fondest father may deny a wanton child who asks for bread only to play with, or to cast beneath his feet, but never yet denied the starving child, whose very life depended on his father's answer. God may, and assuredly does deny gifts, which in these days might be sought, only to gratify the ambition or the vanity of the possessor; but He never has and never will deny those gifts of knowledge, and love, and faith, and patience, and zeal, and holiness, which are as needful to the spiritual life of the soul, as the air we breathe or the bread with which we are nourished are to the natural life of the body. Our Saviour has Himself declared that, at the last day, "Many shall say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?" to whom he will reply, "I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity.' But not an individual shall say upon that great and coming day, Lord, Lord, have I not trusted in thy salvation, and fled to thy blood alone for pardon and for peace? without hearing in return that blessed answer, "Well done good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."+ * Matt. vii. 22. † Ibid. xxv. 21. SERMON II. 1 JOHN IV. 1. "BELOVED, BELIEVE NOT EVERY SPIRIT, BUT TRY THE SPIRITS WHETHER THEY BE OF GOD." In resuming the important subject in which we are engaged, we shall consider, that two points have been already established, viz., 1. That those testimonies of Scripture upon which the opinion that extraordinary gifts were intended as the abiding heritage of the Church has been chiefly grounded, by no means justify such a conclusion; and, 2. That the testimony of the Church, so far at least as may be gathered from the opinions of those holy men of old whose sentiments have been handed down to us, those extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost which God denies, you do not yourselves fall into an error of the opposite extreme, by neglecting to seek those ordinary gifts of the same Spirit which God so freely proffers. God's ordinary promise is to every one of his children "the earnest of the Spirit." Without this you cannot even say, that "Jesus is the Lord;"† without this you cannot offer a single acceptable prayer; ‡ without this, in short, you are not, and you cannot be a Christian; for it is the very stamp which authenticates the child of God, that he has the impress of the image of God, by being partaker of the Spirit of God. § For the enjoyment of this promise, faith sufficient is always to be obtained; if you feel the want of it, "seek, and you shall find,” “ask, and you shall have." The * 2 Cor. i. 22. v. 5. + 1 Cor. xii. 3. § Rom. viii. 9. fondest father may deny a wanton child who asks for bread only to play with, or to cast beneath his feet, but never yet denied the starving child, whose very life depended on his father's answer. God may, and assuredly does deny gifts, which in these days might be sought, only to gratify the ambition or the vanity of the possessor; but He never has and never will deny those gifts of knowledge, and love, and faith, and patience, and zeal, and holiness, which are as needful to the spiritual life of the soul, as the air we breathe or the bread with which we are nourished are to the natural life of the body. Our Saviour has Himself declared that, at the last day, "Many shall say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?" to whom he will reply, "I never knew you, depart from me ye that |