LETTER

VI.

CHRIST THE RECONCILER AND SAVIOUR.

You are conscious, my dear friend, of having made the distinct and heartfelt choice of the religious life. You are earnestly desirous of forming a truly Christian character, of leaving henceforth all your past indifference, coldness, and sin, all alienation from God, and backwardness in his service. You trust that you are sincerely penitent for the past, and you long for a higher, truer, nobler life, than you have hitherto led,for a full, entire consecration of yourself to God. But you say that you are still restless and dissatisfied; that you are not conscious of any definite, constant progress; that sin still gains the mastery, and old habits of thought and feeling cling to you with a tenacious grasp. While you acknowledge in the secrecy of your soul the supremacy of the unseen and spiritual, such motives have not that control over your daily life which you believe they ought to possess in the Christian heart, and you cannot feel assured of the forgiveness and acceptance of God.

Allow me, then, to point out to you some causes which have led to your present state of feeling, and to direct you to the only true path

of peace.

While your penitence has been sincere, your choice true and deliberate, your steps turned to the one narrow and rugged path of life, there still lurks in your soul a secret feeling, that in some way what you have thus far accomplished merits the approval of Heaven, - that your own righteousness will be sufficient, as it were, to open the celestial gates of peace and to insure the word of pardon.

There is, with all your consciousness of sin and imperfection, a concealed, and yet a baneful sense of self-sufficiency in your soul,-a pride of purpose, a feeling that you can accomplish something as of yourself, and so approve yourself, which is nothing but self-righteousness. Like

Christian, you have turned aside from the sure, though narrow path, and, quitting your faithful guide, have vainly sought help of Mr. Legality, and have found, like him, your burden only becoming the heavier and more difficult to bear.

The voice of conscience has spoken loudly and clearly within your soul, and has not been unheeded; but you have yet to learn that conscience, without a reconciling Christ, lacks peace as well as strength; for, as another has well said, "the mere moral or conscience system of

life excludes the most powerful principle of disinterested action, which is a grateful love and trust in a personal help, flowing infinitely from God, through Christ and his cross. Then, too, it engenders the poor habit of continual selfreference, self-measurement, and self-centralization, instead of taking the soul up above itself, giving it an object there to live for in faith and love. It sets consciousness above revelation, as a light to the mysteries of our inner life; and that consciousness is a dim candle over a deep mine."

Self-exal"The as

Strive as you will, you will never fulfil the perfect law of God, that which demands that every thought even shall be brought into captivity and entire obedience. Where then do you stand? Merit is out of the question. tation is abashed. Pride is rebuked. piration after the perfect in all noble the mightiest hunger of the heart. But if no blessed promise of forgiveness is to come by faith, and comfort its failures, all its yearnings are tortures, and it is only the mightiest tormenter of the heart."

natures is

Is there no peace, then, for the restless, penitent, aspiring soul? Is life to be passed in this constant struggle, this inward uneasiness, this consciousness of the imperfection of the work, compared with the purity and holiness of the requirement? Is there to be constant dissatis

faction and restlessness and self-upbraiding, with no clear beacon-light of hope and trust to brighten the narrow path, and guide the trembling steps?

Let the blessed words of the Redeemer answer your anxious self-questionings. "Come unto me, and I will give you rest. I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. This is the new covenant in my blood, shed for many, for the remission of sins." And again, hear the Apostle's joyful declaration: "Now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of our sins." And as if these assurances were not sufficient, we have the words of the beloved disciple: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our

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sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Here, then, is your true answer: By grace are ye saved, through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast";not because you have attained, either are already perfect, but because of the supreme desire, the ruling love, the trusting faith of the soul, casting aside all self-confidence, and resting its only hope on the free promises of God, through Christ, the reconciler and intercessor.

Look, then, away from yourself to Christ. Turn your eyes from this anxious self-inspection to the cross on Calvary. Hear those divine words, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." See the fulness, the depth of the love there revealed; and while the contemplation of that divine sacrifice, thus needed to move and melt your soul, thus needed for your personal reconciliation, pardon, and acceptance, discloses to you as nothing else can your own inward evil and sin, the heights of God's perfect holiness, and the depths of his divine compassion,- while it leads you to exclaim with the prodigal's penitence, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee," — let it also speak of pardon and strength and hope. Doubt not the promises of the Almighty, through his holy Son, thus tenderly interceding with If, in sincerity, we confess and lament, and seek to turn from our sins, "He is faithful

man.