was a king, He need not have been crucified. Let us not believe that men will bear from us, miserable sinners like themselves, with nothing to show why we should be better or more beloved than they-no proofs of our adoption, but that Spirit within us which we cannot make manifest to unbelievers-let us not believe that society will bear in us what it could not in Him, who had all power and holiness to prove his Sonship. If we do in all company what Jesus did, society will soon discard us. They will not bear our indifference to their vain pursuits, still less our exhortations, and still less our warnings. Let us take the cross in our hands, and Christ's name upon our lips, and the seal of the Spirit on our forehead, and walk before all men in the strait road that leads to everlasting life, we shall soon be disembarrassed of all worldly company.

I have returned where I began. There is a road on which our Saviour's example can be no guide to us, because he was never there-the path of indecision. Methinks it is like the

waste common, that belongs to no one-nobody smooths it, nobody clears it, or builds a wall, or sets a watch upon it; its crooked and uneven tracks run all at random, crossing and re-crossing, and tending to no issue. It is not Satan's, and it is not God's. In Satan's kingdom, he at least will give us no disturbance; and in God's kingdom his Spirit will be our guide and guardian. Here no one owns us, all challenge us, and we must fight with all-with Satan, with the world, with the Spirit, and with ourselves-with our conscience sometimes, some times our inclinations-resisted by all, and wounded by each in turn. It is a hard battle -who shall fight it out?

I may seem to have merged the subject of the Christian's intercourse with the world, in that of decision of character. I have done so, because I think the difficulty is in principle rather than in practice. I am confirmed in this opinion by remarking, perhaps by remembering, how much young converts think and talk about separation from the world—the how, and

the why, and the how much. It is a question then, because it is a sacrifice; and it is a sacrifice, because the heart is still divided. We have all reasoned, and all written, to prove we must not do what, if our hearts were wholly with God, we could not do. When more established in the faith, instead of talking of separation, we find we are separated. Either the world has left us, or we have left the world, or God, with the outstretched arm of providence, has rent it from us. Separate purposes, separate affections, and a separate destiny, have wrought such a chasm between us, the difficulty is now to repass it, for the business, the duties, and charities of life. It is a common expression, when people act inconsistently with their character and station, to say, "they forget themselves." O did the children of God never forget themselves, there would be few mistakes about their carriage in an ungodly world. If they knew always, and felt always what they are, and whither they are going, ye "shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord"-" one with the Fa

ther, and the Son"-"I in him, ye in me, and I in you”—a single precept would be sufficient for all instruction-"Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.”

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CHAPTER V.

IN THE CONDITION OF LIFE.

"The Son of Man hath not where to lay his head."-Matt. viii. 20.

Of all who have come into existence here, Christ Jesus is the only one who chose his own condition. This may seem at first sight to make our subject unnecessary; for where there is no election, there can be no responsibility. But it is not exactly so. In the birth-condition of every individual soul, one of two things only can be seen-a totally blind and undirected chance, or the absolute sovereignty of God. It is vain to ask of second causes, why of two sentient beings with equal claims, and with as