contempt of those institutions. And in like manner, if the Bible, in any case of specific and personal action, requires a thing either to be done or to be omitted to be done, the Holy Spirit, operating on individual minds, will teach the same thing; and will always lead the subject of his operations to the performance in the one case, and to the omission in the other. And in all cases whatever, as the Holy Spirit, speaking in the heart, and the Holy Spirit speaking in the Bible, necessarily utter the same voice, they will necessarily in their ultimate tendencies lead to the same result.

And we may remark further, in connection with what has now been said, that he, who is led by the Spirit, will love to be led by the Spirit. It will be his delight. And under the influence of this divine attraction, he will earnestly strive to ascertain the mind of the Spirit. And consequently he will be led to the Bible, as one of the most valuable means of ascertaining it; he will read it much; he will read it with seriousness, candor, and prayer; that he may know the length and breadth of the divine communications, which are there made. And the pleasing and important result will be, that his life will be characterized by the same traits of submis sion and love, of regard for the divine institutions and precepts, of prompt and consistent action and of mighty faith, which adorn the lives of those, of whom the Scriptures gives us an account.

FINALLY.-We may remark in conclusion, and as in some sense embracing the whole subject: It is an evidence, that a person is guided by the Holy Spir

it, whose whole conduct, whether considered in its particulars or in its general outline, has a distinctly favorable bearing on the promotion of God's glory in the world. The end of all things is the glory of God. In the promotion of this great object, God, the Holy Ghost, co-operates with God the Father, and God the Son. The Holy Ghost, therefore, recognizes and enforces the great truth, that all subordinate tendencies, that all inferior and private interests, whenever they receive a corrected and sanctified direction, will always converge to the same centre, and will never reach their TERMINUS, if we may so express it, except in the bosom of the adorable Infinite. To this great result, all his interior and individual teachings infallibly tend. To know all things and to love all things in God; to annihilate self in all the various forms of creature-love and of self-will, and to make God the great centre of our being; this only is true wisdom and everlasting life. He, therefore, who is led by the teachings of the Holy Ghost, will be taught that he must think for God, feel for God, will for God, act for God; and that the great reality of God, which is the true beginning and completion of all religious life, must be received into the soul as the paramount motive; and with a power to expel all subordinate motives, and to reign there forever with supreme dominion.

Such are some of the marks, by which those may be known, who are led by the Divine Spirit. These are a HIDDEN people. They have intimacy with the Highest but they are, nevertheless, the little ones,

Rational

that are almost unknown among men. with the highest degree of rationality, scrupulously conscientious, ever desirous to learn the will of God as manifested in his Word and Providences, modest and sincerely courteous and becoming in their intercourse with their fellow-men, and governed under all circumstances by a supreme regard to God's glory, they pass calmly and devoutly through the world, blessed in themselves and a blessing to others. And yet the people of the world, blinded by their unbelief, but little know and little value. that interior instruction, by which they are thus guided to the illuminated heights of evangelical perfection. Happy is he who is led, not by mere sights and sounds; not by strange and momentary impressions, which may come from the disordered senses, from the world, or from the devil; but by that clear light which illuminates the intellect, the conscience, and the heart; which is ever consistent with itself and with God's Word and Providences; and which has in reality for its author, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost.

"Eternal Spirit! God of truth!

Our contrite hearts inspire;
Kindle the flame of heavenly love,
And feed the pure desire.

'Tis thine to soothe the sorrowing mind,

With guilt and fear oppressed;

"Tis thine to bid the dying live,

And give the weary rest."

CHAPTER SEVENTH.

On the state of Inward Recollection.

I BELIEVE it is the case, that all those, who have had much experience in the principles and methods of interior living, agree in attaching a very great importance to the state of INWARD RECOLLECTION. It is certainly difficult to meet the crosses and trials of life with composure, and to sustain the soul on other occasions, in purity and peace, without the aid of inwardly recollected habits of mind. However sincere may be our desire for entire devotedness of heart, and whatever resolutions we may form with that view, we shall often find ourselves in confusion of spirit and inadvertently failing in the fulfilment of our own resolutions, without this important aid.

INWARD RECOLLECTION is that serious and collected state of mind, in which God is realized and felt as the inward and present counsellor, guide, and judge of all our actions, both internal and external. In its results, when it becomes the fixed habit of the soul, it not only restores God to the inward possession and establishes Him upon the throne of the intellect and heart; but differing from that

condition, in which He comes in broken and fragmentary visits, it sustains Him there essentially without interruption, in what may be termed a continuance or perpetuity of presence. In a word, it is the devoutly and practically realized presence of God in the soul, moment by moment. This is the state of mind, which, we cannot hesitate in saying, all Christians ought to be in. It is hardly necessary to say, that it is a scriptural state of mind. It is obviously implied and taught in those numerous passages of Scripture, which inculcate the duty of watchfulness, which speak of setting the Lord always before us, of walking with God, and of our inability to do any thing without him. And it is not more agreeable to God's Word, than it is suited to man's condition; not more scriptural, than it is necessary. We need it in order to know what to do. We need it in order to do what is proper and necessary to be done, in a just, Christian, and holy manner. We need it in all times and places, and in small things as well as great; since there are no times and places, from which God ought to be excluded; and nothing is so small, that it may not have great and important relations.

It will be objected perhaps, that the state of Inward Recollection, considered as a state of long continuance and still more as perpetual, is an impracticable one. Whatever it may be to others, (and undoubtedly it is a state of mind, which is never experienced either in the absence of religion or in a low state of religion,) it is certainly not impracticable to a person of a truly devout spirit.