to be ever on the watch to maintain their right balance, and to direct their native influence to wise and holy purposes.

It is one of the most remarkable of these laws, that our passive sensations are weakened by the repetition of impressions, just as our active propensities are strengthened by the repetition of actions. This law, so universal in its scope and operation, is a bountiful provision, by which our heavenly Father alleviates the pains, and facilitates the duties, of his creature man. Those who are exposed to a frequent recurrence of pain or sorrow; those who are reminded, by every surrounding object, of relatives whom they have lost; those whose callings in life are of an arduous nature; those whose principles are put to the test by frequently repeated temptation-have all abundant reason to be thankful for this law of our nature. Yet is it a general law. It extends not only to our hurtful and painful impressions, but to others of a beneficial character; and here it requires to be checked or balanced by the gradual formation, and habitual exercise, of active principles.

Important indeed is our Lord's precept—“ Take heed how ye hear."3 In his character of a preacher of divine truth, Paul declared himself to be "a savour of death unto death" to some, as well as "of life

unto life" to others.

The same may be said of that gospel of which he was a minister. If it be not cordially accepted and imbibed-if time after time it be resisted, and sin and the world preferred to it—our capacity for profiting from it, will be diminished by every repetition-our death in trespasses and sins will be deepened and confirmed! Nor ought the religious man to forget that he also has a part in these warnings. The discourses to which he loves to listen, and the passages which he delights to read, will produce less and less effect upon him, unless the lessons presented to him are steadily acted on, and are thus wrought into his mental constitution. His purest affections will soon wither, if they be not—under the influence of the Spirit of God-nurtured and matured by good habit.

The highest affection of which mankind are capable, is love to God; and this love cannot fail to be excited in our minds when we are quickened, by the Spirit, to a sense of his goodness. Yet even this affèction will be sure to grow cool, if it be not cultivated. Our capacity of being impressed by the ever recurking proofs of God's benevolence towards us, will lessen as they are reiterated; and, except this tendency to decay be counteracted by the working of a living principle within us, we shall soon become ladie to that awful rebuke—« Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast

first love."4 The soul of the believer must be habituated to action; it must maintain a steady energy towards the sovereign object of its desire; no false rest must be taken up-it must always be moving forwards in that holy way which leads to God, and happiness, and heaven. Then, indeed, the work of religion will prosper in our experience. Although the first blaze of fervour, which often distinguishes the new convert, may subside into a calm, the pure affection of love to God, will be settled in our souls-it will imbue and characterise our new nature-with a perpetual increase of true brightness, it will burn for ever! 5 "Away with these filthy garments," said the pious William Law, when very near his death, "I feel a fire kindled within me, which will consume every thing of a nature contrary to itself, and ascend as a flame of divine love, to all eternity!"

4 Rev. ii, 4.

5 The progressive work of religion in the soul, may be illustrated by water as well as fire. It is living water that Jesus Christ bestows on those who are athirst for God: see John iv, 10. "He calls the grace of the Holy Spirit water," says Theophylact on this passage, "because it cleanses, and affords great refreshment to those who drink it; not stagnant water, such as we find in a corrupt state, in pools and wells, but living, that is bubbling and leaping up-water in motion. For the grace of the Spirit excites the soul to perpetual motion towards that which is good-ever disposing it to ascend. Paul had drunk of this living and ever-moving water, when he forgot the things which were behind, and reached forth towards those which were before."

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