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tory-shall realize in a deeper and higher sense than Petrarch, when he penned those lines :

"Victorious Faith, to thee belongs the prize;

On earth thy power is felt, and in the circling skies."

Close your

Close your ear against the Old Serpent! His reasonings are endless. He never tires hissing against the doctrine of faith, although he ruined our first parents by believing his promise that they should not die though they did eat the forbidden fruit. They believed before they tasted it. The Lord has met Satan on his own ground, and saves us by believing Him. It is this that spites the Old Serpent. But as we must believe that we receive, in order to receive, he makes capital of that, and overcomes many. Expect that he will hiss at you. Regard him not. Perhaps he may hiss you through human lips, even those from whom you expected better things. Heed them not. ears against him, and against all who would slur the way of faith. Cut them all short by turning to your risen Lord, hearkening for his voice, and doing as he bids you, like a good servant, a dutiful child. "Believe that you receive." Hold fast upon that, even with a naked faith,-a faith unclothed of feeling, stripped of all sensible enjoyment, an empty, hard, tossed heart-the heart you have within you now. Jesus will soon appear among the waves, saying, "Fear not, only believe. Be it unto thee according to thy faith. Believe that you receive, and you shall have." You do believe you do receive. It is faith's triumphant hour. In that glorious instant you do receive, you are saved-sweetly, consciously, fully saved from sin; "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth

thee from all sin,”—1 John 1: 1,-and the language of your soul is :

"T is done; thou dost this moment save-
With full salvation bless;

Redemption through thy blood I have,
And spotless love and peace."

Now, indeed, you may "believe that you have it;" ay, but in this case you have it before you believe that you have it; believing that you received brought it; believing that you have it is an after faith, so to speak. ence there, and an essential one, too!

A differ

you

What did I say? "You may then believe that have it." Believe that you have it! That is too weak a word, it is defective. Nay, but you shall KNOW that you have it. Believing ends where knowledge begins; their ground is not common. When I credit a promise, so as to trust my all upon it, that is faith or believing. When the promise is fulfilled upon which I relied, faith has no more place in this case; it is knowledge now, and therefore improper to say I believe I have it.

Come, then, come all of you! and he who has entered the lists against his bosom sin, and its legion, come to Jesus. You come to him when you reach his promise; you touch him when you touch that; - that is the hem of his garment now. "Believe that ye receive," and you touch him. As many as shall thus touch him shall be made whole, whatever may be the nature of your spiritual diseases. This is faith's climax! the top summit

of its action!

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Jesus cannot lie!

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its highest altitude for full salvation!

So sure as he has, in this promise, de

livered his sceptre into the hand of faith; so sure as he

has pledged his veracity, and brought himself under obligation to fulfil its askings; so sure he will never trifle with it never! Victory shall be thine, and full salvation. Let us all kneel and test the doctrine, whether it be of God!

CHAPTER XIV.

THE NEW CONVERT EXHORTED TO HOLINESS.

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1ST. LET that new convert hearken! The remains of sin yea, the seed of every sin-is within, till you are cleansed throughout spirit, soul and body. That was a good remark of one, "There is much of the old man in the new." Already have you been made sensible of the fact. Those seeds have taken root. They are rooted in that heart of yours, among the plants of grace, like weed-roots in a bed of vegetables. They must be uprooted, or they will destroy or dwarf the plants of grace within you.

Indwelling sin is Satan's capital. He who has a small capital will keep adding to it. It is Satan's investment, and he will not neglect it; the devil's stock, and he will watch its rise and fall in the market close as any stock-jobber. Sin is, in itself, an accumulating principle. A slight cold is prone to additions. It is so with indwelling sin. Its nature is to render you cold to duty, and cold in your affections toward God and his people. It contracts the fine affections of your soul, as a cold the fine vessels of your body, rendering you chilly and shivering in the presence of a good Gospel fire.

It is just so with some old professors in this town. When we see a man shivering in the sunshine, or by a warm fireside, we suppose his ague is bad enough. To see a professor shiver in the warm sunshine of the Gospel or encom

passed by the blaze of a glorious revival such as this, argues an inveterate spiritual ague. The devil has his eye upon such, to give them a hot corner in hell, by and by. It is to save you from such an ague I address you, young convert, while you have indwelling sin in you. You have the elements of this ague within; it has begun, in fact, in these incipient stages.

not now?

Get rid of it. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth of it. The medicine is ready, if your faith is ready. Why "All things are possible to him that believeth." May you have no rest till you are cured of these ague-fits,—slight, indeed, at present; it would be a wonder were it otherwise, considering your present advantages. But it has a lodgment in your nature, and every exposure to "evil air," to bad company and bad influence, will add to it; your ague-fits will increase, until you will be ashamed to be seen in a class-meeting. Better you never had been converted, than enter the lists of these aguish professors.

2d. Let the "prone to wander" new convert listen.—If so now, that proneness may increase ten-fold hereafter. Purity of heart is your remedy. Be not deceived. Are you clear in your conversion? If not, in all likelihood you will wander back to the devil. Some children stray away from their parents and return again. His eye is upon you he never took it off you in all your "ins and outs" among us. Forgive the apparent harshness. You understand me. I would fain probe your soul to the bottom. It will do you no harm, if a genuine convert; if otherwise, you may, peradventure, recover yourself out of the snare of the devil.

Be not deceived in your intentions regarding sin. You have put it away; surely you have, if regenerated. But have you parted with it forever, think you? Have you

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