It is the mere man—the brain, the mind, the human soul, the natural affections, the unassisted innate energy—which conceives and aims at the observance of the things of the Spirit of GOD. Hence the failure. The natural powers, which alone we use, cannot grasp spiritual things. “_Eye_ hath not seen, nor _ear_ heard, neither have entered into the _mind_ of man to conceive the things which GOD hath prepared for them that love Him:” and yet it is the eye, the ear, or the mind, which alone we use to discern them. We have indeed a _theory_ which contradicts our practice. We know of an external power—the Holy Spirit, which alone can take of the things of GOD and show them unto us, and influence us to love, and enable us to follow them. We know how that power is to be appropriated, and sustained, and made effectual. We talk of its imparted gift, and we use certain words of prayer for its continuance and efficacious working, but still we go on thinking our own thoughts and doing our own deeds, as though there were no such power; and we wonder and grieve that we are not religious; that we do not heartily approve and follow what GOD has enjoined and promised. Believe me, my brethren, or, rather, believe the apostle, it will never be otherwise till you are thoroughly convinced of the utter inability of the natural man to discern the things of the Spirit of GOD; till your religion consists of earnest entreaties for Divine instruction and impulse, of ready, eager use of all appointed means of securing and vivifying within you the operation of Divine grace, of entire submission to the Spirit’s rule, of watchfulness for His motions, of zealous co-operation with Him. You may spend your life in trying to learn and practise religion, and yet be irreligious after all; unless you renounce all the independent thoughts and efforts of the natural man; unless you give yourselves, actively and passively, in all things, to the special illumination and direction of the Holy Spirit of GOD. Trust not to the eye, to the ear, or to the mind: they cannot inform or influence you. Trust not, I say, to the eye. People talk of finding out GOD from the contemplation of His works; of looking from nature up to nature’s GOD; of examining the evidences of religion, and becoming religious. But who ever found out the GOD of the Bible from the works of nature; by the traces of power, and wisdom, and skill, and adaptation, which it is true are marked upon every part of creation; by theorising about a first cause; by investigating Scriptural coincidences, and establishing the authenticity of sacred history? One of the ablest naturalists that ever lived ascribed the various forms and functions of animals to chance, to the operations of winds and streams, to shaping in natural moulds. One of the profoundest astronomers saw no necessity for a first cause; and the man who penned perhaps the sublimest description of our blessed