spoken because it was their business to speak, just as a lawyer repeats what he finds put down in his brief, and argues upon it to the best of his skill, in order to acquire a reputation in his profession. And such speaking may indeed persuade, when the persuasion costs us nothing; it may move a juryman to give his verdict, because he himself is not personally affected by the nature of that verdict: but when the business is to persuade a man to make great sacrifices, to give up his favourite passions, to deny himself, and to change his nature from bad to holy; then it is needful that the speaker should be himself thoroughly in earnest; that he should himself be deeply convinced of the importance of what he is recommending; that he is inviting others to take his medicine, because he has tried it and found it of service to himself. A stranger, indeed, may produce great effect by his preaching, although he be not thus entirely sincere, because we may in charity, as we know nothing to the contrary, presume that his life and heart agree with his words: but where a man is known, nothing will answer but a holy life; no preaching will win souls, but that which is seen manifestly to come forth from him naturally; that he believes, and therefore he speaks. And the

consideration of this truth, should be ever present to the minds of all who are ministers, or who look forward to becoming so hereafter; lest they should vainly think to make up by talents and learning for the want of a sanctified spirit, and thus lose the souls of their hearers, and bring down a double measure of condemnation on their own.

All, however, are neither ministers, nor likely to become such; and it cannot be for the edification of any one, to tell him only what concerns another. But many who are not ministers, are teachers, many more are parents, or masters; and almost all are likely at one time or other of their lives to fill either these relations, or some other in which they will wish to influence the conduct of others. To all these then, the words of the text afford a perpetual lesson: let them believe, and so let them speak; or if they do not, they may be sure that their words will ever be spoken in vain. Now I wish it to be understood, that when I them believe, before they speak," I mean to use the word "believe" in the same sense that the Apostle does, and in fact in which the Scripture generally uses it. He has no notion of that cold, that languid, that sleeping acquiescence in the truth of the Gospel message, which some

say

"let

men choose to call "Belief." He supposes that if a man really believed that he would find a treasure hidden in his field, that he would arise and look for it without delay; and if he saw him taking no steps to get it, he would certainly conclude that his belief in the reality of its existence was not very sincere, or at any rate, that it was not very strong. In the same way, those persons are called unbelievers in Scripture, who, having heard the great tidings of salvation, are not actively aroused by them, whether they declare that they believe them or no. And in this sense, there are thousands of unbelievers to be met with; and the evil fruits which are seen so often in the lives of children, whose parents are what is called respectable people, prove but too clearly the evil root of unbelief from which they have arisen. I am not speaking then, of those who are professed unbelievers; they are in comparison few: nor yet of those who, although they do not openly profess their unbelief, are yet at no great pains to conceal it; and whom all, who know them, would at once call irreligious. But I am speaking of those who say that they do believe, but deceive themselves in saying so; for their belief is always overpowered by believing in something else more strongly, so that in point of

fact, it is nothing. These persons wish to bring up their children well, to have them taught to read their Bible, to say their prayers, to learn their catechism; they would be shocked to see them reading a profane book, or using any profane language. If then, in after life, their children disappoint all their hopes, they are apt almost to borrow the words of God to his people and say, "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I had not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes." But this disappointment is indeed their own fault they spoke to their children as men who believed not what they were saying; and their children did not believe it either. They taught them to read the Bible, in which such language as this is for ever occurring, " If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." "Take no thought what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, but in Heaven; love not the world, nor the things which are in the world; if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. He that exalteth himself shall be abased; blessed are the poor in meek.

Resist not evil.

spirit; blessed are the

Why do ye not rather

take wrong, and suffer yourselves to be defrauded, than go to law one with another?" and, to conclude, " If any man is in Christ he is a new creature." They taught their children, I say, to read the Book which contains all these things, and told them that it was the word of God; and yet their children heard them talking, and saw them acting continually, as if there were no such book in the world. They heard them talking and saw them acting, as if a good provision in this world were the first and great object: as if worldly praise were above all things to be courted, and worldly disgrace above all things to be dreaded; as if a meek and peaceable spirit were rather a misfortune; and one that would always insist upon having its own. were a great blessing: as if the heart of man by nature, instead of being corrupt and deceitful, were amiable and innocent, and did not require to be new made by a long and most watchful discipline. Again, they find the Scriptures describing the state of a Christian as a perpetual warfare, in which he must watch and pray always, lest he should be overcome; but they see their parents leading a life of evident thoughtlessness as to this grand concern of all; so that whatever pursuit it be which interests them most, it is certainly not the pursuit of