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backsliders in the sight of God. See that woman. If you could listen at the door of her closet, you would be convinced at once that she is not half in earnest. She keeps up the form of secret prayer very strictly, but there is no heart in it. Prays in secret? She mocks God in secret! She is a backslider.

2. You see the duty of church members to watch over young converts in love, and put them on their guard against the beginnings of backsliding. They should watch them, just as a mother watches her little child, to see that it does not go near where it will fall. Look out for them, and if you see them verging near the lines, warn them, "Beware! go not near that brink-hell is there." Ask them, early and frequently, "Do you pray now as frequently and fervently as you did? Do you love the Bible as much as you did?" And keep them on the guard, and thus prevent them from backsliding.

3. There is great reason to praise God for all that he does with his people when they backslide.

He follows them with stripes, till they return. He says, "If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes; nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail."

4. If any of you are in a backslidden state, or if you are a professor of religion and have these marks, and if God does not chastise you, and if you are still prosperous, you have reason to fear that you are given up of God. You have great reason to fear that you never were a child of God, and never knew the love of God, but are a hypocrite on the way to hell. How long have you been in this state? How long is it since you left what you call your first love? If it is long, and you are not yet chastised, you have reason to believe it is because you are a hypocrite. God is faithful, and he will chastise his children when they backslide. He has promised to do it, and he will not fail.

Or does God chastise you? If so, repent, before he chastises you any more. Do not wait for him to chastise you to death, or till he lets you fall into the snares of the devil, and into some grievous sin that shall disgrace and torment you as long as you live. Come back, O Backslider, come back to God. Seek his face, renounce your sin, and he will heal your backslidings, and forgive your transgressions, and bless your soul.

LECTURE XXII.

GROWTH IN GRACE.

TEXT.-" Grow in grace." 2 Pet. iii. 18.

THIS evening I must conclude all that I have to say at present on the subject of Revivals. There are several other subjects which I designed to discuss, but have not had time. It is possible that I may resume the subject in the fall if I live to return to the city, according to my present intention. One of the subjects which I fully intended to discuss, was that of EVANGELISTS, the importance of having such a class of ministers to be employed in revivals-their relation to the church and the ministry, the manner in which they are to be received and treated, both by pastors and churches, and the principles on which they ought to govern themselves in discharging the appropriate duties of their office. But at present, I have concluded that it would be better to conclude this course of lectures with a ser

mon on

GROWTH IN GRACE.

The term grace is used in the Bible in several different senses. When applied to God its meaning is not the same as when applied to man. Grace, in God, is synonymous with be

neficence. It is undeserved favor.

This is the sense in which
In men,

the term is used by theologians in reference to God. grace means holiness, that is the sense in which it is used in the text, and to grow in grace is the same as to grow in holiness, or to increase in conformity to God. In discussing this subject, I design to pursue the following order:

I. Show what is meant by growing in grace.

II. Mention some things which are not evidences of growth in grace.

III. What are some of the evidences of growth in grace.

IV. Show how it is to be done, or in what way Christians may grow in grace.

V. Mention some of the evidences of a decline in piety or grace.

VI. How to escape or recover from a state of decline in piety.

I. What is meant by growing in grace?

То grow in grace is to increase in a spirit of conformity to the will of God, and to govern our conduct more and more by the same principles that God does. God has one great absorbing object, that controls every thing he does. It is the promotion of his own glory by seeking to fill the universe with holiness and happiness. He does this by exhibiting his own character. And our object should be the same, to exhibit the character of God more and more, to reflect as many rays of the image of God as possible. That is, we must aim constantly to be more and more like God. To do this more and more is to grow in grace. In other words, it is to obey more and more ✓✓ perfectly and constantly the law of God. That is growing in grace, becoming more holy, or obeying God more fully and constantly.

II. I will mention some things that are not evidences of growth in grace, although they are sometimes supposed to be such.

1. It is not a certain evidence that an individual grows in grace, because he grows in gifts.

A professor of religion may increase in gifts, that is, he may become more fluent in prayer, and more eloquent in preaching, or more pathetic in exhortation, without being any more holy. We naturally increase in that in which we exercise ourselves. And if any person often exercises himself in exhortation, he will naturally, if he makes any effort or lays himself out, increase in fluency and pungency. But he may do all this, and yet have no grace at all. He may pray ever so engagedly, and increase in fluency and apparent pathos, and yet have no grace. People who have no grace often do so. It is true, if he has grace, and exercises himself in these things, as he grows in grace he will grow in gifts. No person can exercise himself in obeying God, without improving in those exercises. If he does not improve in gifts, it is a true sign he does not grow in grace. But on the other hand it is not evidence that he grows in grace, because he improves in certain exercises, for they will naturally improve by practice, whether he is a sinner or a hypocrite.

2. Growing in knowledge is not evidence of growth in grace. Knowledge is indispensable to grace, and growth in knowledge is essential to growth in grace, but knowledge is not grace, and growth in knowledge does not constitute growth in grace. A person may grow ever so much in knowledge and have no

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race at all. In hell no doubt they grow in knowledge but ever in grace. Their growth in knowledge constitutes hell. hey know more and more of God and his law and their own guilt, and the more they know the more wretched they are. They have more and more experience of God's wrath, but they never learn piety from it.

3. It is not evidence that a person grows in grace, because he thinks he is doing so. A person may be favorably impressed with regard to his progress in religion, when it is evident to others that he is not only making no progress, but is in fact declining. An individual who is growing worse is not ordinarily sensible of the fact. It is common for both impenitent sinners and those who are pious to think they are growing better, when they are no better. This is so, from the nature of the mind, as any one who will attend to the philosophy of the mind can see. If a person is growing worse, his conscience will become more and more seared, and his mind more and more dark, as he stifles conscience and resists light. Then he may think he is growing better, just because he has less and less sense of sin, and while his conscience continues to sleep, he may continue under

a fatal delusion.

It is manifest that where a professor gets the idea that he is growing rapidly in grace, it is a suspicious circumstance. For the best of reasons. To grow better implies a more clear and distinct knowledge of the breadth of God's law, and a growing sense of the sinfulness of sin. But the more clear an individual's views become of the standard, the lower will be the estimate which he forms of himself, because the clearer will be his views of the distance at which he still is from that pure and perfect standard of holiness to which God requires him to conform all his conduct. If he compares himself with a low standard, he will think he is doing pretty well. This is the reason why there is such a difference in people's views of their own state, and of the state of the church. They compare themselves and the state of the churches with different standards. Hence, when one complains of the church, and thinks his brethren are cold, another thinks it censorious, and thinks it strange that the other should find so much fault with the church, when they appear to him to be doing pretty well. The reason why he does not think the church is cold is that he is cold himself, and he does not feel his own state because he does not judge by the right standard, for he does not look at his life in the light of God's holy law. If a man shuts his eyes, he does not see the defilement on his person, and may think he is clean while to all around he appears to be loathsome. I have

always observed this to be true, that when persons are making, in reality, the most rapid advances in holiness, they have the most debasing views of themselves, and the humblest sense of their state. I do not mean, that those who understand the subject, and who know what are evidences of growth in grace, may not by reasoning or by comparing their present with their former views, feelings, and character, come to the conclusion that they are growing in grace. But that, if they should determine simply by their present views of what they are, and what God requires, if they should not reason on the subject, they would come to the conclusion that they were growing worse and worse. Individuals who were making rapid progress have often felt so, because they saw more and more clearly the standard with which they are to compare themselves. But yet, if they understand well what growth in grace is, and what are the evidences of it, when they set themselves down to reason about the matter, they may become convinced that they are growing in grace, although at the same time they will feel more and more humbled under a sense of their sins.

III. I will mention some things that are evidences of growth in grace.

I. When an individual finds he has more singleness of heart and more purity of motive in his conduct, it is evidence that he is growing in grace. I will explain what I mean. Even religious men are apt to be influenced in their conduct by a variety of motives, and some of them may be merely selfish. These motives together make up the complex whole that influences the individual to do a certain act. For instance, suppose a man is asked to give money to build a church in some particular place. He may have a variety of reasons for doing it. He may wish to see a more respectable house there on some account, or it may be so located that if built it will increase the value of his property, or he wishes to be thought liberal, or it may be an object with him to obtain the favor of that church and people. All or any of these may have some influence in determining his mind, and still, after all, a motive of greater weight than the whole may be a desire to save souls and to build up the kingdom of God. Here it is easy to see that some of the considerations which make up the complex whole, are selfish, and so far are wrong and wicked. Now sinners are only selfish in all that they do. And when men are converted, although their leading object then is to glorify God and save souls, yet when they are young in the Christian life, and weak in religion, ignorance and the force of habit will still keep them

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