highest energies of his being. He must continue in it with all persistency and perseverance, though it be painful, though it take out a right eye, or take off a right hand. Will you spare yourselves all pain? You will not save yourselves by this, but rather secure you perdition. "He that saveth his life, shall lose it." "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion." Do you think it all one, whether you cultivate an old temper, or keep it down-whether you allow an old habit, however mischievous, or strive to slay itwhether you put off the old man, and put on the new man, or not? What effect must the one course or the other have upon your own salvation, as a work to be wrought out with proper fear of yourself, and proper trembling for the result? In this great work, the efficient agent is the most delicate. The Holy Ghost may be grieved by your follies, resisted by your backwardness, and quenched by your worldliness of mind. You will run the Christian race with patience, only by looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. You will deny yourselves ungodliness and worldly lust, only by looking for that blessed hope.

But especially, in all this work, and above all, must there be a hearty self-renunciation.-Work as you may, and as you must, if you are saved, yet there is not any or all of your work that can be boasted or trusted. Though you be working out your own salvation, still your only Saviour is Christ. Your work is always unfinished, imperfect, defective. His work is already finished and complete. Think of your salvation, at his hand, as "ready to be revealed in the last time," and herein you may greatly rejoice. Think of it as already wrought out by your Redeemer. Think of him as gone, now, to prepare a place for you, and waiting till you enter upon the full possession. Think of your house eternal in the heavens-your crown of righteousness-your robe, and harp, and palm. This will lead you, more and more, to cast away all human confidences-all trusts in self-all pride of opinion-all personal pretension. Faith in Christ-in his plan, in his power, and in his promise—is to make you work on, cheerfully and successfully, to the end. It is HE, from his risen glory, who sends forth his Spirit, which now works in your

heart.

And these all are items of the work, which admit of measures and degrees. The self-inspection may find out to-day more than it knew yesterday of the inner man. The self-discipline may keep under some taste or appetite to-day, which gained the mastery yesterday. The self-denial may cheerfully carry a cross to-day, which was only too much for yesterday. The self-renouncement may give up an indulgence, or reject a confidence, to-day, which was only attempted in vain hitherto. And herein consists the constant opportunity for working out one's own salvation.

And, finally, in all that pertains to a thorough self-devotement, amidst a world of duties and necessities, there is demand for this progress and execution. Who has finished this work already, that

so many are at ease in Zion? Who is yet the specimen of that entire self-sacrifice that we profess, and that the Master demands? In the petty selfishness that is working freely and undenied in the man, how is he working out his own salvation? How-when he devotes himself so sparingly to Christ's service-when he is so hard at work for himself, that the work of the Master is that most entirely declined and denied? Can you not see that you have a work to do, if you are ever saved, which shall require many a mighty effort, many a large devotement, many a loosing of the grasp upon the heart's idols, and many a relinquishment for Christ, where now it would seem like tearing the soul asunder? Have you, then, nothing daily to do? Was this whole work, in all its immense magnitude, completed in your first repentings and wrestlings, and turnings unto God? Ah! your salvation is not yet attained. He that works not out the mighty problem, loses the soul. He who feels no fear, no trembling, only betrays an ignorance of the work in its true nature, and in its awful issues. It demands all the intensity of your minds, all the energy of your bodies, all your ardor of soul, all your helps in the means below, and in the efficient power above.

Hence the high INCENTIVES here given by the apostle. "For it is God which worketh in you both the willing and the doing." Do you shrink away from the work, and say, "I cannot control these tempers. I am sold under sin. These tastes and desires are too strong for me?" But are they too mighty to be subdued by God's omnipotence? He worketh in you the willing and the doing. If you would ever quail before so vast an undertaking, with so many hindrances, and so little strength, consider that nothing is required of you without a promise in the Gospel to meet the case. An old Reformer used to have it for his Latin motto, "Only give what thou requirest, then require what thou wilt." You sink in despondency, and say you cannot work out your salvation. And you cannot, if there be no revealed methods, no warrants from above. You talk of God's will; but "this is the will of God, even your sanctification." Will you say that God cannot enable you? Will you forget the mercy-seat, where you can daily entreat according to daily necessities, and with a covenant covering all possible circumstances, and with promises set before you to plead ?

Then, understand the Apostle. God does work in you both the will and the work-both the disposition and the execution. It is all your security that he is the efficient power. It is infinitely better than to have had for yourself the full, supreme control. His being at the head, secures the connection between the means and the ends, where, else, you might have used the means in vain, as in your own worldly enterprises. Prayer applies all the divine resources and promises.

And God works in you of his good pleasure. This is an encouragement. Do I say that, because he works savingly and freely,

he works blindly, arbitrarily, without plan, without explanation? No. Are you only to know that he works, but all in the dark— no clue to his working? Not so. The good pleasure of his will is revealed; it is expressed in the Gospel. The Gospel is called "the good pleasure of his will, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." He works according to that gracious plan, of which Christ Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life. You have no salvation without Christ's work, yet none without your own work. And it is cheering to know, that this working in you God doeth, without those hindrances of the Devil which make your separate work miscarry.

And, remember, your salvation is not yet attained in the possession. It is set at the life's end, to command the highest energies of the lifetime. It is held out from the skies, to lift the soul up from the world. The man is to work it out, with a constant fear and trembling lest he fail, and lose so eternal a prize by negligence or ease. Remember; the promises of the Revelation are only for the man who endureth unto the end-who properly works out, to its consummation, what has been begun. If you desist, you give up all the splendid results.

And remember, too, that one's own salvation is to be worked out by all this personal, persevering labor, because the salvation is his own, and because this salvation itself shall be according to the deeds done in the body. A son may have an education given him, yet how different will it be, according as there is application and improvement, or not. One man may have a legacy left him, and yet how it may either be squandered or augmented by the daily conduct. Every phase and feature of each man's inheritance there, will bear the marks of his own labor here. It will be, in this high sense, according as he himself has wrought it out. For it must needs be this very soul of yours, as it is here exercised, disciplined, and expanded, that shall enter into rest, and its own works will follow it. I could ask you, then, if you have no care what kind of a salvation you shall work out for your own souls-whether it be like Paul's or like the dying thief's. You would care what kind of a fortune you shall work out-what kind of a name and character among men you shall work out. And when it is put with you to give a cast to the magnificence of your heavenly estateswhen you may now be daily laying up treasures in heaven-and when your capacity for that eternal enjoyment, and your position in the heavenly throng, are surely to be determined by your present living-can you be heedless of such a summons to the majestic work? Regard each day, each act of life, as to be projected on the scale of eternity. And how many ages upon ages must answer to each hour, and get a shape from its doings? Who, then, can desist from the work, or who can work it out without fear and trembling? My brethren, forget the things that are behind, and reach forth to those things that are before, and prESS TOWARD THE

MARK FOR THE PRIZE OF THE HIGH CALLING OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS.

What shall we say to such as have not begun this work? He that lays no hand to his own salvation, is laboring at his own perdition. He is working this out for himself. Late and early, at home and abroad, lying down, and rising up, this one thing he does. In thought, in word, in action, always industrious at this, he is never remitting it, but ever giving it some further perfectness and fulness. Amongst means of grace, and under calls of the Gospel, on Sabbaths and other days, without rest, whatever else he does or leaves undone, this he is working out-working out to its awful completion. No work of man was ever so elaborate, so life-long, so full of toil and persistency, and success. And at the end, it is his own perdition that is the creature of his own handiwork—the product of his own industry-the achievement of his own lifetime. Stop this work, we beseech you, and "strive to enter in at the strait gate." It is made your great duty to be saved-your great sin, and shame, and sorrow, to be lost!

POWER WITH GOD.

A FRAGMENT FROM A DISCOURSE BY THE EDITOR.

"As a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed."-GEN. xxii. 28.

THE GODLY MAN HAS POWER WITH GOD. Would that this truth were engraven indelibly upon every heart in which has been kindled the flame of divine love! Prayer is power to prevail with God. Viewed in this light, what a precious gift is it from heaven to men! It is a key to the storehouse of God. It opens the repository of heaven's choicest blessings, and brings them down to earth. Happy is he who possesses it. He has influence at the throne of God. He can move the arm that moves the destinies of the universe.

Christians who feel an interest in the conversion of their ungodly friends, seldom realize the amount of influence they possess at the mercy-seat. They do not take God at his word. They do not believe they have power to prevail with him. Their addresses to the throne of grace demonstrate their unbelief. They ask for small things; or if they pray for greater, they have little expectation of receiving them. Their language shows it. It is the prayer that will take no denial that prevails with God. It is the wrestling of Jacob. Jacob interceded all night with the Lord; and when the day dawned, and he was reminded that it was time for him to desist and attend to his flocks and herds, he replied, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." He was blest. God said to him, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob (that is, one who supplants another,) but Israel (warrior with God, as the name signifies); for as a prince hast thou power with God and with man, and hast prevailed."

Power with God! Oh, if his children believed, felt, realized this, what intercessions would they not make for an ungodly world! Power with God! Did the church feel this, as they ought, the moral foundations of the world would be moved, and the kingdom of the Messiah speedily and permanently established. They do not feel it. Why is it, when God seems almost to anticipate our faith, and to go before us in bestowing his blessings? Why is it, when we know they have received immediate and signal answers to our prayers for the impenitent? Why is it? How can we be so faithless, so skeptical, so ready to distrust God? Why,