ON THE COLLECT FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT.

A FEW days after the last conversation we had had with the blind woman, my friend Charles again called upon her, and the passage which he selected for reading to her, was the concluding part of 1 Cor. ix., which contains these words; "Know ye not, that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize?". I came in just as he had read this verse, and as he stopped on seeing me, I asked if he would, when he had read to the end of the passage, explain why, after having said that only" one receiveth the prize," St. Paul added, “So run that ye may obtain." "That I can easily," said Charles, "for I have just been hearing a sermon on this text, which made me understand it better than I ever did before. You see that St. Paul was writing to people who lived in

VOL. XX.

H

a city famous for the games, races, and other trials of skill, which were held there every year; and in which great multitudes of people, from all parts of the world, joined; but, of course, only one person in each race or game could gain the prize. Now he knew that they would easily understand him, if he wrote in this manner respecting the Christian life; for great numbers of them had professed to believe the gospel, had begun to lead new lives, and had showed much love to God with their lips; but not all of these would, as he feared, persevere in the way of life, so as to gain the prize which they were striving to obtain, the crown of glory in the kingdom of heaven. Out of the multitudes that set out as Christians, but few, he feared, would continue so unto the end of their lives, and he therefore wrote to warn them not to mistake the beginning of their course for an undoubted sign of being in God's favour, so as to presume, or become careless in their lives.

"O Charles," said the old woman, "your words remind me so of what I felt when I first began to think seriously about the next world. I seemed so sure that I never could go back to wickedness; I thought I was quite stedfast, and that nothing could ever tempt me to do any thing contrary to God's commandments. But alas! be fore a very few weeks had passed, I found that I was as corrupt and sinful in heart as ever, and that though I had left off some sins, yet the root of evil remained within; that evil tempers would break out when I was contradicted, and that discontent and murmuring at my lot often prevented me from being thankful for the unnumbered mercies I enjoyed. Now shall I tell you why I fell into these sins, against which I thought I was so secure? It was because I had trusted in my own strength; I had not relied on the Lord alone for help, I had neglected prayer for His Holy Spirit; I had forgotten to read the scriptures, where I should have found it written that Jesus said unto his disciples, Without me ye can do nothing."

"Now," said Charles, (turning to me,) "you will clearly understand the words we heard at Church last Sunday, in the collect which describes us as being sore let and

hindered in running the race that is set before us. The causes of this hindrance are there stated to be "our sins and wickedness," that is, the in-dwelling corruption which still remains in every child of fallen Adam, and will continue till the day of his death, for there will always be a struggle between the good and evil nature within us; Satan will strive to prevent us winning the prize of our high calling, and to make us choose the downward path that leads to destruction. We have no strength in ourselves to resist him, but we must call upon God to raise up his power, and with his great might to succour us, so that we may endure unto the end, and finally overcome our enemy.

"But," said the old woman, "there is another text which will help us to understand the collect you have mentioned: it is that passage in Heb. xii. 1; 'Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us.' I remember when I went to the Sunday school, as a girl, our teacher took great pains to show how sin was to the soul what a great weight would be to a man running a race, how it clogs and hinders us in all our endeavours to obey God; how it keeps us from looking stedfastly at the prize; how it makes us so weary in well-doing, that we are tempted to stop altogether, and not try any more to win the race. The lady who taught me, told me a story of a man who was trying to gain the prize from one of the swiftest runners that had ever been known, and knowing that he could not run so fast as he did, he tried another way to conquer him, and threw down before him some gold balls, which the other stopped to pick up, and when he had taken them, was too heavily laden to run fast, so that he lost the prize. This is just what Satan does to us; he tempts us with every sort of pleasure, or with the hope of gain, to stop in our way, and to forget we are trying to win the race. He puts so many earthly delights in our way, that we lose sight of the end of our journey, and think this is our resting place. He seeks to persuade us, that the crown we are striving for is not worth much trouble and pains, and that it is foolish to give up our present ease and worldly comfort, for the sake of distant and uncertain good."

"Ah! friend," said Charles, "well is Satan called the father of lies he tempted Eve by a lie, and will tempt all her children by the same means; and what is worse, they will believe him sooner than they will believe God, just as she did. But let us hear what a true servant of God said, just before he was going to suffer a cruel death. That could be no false hope that enabled him to look his sufferings in the face so stedfastly, and even to rejoice in them. He had run the race; and his experience is worth more than all the arguments of those who would persuade us that that the prize will not repay our toil. May we humbly tread in his steps, and though we can never do for Christ's sake what he did, or suffer as he suffered, we may yet be numbered among those who shall share the glory of heaven with him. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."—L. Š. R.

THE DANGER OF DELAYING REPENTANCE.

WHILST the scriptures give the glad tidings of mercy to those, who, by divine grace, have become truly penitent, and who are seeking to walk in newness of life, the same scriptures point out, in the loudest voice of warning, the danger of putting off the great work of preparation for eternity. When a man, in spite of all the exhortations, the invitations, the warnings, and the instructions set before. him in God's word, is still living in a course of sinful practices, or sinful negligences, still intending, perhaps, at some future day, to alter his course; let him think of his real state, his awful danger. He intends to repent at some future day. Why he may die, this day! Who would expose himself to so fearful a hazard; to die without repentance, without pardon, without the sanctification of the Spirit, that holy preparation, without which we are assured that no man shall see the Lord.

The present moment is the time for us to seek the Lord; there is no future time promised, to which we are allowed to put off the work; "now is the accepted time,

behold now is the day of salvation," 2 Cor. vi. 2. But suppose we could be sure that we should not yet be called to our account; yet, even then, to put off the work of repentance would be a ruinous determination; for though we believe that God will hear the prayer of the true penitent, who, in sincere faith, turns unto him, abhorring his sins, and coming with a broken and contrite heart, through Christ, for pardon; earnestly desirous of henceforth serving God in newness of heart and life: yet who can depend upon ever being brought to such a state of mind, that really penitent state, to which alone the promises of pardon are given? Such a state of heart is itself the gift of God, the work of his Spirit. Our heavenly Father has indeed promised, that he will give his holy Spirit to them that seek him; but he has not promised that he will give it to those who continue, and who deliberately resolve to continue, in a course of life, which they know to be entirely contrary to his will. When such persons, in the time of sickness, or at the approach of death, are compelled, as it were, to see the dreadful danger they are in-when they cannot help thinking of the world to come, and looking on the awful prospect of eternity; then indeed they tremble, at the thoughts of encountering the approaching trial, and are ready to call upon the Lord. The expectation of the wrath of God compels them to fear him; though all his past mercies could never lead them to serve him.

Now there is, indeed, grief for sin; now there is indeed, what the alarmed sinner believes to be repentance. But this is not the repentance to which the promises of pardon are given in the gospel; for in this vain repentance, there is no anxious wish to serve God, nothing but a desire to escape the severity of his anger. And can the sinner expect that he should then be heard, when he has hitherto rejected every offer of mercy, and resisted every `call' to come unto God, and to serve him?

I do not mean to discourage any one from seeking the Lord, even at the last hour; and the great Searcher of hearts alone can know where repentance is sincere, and when it is such as would lead to newness of life, if the sinner should be spared. To such penitence, the offer