which opposes and rejects. We are to deny the ungodliness which forgets man's great Author and End: we are also to deny worldly lusts, the proneness of human nature to seek its gratification in various forms of earthliness and sensuality. Unless the denial be applied to each, its actuating principle is wrong. We may seem to avoid all outward symptoms of irreligion, and in our way be very devout, while yet our spirits may be earthly and sensual. We may, too, seem to have conquered the flesh and the world by a rigid abstemiousness, while our heart has no love for God, perhaps the very idea is refused admission to our soul. And the same text is equally discriminating as to the mode of living,-soberly, righteously, godly, in the present world, looking for a future state, and the coming of Christ to satisfy all the hopes of our spirit.

We only quote one more illustration: the reader cannot avoid remembering others, such as the passages, Gal. v. 22, 23; 2 Peter i. 5—7, and all the texts which so particularly direct our attention to the class of relative duties, -duties relating to persons, as parents, children, &c.; and duties relating to circumstances, as youth, age, abundance, need, &c. No careful reader of the Scriptures can have overlooked these. But we quote Phil. iv. 8. Let its clauses be read slowly, thoughtfully, making each the subject of accurate investigation ::-"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report;"-nay, content not yourselves with even this enumeration; look about you; your aim is to walk perfectly with God, that you may "stand perfect and complete in all his will;" therefore, "if there be any virtue" not particularly named, any praise," any spiritual or moral excellence necessary to completeness of character, "think on these things:" so investigate the subject as to have a clear idea of each particular which personal religion should comprise; so meditate on them, as to implant them as governing principles in the very depths of your heart, constituting the fountains whence all the streams of life shall issue.

Most important it is to our establishment, and to the honour of religion, that we be thus carefully attentive to these minute details. Much evil proceeds from the absence of this. Too often has it been found that, in some of these particular instances, the character of many professors has been seriously defective. To suppose this deficiency to be known and wilful, would be to suppose a degree of malignity utterly inconsistent with all sincerity, and involving a fearful amount of guilt. It has arisen from inattentiveness and ignorance. In such cases, we pronounce no sweeping sentence of condemnation, but their existence is greatly to be deplored. They must be left to God, the merciful, but righteous, Judge, who alone can decide where deficiency is truly consistent with innocence. But no one who desires to walk perfectly with God, will carelessly allow their existence in himself. He will seek to detect, that he may avoid, them, and be in all respects what God requires him to be.

(i.) We must be on our guard against constitutional tendencies and deficiencies. A warm and fearless temperament may easily be mistaken for religious zeal; and this may be, as it were, so large as to hide very serious defects from our view. Our warmth may easily be, in some directions, anger, intolerance, and an overbearing forgetfulness of what is due to others. Or we may be naturally indolent, and thus, yielding, and deficient in firmness; which may be easily mistaken for the true amiableness which results from the gracious affection of divine love. Or, again, our constitution may

be cold, strongly inclining to a selfishness that may look like Christian firmness and prudence; while the sympathy which feels for others, and with them, and is moved with joy or grief as they are moved, is absent. We are not to be content with what we may term, the sanctification of what we are by nature we are to see that all is present which issues from grace.

(ii.) Nor must we be less on our guard against excess, and undue prominence. Intellectually, great differences will often exist, and may be advantageously encouraged. One may have a strong memory, another powers of acute penetration, or accurate reasoning, and another a rich and lofty imagination. In that which is properly religion, no grace is to be cultivated to the neglect of another. Harmony and proportion of character must be studied that it may be beautiful and attractive. Unbalanced generosity may become profusion: unbalanced prudence, a stingy and repulsive avarice. Epaphras saw this, who desired so ardently that the Philippians might be "complete in all the will of God."

(iii.) Eccentricity must be avoided, and especially the imitation of it. Seldom does eccentricity spring from what is essentially right. Some persons are, let the expression be allowed, queer, from an almost unconscious desire of attracting notice: vanity often insinuates itself where its operation is unsuspected. But imitated eccentricity is worst of all. Often does it happen that some great and good man has a weakness which, because of his excellencies, is overlooked; and too frequently this is the very point seized on for imitation, as being most easily imitated. A Chinese gunsmith, being requested to make a new gun for one that had been broken, copied his European model even in the defect which rendered it useless. Allow of nothing that might even seem to justify others in representing religion as ridiculous. In itself it is lovely and noble. So let it shine in you.

These are only suggestive instances. A heart right with God will so desire perfection, in its evangelical sense, as to seek to understand all that it comprises, in order that all may be transferred to ourselves. Our earnest prayer, our enlightened and diligent aim, will be this,-that we may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing; the children of God, blameless, harmless, and without rebuke.

III. In thus resolving, thus aiming, mighty and constant effort will be required. You cannot prevent yourself from seeing, if you look carefully on others, that great deficiency does actually exist. But you are to look at the command of God. Judge not others. Make no comparisons to excite pride, or feed vanity. But still, look at the divine requirement. That is your rule. And whatever it may cost you, resolve to fulfil it. Make religion your grand business. Let duty, in its highest view, be your delight. It will require continual inspection and exertion; self-denial, sacrifice, rigid self-control. To the indolent and worldly, the way may seem full of discouragement. But listen to the voice that addresses you: I am God Almighty! Even to Moses he said not so much. To Israel he was about to give his law, and to appear, at first, chiefly as Lawgiver. He therefore only said what disclosed at once the fulness of obligation: I am that I am! I am essential Being. All existence is derived from me. I am absolute Proprietor and Lord. Fitting was all this as the introduction to the awful promulgation from Sinai: "I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have none other gods before me." But to Abraham, opening the covenant of redeeming love, whose obligation is privilege, and duty pleasure,―to Abraham, introducing the command which requires the devotion of our

entire being and existence, all we have and all we are, so long as we are, and so long as we have,-our being in all its derived fulness, its height, its breadth, its length,—to Abraham he says, "I am God Almighty," God allsufficient.

Considered in itself, on this subject all words fail; our very thoughts are lost. We are in the presence of boundless, everlasting perfection. All our efforts at a conception even approaching to adequacy, utterly fail. How can the finite comprehend the Infinite, explore the Unfathomable? Yet, we are made in the image of God, and therefore, imperfect and inadequate as it may be, an idea of God may be formed by the human mind. And herein is its dignity. Herein does man stand at the head of earthly creation. He can think of God. He can commune with him. And to aid him, there is creation; infinitely less, indeed, than God, but immeasurably greater than man, and designed to aid him in conceiving of the almightiness, the all-sufficiency, of God. Let us, like Abraham, look to the stars of heaven. Let us, aided by modern improvements, think of their number, and that immensity in which they exist and move. Let us come to earth, one of these luminous points, and think of all that it includes; its inhabitants, their general and their particular laws; and these in their harmonious adjustment, and harmonious adaptation to the whole. Let us take any one,—an animal, an insect, a plant, a fragment of rock, a grain of the seashore sand all tell us of God. All is only visible in his light. The splendour of the whole, the brilliancy of any part, all alike have one origin, the glory of the Infinite that they reflect. We are bewildered and lost. Our silence must praise him. What words can utter what no thought can conceive?

Yet, such is our nature, that let us but in his own light, and by the life which his Spirit gives, the very highest life of man,-perceive the wonderful fact, God is all-sufficient; and that nature, from its inmost depths, in all that its constitution includes, gives forth the response, "From Him my being is derived, and to him must it always refer, in all that it is, in all that it can do." Just here do we find the nature, and the grounds, and the objects, and the rules of that moral obligation which man, regenerated into his best and greatest life, delights to perceive and acknowledge. Our conscience, our every faculty, our whole being, echoes back the saying, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me, and be thou perfect."

But not to look only on the vast and incomprehensible,-though so to do is sometimes most advantageous, as abating our pride, and opening to us at one view the duty and the blessedness of a perfect devotedness,-the two portions of the declaration may be properly viewed in their direct relation to each other.

1. God has the right to command us thus. We not only see, on the one side, infinite greatness, but on the other we see, not merely the incomparably less, but the entirely derived. O the majesty of that brief and simple saying!" It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves." We are nothing but what he wills us to be: we have nothing but what he gave us. Our most instinctive nature, that which the most degraded savage proves to have survived the wreck of our whole intellectual and moral being, is that which perceives and acknowledges, intuitively, the rights of proprietorship. Man must cease to be man, before he can cease to feel, "This is mine, for I made it; I procured it." But human rights sink into insignificance when the voice of the All-sufficient is heard. That which we call ours, had its existence before we did that which made it what we call ours.

But God has all rights. It is not merely that he found us well, and gave us the means of improvement; or wretched, and gave us the means of blessedness. He has all the rights of a most loving, most bountiful Benefactor; but he has also those of a most absolute Proprietor. Let us only meditate on the three so commonly-used words,-meditate with all the light and love of our nature,-Creator, Preserver, Redeemer; all, and more than all, are included in this address. From our loftiest point of view, and beyond the widest horizon that can be afforded us, are regions from which obligation may derive even increasing supports and forces, for the most unreserved devotion to Him in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Is he God Almighty? Then most assuredly ought we to walk before him, and be perfect.

2. By the help of the Almighty God we may be and do all that he commands; and that help, in the covenant of eternal love and changeless truth, he has promised to afford.—At once let it be acknowledged, not merely that of ourselves we are utterly insufficient for walking with God perfectly, but for walking with God at all. Without Christ we can do nothing; no, nothing. No man ever felt this more deeply, confessed it more honestly and openly, than St. Paul. But then, he likewise said,and said in reference to his sufficiency for all the variety of Christian duty, -“I can do ALL THINGS through Christ which strengtheneth me." "Our sufficiency is of God;" and if God be all-sufficient, then are we, too, sufficient for all that God commands. Here, therefore, is our duty; to trust in God, and to go forth in the way of obedience to God. Caleb and Joshua are our examples. The difficulties before us are insurmountable by human power; but if we assail them in the strength of God, we shall overcome them. Mighty as are the Canaanites, strong as are their defences, let us go up to conquer and possess the land. Humility confesses that we are but as grasshoppers before our foes; but faith, regarding the power and the promise of God, says, and acts upon the saying, “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us. The Lord is with us, fear them not." And greatly was this confidence rewarded. The unbelievers perished ; but God said, “My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land." Let us go and do likewise.

3. The all-sufficient God, because of his all-sufficiency, is our shield, and our exceeding great reward.—Great beyond expression is the recompence which God vouchsafes to bestow on gracious fidelity. The work itself is reward. The more perfectly we walk before him, the more perfect is our fellowship with him. All in us is reduced to its just order, and we have, if the indescribable, yet delightful, consciousness of spiritual health. So far as the inward happiness of heaven can be realized on earth, it is realized in those who rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and in every thing give thanks." We say not that their happiness on earth is perfect. Happiness, to be perfect, requires the concurrence of outward circumstances with the inward state. But then, first, even when outward circumstances are painful, we know that they are permitted to be so by the wisdom and love of our heavenly Father, who causes all things to work together for our real good. He does more: he supports us under them; so that the comfort is as abundant as the tribulation. We look up to the great and eternal God, he is our Friend and Portion; to heaven, it is our happy and eternal home. It is by the green pastures and still waters that the good

Shepherd leads his flock. He is all-sufficient; he has established his covenant with them; they shall want nothing. The more perfectly we walk with God, the more rich are the comforts and pleasures of grace. Our peace shall be as a river, our righteousness as the waves of the sea.

And then, there is the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,blessedness so great, that it doth not appear yet what we shall be. But the inheritance is reserved for us in heaven, and comprises the perfect felicity of our whole nature for ever. Only think of Omnipotence and All-sufficiency! God himself our portion! here the foretaste, hereafter the full possession and enjoyment!

Who that truly knows God, does not desire to walk before him? Is there not at least some danger that we should not distinctly place before ourselves the full extent of this large requirement in all it particularly includes? Let the reader dwell much, and with great seriousness, on this subject. Has he contented himself with dwelling, as it were, on this side Jordan? By not aiming at a yet higher state, is not his present state lower than it would have been,―ought to have been; lower, perhaps, than once it actually was? Would it not have been far better with him now, had he followed the Lord fully? Let him look at this ancient rule of duty, and at the necessity of seeking to conform to it; and let him look at this gracious declaration which shows the propriety, obligation, and advantage of conforming to it. "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect."

PRAYER TURNED TO ENDLESS PRAISE.

(To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

E. T.

Ar Stonehaven, a small town in the Aberdeen Circuit, long the residence of the Rev. Duncan M'Allum, where a chapel was reared principally by the instrumentality of that venerable servant of God, a small society of devoted and consistent Methodists still exists. On Sunday, January 10th, an occurrence of the most affecting nature took place in their midst. The Local Preacher in the morning addressed the congregation from the solemn words, "This night thy soul shall be required of thee." In the afternoon the class met in the vestry as usual, and the presence and blessing of Jesus cheered the hearts of his disciples. The Leader requested an aged pious member, Joshua Middleton, to engage in prayer. All knelt down, and Mr. Middleton prayed with deep solemnity, and fervently expressed his confidence in God, praising him for his long-suffering in bearing with him so many years, and for his great love in providing a Saviour, who had plucked him as a brand from the burning. He exclaimed, "Lord, I lay my whole soul in thy hands; for thou hast been a merciful God, thou hast taken care of us, and wilt still do so. Lord, we are poor worms in thy hands: thou hast given us our breath, and thou canst take it away in a moment." His voice faltered, and seemed checked by his strong emotions; so that a few seconds of entire silence followed the utterance of the lastnamed words, and he never spoke more! The friends approached where he was still kneeling, without having in the least altered his position; but his spirit had fled, "the silver cord was loosed, the golden bowl broken, the pitcher broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern." The deeply-impressed friends raised the lifeless body from the spot where the soul had been breathed out to God, and from whence their brother had