the experience of God's love shed abroad in his heart, and in the earnest and foretaste of his eternal inheritance, " are un- speakable and glorified'^" These joys are, " the white
stone, with a new name written on it, which no man can read,
saving he who has received if^" Michal could not
understand the exercises of David's mind ^ Nor can
any one fully estimate the blessedness of a soul, when thus ad- mitted to close communion with its God ]
Learn from hence —
[Contentment — (the very persons whom you envy, are
perhaps even envying you ) charity — (we can see the
outward act only, and can little tell what passes in the hearts
of men, whether in a way of humiliation or desire ■ — )
and earnestness in the ways of God ; — that you may attain the deepest measures of contrition, with the sublimest experience of joy. The lower we lay our foundation, the higher we may hope our superstructure shall be raised ]
^ 1 Pet. i. 8. See also Rom. viii. 15, 16. andEph. i. 13, 14. and iii. 18, 19. e Rev. ii. 17. ^ 2 Sam. vi. 16, 20—22.
Prov. xiv. 12. There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ivays of death^.
ON no topic do men express a greater confidence than on the subject of religion ; whilst that, of all subjects that can be offered to our consideration, re- quires most care in our inquiry, and most diffidence in our decision. All other subjects, as far as they can be determined at all, may be determined by reason ; and in the investigation of them, reason is to a certain degree free, both in its deliberations and decisions. But spiritual things must be spiritually discerned : they are out of the reach of reason. Reason must judge whether the things which are presented to it are revealed : but, when that point is ascertained, they must be apprehended by faith alone. Reason can tell us nothing about the mystery of redemption : it is faith alone that can apprehend that,
* This was written a great many years after that on Prov. xvi. 25. without any consciousness that the subject had been treated by the author before : and, though it goes over some of the same ground, yet as it contains much new matter, he has here inserted it.