dition in which we stand. We are all labouring under a lamentable disease, which it is in the power of Christ alone to heal. Of the existence of this disease in his soul, every one must be conscious; it may be that it varies in different constitutions-that in some it is more inveterate, more deeply rooted, than in others: still every human being bears the taint about him, for there is no soul which has not sinned, and does not stand in need of the great spiritual Physician. With this consciousness, then, you would come to Christ to be healed of your distemper-many of you would bring rich offerings and gifts, and would give them all to be restored to health. But Christ will not accept of such sacrifices as these; he invites you to come to him-he graciously calls upon all "who labour and are heavy laden, to seek rest unto their souls" from him. Yet this relief will be afforded only upon his own terms; he will not suffer you to make the conditions: his sacrifice is a troubled and a contrite spirit; in this temper you must come to him, and offer to him an humbled and

obedient heart. With his dying breath, at the very moment when he was about to be offered up as an atonement for the sins of the whole world, he appointed the visible medicine from which our souls are to derive health and strength, and commanded us to partake of the elements which he ordained as the representative emblems of his body and blood. Come then, eat and drink of them, and you shall be clean; for without "eating of his flesh, and drinking of his blood," he has himself assured you, that "ye have no life in you." 3

Alas, my brethren! how many are there who turn away from this injunction, even as the Syrian turned, and would have gone away with his disease still rankling in his veins, but for the wise remonstrance of his servants! And may we not say to you, in the same words, "if the Lord had bid you do some great thing, would ye not have done it? how much rather, then, when he saith, eat, and drink, and be clean !" The act, indeed, is so simple, obedience to the injunc

3 John vi. 53.

tion is so easy, that the neglect of it, it is to be feared, can imply nothing less than want of faith in its efficacy, as well as in him who commanded it. You may say that you can repent, and lead just and upright lives-nay, you will assert, perhaps, that there are numbers who do so, without ever approaching the Lord's table. But I will say, that neither repentance, nor a just and upright life, will have any efficacy at all unto salvation without faith "the just shall live by faith," says the apostle; again-" by grace again—“ are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." Then, if salvation is the gift-the free gift of God, do you suppose that he will give it to those who refuse to comply with the conditions which he has been pleased to appoint? Most assuredly not—he will not give it, because their refusal argues very their want of faith. The gift is free, because it is conferred by the free grace and undeserved mercy of God: and this freedom is by no means affected by a condition being annexed. Wherever a 5 Eph. ii. 8.

4 Heb. x. 38.

voluntary favour is granted, it is the no less. voluntary on the part of the giver, if he requires something in return from the receiver, which may testify his sense of the value of the gift. Now the offer of salvation on God's part came unasked for and undeserved on the part of man and the freedom of the grace is by no means lessened, because he requires of us that we should manifest our sense of the value of so inestimable a gift, by faith and obedience. In order, then, to enable us to express and to prove our faith, Christ instituted the holy sacraments; and ordained that while they should be the means by which we outwardly signify our grateful àcceptance of the grace freely offered by God; they should also be the means (if worthily received with a due measure of faith and repentance) by which that grace is conveyed to our souls. We may despise them, as Naaman despised the waters of Israel; but as he could only find health by washing in them ; so neither will the leprosy of our souls be healed by the Spirit of God, nor their eternal salvation effected by the blood of Jesus, un

less we gratefully comply with the terms which he has appointed.

Let us now proceed to consider the salutary effects of Naaman's ultimate obedience, as a type of the benefits which are derived to the Christian who is a worthy participator in the holy sacrament.

It is evident that Naaman would have returned home in the same deplorable and diseased condition in which he came, had he persisted in disobeying the commands of the prophet. It is equally clear that his cure was the work of heaven, the effect of a supernatural power. Now let us observe, from his example, how mercifully the Almighty deals with those who call upon him with faith and stedfastly purposed obedience. Naaman sought but one favour, and that a temporal blessing: a spiritual one is granted also--his leprosy is healed, and he is himself converted to the faith and worship of the true Jehovah. The disease and infirmity of his body being removed, the light of heaven breaks upon his soul, the darkness of sin and idolatry is dispelled, and he stands reno