and feel after the Saviour, and the light will increase; "for unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abundance."

I remember once to have visited the Washington Monument, in the city of Baltimore. I stood at its base and looked up to its lofty summit that towered high above me. I wished to ascend to its topmost pinnacle, and gaze upon the magnificent prospect that I knew must greet the eye of the beholder from that elevated point. My eye rested for a moment upon the lowermost step, and as I looked up the spiral stairway in that rock-built shaft, I discovered that but three or four steps were visible; the rest were shrouded in darkness. Just then the keeper, who saw how I was puzzled, placed a little lantern in my hand, which glimmered faintly around me. "Take that," said he," and mount the steps. It will conduct you safely to the top." I took the flickering lamp and began to ascend, holding it in such a position as to shed its light on the steps ahead of me; and upward and onward I urged my way, panting and almost breathless. Wherever I paused, there the light, which only revealed a few steps, lingered around me, until I advanced again. But, faint and feeble as it was, I found it sufficient for all my purposes, until at last I emerged from the gloom; the sunlight began to meet my upward gaze, and in a moment I stood on the summit, with a clear blue sky above me, the city lying at my feet, the canvas-whitened bay stretching away till "the steel-blue rim" of waters bounded the vision, while all around lay one of the finest panoramic views that ever greeted my eyes. The application is plain. Take the lamp of the gospel in your hand, and hie away to the cross. Don't stand still; if you do the light will tarry. Go forward. Improve grace, and grace will increase; you shall even have abundance. Press onward, discouraged though you may be, and it will not be long till you have reached the point "where ether pure surrounds, and Elysian prospects rise."

Divine enlightenment is a talent. It is the germ of eternal life. But patient persevering labor is necessary to its development. Neglect nips it in the germinant state. "Learn to labor and to wait."

Second. The lowest evidence of pardon is a talent, subject to this law.

The man who truly repents-that is, becomes so sorry for sin, under the divine enlightenment, as to give it up and turn away from it, needs nothing but simple faith in Jesus Christ, as his Saviour, to

bring him into a state of forgiveness and acceptance with God. "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted to him for righteousness." "Christ is the end of

the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." “Abraham believed God, and it-his faith-was counted to him for righteousness." It is not a sinner's tears, or prayers, or promises, or sufferings, that saves him; it is his faith. He gives up his sins; confesses them to God; asks God for Jesus Christ's sake to forgive him; and firmly believes in his heart that what God has promised for his Son's sake he most surely will perform. And standing at that point, he lays the hand of faith on the atoning victim, and he finds God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. God's anger is turned away. He can be just, and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. Now, if that penitent sinner firmly believes that God for Christ's sake does accept and forgive him, his faith is "counted," "imputed," "reckoned" unto him for righteousness or justification. And when this act of pardon passes in the mind of God, if the believer instantly receives a full and overpowering sense of forgiveness, attended by a large measure of joy, and a spirit of rejoicing, then the gift of pardon is accepted; it is appreciated; and there arises with it a sense of indebtedness to God for his abundant mercy and goodness, and a purpose of heart to love and serve him. But, if the sense of pardon is not very decided; if it barely amounts to a faint persuasion in the mind that God for Christ's sake has pardoned the sinner; if it is unattended with joy and rapturous delight; if there is no outward manifestation in the way of rejoicing, then it is often treated as the wicked and slothful servant treated his one talent: it is buried, and the work of grace ceases, or goes backward in that heart.

Now I hold, and I am very certain the view is scriptural, that the removal of condemnation, or the conscious sense of guilt, from the heart of the penitent who confesses and forsakes his sins, and who stands by the cross of Christ, trusting in God's promise of forgiveness to him that works not but believes, is to be received as a low evidence of justification; and that the new creature-the new creation-begins from the mysterious change which is then and there wrought in the soul by the divine energy of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. This state is always attended with a degree of peace, and the subject of this inexplicable moral transformation realizes that "there is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus;" and that

"being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Now, the position which I have assumed as scriptural is, that in the absence of joy, or the spirit of rejoicing-in the absence of any outward demonstration whatsoever-the simple calm, the peace, however small, received as indicated above, should be taken as a precious and invaluable talent; and that the recipient of this high trust should address himself to the work of improvement, with the assurance that "unto him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance." The fact that the measure of grace is small-is one talent instead of five-does not relieve the servant from the duty of using and improving that talent. He is under the same obligation precisely to improve the one talent, as the more highly favored servant is to improve the two or five with which he may be invested. With the larger number of talents there is greater responsibility; and the servant who has but one talent will find it quite as easy to improve that one as for the servant who has two or five to improve the greater number intrusted to him. God knows our "several ability," and he does not lavish his grace improvidently upon us. He knows what we are capable of using successfully. He does not impose responsibilities upon us that we are not able to meet. We should therefore accept thankfully what he designs to give, and go to work to make the best of it. God knows far better than we how much he can trust to our improvement; and there is a species of arrogance and presumption on our part in presuming to dictate to him what measure of grace shall be meted out to us in our conversion. It is wicked and offensive in any one to murmur and complain against the master because he does not give two or five talents instead of one. The lowest evidence of pardon may be improved and cultivated until it shall ripen into the most abundant and satisfactory assurance. mists of doubt will vanish before the rising sun; the clouds that skirt the horizon will dissolve into thin air, and the great spiritual luminary will ascend higher and still higher, until in unclouded splendor he culminates in meridian glory, and pours a flood-tide of light and blessing upon the enraptured heart "filled with all the fulness of God." "To him that hath shall be given"-given in abundance; given in exceeding abundance; above all we can ask or think.

The

But if we cast away our confidence; if we doubt our acceptance because it is not attended by the degree and kind of evidence we an

ticipated; if we reject and despise the little because we expected much; if we bury the one talent because it was not five, we shall lose all; even that which we have shall be taken away from us. How many who have been pardoned and regenerated, have failed of the grace of God and gone back to the world, to realize at the last the fearful doom of the apostate, simply because God did not give that sort of evidence of conversion, or that measure of evidence which the beggar demanded! One rejects peace, and even a small degree of joy, because it did not break upon his dark and benighted soul like a blaze of lightning upon the gloom of midnight. Another is dissatisfied with the removal of all guilt and condemnation, because he was not so filled with the love of God at the moment as to shout aloud and praise God in the congregation. This is the part of the slothful and wicked servant.

Take what is given with a grateful heart. Bless God that he can trust you with anything. Accept a dime, a penny, and go to work. Turn it over to the best advantage. It will multiply. Labor and activity is the law of spiritual progress. Your capital stock will increase, and increase too with astonishing rapidity. You may become rich in grace and good works. There can be no failure here. Hundreds and thousands have commenced the religious life with a single talent of grace in conversion, and have become eminent Christians, deeply experienced in the divine life, and have attained a power of faith, and an acquisition of the Christian virtues-patience, meekness, love, longsuffering, and charity that has entitled them to the highest rank among the saints of God on earth, "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." Then trifle not with even the lowest evidence of justification. Prize it highly. It is all that God can safely commit to you for improvement. But remember, it is susceptible of endless development. And as the broad and majestic river may be traced to its source in some quiet dell, where the noiseless fountain oozes from the bosom of the earth beneath the shade of some moss-covered rock, and creeps silently away half concealed by the velvet turf, sparkling for a moment in a stray sunbeam that here and there steals through the overhanging foliage: so the glorified saint may survey his spiritual career from the mount of holy vision, tracing it back to its commencement in a quiet serenity that stole over his anxious soul while engaged in prayer; or to a transient emotion of joy that thrilled

for a single moment the tense chords of his heart, touched by the ethereal fingers of the Holy Spirit; or to a momentary emotion of love to God and his people that lifted his affections from earth to heaven, lasting, it may be, only long enough to be fully conscious of the existence of the peace, the joy, the love, and then was succeeded by tedious intervals of doubt, depression, and gloom; to a beginning so small he may trace the unspeakable blessing of eternal life which crowns his immortality in glory.

However desirable it may be to enjoy an overwhelming sense of pardon and regeneration at the moment the great work takes place— an evidence that banishes all doubt, and leaves the mind in a state of full assurance-it nevertheless often happens that early Christian experience is mingled with much fear, perplexity, and doubt; and too many are discouraged and cast away their confidence simply because it is weak; because it is one instead of five talents; because it does not compare favorably with some familiar instance of Christian experience recorded in religious biography, or with that of a pious friend narrated in private conversation.

And yet, a careful scriptural examination of the subject, would reveal the interesting fact, that the change effected, and the evidence furnished, differ only in degree, not in nature or substance; in quantity, not in quality. The responsibilities imposed, in each case, are proportioned to the measure of grace imparted; and "he that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much."

Let the timid doubting Christian take encouragement. He does not serve a hard master. God requires no impossibilities. Diligence will certainly be crowned with reward; while simple neglect will ultimately be followed by an utter deprivation of all that was originally given: "For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away, even that which he hath.”

III.-The capacity for usefulness in the church is governed by this law.

This department of the subject furnishes abundant illustration of our proposition. The humblest and the highest ability are alike subject to this law.

In the distribution of gifts for improvement in the church, the