"It has pleased God, my darling, in the adorable plan of reconciling sinners to himself by Jesus Christ, to perfect at once a justifying righteousness for them, and to bestow it upon them as a free gift. 'This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son.' 1 John, 5:11. But it has not pleased him to deliver us at once from depravity; provision is made for final deliverance by the same covenant, and is effected by the same power: but in this believers are called to work. It is evident from Scripture, and the experience of Christians answers to it, that in the hour of believing they pass from death to life, considered as a state. This is the hour of the new birth: they then receive life for the time, and it is their privilege, by the constitution of the new covenant, to ask and receive, from day to day, grace to help in every time of need. To them, and not to the unregenerate, the exhortation is addressed, 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure,' The means are of God's appointing, in the diligent use of which they go from strength to strength. The grand means is faith in God's promises, of which there are very many in the Scriptures. Believers are to put forth their own exertions, as the children of Israel were called to go out against their enemies, in the faith that God would give them victory and lead them to their promised rest. The battle was the Lord's, and he fought for them; but the means were their exertions. Believers are God's workmanship; but this work he carries on by exercising their natural powers, which he sanctifies to a different end from that to which they were formerly by their own spirit directed. Still, the Scripture testifies that if any man say he has no sin, he deceives himself, and the truth is not in him; and while sin remains, its consequence, suffering, must. The judgments of God, as the moral Governor of the world, are denounced against, and executed upon the workers of iniquity. The children of God experience personal chastisements for personal sins, as a provision of the covenant. Psalm 89:30. And, if I mistake not, there are afflictions experienced by individuals, as members of Christ's body, in which God does not bring into view the personal sins of the sufferer. In this sense I read Paul's epistle to the Colossians, 1:24: 'Who now rejoice in my sufferings, and fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the church.' 'I sent Timotheus to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith, that no man should be moved by these afflictions; for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.' 1 Thes. 3:3. 'Yea, if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all; for the same cause do ye joy and rejoice with me.' Phil. 2:17. 'And whether we be afflicted, it is for your