apostle now proceeds to say, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves" he insists not only on hearing, but on doing. How common among us, my brethren, is the selfdeception to which St. James directs our attention in these words! Are there not many persons in christian congregations, who evidently take pleasure in hearing the Divine word, gladly resort to the place where it is published, are regular in their attendance every Lord's day, and find a kind of satisfaction in so doing; but compare their whole tone of feeling, their pursuits, their conduct, their works, in short, with their words, and alas! there will be found scarcely any appearance of practical christianity, of progressive renovation and improvement. Perhaps when the life of faith, hope, and love is described to them in its most striking lineaments, when the image of the Son of God, the holy pattern, in whose footsteps they ought to tread, is set before them, perhaps the wish arises in their hearts, Oh, that there were such a life in me! Oh, that I were as HE was! Perhaps also resolutions may be made to purify the heart and regulate the life. But these wishes are fleeting; these resolutions are powerless! The old man is not put away with his affections and lusts; the service of sin is not forsaken. And now accusing thoughts arise in the soul; conscience utters its upbraiding voice. On the other hand, excusing thoughts are admitted. They recall to mind the excitement of their feelings during the preaching of the word; they attempt to comfort them

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selves with their devout wishes, and seek satisfaction in resolutions that have been made, and in resolutions that are to be made, and like the former, to be broken! Let such persons, and let us, hear the solemn warning of the apostle, " Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves!"

The apostle compares a mere hearer of the word

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a man beholding his natural face in a glass; who goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." What is the use of a mirror? What else, but that we may learn by means of it, whether there is anything unsightly or ill arranged about our persons, which we may endeavour to remove or rectify? But when a man, by viewing himself in a mirror, has no more important object in his thoughts than merely to gratify himself with a transient image of his own figure or dress, we justly reproach him with indulging his vanity and misusing the mirror. And thus it is with the Divine word. Is it not a bright clear mirror which shows the form and constitution of our souls? And when it is held before us, will it not make us acquainted with all our failings, defects, and blemishes? will it not manifest all those points which do not correspond to the image of God, but inwardly deform and pollute us; which are not conformable to the Divine beauty, that is, to truth, nor to the Divine order, which is the law of God? If, then, an individual comes into our assemblies for the purpose of presenting himself before this glass, in order to discern therein the true image of

himself, the hatefulness of his inward man, and the complicated errors of his life, that he may forthwith apply himself to altering and amending his condition, and be led to salvation in the way of sincere repentance and living faith, he will make a right use of the Divine word, and of the discourse of the preacher. But whoever comes with an intention, more or less defined, of receiving only a transient impression of the truth; whoever, under the hearing of the sermon, closes the eye of his mind, averts his view from the faults which the law of God makes manifest; or when one and another odious defect or sin has been pointed out to him, does not mark it; but carelessly or intentionally dismisses it from his thoughts, and forgets altogether what manner of man he is, as he is exhibited in the mirror of truth; or whoever takes a vain delight in looking at his supposed image, and by a foolish delusion persuades himself that his blemishes are beauties, and that his vices are virtues, that at least he is not so very bad-that on the whole his character is a good one; whoever leaves the house of God, deceived or deceiving himself by such imaginations, alas! my brethren, of such a poor, vain, thoughtless man, we must plainly say, that he insultingly abuses the highest and best gift of God-the word of truth; and if he calls such a service of folly and vanity, the service of God, he profanes his Maker's name, and "the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

Now that conduct, which is directly opposed to so

perverted and unholy a use of the word of God, to so vain and useless an attendance on public worship, our apostle calls in the following verse, "a looking into the perfect law of liberty, and continuing therein." This law of liberty is no other than the gospel of Jesus Christ. He calls it a law because it reveals to us the will of God, and the method of salvation, for "this is the will of God, that whosoever seeth the Son and believeth on him should have everlasting life." He calls it a law, but the law of liberty; for that which is a law to every man till, through faith in the Son, he is brought into the freedom of the children of God, namely the voice of conscience, as it was explained to the people of Israel on mount Sinai, in the ten commandments-this law, although it is holy, just, and good, can never lead us to freedom; but since it is weak through the flesh, since its power in us is broken by sin, holds us in bondage to "the letter that killeth." We consent that the law is good, but that which we confess to be good, we do not; "to will is present with us; but how to perform that which is good we find not," Rom. vii. 18; and as long as we remain under this law, we are the slaves of sin and death. But the gospel, the joyful tidings, relating to the Son of God, the crucified Redeemer, who " came to seek and save that which was lost," is the law of liberty; for the truth, which was embodied in Him who was equally full of grace and of truth, makes us free from the service of sin, of which the wages are death; that we, being dead to the law which once held us in

bondage, should serve God in the newness of the life-giving Spirit. He whom the Son makes free, is free indeed! And our apostle calls the gospel the perfect law of liberty, because this method of salvation first perfectly revealed the everlasting councils of the Divine love. Every earlier revelation of God was imperfect, even that which was made to the chosen people of Israel. The law, engraven on tables of stone, had its glory, as the countenance of Moses, when he came down from Sinai, shone with the glory of God, which had been partially displayed to him; but what a different glory has the law of the Spirit revealed to us by Christ! Of how much better a covenant than that of Moses is He the Mediator? How much brighter is the glory that appeared on his countenance, and how much clearer the light that shone from Golgotha than from Sinai! The old law had the shadow of good things to come; but the substance was in Christ, Heb. x. 1. Christ is the end of the law; whoever believeth in him is justified; and the new law, written by him on the hearts of those who believe in him, and confess him to be the Son of God, is the perfect law of liberty.

When the apostle speaks of "looking into the perfect law of liberty," he means that we should contemplate it with the strongest effort of the mental eye; that we should strive with all our might to understand it, and continue stedfast in its precepts: it is therefore equivalent to saying, that in all our temptations and trials we should hold fast the gospel