volving others in the consequences of the transgression. Nor does the head of a community, or of a State, or of any other associated body, commit errors and crimes without a diffusion of the attendant misery through the subordinate parts of the association. In other words, an union or association of relations and interests, whether it be established by ourselves or by that higher Being with whose wisdom we ought ever to be satisfied, necessarily induces a common liability to error, suffering, and punishment.

And in accordance with this view, we may very properly, sincerely, and deeply mourn over those various infirmities and imperfections, which flow out of our connection with an erring and fallen parent, although they are very different in their nature from deliberate and voluntary transgressions; and may with deep humility make application to the blood of Christ, as alone possessing that atoning efficacy, which can wash their stains away. In other words, God is to be regarded as righteous in exacting from us whatever we could or might have rendered him if Adam had not fallen, and if the race had remained holy. Nevertheless he has mercifully seen fit to remit or forgive all these involuntary sins, more commonly and perhaps more justly called imperfections or trespasses, if we will but cordially accept of the atonement in the blood of Christ. But without the shedding of blood and confession, there is no more remission in this case than in any other. It is probably in reference to such imperfections or trespasses, rather than

to sins of a deliberate and voluntary nature, that some good people speak of the moral certainty or necessity we are under of sinning all the time. If such is all their meaning, it is not very necessary to dispute with them.

What, then, after these various remarks and explanations, is the nature of Christian perfection, or of that holiness, which, as fallen and as physically and intellectually imperfect creatures, we are imperatively required and expected to exercise; and to exercise not merely in the "article of death," but at the present moment and during every succeeding moment of our lives? It is on a question of this nature, if on any one which can possibly be proposed to the human understanding, that we must go to the Bible; and must humbly receive, irrespective of human suggestions and human opinions, the answer which the word of God gives. It is cause of great gratitude, that a question so momentous is answered by the Savior himself; and in such a way as to leave the subject clear and satisfactory to humble and candid minds. When the Savior was asked, Which is the great commandment in the Law, he answered, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matt. xxii. 37-8-9. And it is in accordance with the truth, involved in this remarkable passage, that

the apostle asserts, Rom. xiii. 10, "Love is the fulfilling of the law."

He, therefore, who loves God with his whole heart and his neighbor as himself, although his state may in some incidental respects be different from that of Adam, and especially from that of the angels in heaven, and although he may be the subject of involuntary imperfections and infirmities, which, in consequence of his relation to Adam, require confession and atonement, is, nevertheless, in the gospel sense of the terms, a holy or sanctified person. He has that love, which is the "fulfilling of the law." He bears the image of Christ. It is true, he may not have that physical or intellectual perfection which the Savior had; but he bears his moral image. And of such an one can it be said in the delightful words of the Savior, John xiv. 23: "If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."

Holiness, as the term has now been explained, in other words, pure and perfect love, is required of all persons. We do not esteem it necessary to delay and repeat all the passages, in which the requisition is made. It is written very plainly upon all parts of the Bible, from the beginning to the end of it. "But as he, which hath called you, is holy," says the apostle Peter, "so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy." All, therefore, which we have to say further at the present time, is this: Those, who aim at the possession of the Hidden

Life, who wish to walk with God and to hold communion with him in the interior man, as a friend converses with a friend, will find these glorious results impossible to them, except on the condition. of HOLINESS OF HEART. So long as they indulge voluntarily in any known sin, they erect a wall of separation between themselves and their heavenly Father; and he cannot and will not take them into his bosom, and reveal to them the hidden secrets of his love. They must stand far off; we do not say that they are utterly rejected; but they occupy the position of their own selection; obscure and perplexed in their own experience, and darkness and perplexity to all around them.

CHAPTER THIRD.

D

Directions to aid in the attainment of Holiness.

HAVING in the second Chapter attempted to show, that the higher realizations of the religious life, those in which the wall of separation is broken down and the fallen spirit of man emerges into unity with its maker, can exist only in connection with holiness of heart, the next important question to be considered is, How we may attain to a state of holiness? How may we experience the desirable change from weakness of faith to assurance of faith, from a weak and vacillating love to perfection of love, or, what is to be regarded as essentially the same thing, from a partial to a state of entire sanctification? In reply to this interesting inquiry, we proceed to remark, that there are three things, upon which, in connection with the operations and influences of the Holy Spirit, this great result seems especially to depend.

FIRST.--And the first is a belief in the attainableness of sanctification or holiness at the present time.

There are two acknowledged principles in the philosophy of the human mind, which have an im