THAT THE GRACES OF CHRISTIANITY ARE ALL

CONNECTED TOGETHER AND MUTUALLY DEPEND

ENT ON EACH OTHER.-That is, they are all linked together, and united one to another and within another, as the links of a chain are; and one does, as it were, hang on another, from one end of the chain to the other, so that if one link be broken, all fall to the ground, and the whole ceases to be of any effect. And in unfolding this thought, I would, first, briefly explain how the graces of Christianity are all connected, and then give some reasons why they are so. And I would, I. Briefly explain the manner in which the graces of Christianity are connected. And this may be shown in three things:

1. All the graces of Christianity always go together. They so go together, that where there is one, there are all, and where one is wanting, all are wanting. Where there is faith, there are love, and hope, and humility; and where there is love, there is also trust; and where there is a holy trust in God, there is love to God; and where there is a gracious hope, there also is a holy fear of God. "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him; in those that hope in his mercy," Psalm cxlvii.

11. Where there is love to God, there is a gracious love to man; and where there is a Christian love to man, there is love to God. Hence we find that the Apostle John, at one time gives love to the brethren as a sign of love to God, saying, "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar," 1 John iv. 20; and then, again, speaks of love to God, as a sign of love to the brethren, saying, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments," 1 John v. 2. It is, also,

true,

2. That the graces of Christianity depend upon one another.-There is not only a connection, whereby they are always joined together, but there is also a mutual dependence between them, so that one cannot be without the others. To deny one, would in effect be, to deny another, and so all; just as to deny the cause, would be to deny the effect, or to deny the effect, would be to deny the cause. Faith promotes love, and love is the most effectual ingredient in a living faith. Love is dependent on faith; for a being cannot be truly loved, and especially loved above all other beings, who is not looked upon as a real

being. And then love, again, enlarges and promotes faith, because we are more apt to believe and give credit to, and more disposed to trust in those we love, than in those we do not. So faith begets hope, for faith sees and trusts in God's sufficiency to bestow blessings, and in his faithfulness to his promises, that he will do what he has said. All gracious hope, is hope resting on faith; and hope encourages, and draws forth acts of faith. And so love tends to hope, for the spirit of love is the spirit of a child, and the more any one feels in himself this spirit toward God, the more natural it will be to him to look to God, and go to God as his father. This childlike spirit casts out the spirit of bondage and fear, and gives the spirit of adoption, which is the spirit of confidence and hope. "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again, to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father," Rom. viii. 15; and the Apostle John tells us, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear," 1 John iv. 18. And so, again, a true and genuine hope tends greatly to promote love. When a Christian has most of a right hope of his interest in God's favor, and in

those eternal blessings that are its fruits, this tends to draw forth the exercise of love, and oftentimes does draw it forth; as says the Apostle Paul," Tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts," Rom. v. 3-5.

Faith, too, promotes humility; for the more entirely any one depends on God's sufficiency, the more will it tend to a low sense of his own sufficiency. And so humility tends to promote faith; for the more any one has an humble sense of his own insufficiency, the more will his heart be disposed to trust only on God, and to depend entirely on Christ. So love promotes humility; for the more the heart is ravished with God's loveliness, the more will it abhor itself, and abase and humble itself for its own unloveliness and vileness. Humility promotes love; for the more any one has an humble sense of his own unworthiness, the more will he admire God's goodness to him, and the more will his heart be drawn out in love to him for his glorious grace. Love tends to repentance; for he that truly repents of sin, repents of it because it is com