[Beloved brethren, let not a clay pass without your having some divine lesson written more clearly and more legibly upon your souls. Bring your hearts daily to the Lord Jesus Christ, and present them as a tablet to him, that he may write upon them something which they have not hitherto contained. And when you come up to the house of God, come, not to gratify curiosity, or to perform a duty merely, but to spread your hearts again before the Lord, that, by the instrumentality of his minister, and the operation of his word and Spirit, he may inscribe on them some further lesson, which shall attract the notice of an ungodly world, and constrain them to acknowledge that God is with you of a truth. If there be a blot upon your hearts, entreat him to erase it : and whatever is but indistinctly written, entreat him to trace it over again and again, till it shall appear in charac- ters worthy of the Divine Author, and convey to all who behold it a decisive proof of its divine original. And, at the close of every day, examine the contents of the epistle, to see what progress has been made, and what yet remains to be added for its perfection. Nor ever forget by whom the characters must be inscribed : it is " by the Spirit of the living God," and by the Lord Jesus Christ through him. If you look to any other quarter, you will be disappointed : but, if you go to Christ for the gift of his Spirit, and desire really to have his whole mind and will written upon your hearts, it shall be done ; till you are " changed into his image from glory to glory by the Spirit of our God."]
2. Endeavour to exhibit the whole mind of Christ to a careless and ungodly world —
[Let there not be seen in you those tempers and dis- positions which dishonour the Christian profession, and make the Gospel a stumbling-block to the world. In too many professors of religion there is little seen but pride, and for- wardness, and self-confidence, and loquacity, and unchari- tableness, and a disputatious temper, and a party spirit. But are these the characters inscribed by Christ ? No : but by that wicked one, who counterfeits the hand of Christ, on pur- pose to bring him and his Gospel into general contempt. Whatever there is of such dispositions within you, get them obliterated without delay ; and all the graces of humility, and meekness, and love, inscribed in their placed. People vfill judge of our ministry by the lives of those who attend it; iind will impute to our doctrines every evil which they can find in you. This is unreasonable indeed : but they will do so ; and we cannot prevent it; and if they see in you what is
<i Col. iii. 12. 13.
2006.] THE EXTENT OP MAN\s IMPOTENCY. 445
odious, they will represent it as the necessary fruit of the system you profess. Take care then that " the way of truth be not evil spoken of through you." Endeavour rather so to " make your light shine before men, that all who behold it may glorify your Father which is in heaven:" yea, "let it fehine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day."]