perpetual mercy, the Lord keeps them from the evil, and leads them to all things profitable to their salvation." (3.) Let it be cherished as an established truth, that the sound believer in Christ Jesus, and none else, will find himself safe in Him at last. But, among the spiritually-born children of God, who repent, believe, and live godly, righteously, and soberly in this present world, many others are intermingled, who never knew the grace of God in truth, or brought forth fruits meet for repentance. Tares still grow up with the wheat. Fruitless branches are apparently grafted on the vine, side by side with others, which bear much fruit. False disciples gain admittance among the true; nor can we always distinguish them. In every assembly, some are in Christ, others are yet in their sins. Some serve the Lord Jesus, others in works deny Him. Some adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things, others disgrace it. Some abide in Christ, and Christ in them; others go away, and walk no more with Him. Some know the preciousness of Christ's blood, redeeming them from all iniquity; others count that blood an unholy thing. Some have their fruit unto holiness; others, you ask with sorrow, "What fruit have ye of those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death." We need not pursue this. The difference is palpable. There is life, reality, power, about the one; the Christianity of the other is hollow and fictitious; he is a Christian in profession, but a man of the world at heart. Touched, it may be, by the finger of the Spirit, but not transformed in the spirit of their minds,-among God's people, but not one with them,-they may seem to flourish for a while in the courts of the Lord, but, not having the root of the matter in them, they are not planted in the courts of the house of our God. "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would, no doubt, have continued with us.' Of such an one we need not say, he is not one whom the Lord will keep by His "perpetual mercy." Look minutely at his daily life; he is not kept from the things that are hurtful, nor is he led to such things as are profitable to his salvation. He may seem to stand, but only as a decayed bough-secure during the season of zephyrs and sunshine, but as surely destined to fall when shaken by the stormy blasts of winter. "His feet will slide in due time." (4.) When it is said that the Lord keeps His people by His perpetual mercy, it is not meant, that they are, now, in this life, perfectly delivered from indwelling sin. The Church sanctions no crude teaching about sinless perfection. From the "infection of nature" even the regenerate is not delivered. That great conflict goes on in every soul which is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Nor are they so kept as to live unmolested by the evils of the world. "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." Nor are they so kept, that the world, the flesh, and the devil lose all power over them. No. But they are so kept, that their spiritual life will never be extinct. We are not speaking of the fluctuation of spiritual experience, their joy in the Lord, or their assurance of salvation. Such blessings believers may lose. They may be brought into great heaviness, and their hearts become disquieted; they may entertain grave misgivings about their faith and interest in Christ; troubles and temptations may so abound, that they fear lest they should fall away; but, notwithstanding such fears, the Lord has engaged, "My mercy will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my truth to fail." Their eternal interests are safely guarded. It is the Lord's work in them which has made them what they are. His quickening Spirit has imparted new life. He loved them, and drew them in willing obedience to Himself. His own glory and truth are engaged, that He will not forsake the work of His own hands. He will never depart from them, and He provides that they shall not depart from Him. These engagements are the sure and steadfast anchor of their souls. Grasping these promises, they have strong consolation: "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth them-will deliver them from every evil work, and preserve them to His heavenly kingdom." The Lord Himself is, therefore, the Preserver of His people. This great truth can never be too strongly urged. Their real security comes from Him alone. His are the everlasting arms that compass them round. His the eye that is never averted, in the darkness of their evil day. His the shield and buckler which defend their head in the day of battle. And they know this. It is one of the prayers they lisped in the infancy of faith, and they repeat it with deeper meaning, wearied with the conflicts of age, "Keep me, oh keep me, King of kings, Beneath thine own almighty wings.' (5.) Deeper teaching discloses the secret of their safety. The Bible reveals to them the interest which each Person of the Blessed Trinity takes in preserving their souls. The more they know of the eternal love of the Father, the unerring faithfulness of His covenant promises, and the almighty power with which He protects the feeblest of His people, the more fully they appreciate the personal glory of the Lord Jesus, and His love to the Church, which He purchased with His own blood, and cherishes as His bride, and for which He appears as their everprevailing Intercessor in the presence of God, and the more richly they experience the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, according to the Lord's unfailing promise, "Ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you,"-their "comforter" in life's troubles, the "seal" of their adoption, and "earnest" of دو their inheritance, the more these deep things of God are known, and the stronger evermore their assurance grows, that the Lord will keep them by His "perpetual mercy. (6.) Not but that they will be severely tried. "Tried!" you exclaim, "life has been to me a series of such trials as I never expected to meet." This must not surprise you. When you remember the times and places through which you have passed, full of perils,-the temptations and snares on every side, where "your feet were almost gone," you see plainly that nothing short of His perpetual mercy could have preserved you. Little do they know what God's people go through, who think it an easy thing to hold on their way. No veteran soldier, who has survived the perils of a hundred battles, has seen harder service, or outlived deadlier slaughter, than the soldier of Jesus Christ, who has fought the good fight of faith, and "having done all, has stood, victorious, in the evil day." What changes in Providence has he witnessed, leaving him desolate and companionless! What conflicts of soul, what wrestling with the powers of darkness,-what warfare within the breast, the spirit and the flesh conflicting against each other! What unexpected reverses in earthly things,-losses, bereavements, disappointments of all kinds, making life to assume a strangely altered aspect;-going out full, and returning empty! But, in the midst of all this, the spiritual life of God's people is graciously preserved. They trust and pray, they labour and suffer, according to the will of God. They endure patiently, while others murmur; they go from strength to strength, while others faint and grow weary of incessant conflict; they hold on their way, while others turn aside to folly; they "endure, seeing Him who is invisible, and take the kingdom of heaven by violence," while others think scorn of that pleasant land, choose for themselves another leader, and deliberately turn back to the flesh-pots of Egypt. (7.) Their spiritual relationship is another secret of their preservation. When you see these saints of God, safe amidst dangers, watchful against temptation, holding on their way, while beset with solicitations to turn back, it is well to remember that they are brought into covenant relationship as the Lord's people. "I will make an everlasting covenant with them." (Jer. xxxii. 40.) The covenant is this,"I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; I will be to them a God, and they shall be to a people; they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more." To this covenant, which secures the willing obedience of His people, their adoption into His family, their filial knowledge of God, and the complete forgiveness of all their sins, the believer cordially assents on his part. Again and again, upon his bended knees, he takes the sacramental cup as the pledge of his allegiance to the King of kings! There he offers and presents himself, his soul and body, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice to the Lord. Christ dwells in him, and he in Christ. (8.) Then, also, they are "fulfilled with His grace and heavenly benediction." The Lord promises," I will not turn away from them to do them good." True, they are compassed about with infirmity, but they do well to build upon the great assurance, that the Lord will not turn away from them. They often feared that He would. "O God, why art thou absent from us so long?" is their unbelieving cry. Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He shut up His loving-kindness in displeasure? No. "I will not turn away from them to do them good." Others may turn away. "Fathers" may forsake, and even "mothers" may forget; "lovers and friends" may be put away, and acquaintances hidden from their sight; but the Lord will never turn away from doing them good. He may, in reproof, or displeasure, hide His face, for clouds and darkness are His pavilion,-spiritual comforts may be withdrawn, and prayer obtain no answer,-they may think themselves deserted; still, nothing will ever shake His fixed purpose towards them that trust Him: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee." (9.) God's preserving care of His people is evermore shown in not ceasing to do them good. This great truth is too precious to be lost sight of. He abides with His people, that He may ever advance their spiritual welfare. The good pleasure of the Father's will, the cross and passion, the glorious resurrection and ascension of Christ Jesus,-the Holy Spirit convincing of sin, and revealing the things of Christ,-are all designed to do them good. The means of grace with which He feeds their souls year by year, all the rich and varied services of the Church,-prayers, sermons, sacraments, communion of saints, all the ever-recurring provisions of His house,-are arranged for their spiritual good. Yea, all the changes of life, storms and sunshine,-mercies and judgments, the heavy crosses they carry, and the cup of bitterness they drink,-all the diversified events which God selects and interweaves in the tapestry of life,-in all the care with which He elaborates the curious combinations of each one's history,-in all He takes and all He gives,-in all He smites, and all He preserves,-in all the strange events of outward life, and the stranger experience of the inward man,-in all this, He is ever fulfilling His own promise to His people: "I will not turn away from them to do them good;" and they rejoice to "know, that all things work together for good to them that love God, that are the called according to His purpose." (10.) But, there is another view of it. If the Lord will never turn away from them, nor will He permit them, in their blindness and folly, ever to turn away from Him. Left to themselves, they certainly would go away. The history of the Church, and the experience of believers, bear mournful testimony that there is no confidence in man. Strangely unintelligible as the words are to a man of the world, they are the confession of deep spiritual experience, which the believer well understands, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love." Then why do not they actually depart? Because they love the Lord with such true filial fear, that they will not, and cannot, leave Him. Vagrant desires may tempt them to stray into Bypath Meadow. An evil heart of unbelief struggles to break the yoke. On every side of them false disciples lose their shortlived steadfastness, and they who have no true faith fall irrecoverably into many foolish and hurtful lusts. But the root of the righteous is not moved. He sees now that it would be wild and ruinous folly, to forsake the fountain overflowing with the waters of life, and with laborious vanity, to hew broken and useless cisterns for himself. It would do violence to his new nature, grieve the Spirit, and efface the seal of his adoption. He cannot bring himself to go away from Christ, and forfeit his hopes of eternal blessedness with Him. Then, to whom could he go? There is no other Saviour. He wants no other. He is "shut up" unto the faith of Christ, and blesses God that he is so shut up. There is no alternative between salvation through Christ, or ruin. without remedy; it is pardon through the atonement, or condemnation and wrath to come, without mercy. This is the great question which every man has to debate and settle in his own mind. Oh! the sooner it is done, and the better. Will ye also go away? No! no! emphatically responds every true Christian that may read this paper. The Lord has put this fear into his heart, that he will not depart from Him. The inclination is gone. The law of obedience is stamped indelibly upon his heart. It is his highest delight to do his Father's will. The law of his God is in his heart, and his footsteps shall not slide. Well said the sweet singer of Olney,— "When any turn from Zion's way, Alas! what numbers do, Methinks I hear my Saviour say, Ah! Lord, with such a heart as mine, |