nounced in every form of language that can enhance their importance. "The truth," "the light," ""the joyful sound," "the glorious Gospel of the blessed God," are a very few of the terms employed to express their excellence. Only mark with what ardour of affection, what rapture of joy, the church welcomes the sacred herald, who comes to proclaim them "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Sion, thy God reigneth!"

Indeed no fact strikes the serious reader of the Bible more forcibly than the mighty importance which it expressly attaches to truth. In the schools, truth is the subject of curious speculation and of barren assent: in the Scriptures, truth is the subject of divine revelation and of saving faith. "Buy the truth and sell it not," is a precept everywhere enforced by the most impressive sanctions. We find our Lord solemnly testifying before Pilate "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.' Truth is declared to be the means of the believer's sanctification-" Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth." Truth is the symbol of the Lord's gracious presence in his church-"Thus saith the Lord, I am returned unto Sion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth.' It is the test of genuine discipleship, and the charter of spiritual freedom-"If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." It is the teaching of the Spirit-" Where He the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth.' It is both our strength and ornament in the Christian warfare"Stand therefore," says the apostle, "having your loins girt about with truth.' And we have already observed, it is the character of Gospel charity, that "it rejoiceth in the truth." Now if such is the supreme importance of truth in every view and in every relation, surely that system which depreciates and degrades it into an object of indifference, must be replete with folly, and guilt, and danger. It presumes to despise the sacred symbol of the Lord's gracious presence in his church to reject the Scripture test of discipleship and the charter of spiritual freedom--to discredit the Christian's armour-to rebuke the charity of the Gospel-to pour contempt on the work of the Spirit, and to dishonour Him who is "the Truth," "the Amen," "the faithful and true Witness." Is there no guilt,

no danger here? Yes verily, the most alarming judgments are denounced against all who presume to deal unfaithfully with the truth-"Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." "For I testify," says Jesus, "unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take way his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." But if such awful judgments are denounced against that man who dares to add or remove even the smallest stone in the temple of truth, how much more aggravated their guilt who would raze it to its very foundations? And is not this the fatal result of that reckless indifference that distinguishes our modern liberalism? Does it not virtually change the truth of God into a lie? O what mockery it pours on all the affection of his entreaties, on all the solemnity of his declarations! If that reasoning infidelity which presumes to arraign, judge, and condemn the truth of the Gospel must meet a severe retribution, surely this insolent indifference shall not go unpunished, which rejects its pleas and dismisses its claims without inquiry and without account. Is not this adding insult to injury, and despising the majesty as well as impugning the cause of the God of heaven? Such unprincipled conduct may indeed deceive the world under the name of moderation; but it springs from "the father of lies," and "shall not stand in the judgment" before him who "desireth truth in the inward parts," and challenges for himself the character of "Jehovah, God of truth."

Again, what a contrast is presented between the sacred politics of the Bible and the infidel politics of the world, as respects this important interest"The truth as it is in Jesus!"" To unfold the principles, establish the power, and extend the triumphs of the truth, are the grand objects of the Old and New Testament theocracy; and to accomplish these objects, we see not only the spiritual dispensations of the church, but all that seems most secular to the eye of man made finally and fully subservient. In pursuing the sacred history, we are taught to regard the rise and fall of "mightiest monarchies,' only as so many evolutions in a higher administration, so many steps towards the full developement of the kingdom of Christ. Turn we now to the politics of the kingdom of this

world, the spirit-stirring, all-engrossing theme of our times, and where shall we trace the characters of this higher wisdom? When shall we see the vigour of our national councils and the strength of our national resources put forth in one mighty effort for the cause of Christ? Throughout all their splendid projects of national regeneration, where shall we trace "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God?" No! A proud, worldly, infidel spirit debases them all. Their "wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly"-secular in its origin, secular in all its measures, secular in all its aims. In the emphatic language of the psalmist, "God is not in all their thoughts." The highest reach of mere worldly politics "comes short of His glory." And though their splendour may surprise and elevate a worldly mind, yet to the man of God, who takes a loftier stand of observation, they appear as the gross elements of a lower sphere, troubled and lowering, but controlled in all their agitations by a stronger influence, and determined to a higher end. Regarding the cause of Christ as the grand interest, and the triumph of this cause as the last end of all dispensations, he can look on the darkest scenes with unmoved tranquillity or rejoicing hope. Assured that "the counsel of the Lord shall stand, and that he will do all his pleasure," his faith realizes the glorious era when “the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever."

We now proceed to the second point proposed-to view, in the light of Scripture testimony, the nature and importance of faith. This subject is kindred to the former, and rises out of it. "Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the Gospel." Now He is pre-eminently the Truth, all the rays of divine truth converge and centre in "the Sun of righteousness," and it is the supreme importance of "the truth as it is in Jesus," that gives all its value and interest to Gospel faith.

In tracing the doctrines of liberalism on the nature of faith, we formerly observed that it is represented as an intellectual and not a moral principle; as a mere exercise of the understanding, nowise related to the heart, and hence it has been boldly inferred, "that belief, and doubt, and disbelief, are involuntary states of the intellect, severally induced by the nature of the evidence"-states "which we can no more change than we can the hue of our skin or the height of our stature"-and that "if a man is an Atheist or an infidel, it is his misfortune, not his

fault." We do not say that all who hold this doctrine presume to carry it out, in the length and breadth of it, to these blasphemous extremes; but we maintain that the doctrine leads directly to these results, and that every man who entertains it will presume just as far as his necessities may urge him. But the doctrine is opposed to the whole current of Scripture testimony. It is the uniform language of the Bible, that" with the heart man believeth unto righteousness," and that the faith which alone avails, "worketh by love.' Indeed no word more truly expresses the idea of Gospel faith than trust or confidence. It is the confidence of the child in the parent-sincere, cordial, implicit. This was the faith of Abraham. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went. This was the faith of Job-"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." That this faith is the act of an enlightened understanding, will not be questioned; but it is not a mere intellectual act. It is eminently moral, for it is voluntary in its exercise, amiable in its nature, and in the highest degree honouring to God.*

Unbelief also has its seat in the heart, and is therefore essentially a moral principle. To "the blindness of their heart" the apostle distinctly traces the spiritual darkness and alienation of the Gentile world. 66 They did not like to retain God in their knowledge." And he admonishes his Hebrew brethren-"Lest there be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. Unbelief, then, is not "an involuntary state of the intellect, induced by the nature of the evidence:" this is a foul imputation on the divine author of the evidence. It implies, indeed, an exercise of the understanding; but that in this exercise the understanding may not be swayed, debauched, and blinded by the undue influence of the heart, is an assumption not less opposed to experience and sound philosophy than to all the declarations of the Bible. Every day's experience teaches us, that men easily believe what they wish to believe, and that nothing is more difficult than to convince a man against his will. And he must be a mere novice in the philosophy of the human mind, who knows not how deeply the convictions of the judgments may be imbued with the affections of the heart, and

"Faith is an humble, self-denying grace: it makes the Christian nothing in himself, and all in God."-LEIGHTON.

what a perverting influence may be exerted on all our sentiments by passion, temper, or prejudice. So important is this fact, that none have ever succeeded in the difficult art of governing men's minds but those who have thoroughly understood it. Now this is the very fact which the Bible brings before us when it speaks of "an evil heart of unbelief." To an evil heart" all unbelief may be traced. It is "the blindness of the heart" that darkens, the deceitfulness of the heart that beguiles, the pride of the heart that intoxicates, the enmity of the heart that perverts the understanding of the sinner. The Gospel testimony may be placed in the clearest and strongest light, yet sinners may not perceive it. What then is their condemnation? It is this" that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, be cause their deeds are evil." But it is the heart that loves. "How can ye believe," said Christ to the Jews, "who receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God?" Here it is pronounced that pride (the native principle of the heart) rendered it morally impossible for them to believe. "Ye will not come unto me," says Jesus, "that ye might have life:" and he adds the reason"But I know that ye have not the love of God in you." Deep-seated enmity against God was the cause of their stubborn rejection of the Gospel. Now if such is the source and character of unbelief, is there nothing morally wrong in its nature? If wilful blindness, contemptuous pride, and determined enmity against God, partake not of the nature of sin, then there is no sin in the universe, and all moral distinctions are at an end. But the notion is absurd: the very statement of it is its best refutation.

Accordingly faith is treated as a moral principle in all the methods by which God deals with mankind. All his entreaties, exhortations, and commands, urging us to receive the Gospel testimony, proceed on this idea. Take one example"This is his commandment, that we believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." Now this is addressed to the will, and supposes that faith is a voluntary, and therefore a moral act. Nay, the Gospel institution itself is announced under the form of law-"the law of faith”—a law framed to the peculiar character and condition of the sinner, supremely binding in all its requisitions, and enforced by the most solemn sanctions. It is "made known to all nations for the obedience of faith" in such terms as these " Go ye," says Christ, "into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that