advice legal. I trust I may never shrink from giving it. It can never be right to sit still in wickedness. It can never be wrong to say with Isaiah, "Cease to do evil." Whatever be your sin, resolve, by God's help, that to-morrow morning you will rise an altered man, and break off from that sin.-Whether it be drinking, or swearing, or Sabbath-breaking, or passion, or lying, or cheating, or covetousness,-whatever your sin and fault, determine, by God's grace, that you will break off sharp from it. Give it up without delay, and turn from it, by God's help, for the rest of your days. Cast it from you:-it is a serpent that will bite you to death. Throw it from you:-it is useless lumber;-it will sink the ship down to perdition. Cast away your besetting sin-give it up-turn from it-break it off. By God's help resolve that in that respect you will sin no more.

Reader, I think it just possible that you may be ashamed of repentance. I do beseech you to cast away such shame for ever. Never be ashamed of repentance toward God. Of sin you might be ashamed.-Of lying, swearing, drunkenness, gambling, Sabbath-breakingof these a man ought to be ashamed. But of repentance, of prayer, of faith in Christ, of seeking God, of caring for the soul-never, never, so long as you live, never be ashamed of such things as these. I remember fifteen or sixteen years ago, a thing that came under my own knowledge, which gave me some idea of what shame can do. I was attending a dying man, who had been a sergeant in the 7th Dragoon Guards. He had ruined his health by drinking spirits. He had been a careless, thoughtless man about his soul. He told me upon his

death-bed that when he first began to pray, he was so ashamed of his wife knowing it, that when he went upstairs to pray, he would take his shoes off, and creep up in his stockings, that his wife might not be aware how he was spending his time. Verily, I am afraid there are many like him! Do not you be one of them. Whatever you are ashamed of, never be ashamed of seeking God.

Reader, I think it just possible that you are afraid to repent. You think you are so bad and unworthy that Christ will not have you. I do beseech you once more, to cast away such fear for ever. Never, never be afraid to repent. The Lord Jesus Christ is very gracious. He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. Fear not to draw near to Him.-There is a confessional ready for you. You need none made by man. The throne of grace is the true confessional.-There is a confessor ready for you. You need no ordained man, no priest, no bishop, no minister, to stand between you and God. The Lord Jesus is the true High Priest. The Lord Jesus Christ is the real Confessor. None is so wise, and none so loving as He. None but He can give you absolution, and send you away with a light heart and in perfect peace-0, take the invitation I bring you. Fear nothing. Christ is not an "austere man." He despiseth not any. Arise this day, and flee to Him. Go to Christ and repent this night without delay.

3. My last word of application shall be an exhortation to all who have known what repentance is by experience. I address it to all who have, by God's grace, felt their

sins, sorrowed for their sins, confessed their sins, given up their sins, and found peace in the blood of Jesus Christ. What shall I say to you but this? Keep up your repentance-keep up your repentance. Let it be a habit of mind you watch over to the last day of your life. Let it be a fire you never allow to burn low or to become dull. Keep up your repentance, if you love life.

I do not want you to make a Christ of repentance, or to turn it into a bondage for your soul. I do not bid you to measure the degree of your justification by your repentance, or to suppose that your sins are not forgiven because your repentance is imperfect. Justification is one thing, and repentance is another. You must not confuse things that differ. It is only faith that justifies. It is only faith that lays hold of Christ. But for all that, keep a jealous watch over your repentance. Keep it up-keep it up, and let not the fire burn low. Whenever you find a slackness coming over your soul, -whenever you feel slow, and dull, and heavy, and cold, and careless about little sins, look to your own heart then, and take heed lest you fall. Say to your soul,

Oh, my soul, what art thou doing? Hast thou forgotten David's fall? Hast thou forgotten Peter's backsliding? Hast thou forgotten David's subsequent misery? Hast thou forgotten Peter's after tears? Awake, O my soul, awake once more. Heap on fuel, make the fire burn bright. Return again to thy God, let thy repentance once more be lively.-Let thy repentance be repented over again." Alas! how few are the hours in a Christian's best days when he does not make work for repentance.

Reader, keep up your repentance till the last day of your life. There will always be sins to deplore, and infirmities to confess. Take them daily to the Lord Jesus Christ, and obtain from Him daily supplies of mercy and grace. Make confession daily to the Great receive from Him daily absolution.

High Priest, and

Feed daily on the passover Lamb. But never forget that it was to be eaten with bitter herbs.

66

Sir," said

a young man to Philip Henry, "how long should a man go on repenting? How long, Mr. Henry, do you mean to go on repenting yourself?" What did old Philip Henry reply? "Sir, I hope to carry my repentance to the very gates of heaven. Every day I find I am a sinner, and every day I need to repent. I mean to carry my repentance, by God's help, up to the very gates of heaven.”

Reader, may this be our divinity, your divinity, my divinity; your theology, my theology! May repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ be Jachin and Boaz, the two great pillars before the temple of our religion, the corner-stones in our system of Christianity! (2 Chron. iii. 17.) May the two never be disjoined! May we, while we repent, believe; and while we believe, repent! And may repentance and faith, faith and repentance, be ever uppermost, foremost, the chief and principal articles in the creed of our souls!

Do you Confess? *

1 JOHN i. 9.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

READER,

The question which forms the title of this tract is at all times deeply important. Among the foundation-stones of saving religion, few deserve more serious attention than "confession of sins."

But there are occasions when circumstances give a particular importance to particular doctrines in religion. The assaults of enemies sometimes make it needful to exhibit some special truth with special distinctness. The plausible assertion of some error sometimes requires to be met by more than ordinary carefulness in showing "the thing as it is" in the word. A doctrine may perhaps be in the rear-rank to-day, and to-morrow may be thrust forward by the force of events into the very front of the battle. This is the case at the present time with

* An Annual Address for the year 1859.