even of a young and imperfect Christian, is so great as to deserve the name of a second birth; but that the change of conduct, and still more of feeling, will be any thing nearly so great within a short time, I think our experience in general cases is far from proving. I will suppose then that a man is roused sincerely to ask the question, "what must I do to be saved?" and wants some plain and particular directions to serve as his answer. The first rule then to be given is, to be instant in prayer. The sense of his own spiritual wants once awakened should naturally urge him to fly to the Father of Spirits for relief. The Gospel tells us, that we have an approach to the Father through Jesus Christ. Now this, like the other truths of the Gospel, passes off lightly from the careless ear; but when we have once begun to think about our souls, then we begin to learn its value. I have very often been surprised to hear people talk of the miserable state of the Heathens, because from their ignorance of a Saviour they could never go to their gods with confidence and comfort. It were much more true to say, that their state was miserable because they did go to their gods with confidence and comfort, and felt no want of a Saviour. Our eyes must be widely opened to our real condition, before we can possibly value the peace that is purchased for us by the blood of Christ. But one who has really become anxious about himself, and is aware of his own evil nature, finds the very help that he needs, when he is told, that for him, weak and unworthy as he is, Christ laid down his life, and that, through that sacrifice, his pardon is already sealed with God, and is ready to be issued to him the instant that he has learnt to feel his need of it. We might say to such a man, “If you are indeed in earnest, draw near unto God without fear; you are pardoned already for Christ's sake; be sure, therefore, that God loves you enough to give you his Holy Spirit, and to make you that new creature which you wish to be. Pray in the name of Jesus Christ, that the promise of his Spirit may be fulfilled to you, to guide you safely on your way to heaven." With the practice of prayer, I should earnestly recommend the use of some book of devotion, like Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living and Dying, or Bishop Wilson's Sacra Privata; some book which will give us heads for self-examination, sometimes divided according to the days of the week, which will furnish us besides with short prayers, and will make us acquainted with the feelings and reflections and resolutions of good men, who have gone through the very self-same struggle with ourselves. Books of this kind, too, are sure to furnish us ready to our hands with the very passages of the Scripture on which we can dwell most profitably. It may be said, is not the reading of the Scripture itself better than any thing? To which I answer, that most certainly it is to those who know how to use it; but that I greatly doubt, whether a person beginning for the first time in his life to think seriously about himself, would understand at once how to use it; and whether it would not be more useful to him to have those passages ready picked out for him, as they are commonly in books of devotion, which are most suited to his present wants. If I might say what larger portions of the Scripture seem to contain, within a short compass, most of that knowledge which may make us wise unto salvation, I should be inclined to fix on the conversation of our Lord with his Apostles on the evening on which he was betrayed, as contained in St. John's Gospel, from the 13th to the 17th chapters; on his conversation with Nicodemus, in the third chapter; on the 13th and 25th chapters of St. Matthew; on the 12th of St. Luke; and on the different chapters in St. Matthew and St. Luke, which contain the sermon on the mount. To these I would add, from the Epistles, those of St. Paul to the Ephesians and Philippians, and the fourth and fifth chapters of his Second Epistle to the Corinthians; together with the first Epistle of St. Peter, and the first of St. John. These seem to me to contain what persons of every age and condition ought to find alike profitable. But for persons of higher condition, both men and women, I would urge, almost above all other places of Scripture, the frequent reading of the fifth chapter of Isaiah, and of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, in the 16th chapter of St. Luke. They would there learn, what of all things they most need to remember, with what heavy judgments God threatens the common careless life of selfish indulgence, in which so many are passing their time so securely. "Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." These are words which should be continually sounding in the ears not of those only who are commonly called rich, but of all who are tasting every day the comforts of life, who never know what it is to want any of those things which they can reasonably wish for. Bitterly indeed and for ever shall we be tor mented, if our chief thought in life is how we But to return to my more particular subject. By reading these and other similar passages of the Scripture, by the use of such books of devotion as I spoke of, and by frequent prayer, a |