But for Him we should neither have the will nor the power to circumcise them.

But then, are we, as it were, to lie still, and leave it to God to form and mould us as He pleases, without any effort or exertion of our own ? No; that may hardly be, for we are bidden to circumcise our own hearts.

It is God that worketh in us. His workmanship must needs be better than any other: were it not well, then, to lie passive, and do nothing? No: for it is on the very ground that He worketh in us, that we are bidden to work out our own salvation, with fear and trembling. God's purpose is not to control our free agency. His object is, not to encourage our sloth, but to aid us in our industry; not to fight our battles for us, but to give us judgment, and courage, and strength to fight them for ourselves. He will do all for us, (if we will,) which we cannot do: but He will do nothing for us which we will not to have done. He will do nothing for us, which He who made us knows that, if we will, we can do for ourselves.

But now, all this being clear enough, I would come to that which is the practical part of the question, to the proof of our being earnest servants of God. Do we let Him work in us? God

is willing to circumcise our hearts. Are we willing to have them circumcised? "Circumcised." It is a strong word that. It implies pain, and the parting with a portion of ourselves. And those are things from which nature shrinks. Were it not so, we should not have so many warnings in God's Word as to our dangers in that direction. "Quench not the Spirit." "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God." "Neglect not the gift that is in thee." Now, then, what is your own case? You have hardly, it is to be hoped, passed into a new year without a careful, unsparing act of self-examination. Therefore, you must well know what your besetting sins are; you must have ascertained wherein your heart and will are least subjected to the law of God, for of these things the grieved Spirit hath spoken to you, alas! must I not say, year after year, through your conscience. has so spoken to you heretofore. So He speaks to you now. He speaks, and what is the effect, the result? When God would circumcise your heart, and cut away its evil propensities, do you shrink back, do you resist, or submit cheerfully, yea, aid the work with all your power? Do you guard against those obstacles, and impediments, and stumbling-blocks, that hinder the influences

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of the Spirit, and the growth of purifying, renewing, converting grace within you? Are you guarding against blindness and hardness of heart, whereby men set themselves resolutely against the hallowing, softening influences of grace ? Are you guarding against carnal security? For if God stands long knocking, He will at length turn away. It is not His business to wait our pleasure, but it is ours to watch for Him. Are you guarding against pride? It is only the meek that He will guide in judgment, only the gentle that He will learn His way. Are you guarding against a worldly, irreligious spirit? In such soil grace takes no root. Are you guarding against unbelief? not bold, shameless infidelity, (to which probably you have no temptation,) but that subtler form, which quietly sets aside the truth of God, and the law of God, as something obsolete, and unfitted for an enlightened age like our own?

O let this be the work of the year on which we enter to-day, to lay your heart open before God, to pray Him to circumcise it wholly, to cut away from it all that now offends Him. What of trial, what of bereavement, what of tears, what of pain may be sent to discipline us in the coming year, what of harassing doubt, or vexing uncertainty may come to test our faith;

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what loss of present privileges, what uprooting of ancient ties, what strifes and miseries, what troubles to the Church of God may be upon us, before we are permitted to see the close of another year, none can foresee: but the possible occurrence of any of these things, proclaims to us that not a day is to be lost.

O be we therefore diligent in prayer to Him, who alone is light and salvation, to mortify and kill all vices in us, to lighten our eyes that we sleep not in death. Let us wrestle with Him in prayer, like Jacob at Penuel, and He will not leave us without a blessing. He and He only can bless the coming year to us: He can bless our remaining years. He can make tears, and pains, and bereavements, yea, every loss, a blessing to us. Amid failing faith, and a darkening world, He can bless us still; bless us with the grace of stedfastness; bless us with strength to persevere, and patience to endure unto the end; bless us through clouds and storms; bless us through the dimness of departing day; bless us through the twilight; bless us through the night; yea, bless us more than heart can think or tongue can tell, at the coming of that glorious dawn, which shall usher in the noontide of eternity.

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

Sermons for the Christian Seasons.

THE EPIPHANY.

CHRIST THE LIGHT OF ALL THE WORLD.

ISAIAH Ix. 19. The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.

Ir is in these glowing words that Isaian, many hundred years before-hand, spoke of the call of the Gentiles, and the salvation that was to be offered to mankind. A bright and clear light after a time of darkness and obscurity, is the figure which he chooses to set forth the greatness, the glory, the blessedness of the change. "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee;" "for behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall rise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee." Men's hearts were either sunk in the deep sleep of ungodliness and self-indulgence, having lost