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if needful, suffer for this great end." I have not heard such a practical,—such a truly Christian Gospel sermon for a long time.

-I notice, that in some men's mouths, evangelical sermons mean theological sermons,-wood, hay, and stubble sermons,―sermons without any Gospel in them; and that sermons which are evangelical indeed, they talk of as legal, moral, dry.

-Mr. Lynn preached on the fall of Jericho yesterday. It was quite a dramatic sermon, and it was plainly interesting to the congregation. I expect it was useful too. There was not much Christian truth in it, but it stirred the people's better feelings. It made them feel like doing something for God. The nonsensical theology introduced would not be understood I hope.

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-Heard Mr. T. Parsons preach a beautiful Christian sermon on Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." It was full of useful instruction and needful caution, and it was uttered in a truly Christian spirit. It did me good.

-Heard Mr. Scott on justification. He ventured to speak as the oracles of God." It was a thoroughly Gospel and Wesleyan sermon. He was plainer than he is in his pamphlets on that subject. I can't say he made the subject plain, for it was plain already in the Bible-but he left it plain, and that is saying a great deal. He said that the simple way for a man who believes in Christ, to obtain pardon and eternal life is, to do God's will. I distinguish between faith and trust; faith is belief; trust or hope is one of its fruits. People believe in Christ, and turn to God; then they trust in Christ and find peace. He did not state this point with sufficient clearness; and that was the only defect I saw in the discourse. How rich and how apt he is in Scriptural quotations and illustrations! I had rather hear one of his discourses, than ten of Mr. Allin's. And I had rather hear ten of his, than one of Mr. Allin's. I had rather hear one of Mr. Allin's, than ten; and I had rather hear ten of Mr. Scott's than one. I could listen to Mr. Scott the whole year round.

-I have just been reading a big book, nearly five hundred pages, on the way of salvation. The Scriptures explain the way of salvation in less than a thousandth part the space. "Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out ;" that's the first thing: "Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord:" that's the second. These two include the whole way of salvation. "Blessed is every one that hears the word of God and keeps it." This is both in one. Mystery makers would be a proper name for some theologians. "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin;" and there's a fearful multitude of words,-idle words, and mischievous ones too,-in that Book. "When will vain words have an end ?”

-Mr. Hatman preached on instantaneous sanctification last night. He was very confused, and, as I think, inconsistent in his remarks; and his arguing about the instantaneousness of sanctification seemed weak. Sanctification, in Scripture language, means, 1. Separation of things and persons from common uses, and consecration to sacred uses. 2. Purification. A man is sanctified in the first sense when he ceases to do evil, and begins to do well; and he is sanctified in the second sense in proportion as he is freed from inward defilement, from bad passions, bad tempers, bad dispositions, bad tendencies, and filled with love to God, to Christ, to God's people, to mankind at large, and to all things true and good. There is no mystery about sanctification. People are sanctified by God's truth. Christ's doctrine enters the mind, and is the means of changing both the disposition and the life.

Men are sanctified by the Spirit, using the truth as its instrument. They are sanctified by afflictions, used by God as means to bring them to think on the truth, and see its meaning, and feel its power. They are sanctified by faith, which is a belief in the Truth. They are sanctified by their own efforts," Cleansing themselves from all filthiness, both of the flesh and the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord." "For every one that hath this hope,-the Christian hope of heaven,-in him, purifieth himself even as God is pure. All this is perfectly plain. But where does the Scripture say anything about people being wholly sanctified, or perfected in goodness, instantaneously, by some

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particular act of faith? "But God can do it in an instant," said Mr. Hatman. But it is not all God's work. It is partly ours; and it is partly the truth's. Can man purify himself as God is pure, in an instant? God could make a babe into a man in an instant, for anything I know; but that is not His way. He allows it to grow gradually, first by the use of milk and exercise, and then by the use of stronger meat, and greater labors. And according to Scripture, this is His plan of bringing up spiritual babes to spiritual manhood. God could make seed produce a crop instantaneously, if He would, I suppose; but His plan is to let the grain grow and ripen gradually. And it is His plan, according to Scripture, to let the spiritual grain grow up and the spiritual harvest ripen gradually. And it is better it should be so. Gradual growth in knowledge and goodness is most conducive, I believe, to the happiness of man. I would not make a child into

a man all at once if I could. I would let him have the pleasure and the privilege of passing, in the ordinary way, through all the intermediate stages. Nor would I alter the arrangement with regard to spiritual growth. It is best to learn a lesson at a time. You might raise the dough quicker by gunpowder than by leaven or yeast; but I prefer to see it raised in the ordinary way. I am content to grow in grace and knowledge, as people grow in strength and stature. It is God's plan, and I like it. If anybody can pass from the gates of hell to the gates of heaven, from the bottom of the horrible pit to the top of the delectable mountains at a jump, let him; I prefer to trudge with ordinary pilgrims, and enjoy the pleasures of the journey, and the beautiful scenery of the road, at my leisure. The ways are ways of pleasantness; the paths are paths of peace;" and I enjoy them. And I would not for the world, make the impression on people's minds, that they are in danger of perdition, if they cannot skip across the universe from hell to heaven in no time. God likes spiritual children as well as spiritual men, though He would not have them to continue children. Why should preachers make things hard that God makes easy, and require impossible tasks where God asks only a reasonable service? Some folks have little minds, and some have

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crooked ones. That's my view of the matter. matter. I am charged with rejecting God's truth. The fact however is, God's truth is the joy and rejoicing of my heart. It is my pleasant food. But I do not like some people's manglement of that truth, and I sometimes think the manglers belong to the class of whom Christ said, “It were good for those men if they had never been born." They lay stumbling-blocks in men's ways, and cause them to fall into doubt, perplexity, and misery. I am a believer in sanctification,-full sanctification,-but I won't go beyond the Bible in what I say, either on this or any other point. I will go as far as the Bible, but no farther.

Christianity is love; and love prompts to diligence in all good works. To be a Christian is to have the mind of Christ; but the mind of Christ was a self-sacrificing mind. "He pleased not Himself," but lived and labored, suffered and died, for the welfare of mankind.

How seldom one hears a sermon on living for the good of others,-on loving our neighbors as ourselves,-on going about doing good. I have read sermons on those subjects; but I have not heard one for years. I have heard charity sermons as they are called, and missionary sermons, into which a remark or two on doing good were thrown; but a sermon on the subject I have not heard. Certain preachers talk about preaching Christ, but they preach any thing rather than Christ.

-I have just been reading a labored and foolish attempt to prove that Abel was accepted because he offered animals to God, and that Cain was rejected because he offered the fruits of the ground. There is no end to the nonsense that can be talked and written on religious subjects. Here is a man from whom one expected instruction and guidance, wasting his great powers in worse than idleness. It is a foolish and a dangerous thing to hang the doctrine of reconciliation or redemption on a slender hook, when there are strong ones plenty to hang it on. But it is not the Christian doctrine of redemption for which Mr. W. labors so zealously, but a theory, a crotchet, an invention of the elders. The doctrine itself requires no labored proof, not doubtful criticisms, no learned or unlearned inquiry into Greek and Hebrew etymologies. It lies on the surface of

the sacred page.

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"The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. "He died the just for the unjust, to bring us to God." "He died for all, that they who live should henceforth live not unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again." These theorists make Christianity disgusting by their metaphysical vanities, and their outlandish jargon. The idea that it is necessary for me to believe that Abel understood the Christian doctrine of redemption, is monstrous. There is no proof that Abel knew anything about it. The probabilities lean all the other way. It is a pity those self-satisfied theorizers have not something else to do, than to encumber religion and perplex good people by their miserable speculations.

-There's another book, one thousand two hundred and fifty pages, by a man that had real talent, and that could preach well when he took in hand practical subjects, and who had the appearance of a good man, and nine-tenths of this work of his is mischievous trifling. The clown at a theatre, the mountebank on the stage, are not so badly employed as theological triflers, who darken counsel by words without knowledge. It is not in prayer only, but in preaching and writing, that men should be in God's fear, and let their words be few.

Mr. Jones preached last night on Christ in you, the hope of glory. I can understand, 1. How Christ, in the sense of Christianity, or the doctrine of Christ, can be in us. We sometimes hear from people such expressions as: "He is full of Plato, or full of Seneca, or full of Shakespeare," when speaking of a man who has got his mind full of the sentiments of those writers. And I can understand well enough how Christianity, which brings life and immortality to light, should beget in men's minds a hope of glory. 2. I can understand how Christ, in the sense of Christ's spirit, temper, disposition, mind, can be in us. We sometimes say of a person who exhibits much of his father's disposition, He has got a deal of his father in him. And I can understand how Christ in us in this sense should be, or should kindle, the hope of glory. For the mind of Christ is man's fitness for