is the same as either to decline in grace, or not to be in a state of grace at all. We must go on or go back; if we exercise the Christian dispositions, they will be more and more strengthened like other habits; if we do not exercise them, the contrary dispositions must necessarily prevail, and to produce the one effect, you will have the assistance of God, to produce the other, the assistance of the Devil.

Remember therefore, my brethren, that if you do not settle it with yourselves as a determined thing, that you will, by God's help, always endeavour to " grow in grace," that is, to advance and improve in religion, you will have no religion at all, or what you have, you will soon lose.

you had

Now would it not be a mockery in some of you, to say that grown in grace during the year that has so nearly closed? What! the same corrupt unrenewed hearts as ever, and yet grown in grace? The same worldliness, and pride, and vanity, and covetousness, and sensuality, and profaneness, and malice, and yet any attempt at growing in grace," and in the knowledge of our Lord, and Saviour Jesus Christ!" for so my text concludes. These too are important words, which I am not able to dwell on now, having sufficiently occupied your time in speaking of the necessity of religious advance

ment in general; you must apply all that has been said to the Christian religion. But let me entreat you to consider for a moment before you depart, and to ponder deeply with yourselves in private, whether you can pretend seriously to have grown at all in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, of Him whose birth we profess to celebrate so joyfully and thankfully? Have you acquired or ever sought any knowledge of Him in any one respect? Have you known Him as your Saviour, and with an humble conviction of your sinfulness, and with faith in Him, implored of God, the benefit of his atoning merits? Have you known Him as your Lord and Master, and diligently obeyed His commands? Have you known Him as your example, and arrived at a conformity with that holy image? Have you known Him as your Intercessor, and approached with boldness and frequency to the throne of grace, feeling comfort and confidence from the thought of having Him as a Mediator there? Now if all these things are "Parables" to you, if you have attended to what has been said, and are conscious that have you not (as will be the case with many) even begun in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, then you have not only lost a year, but the whole of your past lives. It is an

awful reflection! But I must refrain. You who most need to be addressed on such subjects, are quite wearied already; you make light of all serious things, and scoff, most probably, at those who strive to impress them on your minds. Well, time will reveal who is right; it hastens on, while some laugh, and others are grave; we cannot stop it; only a few more such years as we have passed already, or perhaps not one more, and the night will have closed upon us, that night in which no man can work; nothing can be retrieved, it will be decided for ever, one way or the other; take one more thought then, whether it would not be wise to come this very day, to a deliberate and solemn determination, concerning the truth or falsehood of all that is so often preached to you. If you decide it to be false, cast off all shew, form, and pretence of religion; but if you are persuaded it is true, may God give you grace speedily to put on the reality; for the time measured out for you may be nearly come to an end. "Yet a little while the light is with you; walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you." The best The best prayer

I can offer you, and with which I shall conclude, is this, may you this day begin, and every day henceforward "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Amen.

SERMON XIX.

GROWTH IN GRACE.

2 PETER iii. 18.

Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

IN my former discourse, I dwelt almost exclusively on the first clause of my text, "Grow in grace," and endeavoured to shew you the importance of a continual progress in spiritual improvement, of an unceasing advance towards religious perfection. We may see by our own natural reason, that there can be no resting-place at which a man may stop, and contemplate himself, as being now a finished Christian character. It is absolutely impossible to fix any such boundary to the powers of the mind. It has pleased