shows that we do not pray as we ought to do, for the Master has commanded us to "ask, and receive, that our joy may be full." It shows that we are not faithful in obedience, as we should be, for it is the delight of the faithful to do God's will.

This joy should be manifest. The Christian should never forget that he is a witness for Christ, and an example of Christ's religion. What a libel upon Christianity it is to be sad! What a contradiction for one to wear a gloomy countenance, yet profess to have God in his heart! No wonder the world stumbles at such inconsistency. Our Saviour, taught his disciples, even when they fasted, not to wear a sad countenance, as the hypocrites do, but rather to appear unto men not to fast; which seems to intimate that gloom and hypocrisy generally go together. Socrates thought "the thanksgivings of the Lacedemonians more acceptable to God, than all the sacrifices of the other Greeks;"

and nothing will be more likely to gain attention from the world to religion, than proof in the lives of its serious professors that it makes men happier than sin.

"Let us then be glad in the Lord, and in the power of his might." If the Spirit of God dwell in us, we will be so; and we shall find, too, that the wise man spoke truth when he said, merry heart doeth good like a medicine;" and

at last we shall hear the blessed invitation,

ter ye into the joy of Lord." your

"A

"En

"Here," says

excellent Thomas Watson, and with his sweet

words we end our essay,

"Here joy begins to

enter into us, there we shall enter into joy. . . What joy shall the soul have, when it bathes itself for ever in the pure and pleasant fountain of God's love! If a cluster of grapes here be so sweet, what will the full vintage be? How should all this set us a longing for that place where sorrow cannot live, and joy cannot die!"

IV.

PEACE.

THE blessed SPIRIT, which, through the truth, disposes the renewed man to love God and his fellow creatures for God's sake, and so makes every revelation of truth an occasion of joy, every event of providence a blessing, and every duty a pleasure, at the same time produces in his soul that sweet composure, tranquil contentment, and appearance of safety, which we call PEACE: for godly love has nothing of that uneasy fever which belongs to earthly passion, neither has godly joy the tumultuous excitement of worldly gaiety. The love is too secure in its satisfaction to be agitated, and the joy too deep and abiding for fitful transports. "The fruit of the Spirit is-peace."

H

The excellent value of peace is taught us by the stress, which is laid upon it throughout the Scriptures. The Gospel, the most glorious of all God's designs, is called "the Gospel of peace." The great name of God, by which he is revealed to his believing people, is "the God of peace." Christ, the blessed Saviour, is "the Prince of peace." Here, peace is the fruit of the Spirit. The promise which foretold the coming salvation to the saints of the old dispensation was, "The Lord shall give his people the blessings of peace." The reward of evangelical obedience is peace: "Great peace have they which love thy law." The desire of the apostles for the churches they taught was, that "peace might be multiplied" unto them; which Paul so strongly expresses when he says, "Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means." The salutation of Jesus was, "Peace be unto you;" and his parting blessing, "Go in peace:" while the heaven of the redeemed, where their happiness

shall be complete in perfect holiness, is the New Jerusalem, or "heritage of peace." What a blessing must that be, which purchased for us by the merits of Jesus, flowing from the fulness of God the Father, dispensed by the royal will of Christ the Mediator, wrought in all his people by the Holy Ghost, and shedding a perfect beauty over the heaven of their reward, gives name and title to them all! It must be a blessedness which, lost by the fall, the guilty cannot enjoy, and nothing less than the mediation of the Son of God can obtain for the penitent sinner; but which, belonging to the perfections of the holy God, he bestows only upon those who are made like to him in holiness, and can therefore be neither given nor taken away by the world. It is, in fact, not a single blessing, but a consequence of all blessings, for our peace can never be perfect so long as we fear any annoyance, or suffer the uneasiness of desire for what we do not possess. Hence the word is often used to signify