go away and say: 'We had a nice service. I liked the preacher !' or, 'I didn't like the preacher! and there perhaps your religion ends. But, as this gracious man writes, YOU ARE SHORT OF CONVERSION. And, I believe, dear friends, we are approaching testing times, when nothing but GRACE will stand. I think there. will be such a fire by and by, and so many temptations to be drawn aside by the prevailing errors of the day-Reason, on the one hand, and Ceremonialism and Ritualism on the other, that professions will be sifted out, and that none will be able to face what is coming upon the true Church but those who, by the grace of God, feel that they are safe in Jesus Christ-those who have the witness of the Spirit within, that Jesus, Who has saved them from their sins, will keep them, and who are, by that grace, in the attitude which will enable them to bear testimony even unto death. I should not be very, very much surprised, if I and some of you faithful ones, may perhaps see the inside of a prison-house before we end our days. I believe that times of persecution are approaching, and then will come the question, where we are? If you feel at all as I do upon the subject, you can say, 'Let come what will, I have no confidence in myself; but I have confidence in God's grace that, as my days so shall my strength be, (Deut. Xxxiii. 25.) Come what may I will witness for Him, and He will support and keep me. And if I do know what persecution is, and if I am to suffer bonds, I shall have the same grace which sustained Paul and Silas, when with scourged backs, they sat in that dark prison-house, with their feet fast in the stocks, and they were so happy they could not contain themselves-their happiness burst forth in a song of praise to God.' (Acts xvi.) Ah! my friends, just in proportion as persecution rests upon the Church of God, so in proportion shall we be happy in Jesus Christ. I have taken up some time in these opening remarks, but God will bless them. The letter I have read to you is a great reality. It contains an instance of what God's grace has done for that man's soul, and his experience has its counterpart in every true Christian man and Christian woman. Each one can say, 'I am a sinner saved by grace.'

And now, I will occupy the time that remains by a few remarks upon the passage I have read, verse 39. "And He preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils." That was the work of Jesus. He came into this world to "destroy" i.e. to take the power out of the hands of "him that had the power of death, that is, the devil," Heb. ii. 14. In another Scripture, it says; He came to "destroy the work of the devil," 1 John iii. 8. I believe that every disease to which the body is subject is of him

and has its counterpart in the soul,-consequently, the healing of the one was significant of the healing of the other.

The work recorded in the narrative I have read to you, is the cleansing of a leper-leprosy being typical of the uncleanness of sin. The subject of the next miracle recorded in St. Mark's Gospel, was a man afflicted with palsy. The man was let down before Jesus from the roof of the house, and there he lay, unable to raise himself or to do anything whatever towards his cure. There was a type of the helplessness of the sinner-unable to lift a finger to save himself. Then, we have the miracle of life being restored to the withered hand, signifying that, after a man is saved, he is unable to do anything of himself to serve God. God does it all. There is the difference between God's religion and man's religion. (How very few comparatively agree with this!) Man's religion is: 'I must do a great deal and God will help me.' God's religion is—the sinner must be helpless, and his very helplessness is the condition upon which God imparts His cleansing and quickening power, and likewise, the strength to do anything in His service.

Verse 40. "And there came a leper to Him, beseeching Him," &c. Leprosy, significant of man's uncleanness by nature as well as of his guilt-the one the consequence of the other. This, I would say to you, is the foundation upon which the whole Gospel structure is raised. There is no salvation for those who do not feel their lost condition. They are lost, whether they feel it or no, but the first step towards salvation is feeling that they are lost. The blood of Jesus Christ touches sin and sin only. Where there is no sin, there is no room for the blood,—and the sinner, to have the blood applied, must feel himself a sinner. And I would remind you that, after the blood is applied, and he has a sense of safety, he has not done with the blood. As far as removing the guilt of sin is concerned, he is safe; but he has not done with the blood, because he has not done with sin. My dear friends; as a true believer goes forward in this world and grows in the Christian life, he knows and feels more and more of sin, and the blood becomes more and more precious to him. I have not a question about it; and I press this, because there may be some amongst you, who can recollect the time when you were brought out of darkness into light, and you felt what it was to rejoice in Christ Jesus and thought you had a bright, smooth way before you, but you have found it a very rough way. You never felt so much of sin-so much of temptation as you have felt since, and often you have been ready to say: 'I can't be a child of God at all, for if I had been a child of God, I should have been improving all this time.'

That is a very common notion of Christianity, dear friends-that, being a Christian, you must improve your character by watchfulness and prayer, and by conflict with your great enemy, with the flesh and with the world-that a Christian ought to go on improving and to have more satisfaction in himself—and the idea of the witness of there being Christianity in a person is that he feels less of sin, that he is able to master temptation, that temper, pride, the lusts of the flesh, all have been brought under. So it ought to be,' such people say, 'if you are a Christian.' That, I believe to be a mere theory. It does not stand in the light of God's Word, and it has no counterpart in the experience of the true Christian. Sometimes these thoughts have come across my mind and have made me very unhappy. What is my Christianity worth,' I have thought, if I don't improve?' I have been wellnigh cast down in despair. Then, I have met with some tried brother or sister in the Lord, or there has been brought before me some testimony of men of high standing in the school of grace, such as, Newton, Cecil, Romaine, Berridge, or Bunyan, and I have found to my satisfaction and comfort, that these men passed through precisely the same. Instead of finding improvement in their characters, they found more and more of sin, and this has driven them more and more to Jesus. Ah! this is the end and object of the Christian life-first of all, to throw the sinner upon Jesus for salvation, and then to throw the believer upon Jesus for everything else, till at length, he becomes nothing but sin in his own eyes, nothing but foolishness and weakness, and Jesus becomes everything to him. Is not this a word of comfort to some of you? But I can imagine others who say, 'I can't understand you. I can understand the improvement scheme, but I can't understand a man feeling himself worse, recollect, the spiritual life of a believer is "spiritually discerned," (1 Cor. ii. 14.) If you have not that life within you, you come to your own conclusions, not to God's conclusions. Here then, perhaps, is a test for you, Are you a child of God at all? 'Oh,' I hear one say, ' but I am. I have been serving the Lord for fifteen or twenty years, and I do think I am better, and I look for a high place in Heaven for my doings! I have heard people talk thus, and have known them to have their eyes opened before they were removed, to see for the first time that, after serving the Lord (as they imagined) for years, in outward activity, they were nothing but poor lost sinners. They have sent for me, and I have heard them cry with the publican: "God be merciful to me a sinner!" and they have confessed, 'I never saw myself to be a sinner before.' So that you see, this activity in religious work is no sign a person is converted,

We may be active about all externals while we know nothing about the inward life. Those persons I have described have begun to experience the inward life-it has proved something they never thought of, and it has made them all but hopeless. We, who have travelled the pathway, knew it, and could feel thankful they were brought to such a stand-still, and we could show them where the cure was for the evil. We could tell them it was no new thing they were passing through, that it is sooner or later, the history of the believer's life.

The letter which was put into my hand this morning may have led me to dwell perhaps too long on this first part of my subject, but I have often noticed, that it is not a subject well reasoned out that God blesses, so much as a pungent remark here and there that the Holy Spirit takes and carries home to the soul. I expect he will do so this day, in answer to the prayers which have been offered. We have seen that the man was a leper, and that leprosy was a type of sin. We have the description of the leper in Lev. xiii. 42-44. "And if there be in the bald head, or bald forehead, a white reddish sore; it is a leprosy sprung up in his bald head, or his bald forehead. Then the priest shall look upon it: and behold if the rising of the sore be white reddish in his bald head, or his bald forehead, as the leprosy appeareth in the skin of the flesh; he is a leprous man, he is unclean: the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague is in his head." You will observe, the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean. I believe we never do see our true state till we are brought by the Holy Ghost, into the presence of the Priest, viz. Jesus Christ, verse 45. "And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent"—a mark of his grief: "and his head bare"-expressing humiliation : "and he shall put a covering upon his upper lips"-as being ashamed of himself: " and shall cry, 'Unclean, unclean,' "-he felt and confessed his uncleanness, verse 46. "All the days wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be." Here is the case of the leper.

The man in the Gospel narrative knew he was a leper. And should he not know it, then read this description of what leprosy was? Ah! my friends, when a man is convicted of sin, he knows the meaning of the cry, 'Unclean, unclean!' In the course of my ministry, I have known not a few instances where sin has been brought home to the soul, and those who have been so convicted have been brought to the very verge of despair. They have travelled about from place to place, looking for peace and could not find it stopping people in the street who they knew to be

religious people, and asking them where and how they were to get it. Now, there is the true thing. I knew it myself-thank God for it! I went from Church to Church and Chapel to Chapel, I asked this person and that person how I could get peace. They said: 'Believe in Christ.' 'What about Christ?' That He died for sinners.' I knew all that, but it did not give me peace. And, as this man knew not what it was to be cured of his leprosy till Jesus touched him, I knew not what it was to be relieved of my distress, till I was brought, by the good providence of God, under the sound of the Gospel of His grace. Under the teaching of a faithful Gospel minister (a man who did not preach half works and half grace), Jesus touched me-the Holy Spirit breathed peace into my soul-He applied the blood of Jesus and I knew the meaning of that precious word, that "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin," (1 John i. 7), and I went on my way rejoicing. The thought upon my mind was, 'Can this be true?" It seemed too good to be true. Yet, there it was; and the Holy Spirit brought verse after verse out of this blessed Book to my soul, and I rejoiced "with joy unspeakable and full of glory," (1 Pet. i. 8.) My next thought was: Oh that God would take me to Himself!' I felt I was moving about in a world full of temptation. Here was my great enemy, who had kept me in bondage so long, and my fear was, lest my flesh should be addressed again and I should be drawn back into the world. My earnest desire was "to depart and to be with Christ." But God's time was not come. was not yet fitted for my place above. I had to be educated for that place. I was to learn more of the power of the blood. Since that day, the power and the preciousness of the blood have grown and grown upon my soul, as I have learned more of the power and corruption of my leper-stricken nature, so that I can now say with the Apostle: "In my flesh dwelleth no good thing," (Rom. vii. 18.) But, thank God, that every good thing is in Jesus Christ, and that by the Holy Ghost, I have all that Jesus possesses. I have only to go to Him for the supply.

I

If thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean." The question with the men was: Will He?' Then, there is the touching statement: verse 41. "And Jesus, moved with compassion; put forth His hand, and touched him," &c. That is a very precious thought: Jesus moved with compassion!" When our sin stares us in the face, and we look at an offended God, we are ready to think-'He can never have compassion upon me.' But Jesus is all compassion for poor sinners-all compassion for those who feel their need. Judgment is done away: it has all been expended upon Him and