the desires of my soul! I know that, whereas I was once blind, now I see; yet I want the assurance of faith, the satisfaction that I am elected of God, and the comfort of the Holy Ghost; and I fear that one so unworthy and ignorant can never hope for so unspeakable a privilege? O beloved, whatever you may think of yourself, you are not far from the kingdom of God. Those very desires are more lovely in God's eyes, than the most costly sacrifices. "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy." The light by which you have already discovered something of your real character, and a little of the superior excellency of Christ's service, came from the Sun of righteousness; and he will not despise the work of his own hands, however indistinct may be your views, or weak your desires. "The bruised reed he will not break, and the smoking flax he will not quench." Grace is poured into his lips, to utter words to strengthen the reed, and fan the flax to a flame. Hear, and the Lord give you an understanding heart to receive them, "If ye, being

evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" Are you a parent? Do you know the willingness of parental love to give a darling infant the good things for which it cannot ask, but by tears and inarticulate cries? Have you printed kisses on its cheek, and wished for a thousand blessings to pour on its lovely head? Have you cheerfully sacrificed your own ease, comfort, and peace, to bestow them upon your babe? How much more shall the Fountain of love itself, from which all your tender sympathies are derived, give all good things, in this one, the Holy Spirit, to you who ask him?

It is written, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Happy indeed are they who can add," But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." It must however be remembered, that our acquaintance

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with God can be perpetuated only by the abiding presence and influence of the Holy Ghost. Our spirits must not only be quickened by him, but kept alive; else all our communion with God will be toilsome, we shall be like a person labouring under some enfeebling disease, which causes indifference to the society of the friend he loves. The flesh lusteth against the spirit; and if the flesh, in its affections and lusts, is not crucified, we shall be continually under its influence, which will drive us any where rather than to commune with God. Now the lusts of the flesh can be subdued and mortified only by a continual supply of the Spirit of grace. "If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Mortification is unnatural to us. We love to please ourselves; to gratify our passions. The work requires some mightier agent than our own feeble resolutions, which too often yield to the solicitations of Satan, whose main object is to destroy the life of righteousness, by preventing this death unto sin. The inhabitation of the Spirit of God is therefore promised to all believers, to main

tain this deadness to the world, this superiority to the flesh, this conquest over Satan; and thus ever to fit us for the presence of the holy Lord God Almighty. Jesus left it as his great legacy to the church, to which the weakest saint has a claim. "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."

Is not this our great error, that we are not sufficiently dependent on divine influence, to maintain within us that holy intimacy? Our judgment and conduct are greatly at variance. We know and approve the truth, and should feel there was something deficient in that sermon where the necessity of divine influence to I walk with God was not introduced. And yet

we enter upon the work as if all the power were in our own hands; as if continual walking the celestial road needed none of that food, of which if a man eat he shall live for ever; none of

those balmy gales of soul-reviving air which the Spirit breathes; none of that water which he causes to spring up to everlasting life, that we thirst not, and turn not to the broken cisterns of the world to draw; none of that effectual working, without which we have no part in Jesus, and remain unsanctified and impure; none of that divine direction which he bestows, as the guide into all truth. "O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit." How then are we so foolish? Have we begun in the spirit, and shall we end in the flesh? That be far from us. If we felt the value of his presence and influence as David did, we should dread his departure from us more than the loss of any terrestrial comfort we enjoy. It would be our daily prayer, Lord, whatever thou takest from me, houses, or lands, or wife, or children, or friends, or ordinances, or health, or wealth, "take not thy Holy Spirit from me."

Now to cherish this heavenly desire, see how much you are indebted to him for his operations lestial intercourse, and how dependent