observes, that "the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly s." This candle being duly trimmed, his way is made plain before his face ; and he is enabled to walk without stumbling : " He walks in the light, as God is in the light ;" and thus maintains sweet fellowship with God, and a sense of his pardoning love in Christ Jesus h. If at any time, through temptation or distress, this light burn dim, he cries to his Lord and Saviour, who has promised to send him fresh supplies of his Spirit ; and speedily does " light arise to him in his obscurity, and his darkness becomes as the noon-day1." Thus guided through his whole life, he arrives at last at those blessed regions, " whereof the Lamb is the lightk," and where "his Lord shall be an everlasting light, and his God his glory1."]
Application —
[You can easily conceive the difference both, in the feel- ing and the safety of one that walks in midnight darkness, and of one that travels in the light of the noon-day sun. O that all would make a just application of this thought to their own case, and resolve without delay to become followers of Christ"1!]
s Prov. xx. 27. h 1 John i. 7. ' Isai. lviii. 10.
k Rev. xxi. 23. ' Isai. lx. 19.
m John xii. 35, 36. Jer. xiii. 16.
John viii. 21. Whither I go ye cannot come.
THE generality of men conceive that there is no difficulty in securing heaven : and hence they use no efforts to obtain an entrance there. If told, that, in their present state, they could not by any means ob- tain admission to the Saviour's presence, they would account it a very uncharitable and unwarrantable assertion ; and would be as unable to account for it as our Saviour's hearers were when they asked, " Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come." But they consider not what kind of a place heaven is, or what state of mind is necessary for the enjoyment of it. It is certain, how- ever, that what our Lord again and again said to his