every city, and they returned again with joy, saying, 'Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name.' And has not many a preacher, leader, member, been wonderfully successful in the salvation of souls, and yet not enjoyed the blessings of holiness? It is possible for a man to be instrumental in the conversion of souls who is neither justified nor sanctified.

"5. Not glorify them. They were not ready for the company of heaven, or for the kingdom prepared for them. Christ elsewhere prayed for their glorification, but not till He had prayed for their sanctification. "6. Christ prayed for the sanctification of His disciples.

"(a). For the sanctification of their bodies. The eye, ear, tongue, hands, etc. So that as they had yielded their members to be servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so, they might now yield their members servants to righteousness, unto holiness.

"The eye sanctified, so that it might beam with purity.

"The ear sanctified, so that it might listen to the voice of the Son of God.

"The tongue sanctified, so that it might speak forth the words of truth and soberness.

"The hand sanctified, so that it might administer to the necessities of the saints.

"The feet sanctified, so that they might in swift obedience move.' In short, the body, with all its wondrous mechanism of bone and muscle, arteries, and veins, and nerves, all sanctified.

66

(b.) For the sanctification of their souls.

"That the understanding which is darkened might become full of light, and have written upon it, 'HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.'

"That the imagination, which is only evil continually, might become only good, and have written upon it, 'HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.'

"That the memory might be sanctified, and become strong to retain divine and heavenly things, and have written upon it, 'HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.'

"That the will might be sanctified, and sweetly yield to the will of God in providence and grace, and have written upon it, 'HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.'

"That the conscience might be sanctified, purged from dead works, made tender, and have written upon it, 'HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.' "That the affections might be sanctified, loving God with all the heart, exemplifying the words of the Psalmist, Whom have I in heaven but thee?' and have written upon them, 'HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.' "That the thoughts might be sanctified, all brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and have written upon them, 'HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.' In short, that every desire, motive, intention, design, etc., might be all sanctified.

"(c.) For the sanctification of their spirits. Their entire nature. Their whole man. So that love, joy, peace, long-suffering, and every grace of the Spirit might have their perfect growth and sweetly harmonise, through life, in death, and in eternity.

"The sanctification which Christ asked for his disciples,

"(1.) Does not imply freedom from error. Infallibility belongs only to God. To err is the lot of humanity. We may err in a thousand

minor points and yet be sanctified. The head may be wrong when the heart is right.

"(2.) Sanctification does not imply the absence of temptation. The Saviour, Himself, was the subject of strong temptation, and yet was without sin. St. Paul was dead indeed unto sin, and yet was severely tempted. St. Peter speaks of saints who now, for a season, if need be, are in heaviness through manifold temptation. The devil follows a sanctified soul right up to the city gates. I expect, said Mr. Wesley to a friend, that temptations will come about you,

Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the vales.

"(3.) Sanctification does not imply freedom from heaviness or sorrow, arising from perplexities, trials, afflictions, tribulations, etc. Jesus was exceeding sorrowful. Paul was sorrowful, but always rejoicing, and on his brethren's behalf had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart.

"(4.) Sanctification is not inconsistent with further growth and increase in grace. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man.' Dr. Clarke says, 'No man can grow in grace as he ought until the roots of sin are destroyed.' Garden. Weeds, etc. We may grow all through life, up to death, and through eternity in knowledge, love, and happiness.

"II. Sanctify them. WHEN?

"1. In Purgatory? There is no such place. He that is filthy let him be filthy still.' That one Scripture is enough to overthrow the doctrine of purgatory.

"2. At death?

"3. At some future time? Next year? next month? next week? to-morrow?

4. Why not now? If one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day, why not now? If the wisdom and power and mercy and will of the Lord are the same now that they ever were, or ever will be, why not now? If the Lord would ten thousand times rather cleanse you than have you uncleansed, why not now? Lord increase our faith.' Behold now is the accepted time: behold now is the day of salvation.' I will, be thou clean.' The will of God is your sanctification.

"III. Sanctify them. How OR BY WHAT MEANS? "Through Thy truth,' i.e., through faith in Thy truth? How?

"1. Through their good desires? No. Some of you have desired long enough. The way to hell is paved with good intentions,' and the way to heaven too.

"2. Through their prayers? No. You may make long prayers and pray till you sweat as it were great drops of blood, and never get it unless you believe.

"3. Through their fasting? No. You may fast twice a week like the Pharisees. Three days like the disciples. Forty days like Moses and Elijah; nay till you cannot walk, and till you have scarcely any flesh upon your bones, and still never get it till you believe.

"4. Through their almsgiving? No. You may give shilling after shilling, pound after pound. You may sell house after house, field

after field, farm after farm, and give all away, and give your body to be burned, and never get it unless you believe.

"5. Through their vows and resolutions? Vows! You have made scores, hundreds, some of you thousands, and broken them every one, and you may vow again that you will do this and do the other, if the Lord will only sanctify you, but you will never get it unless you believe. "But sanctify them through Thy truth; through faith in Thy truth. Through faith in its declarations and promises.

"Believe it is a blessing purchased. Christ gave Himself.

"Believe it is a blessing promised. upon you, and you shall be clean,' etc. all his iniquities.'

To redeem us from all iniquity

Then will I sprinkle clean water 'He shall redeem Israel from

"Believe in the ability and willingness and readiness of God to bestow it. Believe with your heart just now. Cast yourself upon His mercy in Christ Jesus. Take Christ as a full Saviour. Receive Him not only as your wisdom and righteousness, but as your sanctification and redemption. Believe, man. Believe, woman. Only believe. Try, venture, darc. 'If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.' Dost thou now believe? Lord, increase our faith.' "IV. Sanctify them. WHAT FOR?

"1. To enable them to perform their duties better. Duties relating to themselves. The church. The world. Prayer. Searching the Scriptures. Reproving sin. Visiting the sick. Exhortation. Preaching. Class leading.

"2. To enable them to run faster in the way to heaven. No man can run as he ought with weights about him. A stone weight of pride. Two stones of malice. Three stones of politics. Five of unbelief. Ten of anger. Fifteen of impatience. How can a man with such weights leap over a wall, or run through a troop? Or how can a woman run with four cunces of curls upon her head, and three of extra ribbons, and two of artificial flowers, and one of self-consequence ?

"3. That they may be witnesses to the world and church of God's full power to save. And such witnesses have been. See Enoch, Elijah, Isaiah, the Apostles in the upper room. The disciples. Now are ye

clean,' and there are witnesses now.

See

4. To make them more useful in the conversion cf souls. See Isaiah i. God purely purged away His people's dross, and then her converts were redeemed with righteousness. Read Ezekiel xxxvi. Israel must be cleansed, and then the wastes were to be filled with flocks of men. the Apostles. Three thousand were converted. But when? After they were cleansed. Then they set Jerusalem on fire. When Stephen got the sanctifying power, what numbers were converted. Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord.' Paul, when sanctified, could say, 'Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place.' 'Create in me a clean heart,' prayed David, . 'then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.' "5. To prepare them for a dying hour. See John. Paul said, I am ready to be offered. Sanctified persons are ready, made meet to be partakers

of the inheritance of the saints in light. Ready. The work is done. The devil bruised. The world overcome. Sin destroyed. Salvation

won. Ready. Hallelujah!

"6. To make them ready for an immediate and triumphant entrance into heaven. See Stephen. The thief upon the cross.

"(1.) An immediate entrance.

(2.) An abundant entrance.

"(3.) A triumphant entrance.

(4.) A final entrance.

"7. That they may stand perfect and complete in Christ at the bar of God, and be presented by the Redeemer to the Father without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, etc.

"Some talk about sanctification when they want justifying, their backslidings healed, etc., etc."

We take farewell of Squire Brooke with regret, as we copy the last entry from his diary :-"In returning and rest shall ye be saved: in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.'-Thou shalt see greater things than these.'-'Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness. I will do better unto you than at your beginnings.'My soul is even as a weaned child.' And then, possibly to express his fuller apprehension of the infinite mercy of his covenant God, and & firmer trust than he had heretofore exercised, he writes with a trembling hand that is soon to forget its cunning, 'Never before.""

We do not wonder that the memoir is in the fourth thousand ;* it is exceedingly well written, and we congratulate Mr. Lord upon his spirit and ability.

It

How to lay hold of Careless Hearers.

A PAPER READ AT THE CONFERENCE OF THE PASTORS' COLLEGE,

BY PASTOR W. OSBORNE, GAMLINGAY.

F we understand the subject, the picture is this-The cross is erected, the gospel is being preached, men look and listen, yet pass on to perish; how shall we best lay hold of them, and lead them to Jesus and a noble life? We none of us question the existence of such a class. Each sees in his own congregation too many proofs to let him doubt it. Would that we were in the position to say, "We are not sure that there are such." Nor can we pass over the fact indifferently as though its prevalence and long standing were arguments against all further effort. It weighs too heavily on us for that. Anxious to be faithful, it takes rank among the greatest of our griefs. Few sorrows connected with our work rush in upon us so repeatedly, or pierce our spirit with more poignant agony. How often in the pulpit is the yearning soul staggered by the look of those who like to listen, but do nothing more. The thought of such drew from Paul the startling Hamilton, Adams and Co.

* "Squire Brooke," by Rev. J. H. Lord.

testimony, "I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren." He saw them unsaved yet undisturbed, and his heart came near to breaking at the thought of them. We speak, we hope, the simple truth, and not arrogantly, when we say that all of us know in some measure what it is to realize the same; we therefore hail the discussion of this subject hopefully, for though our thoughts in this paper may prove but a spark, if that spark shall ignite a train of heartfelt reflection we shall not have struck it for nought.

We remark in the outset that to lay hold of careless hearers is the main aim of the Christian ministry. We are not to be understood here as magnifying this to the exclusion of other phases of our work-they are to follow, but this is to lead. Beside preaching the word in season and out of season, to make full proof of his ministry Timothy is to reprove, rebuke, exhort, comfort, and instruct. The enquiring mind, the doubting mind, the troubled and lethargic, will come before us frequently, and we must hold ourselves ready at any moment to answer their appeals. Still, like the true general on the battle-field who, while he neglects neither the commissariat nor the ambulance corps, nor any other important feature connected with campaigning, thinks ever and most earnestly of how he shall storm and take the city, so the bringing in of the unawakened must ever stand prominent among the aims of the Christian minister; or, to change the figure, while our efforts must be directed to the spiritual irrigation of every portion of Christian enterprise, straight on through them all, broad and deep, like the waters of some gigantic river, must flow an intense desire to bring the unsaved to the haven of salvation. Is there not some truth in the saying, "the first impulse of earnest minds is more divine than is sometimes thought." Applying that to ourselves, we are carried back at once to a quenchless desire to lead men to Christ. What the germ is to the tree, that has been to all our subsequent endeavours, and in proportion as we have kept that in active exercise we have found ourselves ready for other duties. Yet not on that alone do we rest our conviction of the primary importance of this aim, God himself has written it so. In every age the men who have set that first have been the men whom God has most abundantly blessed. In the ministry of Christ and of his apostles we see this strikingly illustrated. Who can read the Parables and not feel it, or the Acts of the Apostles and not perceive it. Everywhere throughout the entire record we see a burning desire to arouse, attract, and bring men to a saving knowledge of the truth.

It is said by some on this subject that the power of the pulpit in the present day is inadequate to the demand. If by that assertion it is meant that ministers fail to rise to the exercise of the power which God waits to give, we fear there are many pulpits concerning which the statement is too true; but if it be meant that the age has got beyond the reach of the gospel, and that there is a peculiarity about the thoughts and conditions of men now to which the gospel is not adapted, we say calmly they who make that assertion know not whereof they affirm. We are neither philosophers nor metaphysicians, we make no pretention to being anything more than men possessed of ordinary powers of observation, but exercising these powers we have failed to discover anything either in the philosophy or the follies of the age with which