ceived his power from the Father, only for the sake of the righteousness and intercession of Christ his Son. All our good has been wrought in us by the power of the Holy Spirit, and, therefore, no good nor merit in us could have procured for us his gracious favour. If the Father had not sent his Son, if the Son had not lived and died and interceded for us, the Holy Spirit would never have been ours.

While we seek from the Father, for Christ's sake, the continual help of the Holy Spirit, let us ever "maintain good works." It is for the maintenance of good works that the Holy Spirit is given; and it is only in the faithful use of his gracious strength, that we can hope to obtain more. If, therefore, "we would obtain what God doth promise, we must love what God doth command." What can we render, less than our whole hearts and lives, for such an unspeakable gift? "Know ye not," says the apostle, "that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"

II.

FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT.

SEVERAL principal truths have now been ascertained by us, which it is necessary we should remember, if we would profitably pursue our meditations upon our holy and beautiful text. They are these:

The purpose of God in salvation is, to deliver his people, not only from the punishment due to them for their sins, but also from their sinfulness itself; that so they may no longer offend him by their disobedience, but serve and enjoy him in that perfection for which God designed the nature of man in his original creation;

This sanctification, or perfection of holiness, is wrought in the hearts of God's people by the di

vine power of the Holy Ghost, the third Person in the ever blessed and glorious Godhead;

The instrument, or means, employed by the Holy Ghost in producing this moral change, is the truth of God in the gospel of Christ; which he makes effectual, by enlightening the understanding to perceive it, quickening the conscience to feel and acknowledge it, and converting the heart to love and obey it; and thus his gracious influence is discovered in the personal qualities and actions of the renewed man, which are, therefore, called "the fruit of the Spirit."

II. THE EFFECTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT'S WORK, AS MANIFESTED IN THE GRACES OF CHRISTIAN

CHARACTER.

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."

LOVE.

The apostle holds forth to us a rich cluster of graces, but he names first the stem from which the rest hang. For as upon Christ, the living vine, all the living branches grow, and from the Spirit, through Him, derive their vigour and fruitfulness; so it is from love the other graces proceed, and through love are ripened unto perfection. Yet it were an unworthy figure to make love, the sweetest fruit of the cluster, a mere stem, which is dry and tasteless. We should rather compare these graces to fruits, which grow the one out of the other, love being the first formed and chiefest.

Love has never been accurately defined, but we know it to be, That affection which has delight in its objects, and desires their welfare.

A rational being loves not without a reason, which seems to him good. The reasons of a Christian's love are drawn from the word of God,

guiding and governing the sensibilities of his soul. He loves God, because of his holy excellence, his loving-kindness toward him, and the enjoyment he has in his communion. He loves those to whom he is bound by the closer ties of life, not only because of the natural affections the Creator has implanted in his heart, but because God has, in a greater or less degree, entrusted their welfare to his care. He loves Christians, because they are beloved by his heavenly Father, bear His image so far as grace has transformed them, and because their sympathy and friendship is a mutual blessing. He loves all men, because God has commended them to his love; and he desires and delights in their welfare, as God loves the world. He loves the holy angels, because they are faithful and honoured servants of his God, minister to him now by Christ's gracious permission, and will be his loving companions in the praise of God throughout eternity.

It is, however, to be regretted, that the Scrip

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