This is the very state which our Lord describes, when he says, that " he came to seek and to save that which was lostq:" and, till we know ourselves to be thus lost, we never shall come to Christ aright. We must feel ourselves, like Peter, actually sinking in the waves, and, under a sense of our perishing condition, must stretch out our hands, crying, " Save, Lord, or I perish1."
The next, the second work of the Holy Spirit is, to reveal the Lord Jesus to us as the appointed and only Saviour of the world. For this also a divine agency is wanted, as much as for the humbling of our souls before God. We may indeed acknowledge, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the appointed Saviour. We may even contend for it as an article of our creed, and write learned dissertations upon it; but all this is widely different from that kind of view which the Spirit of Christ gives to the believing soul. It is not as a speculative truth that the Holy Spirit brings this to the mind, but as a matter of indispensable import- ance to every soul of man ; like that of pointing out the city of refuge to a man, who, hearing the pursuer of blood rapidly gaining ground upon him, feels that he must flee with all his might, if by any means he may attain the wished-for gate of safety, before the avenger shall have overtaken him.
The Spirit of God, as our Lord himself has ex- pressed it, " takes of the things that are Christ's, and shews them to the inquiring soul." He shews to us what Christ has done and suffered for a ruined world: that he has left "the bosom of his Father8," and assumed our nature, and " borne our sins in his own body on the tree1." He shews us, that Christ is also a living Saviour, sitting at the right hand of God to complete in heaven the work which he began on earth ; and that he is coming again in due season to receive us to himself, that where he is we may be also1'. He shews us, that our blessed Lord has, in all this work, accomplished every thing that was either
') Matt, xviii. 11. r Matt. viii. 25. s John i. 18.
« i Pet. ii. 24. u John xiv. 3.