fruit of the Spirit is in all righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord; and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them;" "Come out from her, my people, that you be not partaker of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Does he shrink before this judgment of the written word, and say, "Behold I have sinned?" No: he smiles at such precision; it is very well for those that think so; a little pharisaical, however, and withal ostentatious; and he raises his head the higher, in conscious freedom from such narrowing prejudice. The word of God is not the rule by which he judges of his actions.

Is it the rule of his religion? It is written, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father but by me."*

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Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."+ “There is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." + "Whosoever trans

John iv. 6.

+ Ib. iii. 3.

+ Acts iv. 12.

gresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, nor bid him God-speed; for he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”* This and much more is written a whole volume is written with the pen of inspiration, to show that there is but one religion, but one Saviour, but one way of salvation, one truth, one gospel, for all to whom it is sent. Is this the religion of the world's good man? Is it that on which he frames his prayers, and builds his eternal hopes, and walks so confidently towards his end? He knows and God knows. We cannot read his heart, but such is not the language of his lips. He calls it prejudice and narrow-mindedness: if he denies not this one way of salvation, he at least knows many other ways; so confidently speaks he of the state of those who never

2 John x. 11.

walked in this. The religion of his teachers, his friends, and most probably his own, is not the religion of the gospel; but they are very religious notwithstanding; and those who doubt it, manifest, as he thinks, a most harsh, ungenerous judgment; as if one set of people, and one set of opinions only, could be acceptable to God. Yet Christ has said it, and the Holy Spirit has said it, and all who have written under his inspiration have said it too. Of him who denies it, what can we say, but that the word of God is not the rule by which he regulates his own principles, and measures the principles of others. And what is the standard that is taken instead? The same it has been from the beginning-reason, tradition, the authority of his fathers, and the maxims of society. To the natural man it seems so improbable the path of life should narrow one; so very unlikely, a few persons only, and they not seemingly the best, should be walking in light, while the multitude sit in darkness: it is in vain, the Scripture

be a

says it is so. The best men that live, and the best men that have died, think and act differently; and it appears so much more consonant with human reason, and divine legislation, that each man, walking uprightly according to his conscience, should be justified in the religion he professes, the natural man entirely disregards what the Scripture says of those, who, going about to establish their own. righteousness, refuse to submit themselves to the righteousness of God.

What a contrast does such a character present to the image of our Lord! Can a man thus acting, thus thinking, be so deluded as to suppose he is walking in Jesus' footsteps; in his who never acted, never spoke, but with the word of God in his mouth, and its rule in his heart; who, Deity as He was, never reasoned when his Father had spoken? In his own beautiful discourse on the mount, He himself drew the contrast between the laws of the world and the laws of his Father, the authority of men and the authority of God. Throw

ing spiritual light on the written law, speaking in the name of his Father, "The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me," how does his immutable "I say" stand for ever opposed to the "It has been said," and "Ye have heard," of this world's reasonings and conclusions.

Is it not strange, that in the face of such an Example, any one who professes to admit its divinity, or even its moral perfectness, should conceive that they evidence an acuter intellect and a nobler spirit, by what is called independence of opinion and thinking for themselves? Man has no right to an independent opinion on any subject whatever, unless it be one on which the Scripture has not spoken, or has spoken so obscurely as to leave a reasonable doubt of the meaning of the words; and then only as to what is said, never whether what is said is meant. It is of course, that God not only expressed his real meaning, but that He chose the most accurate language to express it in. And whoever forms an opinion in oppo