'the Spirit of adoption,' inspiring childlike confidence, and prompting us to draw near to God with holy freedom, to hold filial communion with Him. 'Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father' (Gal. iv. 6).

But when the Spirit thus takes possession of our hearts, He does so as the Sanctifier as well as the Comforter. He diffuses a new life through our souls, giving a new character to our affections and tendencies, rescuing us from the dominion of unholy passions, and imparting to us the power of spiritual obedience to the Divine will. Upon our receiving Christ by a self-renouncing faith, we are born of the Spirit'; and the graces of the regenerate nature now appear in our walk and conversation. We are after the Spirit,' and 'mind the things of the Spirit.' The Holy Ghost fashions our hearts after the character of Christ, and maintains our gracious principles by His constant indwelling. And thus are we enabled practically to develop Christian holiness. We walk by the Spirit,' and do not fulfil the lust of the flesh.'

6

He

Still further, the Spirit, working in the depths of our heart, carries on our progressive sanctification. He establishes us in Christ.' He confirms us in that intimate relation to the Saviour into which faith has introduced us, and gives to our Christian principles increasing firmness and stability. applies the truth of Christ to our minds, so as to nourish, sustain, and mature our spiritual affections, and so as to qualify us for every holy service. The words of St. Peter beautifully express this: And the God of all grace, who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered a little while, shall Himself perfect, stablish, strengthen you' (1 Peter. v. 10). We may properly recall, also, the concluding words of our Lord's great promise of the Spirit :- And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: . . . of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged.' The judgment referred to is clearly one carried into effect against Satan, when man is rescued

from his power, and enabled to triumph over all his subtlety and malice. For the Spirit discloses to us the great purpose of the Redeemer, to impart to His people a complete deliverance from the moral ruin of the fall, and thus to 'destroy the works of the devil.'

Under the varying circumstances and the manifold trials of this probationary life, the Holy Spirit is true to His office as the Comforter. He is not afar off from us, when we specially need His help. Amidst the sorrows of affliction, adversity, and bereavement, He recalls vividly to the mind those precious declarations of the Divine word which assure us of the fatherly love of God, and of the sympathy of Him who on earth suffered as we do, and who, in His exalted state, is still touched with the feeling of our infirmities.' He breathes into the soul that 'peace' which Christ left as His legacy to His people. And in the hour of spiritual conflict He succours and upholds us, enabling us to stand unmoved in the maintenance of holy principles, and to repel all the assaults of the powers of darkness.

To crown the whole, the Spirit, while He seals us as the people of God, becomes to us the earnest of the inheritance which is assured to us by our relation to the Lord Jesus. These views are repeatedly dwelt upon by St. Paul; and we may specially refer to 2 Cor. i. 21, 22; v. 5; Ephes. i. 13, 14. This sealing of the Spirit belongs to all believers. It is spoken of in the last of the passages referred to as immediately consequent upon our reception of the Saviour. The Spirit marks us out as the people of God, when He assures us of our adoption and stamps on us the Divine image; and His indwelling forms our security against the assaults of Satan and the allurements of the world, while we humbly look to the Saviour. And then the Holy Ghost imparts to us a foretaste of the sacred peace and joy which belong to the heavenly state. His gracious action on our minds, bringing us into living sympathy with Christ,-making us, indeed, partakers of our Lord's own resurrection-life,-forms the pledge and earnest of that 'eternal life' which is God's great gift to man in Christ Jesus.

SECTION IV.

THE CHRISTIAN SALVATION.

CHAPTER I.

THE CONDITION AND MEANS OF PERSONAL SALVATION.

is now generally admitted that the redeeming work of the

by His sacrificial death, had respect to all mankind; so that the invitations of mercy are to be earnestly addressed to every human being. If it were necessary to establish this truth by Scriptural evidence, passages almost without number might be adduced in support of it. It will suffice to mention one or two of the explicit testimonies of the New Testament.

The argument of St. Paul, in Rom. v., on the effects of Adam's transgression on his descendants, and the benefits of the restoring work of Christ, clearly implies that the provisions of grace are co-extensive with the results of the first offence. In another Epistle he distinctly affirms that 'One died for all'; while in Heb. ii. 9, we read, that by the grace of God' Jesus Christ tasted death for every man.' The teaching of St. John is equally explicit :-'If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world' (1 John ii. 1, 2). Above all, we have the distinct affirmation of our Lord Himself:- God so loved the

world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life' (John. iii. 16).

It is not for us curiously to inquire into the precise manner in which the atonement offered for mankind bears on the position of those to whom it has never been made known. The declarations of the Christian revelation respecting the conditions of personal salvation apply to those who are favoured with its announcements, and are not intended to supply answers to speculative inquiries as to those who never heard them. We know, indeed, that these are placed, through Christ, under an economy of grace; and that the great principles of God's universal moral government will be applied to their case as modified by such an economy. But it belongs only to the Omniscient One to trace out, in minute detail, these considerations as they bear on individual men. With regard to all who die in infancy, there can be no doubt that the provisions of grace in Christ extend to their everlasting salvation. The 'free gift' has come upon them 'unto justification of life'; and He who so graciously welcomed the little children brought to Him in the days of His flesh receives them to His presence, as belonging to that kingdom of God' which He came to establish, and now reigns to administer.

The inquiry which concerns us is, What are the conditions, and what the means, of personal salvation, in the case of those to whom the gospel is made known? How are we to become partakers of all the saving benefits of our Lord's redeeming work?

the

To this question the New Testament supplies a distinct and unequivocal answer. The burden of our Lord's ministry in of Galilee is thus stated by one of the evangesynagogues lists-The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand repent ye, and believe in the Gospel' (Mark. i. 15). Again and again He spoke of faith in Himself as bringing men into the possession of everlasting life (John. iii. 14—18; vi. 40, 47; xi. 25, 26). After His resurrection from the dead, He

charged His Apostles to preach in His name repentance and remission of sins unto all the nations' (Luke. xxiv. 47). And when the Apostle Paul reminded the elders of the Church at Ephesus of his ministry in that city, he said, 'I shrank not from declaring unto you any thing that was profitable, and teaching you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ' (Acts. xx. 20, 21).

We may say, then, with confidence, that repentance and faith are the conditions of personal salvation; while it is faith—a faith that presupposes repentance-which is emphatically the means of connecting us with Christ, so that we are admitted to the Divine favour, and receive the Holy Spirit to inspire filial confidence and to renew our souls.

Repentance implies, first of all, a conviction of personal sinfulness. We have seen that it is one office of the Holy Ghost, now sent down by our glorified Lord, to convict the world of sin,' bringing home the law of God to the conscience in its spirituality and amplitude, and discovering to us the baseness of a course of transgression, and especially of neglecting the Lord Jesus. When this conviction is cherished, instead of being resisted, there will follow sorrow for sin and hatred to it as such. It is not simply that alarm is awakened on account of the future consequences of transgression,-proper as that feeling is,—but sin itself is mourned over as base and ungrateful. These feelings and convictions lead us to strive against sin in its inward movements, and to turn away from every form of outward transgression, watching, more especially, against those forms of evil to which we have been accustomed. These convictions, too, will lead us, if we are conscious of having injured any of our fellow-men in their persons, their property, or their reputation, to make restitution at the earliest possible moment. And repentance includes the confession of sin to God, as committed against Him, and a turning of heart to Him to seek forgiveness, and to receive power to avoid and resist it for the future.