scrutiny into his present life, which he tries by the unerring test of God’s holy word. And if he be sincere and honest, and not a dissembler with God, and a deceiver of himself, the language will spontaneously burst from his lips; “It is good for me that I have been in trouble, that I may learn Thy statutes.” {16b} “Oh, Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of affliction,” {16c}—“Turn Thee unto me, and have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and in misery. The sorrows of my heart are enlarged; oh, bring Thou me out of my troubles; look upon my adversity and misery, and forgive me all my sin.” {16d} Not that probably his life has been stained with deeper or more numerous offences than the generality of men: it may be that he has been “brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” and has never departed from serving his God; it may be that he has long ranked amongst those who strive to be “blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, amongst whom they shine as lights in the world.” {17a} But still there lives not the man who has not much to repent of, and to humble himself for, before the Lord. And when the sorrows of life, the judgments of God, or the approach of death, loosen the hold of earthly ties upon the affections, and the attention becomes intently fixed on that invisible world of spirits, whither all are hastening: then, even he, who has long sought to serve his God with devout reverence and holy obedience, feels with stronger force, and sees with clearer view, the fearful extent of his omissions of duty and commissions of sin. When he considers that one moment may suffice to usher him into the presence of that Great Being, of infinite purity, in whose sight the heavens are not clean; when he remembers the condemnation passed on all sin by a righteous law;—conscious guilt compels him to bow before the Lord with the deep self-abasement of him who “smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner;” {17b} and conscious weakness makes him call to the Saviour, with the imploring voice of him who cried, “Lord, save me.” {17c} For when the conscience is fully enlightened, and the heart sanctified by Divine grace, a clear perception of the holiness of God’s law, and a deep sense of personal unworthiness, are produced in the believer, which at once humble him to the dust, and lead him to throw himself entirely on the mercy of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Then it is that he labours to devote himself more entirely to his Master’s service, “and adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things:” {18a} then it is he “sets his affections on things above:” {18b} “looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people,