realizing of that sense of God as our Father which constitutes, as we have before seen, the Essence of Christian Piety, we shall perceive I think that the development of the Spiritual Life wherever it has been awakened, must manifest itself in something like the following progression of Experience.

First.-All men are by nature indifferent to God. They do not willingly think of Him, do not desire the knowledge of his ways, are fully occupied with the cares the interests and the pleasures of their earthly nature; and thus live practically "without God in the world." The first step therefore which they need towards Piety is to have their attention awakened to the cares the interests and the pleasures of their spiritual nature; to have their minds roused from the torpor of indifference to divine things; and to find the thought of God, and of their relation to Him, and of all the solemn consequences of that relation, made alive within them. And this the Scriptures denominate their Calling, their being awakened out of sleep,-their being raised up from the dead.

Secondly.-Men are ignorant of God. They know him not; they understand Him not; and even when an interest in the thought of Him has been awakened, that thought is vague imperfect feeble; it is for the most part an "unknown God" whom they are

feeling after if haply they may find him, though

he is not far from every one of them." Here then they need farther to have their understanding opened to his character, his will, his demands upon their conscience, his doings in their behalf, his invitations and directions to them. And this is called in Scripture their Illumination-Christ giving to them light-their being taught of God in the Gospel of His Son.

Thirdly. The hearts of men are averse to God. The thought of Him is not welcome; it is irksome; they would rather be without it. And this, not only on account of its strangeness as contrasted with the nature of their earthly imaginations and pursuits -the Spiritual not sorting well with the Sensual; and not only on account of its dimness, its being so unfamiliar and perplexing-as no man likes the contemplation of Ideas whose obscurity upbraids his ignorance; but still more, because of its contrariety; because of the natural opposition that exists between Sinfulness and Holiness, the resistance of the evil nature to the demands of Goodness, and the consequent dislike which rises against Him who is the Ideal of that Holiness, the Author and Enforcer of those demands, and whose very purity, the more it is perceived and understood, becomes the more reproachful to us,our image darkening by the contrast, as the image. of the Holy One emerges into greater brightness.

We need therefore the removal, or at least the repression, of this sense of contrariety; we need the softening of this opposing will; the winning over of this Cain-like sullenness; the casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and the bringing every thought into subjection to the obedience of Christ so that the alien may be naturalized, the rebel be transformed into a loyal subject, the heart made friends with God and ready to obey his will. And this the Scriptures call Repentance, or a change of mind towards God; Conversion, or the turning back to God; Regeneration, or the new birth of a will in filial accordance with the will of God.

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Fourthly. Where there is indifference, and ignorance, and aversion, there also is Dread of God. A sense of contrariety brings with it a sense of guilt. For there is something in our nature which tells us unequivocally (speculate as we may) that we are responsible for our neglect, and deserve punishment for our dislike, of God. We feel that we owe to him a very different return for all his goodness to us, and that the debt must be reckoned to our account. And this dread of God is not removed even by the submission of our heart to him. Nay, it is deepened, in proportion to that growing consciousness of sin and guilt which accompanies the workings

per

of a true Repentance. For no sorrow for our breach of God's Law can do away the claims of that Law ; no resolutions for the future can obliterate the past. And the more therefore the heart is softened, the greater becomes its despondency. The stronger its desire to turn to God, the more it needs to be assured that it may turn to Him as to a Friend -a pacified forgiving satisfied Friend. A sense of sonal acceptance, a trust in God as entering into a new relation with us, an animating consciousness of our heavenly Father's presence care and approbation-this is essential to our running the new race of holiness to which repentance pledges us, with that quiet vigour which alone ensures success. And this state of mind is called in Scripture the "having Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ". the enjoying " fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ,"-the "joying in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the Atonement."

Once more. The unconverted man has no definite and lively Hope in God. The future is to him a blank, or at best the sphere of mere conjecture and assumption. Each imagined contingency of the present life excites, according to his temperament, unfounded expectation or anxious fear. He has no one on whom to cast the burden of the coming day. And with respect to the life to come, even if

he escapes the forebodings of an uneasy though slumbering conscience, he attains but to the vapid self-security of one who having gained the necessary passports to a foreign land thinks no more of his departure till the time of separation from his friends can be no longer delayed. His best anticipations are unthinking confidence. His worst are blank despair. Nor is the Christian convert without his perplexities and apprehensions. He feels almost alone in a world of trial and temptation. He cannot depend upon himself. He knows that few will understand him, sympathize with him, assist him in the race that he is running. He needs therefore a child-like confidence in God as his unfailing Counsellor and Preserver; dependence on his guidance and support through each successive difficulty of this world; and that" blessed Hope of everlasting life" which looks forward to the world to come as to our dwelling-place and home. And this the Scriptures call the spirit of Assurance-the "walking by Faith and not by sight," the "holding fast the confidence and the rejoicing of our hope firm unto the end "—the "rejoicing in Hope of the glory of God.”

Such then are some of the principal manifestations of that Spiritual Life which, welling out from the secret fountains of the soul, purifies all the better feelings of our nature, and rises into that commingled Love and Joy and Hope, which constitute the