and how strikingly in this instance was the prediction fulfilled, "Thy people shall be willing, in the day of thy power?" But if this be so, are not men mere machines. I would to God that all who read these pages were such machines-animated by the Holy Spirit, alive and active in the service of our Lord. The words of the Father to the Son (see Ps. 110:) do not read-thy people shall be made slaves, but shall be willing-shall be willingness itself in the day of thy power. The phrase implies that enmity formerly existed in their hearts, but now love produced by the power of Jehovah. And never, never does a believer exercise a freer act of choice than when he gives his soul away: when he commits it, as an invaluable deposit, into the hands of his Saviour for safe keeping. But the question is, what enables him to do it? The Spirit declares it to be owing to the omnipotent energy of the Godhead. Can He be mistaken on this subject, who "searcheth all things, even the depths of God?" Allow the writer to ask if many diciples of Christ who profess to believe the truth es 24 tablished from the word of God, have not heen for a long time very inconsistent? Have they not leaned more on the power of Truth, as presented by the ministers of Jesus, than on the power of the Spirit of holiness, for the success of the Gospel and the regengration of men? Is not this the great reason your fleece remains so dry-that the dews f heaven distil not on it? Most certainly. regeneration be owing to the divine power of the Spirit, and if the Lord will be of reconciliation has been generally and shelly neglected, what else could we, sistently with our own principles, expect? Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the ly calling," "pray for us," the ambas Christ, "that the word may run and do?" wid." Despise God, and you will be Honor Him, and he will was a "chose the t accompanieer Jacob saw; 1 1 But does not this subject tend to discour age those who are seeking in earnest the salvation of the soul? We reply with the apostle, that it is the principal, the only encouragement for them to persevere. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you to will, and to do of his good pleasure." And he must have but a very superficial acquaintance with himself who thinks by the power of his own will, or the strength of his own resolution, effectually to eradicate a single unholy disposition. But if the fountain be not dried up, can we prevent the streams from flowing abroad? Does not universal experience confirm the truth of the poet's words? "Weak and irresolute is man ; The purpose of to-day, Woven with pains into his plan, To the battle then against your spiritual foes, leaning on Him who has everlasting strength. Then the Captain of our salvation will cover your head in the thickest of the fight, and you be more than a conqueror." DISCOURSE II. "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, &c. Ez. 37: 1--14. The duty and manner of preaching to the unrenewed. In the preceding discourse we proved to you, from that infallible touchstone of truth, the word of God, that the application of divine power to the heart is necessary to the success of the gospel; that it was so needed even when preached by Paul, Apollos, and Cephas. Also, that in the work of regenerating the soul, the Holy Spirit does more than persuade by the truth, that he makes the people of Christ willing in the day of his power, by bending the will in unison with that of God, and changes the enmity of the carnal mind against God into supreme and habitual love. It was shown, in the application of the subject, that this, the scriptural ac count of regeneration, does not damp our efforts, in seeking salvation, but is the great encouragement for us to do so. And we sought to impress on the conscience of the christian that the great reason of the small success of the gospel was owing to the fact that we depended too much on the exhibition of truth by "the pastor and teacher," instead of unitedly praying to "God," by the divine power of his Spirit, to "give the increase." In the words selected you have the vision shewn to Ezekiel by the Spirit of God, together with the interpretation of it. In the first ten verses the vision is described. The prophet is in a valley, full of bones; and, after walking about awhile in this valley, he finds they are "very many, and very dry." Suppose we were in a large open valley, where a battle, severe and bloody had been fought, and the dead bodies of the slain had been left unburied the birds of prey, the worms, and the natural process of putrefaction having left nothing but the bones, bleeched exceeding white by the sun and rains of heaven-how melancholy would be our thoughts |