changes the qualities of the meal with which it is mixed, and renders it serviceable and wholesome for the use of man: so faith in Christ Jesus, when hid within the heart, converts it to the service and fits it for the purposes of God, and makes its various qualities, its hopes and fears, its wishes and desires, entirely different from what, without that leaven, they would prove.

Even the operation of the leaven, and the operation of the principles of the gospel, have a resemblance; both work silently, gradually, incomprehensibly.

Perhaps, at first, the leaven put into the heart was no more than a single thought, no more than this-I am here in a transitory state of being; every day I am reminded, by something which takes place among my neighbours, how uncertain my stay here is. And what will be the end? What shall it profit me if I gain the whole world, and lose my own soul? Such a thought as this may prove, under God's blessing, the first introduction of the leaven.

Another truth succeeds to this; "It is appointed unto all men once to die, and after that the judgment." "For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, to receive according to the things done in the body, whether they be good or bad." "Then the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." When the heart receives a thorough belief and conviction of this, another step has been gained in the operation of the leaven.

The next thought may be of this kind: "The Son of man shall come in his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations;" and at that time I shall appear among the rest. But "who shall abide his coming?" How many thoughts, and words, and deeds, which are contrary to the law of God, and which I cannot excuse or wipe away, will rise up against me in the judgment? Who shall reconcile us to God, and take away his just displeasure against sin? When thoughts like these arise in the mind, it is a sign that the leaven is working. Things future are so far realised, that we begin to prepare and provide against them. A person may know that he is in debt beyond the means of payment, and yet may continue much at ease, as long as the day of reckoning is uncertain, and at a distance. But when he looks closely into his affairs, and sees that he must be prepared with a certain sum against a certain day, and knows that he cannot raise that sum, then the friend who should step in and say, I have satisfied your creditor, trust to me for the payment, he would indeed be a welcome friend. Thus it is with the affairs of the soul: men are aware that they must die, but it is uncertain when that judgment follows, but it is distant; and that they cannot stand in the judgment, but they conceal from themselves the extent of their condemnation. Therefore the redemption which is in Christ Jesus is nothing to them they have a general notion of his religion, but as a Saviour to themselves, as a

T

Redeemer of their own souls, as a Deliverer from wrath which they are themselves about to feel, as all this, they are unacquainted with him. But when a view of the nearness of death, and of their own sinfulness, and of the strictness of judgment, is brought clearly before them through the influence of the Holy Spirit and the agency of God's word, then they are ready to close with the offer of the gospel, and to say, Save, Lord, or I perish! Be thou my shelter from the storm, my refuge from God, against whom I have offended! "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee;" seeth thee as the anchor of and the hope of my salvation.

my soul, When the heart vents itself in thoughts and prayers like these, the gospel is fermenting and spreading through the soul, and promises soon to leaven the whole lump.

But we must not suppose that the whole is yet leavened. There may be a strong sense of sin, and a true sorrow for it, and a glad feeling of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ: but much is still to be done; the image of God is begun, but not finished: the change in the heart has commenced, but must be gradually completed by the inward renewing of the Spirit, and the daily teaching of God's word. By degrees the Christian is enabled to set his affections on things above; to walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; to mortify his corrupt desires; to keep under his besetting sins; to deny him

self and take up his cross, if need be, in obedience to his Saviour. This must be done and continued with careful soberness, with daily selfexamination, with habitual prayer, till by degrees the whole is leavened, and made fit for the Master's use, as a vessel for his service here and his glory hereafter.

This subject affords an useful opportunity for examining whether the principles you profess have affected your hearts, and are working there. Leaven works in what it is mixed up with, till it produces a change: such a process must be going on in the heart of every Christian, till he is "renewed in knowledge, in righteousness, in holiness, after the image of Him who created him." The renewal will not be complete in the present world; the process will be continued during the whole of life; but no one should be satisfied whose conscience does not bear him witness that it is begun.

1

LECTURE XLIX.

PRIDE REBUKED: GUEST CHOOSING THE HIGHEST SEAT.

LUKE xiv. 7—14.

7. "And He put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when He marked how they chose out the chief rooms, saying unto them,

1 Col. iii. 10.

8. "When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;

9. "And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.

10. "But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.

11. "For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

IN the East, on festive occasions, it is usual to fill all the apartments with the acquaintances of the master of the house. Our Lord perceived the workings of pride, in the manner in which the more honourable seats were coveted: and He reminded them of the advice of Solomon, "Stand not in the place of great men : for better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen. But He enforced this by a general truth: Whosoever exalteth himself, shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted. The choosing out the chief rooms, the claim of precedence, is an outward act; but it springs from an inward source; that source is pride; and pride is not made for man."

66

The spirit of lowliness and self-denial which God approves, and which becomes mankind, is further illustrated by another example.

1 Prov. xxv. 6, 7.