parties litigant, and be found siding only with him who was in the right.

"He that doeth these things shall never be moved." He that doeth what things?"he that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart; he that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour; in whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he maketh much of them that fear the Lord: he that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not; he that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent." These are the moral virtues of the man who would obtain a kingdom that cannot be moved-of the man who would dwell for ever in the tabernacle of God on high. Do you answer, that we are saved by faith? Granted-but not by an idle and barren faith; but by a faith that worketh-worketh by love, purifieth the heart, overcometh the world, and aboundeth in good works. The faith that saves the soul, produces all the moral virtues. "Add to your faith," says St. Peter. Add what to your faith? "Add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity." 1 Pet. i. 5-7. Quite an addition to faith! Very like golden rounds in a ladder reaching from earth to heaven. Such are the virtues of faith; its graces are as follows: "The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Gal. v. 22, 23. These words are as bright an exhibition of what the true believer

is internally, as the words repeated just before them are of what he is externally. The faith that saves the soul, purifies both heart and life. The word of God knows of no other way leading up to heaven than heavenly tempers and a heavenly life. The atonement made for our sins by Christ, in no wise releases us from the obligation to lead such a life, to cultivate such dispositions, and practise such works as would become an actual resident of the heavenly world. It is the glory of our religion that the salvation it offers to the lost, is altogether of grace. grace. If it offers pardon to the guilty, purity to the polluted, and mansions of everlasting rest to the weary and the homeless, it offers the whole as a free gift. Eternal life is the gift of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The song sung by every human spirit in heaven is one and the same, namely, "Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." So it ought to be. God forbid that we should teach that heaven is purchased for us by any other merits and obedience than the merits and obedience of God's own Son, made ours by faith. The faith, however, that makes the purchase of Christ's blood ours, is a faith that infallibly leads to holy obedience. Christ himself makes holy obedience to his laws the great and only infallible evidence of a saving faith in him. "Not every one," says He, "that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will

liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it." Whoever builds his hopes of heaven upon a faith not leading to holy obedience, is destined to have them all swept away. He who died to redeem us and exalt us to everlasting life tells us so. He ignores as a saving faith the faith that makes light of the very least of his commandments. "Whosoever," says he, "shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. vii. 24-27.

LECTURE ON PSALM XVI.

VERSE 1. Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust. THIS is the cry of one surrounded by dangers, in the midst of which he feels that Divine power alone can save him. However great the soul's self-relithere are times when it feels that it needs a strength greater than its own to sustain it. This was David's feeling, when he uttered the cry, "Save

ance,

*

me, O God!" Whether the dangers he dreaded were actual and urgent, or only anticipated, he does not in so many words inform us. It is clear, however, that the danger that David most dreaded was death-the loosening of the vital cord, and the return of the spirit unto God who gave it: death, not in its physical aspects, but death as the beginning of endless happiness, or endless misery. Of such an existence for the soul, this psalm gives clearer intimations than any that have preceded it. Hitherto in the psalms human immortality has been seen only through a veil: in this psalm the veil is lifted. It tells us that the grave cannot retain the soul, and that there is for it in the presence of God fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore. It is this revelation of another and eternal life for the soul that gives to this psalm its title, Michtam, golden: or, as others understand the word, a secret, a mystery, a doctrine of profound import. Of profound import indeed, revealing human immortality, and joys in reserve for that immortality, such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man to conceive. It is in this sense, that of a doctrine of profound import about to be revealed, that St. Paul says of the everlasting life of the body, "Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." 1 Cor. xv. 51-53. It would seem that it was in view of the dangers besetting the

immortal life in reserve for his soul, that David cries out, "Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust."

VERSE 2. O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee.

"Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee," is the language of David's soul, the language of his inmost being, the one feeling that absorbs every other. He knows in whom he has trusted, and is persuaded that he is able to keep, for time and eternity, that which he hath committed unto him-his soul. He feels that his soul has in the Lord all that it needs. The language of his heart is, Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. The prospered husbandman's choice for his soul, was this world's goods. He said to his soul, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years: take thine ease; eat, drink, and be merry." David's choice for his soul, was the Lord:-the great Fountain of good: not much goods laid up for many years, but an allsufficing good for eternity. He chose an immortal good for an immortal nature: an inexhaustible good for a nature that will ever have wants to be supplied. David was conscious, too, that he had no good of his own, no element of eternal happiness in himself, no moral excellence not derived from above. “My goodness," says he to his Maker, "extendeth not to thee:" that is, I can do nothing to increase thy essential glory and happiness, and so merit good at thy hands. Others, however, understand the original words to mean, My good is not without thee, is from