smiles. O for more filial love, O for a brighter flame of this heavenly grace. Sometimes when there is a mere spark in the fire-place, we carefully nurse it till we make it burn in a lively manner. Is there a little coal from the altar upon my heart? O may I fan it into a brighter burning to the honour and glory of my God.

I will mention one thing more. He is a Spirit of grace and supplication. What a powererful excitement to prayer, is the command to pray "with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit." We are thus eminently instructed to have dealing with God, that he may deal with us. All that we need he will first teach us to ask for. I find it an unspeakable comfort to remember that if I want anything of the Lord, the Holy Ghost is ready to instruct me how to pray for it.

FRAGMENT XII.

BAPTISM.

WHENEVER we are dedicated to the Lord in this solemn ordinance, whether in the time of infancy or in riper years, the real design of it is

precisely the same. Every baptized person is a dedicated person, given up to God the Father, Son, and Spirit, to live to his glory. This is the intention of the ordinance, and you are guilty of the sacrilege of taking from God what he has a right to demand, if you renounce your baptismal covenant and give yourselves up to sin. You are guilty of most solemn mockery if you claim the privilege of persons baptized, and do not live to the Lord. Some one may say, "I am not answerable for what was done in my infancy." Rather say, "I was baptized in my infancy, and now I am come to riper years I would recognize the act before God, and devote myself to him. What was done by the will of another I now bless God for; I was dedicated to him, and may I dedicate myself to his praise and glory for evermore." If you were baptized in riper years, the same duty belongs to you. To receive the "washing of regeneration," and to give no evidence of the "renewing of the Holy Ghost," is merely to receive the sign while the reality is wanting. What avails the water of baptism applied to the body, if we are without the living Spirit brought home to our hearts? "Such," I may say with the apostle, were some of you; but

ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

We may be baptized, and re-baptized, and re-re-baptized a thousand times over, but if we are not "baptized by the Holy Ghost and with fire" by the living God, it will avail us nothing. Remember your baptism, brethren, and give yourselves up to the Lord. You find it difficult. Where is the difficulty? Only in the hardness of your hearts, which have revolted from God to seek after vain things, instead of the blessings that are to be found in him. I knew an excellent minister, now with God, who had a large and pious family. He used to make it a point every Sunday, to remind his children of the time when he devoted them to God in baptism. I believe he had not a single child that did not become an honour to his profession. Do you, my hearers, continually follow his example in your families, and you will find it a great blessing to your children, and probably to your children's children. But alas how many love their lusts too well. O that you could every one say, with reference to that Trinity in whose name you were baptized, "I give myself up to Thee, O

1 Cor. vi, 2.

Father; O Christ, let thy blood be sprinkled on my conscience; and O God the Spirit, make me spiritual in thy sight." May the Lord bring these things convincingly home to your hearts, and enable you to keep constantly before your eyes the vow made for you at your baptism, that you may be dedicated to God.

FRAGMENT XIII.

PRACTICAL VIEW OF THE DIVINE

PREDESTINATION.

"O THE depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out." I could more easily fathom the depths of the vast ocean which God has spread over the earth, by plunging my finger into its waters, than I could measure with my puny powers the depth of the divine understanding. Let us then be silent before God, for "who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor?" Insects such as we are, cannot 1 Rom. xi, 33.

know how God manages his great designs, "of whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen." These considerations should at least teach us the grace of modesty before God, and to remember that while what is revealed is our duty, what is not revealed can be no concern of ours. If we believe our bible, we must take its words, however strong, as we find them. Now in the eighth chapter of St. Paul's epistle to the Romans, we are told "that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose; for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate." This is in the eye of some persons a very hard word, but to me it is most pleasant; I would not be without it for the world, for to it there is added "to be conformed to the image of his Son." Hence by the transformation of my mind, I have in me an implantation of the mind of God! Whenever the word predestination is mentioned, the Lord means some wonderful power of grace upon the heart, as in the context to the passage already quoted-"moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also

2 Rom. viii, 28, 29.'