of the Revelation

which is the counterpart to that condition, the disclosure of that remedy, the answer to that call.

And in the same proportion also shall we be led to understand the nature of the help which Christianity supplies, and shall be convinced that even as our disease is personal and moral, so must the remedy revealed be equally personal and moral. The truths of the Gospel become saving,-that is, effectual to deliver us from the state in which they find us,-only as they are brought to bear upon ourselves. The seed is given indeed from Heaven, but it is only as it takes root in the heart of man and springs up in his character, that it can expand into everlasting life.

And hence the infinite importance of personal Piety, as that without which all knowledge of Christian truth and all attempt at Christian duty will be ineffectual. There are indeed three grand classes of religious meditation;-the meditation, namely, on what has been done for us, what must be done in us, and what should be done by us; and these classes may be verbally distinguished into Doctrinal Experimental and Practical; but they are inseparable in fact; for all true doctrine experience and practice are one and indivisible. And the connecting link, say rather the assimilating life, which effects this unity, resides in the middle term-the experience of what must be done in us.

Only personal piety, (and by the word experience we mean personal piety in all its parts,) brings down general Doctrine into individual application, and quickens notions into principles. And only personal piety can supply the life the feeling and the energy, by which consistent Practice can be either fully purposed or successfully pursued.

How solemn therefore is the subject to which I would direct the attention of my reader in this book, and in the prosecution of which I would entreat the active co-operation of his own mind! Suffer me to begin and carry it on throughout with direct appeals to your personal sympathy. Join with me in frequent ejaculations for divine help and blessing. The topic is, beyond all others, devout and practical. Devoutly and practically let us enter on it. It concerns the soul of him who writes and him who reads. It can be realized only in and by our souls. Spiritual truth is but the seed of spiritual life. And though spiritual truth may be dropped into the mind by instruction from without us, spiritual life can be awakened only by an energy within us: by our meditating on the truths declared; by our applying them to our particular state of heart; by our brooding over them in our inmost soul; above all by prayerful seeking of the Spirit of life-which is the Spirit of GOD-to come and quicken them by warmth from heaven. O thou Lord and Giver of life, who art the

Author of all godliness, vouchsafe thy presence and thy blessing to our united meditations! Grant that he who writes and he who reads may feel the power of the truths which we consider in common! Grant that what issues from the heart may fructify the heart, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together!

Our first endeavour must be to attain a full perception of what we mean by Personal Piety, and therefore our First Part will enquire into THE ESSENCE OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. And then, since this life is a subject of inward experience, and reveals itself in the consciousness by gradual manifestations, our Second Part will trace THE PROCESS OF ITS DEVELOPMENT. And further, since like all life it requires sustenance and is capable of increase and invigoration, our Third Part will indicate some of the principal MEANS ON WHICH

DEPEND ITS NOURISHMENT AND GROWTH.

And now then, in this First Part we address ourselves to the inquiry, What is THE ESSENCE OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE?

We cannot meditate on the examples of pious men without perceiving in them one condition of mind which specially characterizes all God's children, and marks them for his own. It forms the

family likeness by which they are distinguished, the common temper which, amidst every variety of feature, makes them in kind the same. By this, every servant of God in every age is assimilated to the whole body of the faithful; and it is because we sympathize with this, that a Noah, an Abraham, a David, an Isaiah, a Daniel, a Paul, widely different as they are in other respects, are felt to be our brethren; and their writings touch the deepest and most secret springs of our nature, and express in words more apt than we ourselves can form the most intimate workings of our hearts.

This common temper is expressed in Scripture by various terms. Sometimes it is called " the fear of God"-the bowing of the soul before invisible Authority. Sometimes, "the walking before God"-the having reference to his guidance in all our steps. Sometimes it is termed "Godliness the feeling that in God we live and move and have our being; and "Devoutness "the assiduous care* to cultivate his favour, and honour Him

See Luke ii. 25. A feature well expressed

in Ps. cxix. 3, 4, New Version:

"Such men their utmost caution use,

To shun each wicked deed;

And in the path which he directs,

With constant care proceed."