edness, that now I lay before his feet the pledges of my fullest devotion, when he is putting into my hands the pledges of his matchless love,—the earnests of the mighty joys which he hath bought for me, the memorials of the mighty price at which he bought them!" DISCOURSE XV. HEBREWS, iv. 16.-"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." MANY of us, my brethren, did, last Lord's Day, with the most venerable solemnities profess our reliance on that great High Priest whom the preceding verses describe, and our determination that, having such a High Priest, we should hold fast our profession, and "cleave unto the Lord with full purpose of heart." Now, the text supposes those who embrace the advantage and the consolation of it placed in these very circumstances; and, taking for granted that in the fulfilment of the duty to which they are thus pledged, they will encounter many difficulties, temptations, and trials, and will often be placed in circumstances wherein they shall urgently require a better wisdom than their own to guide, another strength than their own to sustain them, it points out to their attention an easy way of obtaining all needful supplies of seasonable help, in order to their successfully fulfilling the service to which they are devoted, of perseveringly maintaining their Christian profession, and "holding the beginning of their confidence stedfast unto the end." In inviting the notice, therefore, of all those who recently in the sincerity of their hearts professed their adherence to the Saviour, and their resolution to maintain their adherence to the end, let me first remind them that, in the prosecution of this their Christian course, they must expect to encounter times of need, when mercy and grace shall be required to help them, and then exhort them to the use of the means here pointed out by which their need on every such occasion may be effectually supplied. First, then, my brethren, I remark, that you must lay your account with finding frequent occasion in the course of your spiritual history for supplies from above of mercy and grace to help you. And who, in merely looking at the nature and character of the achievement to which every one who, last Lord's Day, sat down at the consecrated table, is vowed and consecrated by solemn pledges given to heaven and earth, does not perceive that it is one beyond his own unaided ability, whether he shall consider the external force arrayed in hostility against the Christian, or the internal weakness of his nature? The world in which we live, and which is the appointed scene of the believer's spiritual warfare in seeking “to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord," -to "hold fast" and to make good "the profession of his faith without wavering," is full of influences directly opposed to the fulfilment of these pure and noble purposes; and there is a mighty and sagacious, and malignant spirit," the god of this world," "the ruler of " this "darkness," the chosen aim and dark satisfaction of whose being it is to seduce men into sin, and, through sin, betray them into misery,-who, through the ministry of ten thousand potent and invisible satellites, is employed in directing, combining, and enforcing, the operation of the world's bad influences on the human, and not least earnestly on the regenerate soul; so that actually to make good the ground he has already gained, to avoid declension, backsliding, "shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience," shall require on the part of the believer an habitual vigilance, and oftentimes a strenuous exertion,-while, on the other hand, to make progress in the spiritual life,to advance towards the goal of his high calling,-to "run with patience the race set before" him,-to proceed from strength to strength on the way to Zion,-it will be easily seen by all who will but compare the spirit of the Christian religion with the spirit of the world, it will be easily felt by every one who has had any experience of the difficulty of maintaining any thing like a Christian frame amidst the everpresent, ever-urgent influences of sense, like an un -- genial atmosphere, embracing on every side a flame from another sphere, that trembles amidst its stormy blasts, and languishes in its tainted air,-is an attempt than which none can be conceived in its own nature more arduous and more apparently hopeless. And then, when from the state of things without he looks to the condition of those within,when, with the hostilities which he has to encounter, he compares the resources with which he has to encounter them, as far, at least, as these resources are in himself,-when he considers what his Bible and his experience have combined to teach him of the weakness of his own heart,the discord of his desires, the mutability of his purposes, the feebleness of his resolutions, the faintness of his energies,—when he not only recollects the weakness of the resources with which he has to oppose the temptations of the world and its demon-god, but also remembers that they have a party within his soul, the strength of passions and propensities, subdued perhaps, but not extinguished, and ready on the slightest relaxation of the curb to burst suddenly away, bearing down the struggling soul upon the torrent of their headlong violence,-that in the nature which he is called to exalt by gradual steps along the path leading,"by patient continuance in well-doing," to "glory, and honour, and immortality," there is a native and ponderous gravitation downwards,—that there are rebels in the camp and traitors in the cita |