blessings; and you will in some blessed degree serve your generation according to the will of God. Having tasted that the Lord is gracious, you will follow the example of David, and say, "O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is He that trusteth in Him;" or, like the first Christians, you will say, "That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." And not only does experience of Divine things excite a man to this, but it also qualifies him for it. It comes with more efficiency from him. What comes from the heart is most likely to reach the heart. Such can speak with more confidence, for he has the witness in himself. He can speak with more tenderness, as he can speak from experience; and God often brings His people into outward disrespect, and exercises them with inward trials, that He may give them the tongue of the learned, that they may know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.

Well, you see there are some whom you should consider your best friends: they are the godly. The godly walk with God; they have power with God.

If you had a long and trying journey in prospect, and a multitude of persons surrounded you, you would prize those most who had been the way and could give you the information required; you would be willing to part with the rest to be alone with them. So we read of some who take hold of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, "We will go with you, for we perceive that God is with you;" and it is God you want. "Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord, the shield of thy excellency? And thine enemies shall be subdued unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places." "Remember me, O Lord, with the favour which Thou bearest to Thy people. O visit me with Thy salvation, that I may see the good of Thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation, that I may glory with Thine inheritance." Amen.

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XV:

THE WAY OF GOOD MEN.

(Delivered on Monday Evening, September 16th, 1851.)

"That thou mayest walk in the way of good men.”—PROVERBS ii. 20.

SOLOMON is here admonishing his son, and the purpose of his admonition is this: to dissuade him from the way of evil men, and to encourage him to walk in the way of good men. "When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul, discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee, to deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man who speaketh froward things; who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths; to deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words, which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. For her house inclineth to death, and her paths unto the dead. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life." Then come the words, I will not say of our text, for I am not now preaching, I am only talking upon these occasions. Now if we take in the twelfth to the twentieth verse as we have just quoted, we shall see that Solomon opens before his son two ways-the way of evil, and the way of goodness; the way of the flesh, and the way of the Spirit; the way of life, and the way of death. And we may add what our Saviour Himself said concerning these two ways: Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, which leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life; and few there be that find it." may observe two things with regard to these two ways. The one is, that all mankind without exception are walking in

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the one or in the other of these. They who are not walking in the way of good men, are walking in the way of evil men. There is no neutrality here. We walk either after the flesh or after the Spirit. We either mind the things of the flesh or of the Spirit. And, "to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." "We cannot serve two masters, for either we shall love the one and hate the other, or else we shall cleave to the one and despise the other; we cannot serve God and mammon." If we love the world, the love

of the Father is not in us.

And the other is: It is not enough for us to avoid walking in the way of evil men; we must walk in the way of good men. Religion is not made up of negatives. We must not only cease to do evil, we must learn to do well. We must not only deny ungodliness and worldly lusts; but we must live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world. Religion is positive as well as negative; that is, it commands as well as forbids. Omissions, therefore, are as criminal as transgressions. Indeed, they are transgressions. Why, the disobedience of the servant appears as much in his refusing to do what his master enjoins, as in doing what he forbids. The tree that brought forth no fruit, if it yielded no bad, was cut down and cast into the fire. The servant that hid his talent in the earth did no harm with it, if he did no good; but it is said, "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Be not satisfied, therefore, with negative religion, if I may so express it. What is it if you never swear, if you do not pray? What if you never worship and serve the creature, if you do not worship the Creator? What if you do not oppress the poor, if you do not relieve them ?

Where do you find the good men referred to in the words before us? Who are they, since the Saviour has said, "There is none good but one, that is God"? He only is essentially good, universally and infinitely good. But if there were not some good men to be found even in such a world as this, the various references in the Word of God would be futile and absurd. There are persons who like perpetually to dwell upon the representations of the people of God which are relative, and which turn upon their privileges, such as "chosen,” “pardoned," "justified," "redeemed," "preserved," and so on. But they do not like those representations which are personal, and which regard their character, such as "humble," "spiritual," ,'godly," "good." I have known many who object especially

to the term "good." But we find it in the Word, and that is enough for us. We find it in the Old Testament. "Do good to them that are good." "The Lord shall be with the good." And again, "A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children." In the New Testament, Barnabas is called "a good man.' We read of the lovers of good men. Our Lord Jesus was not backward to use the word; thus He said, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart."

We might here just remark that there are none who are absolutely good. Says the apostle, "the Scripture hath concluded all under sin," both Jews and Gentiles. For there is no difference. All have descended from the same fallen original. "And who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." Men are naturally not in different states, but in different degrees of the same state. They are all fallen, guilty, and depraved. They are all going astray, but each turns aside to his own way. Alas! there are none who are completely, who are perfectly good.

There are some, indeed, who have pretended to it, and some who have viewed themselves as such. What are we to do here? Mr. Wesley says, But some will ask me, Are you perfect? "No," says he, "far from it. But I have met with persons entitled to credence and integrity, who have assured me that they have lived so long without sin, and that for a considerable time they have not had a sinful thought." How is this?

In a general way we suppose the most holy persons are the most humble. "I am sure," says Newton, "if an angel were sent down from heaven to find out the most advanced Christian, he would fix upon the man who had the most exalted sentiments of the Saviour, and the most abased views of himself." If ever a man could say he was perfect, I think the Apostle Paul was that man. But Paul, with all his attainments and advancements, says, "I have not attained." I am not already perfect, though I am seeking after it. "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Yet he is the man who says, "When I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”