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that the special promise of the Comforter who was to console and compensate to the Christians for the loss of their Lord, and to lead mankind through all ages into all truth, points more distinctly to the precious and inestimable gift of Scripture. But I do not now refer to any one, or any particular promise, but to the promises of the whole gospel, and I mean that the excellence of the Christian scheme as a scheme for improving and elevating the moral condition of man consists in its more distinct offer and more abundant imparting of the grace of God's Spirit. The Jew doubtless had this, the Heathen doubtless had it, and has it still, each in his own measure and degree, God being with them, when they know it not?,' but to none of them was it offered, to none was it promised, no such promise being found even in the Mosaic covenant; and so no one of them could be taught to seek it, or to rely on its blessed influence for his improvement. When we consider this, that the help of God's Holy Spirit, I mean, is the grand and distinctive mark of Christianity, as a scheme of moral improvement, it becomes obvious at once, that an imperfect acceptance of Christianity, as far as regards the raising and cleansing of the heart, is no acceptance at all; that it must be received wholly and entirely, or not at all. If we do not see, recognize, and accept the spiritual principle of Christianity, we may be washed in the waters of baptism and called by the name of our Master, we may imagine that we are endeavouring to guide our

2 Wordsworth.

selves by the Gospel, nay! as often as we abstain from any vice forbidden in it, we may flatter ourselves with a hope that we are making progress in our Christian calling, whereas in truth we are as far from being Christians, as the disciples of Mahomet or of Brahma. But although the value of Christianity consists in supplying to its subjects a principle of victory over sin and over death, it does not compel the acceptance of that principle. That He who can do all things, could compel the reception of any principle of improvement which He offered, need not be said. But it would seem that our Heavenly Father wills not simply the improvement of His creatures, for doubtless He could force us all into virtue, but their improvement according to certain laws and methods which still leave them free. He knoweth indeed whereof we are made, and remembereth that we are but dust; He knoweth that we cannot of ourselves work the elevation or improvement of our own sinful hearts, and accordingly He will work in us both to will and to do. But He leaves us free to accept that gracious aid to our salvation, or to reject it to our ruin.

On its reception our moral improvement, and the triumph of the Gospel scheme depend, not in part but entirely. And the reason why that scheme does not enjoy a larger portion of that triumph which it anticipates for man, and which it could ensure him, is not that, on the one hand, its promises are false and fallacious, not that it does not lay down a pure system of morals, not that it is disbelieved, not that it is renounced; but that while it is received and professed,

its grand and characteristic feature is overlooked and despised. There is not in fact, I fear, with many men, that firm faith in the truth and certainty of the peculiar assistance which the Gospel promises, and then there cannot be that earnest seeking and longing for that peculiar assistance, without which, when offered, it will either be rejected, or attain such tardy and reluctant admittance, as will make it ineffectual to good. To admit the external evidence of Christianity, to allow the excellence of its moral precepts, 'is by comparison an easy task; but to converse with Heaven',' to endure, as seeing him that is invisible, to live by faith, not sight, this is not easy. Yet on the one hand such converse, and such faith are required from the Christian and are essential to his character and on the other, the promises of this viewless help and aid are written in characters so plain that he who runs may read, they so penetrate the whole Gospel system and are so indissolubly interwoven in it, that the rejection of them is a virtual rejection of the whole dispensation. But if it be asked how this grace of God is given and when it comes, the Christian teacher need not fear to express his total ignorance, and his inability to answer. He knoweth not whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth. It is bound by no limits of time or of occasion, it is subject in its operations to no laws discernible by the finite capacity of man. There is no time and no place where the voice of the Comforter cannot be, and is not heard. The earth with all its joys, the vault

1 Wordsworth.

of Heaven with all its wonders, the marvels and the beauties of created nature, the infant's cry, the wife's smile, the parent's grave, the bed of sickness, the voice of God's minister, the counsel of a friend, the reproof of an enemy, wrath and mercy, sorrow and joy, shame and hope, all thoughts, all passions, all delights, whatever stirs the mortal frame, all may be vocal with God's spirit. For there is nothing in the mighty universe which can be impenetrable to that spirit, or which He cannot mould into an instrument for His blessed purposes. But the heart must be glad and ready to accept His influence, or it is given in vain. Like the countless smiles on the face of the gladsome ocean in the sunshine, before the careless eye can arrest them, they are gone. This only the Christian teacher can assert in confidence and in joy, that there never yet existed a Christian heart which sought for God's help in truth which did not find it, that never yet was that gracious promise broken, Ask and ye shall have, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you;' that there never yet was a heart sensible of its own barrenness, on which the gentle dew of grace did not descend and make it fruitful in holiness and in every Christian grace.

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To such questions the very words of Holy Writ afford an answer full of encouragement, and yet with something of reproof for the doubt which such questions imply. 'If ye being evil, give good gifts to your children, much more will your heavenly Father give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.' For our Father which is in heaven, though our cold and earthly hearts

believe it not, and cannot lift themselves up to see in spirit Him that is invisible to the eye of sense, loves us with a love far beyond the affection of the earthly parent for his children.

From the cradle to the grave His fatherly hand is over us to do what no earthly parent could effect, to check, to admonish, to warn, to cheer, to strengthen, and, if it be possible, to save. And we have the assurance of His Holy Word to tell us that when the warfare is accomplished, and the weakness and corruption of man are cured by the aid of grace, there is joy in the very angels which stand before the throne and behold the face of our Father which is in Heaven.

If then, my brethren, a power, that is Almighty to save, be ready and be willing to give us assistance which will enable us to effect the elevation of our moral character, the evil still existing among us, must be imputable to ourselves alone. Let us ask ourselves, then, in Christian sincerity, whether, when we look into the world, we see the lives of professing Christians so framed, as to shew their desire of God's help, and their full and perfect assurance that without it they can do nothing. We know not indeed, as has been already said, in what method it will please God to send good desires into our hearts. Nor can we enquire how far men listen to the casual, though constant, monitions of the Comforter in all the checquered scenes of life. But the use of the regular and external means of grace affords us a test, though not a perfect one, for trial and judgment of the soul in this important matter. If we rest indeed on external means and make our boast of them, we shall