thought the surface was equable and smooth. It is no rare occurrence for them to confess that they err in judgment, and that their outward conduct is faulty; but very rarely are they convinced that the more radical error is error at heart. It is surprising to see how soon the heart expresses its deceitfulness, and at what an early age it is acted out. On almost every other subject, except those which are religious and moral, a little child, unless it has been tampered with, is ingenuous and honest. But on this whole class of subjects, no sooner is the conscience awake, than the heart proves a traitor. It is most ingeniously deceitful, and has at its command all the arts of palliation, apology, quibbling, and tergiversation which are discoverable in more matured minds. There is nothing more observable in wicked men, and there is nothing of which good men more complain, than the deceitfulness of their hearts. Deceit is one of the deep-seated characteristics of the heart of man, and adheres to him with indomitable pertinacity; it sloughs off even from the moral constitution of good men, with the last excrescences of the body of sin and death.

It is a marvel in the view of some, that men should be often so agitated and distressed by a sense of their wickedness. But why should any marvel at a fact so easily accounted for? What more is necessary in order to fill the mind with

anxiety and distress, than for any man to "know the plague of his own heart!" Let the most thoughtless man in the world see this, and he cannot help feeling that he has a burden too great for him to bear. His own conscience unites with the truth of the Bible in assuring him that the wrath of God abideth on him; that he is a dying man, and must soon appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; and that it is but the recompense due to his sins, if he escape not the damnation of hell. The marvel is, that there should be an unconverted man in the world, who is not pricked in his heart, and does not cry out, with the alarmed thousands on the day of Pentecost, "Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved!" O this heart of wickedness! this heart of adamant! What must eternity be to a man who has such a heart!

This is no false alarm which I am sounding. No man can go into eternity with such a heart and be safe. He must become an altered man, or be lost. "Verily, verily I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Human wickedness does not change itself; it is never so wise, nor so well balanced, nor is it ever so sorely pressed, and in such a state of suspense, as to alter its own course. No, it is an iron despotism which omnipotence must break. Such a man stands on slippery places. Ministers may preach to him; Christians may pray for him; but

he must have other helpers, and find refuge in him who "hath mercy on whom he will have mercy."

Here lies all our hope for lost and ruined man. Time and opportunity will fit them for perdition; infinite grace alone can overcome this heart of sin, and fit them for the joys of God's right hand. Nor may any man quarrel with this truth, until he finds he can be saved without it. Nor may he make it a refuge of lies, and plead it as an excuse for not breaking off his iniquity by righteousness, and his transgressions by turning to God. Flee I pray you from the delusion of a heart that would thus deceive you to your own undoing.

CHAPTER XX.

The First Announced Withdrawment of the Spirit.

GOD's gracious purpose of saving sinners is "through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." The character and work of this divine agent, though by no means so clearly in the Old Testament as in the New, are yet clearly revealed. When, just before the flood, the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man,” he teaches us, that there is such an agent; that he strives with men; and that he shall not strive always.

The Spirit of God possesses a distinct and personal existence. Notwithstanding the modern refinements of some few Trinitarian writers, we still hold to a personal distinction in the Godhead; it is not a mere nominal distinction, to which the Scriptures refer, when they speak of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. There are three equally distinct and divine persons in the one God; yet,

mysterious truth, they are "the same in substance, equal in power and glory." They are distinct without being separate; just as the faculties of the human mind are distinct, without being separate faculties. And they are inseparably united in one God, just as the faculties of the human mind are inseparably united in one intellectual and moral existence. Nor can we understand the wondrous method of redemption which distinguishes Christianity from all other religions, without receiving this truth.

There are those who teach that the Holy Spirit is God acting in a distinct office; this was the belief of Sabellius of the third century, and the heresy which was condemned by the council of Constantine. There are those who teach that He derives his existence from the Father and the Son; such is the Arian heresy; it sprang up in the church of Alexandria in the early part of the fourth century, and was condemned both by the council of Alexandria and the council of Nice. The Socinians and modern Unitarians teach that the Holy Ghost is not a person, but a mere divine energy, or influence, an attribute of the Deity, and not himself divine.

It is one of the peculiarities of Christianity, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three distinct, inseparable persons in one God. The Spirit of God is not a mere influence, power, or emanation