condemnation, glorious in its season, it leads not to believe that which we cannot understand, or to attend to those matters which are daily preached unto us. We are often informed that there are matters in religion which we cannot understand; but still we must believe it; this is a palpable absurdity. But when we come under the influence of this faith, though it be small as a grain of mustard seed, if we say unto any mountain of opposition between us and our God-any difficulty which may interfere, if we say unto them, be ye removed and cast into the sea, they will obey.

Now this faith that works by love, proceeds immediately from the operation of the spirit of God upon our spirits; and here is communion between God and man-here is a link formed which unites man with the divinity. We are not mere animals-we are not placed here to eat and drink, and to pass away as the dreams of a night vision. There awaits us a more noble and dignified destiny, even to be united to our God, and when unclothed of mortality, to be received, and become partakers of the joys of Heaven, and the glories of eternity in all their fulness. Here we can enjoy but a fortaste-there, all will be full and complete.

Now this faith has a progressive growth, therefore, we must first become babes-we must be willing to become fools-we must be

willing to attend to small manifestations of the Kingdom of Heaven, which may be compared to a grain of mustard seed. Are we to look at a great distance and beyond the grave? Christ told his followers, "the Kingdom of Heaven is within you," and there only ought we to look for his appearing; and there experience his power, and there know that beautiful and prophetical declaration fulfilled. "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called wonderful, counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end; upon the throne of David, and upon the Kingdom to order it, and to establish it with Judgment and with Justice, from henceforth even for ever."

This Kingdom of heaven has been likened to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in the field-which if it is cultivated will grow, and though the smallest of seeds, will produce one of the greatest of herbs, so that the fowls of the air may lodge in its branches --and these fowls may be compared to the vain imaginations of the human mind.

Again, the Kingdom of heaven has been likened to a little leaven which was put into meal till the whole was leavened. We all know the nature of meal, and many of us know the na

ture of leaven. In meal there is no oppositionit is passive under the operation; and therefore the leaven, though small in quantity, finding no opposition to overcome, soon brings the whole into its own likeness. Such is the operation of the spirit of God, the grace of God, the baptism of the holy Ghost (or by whatever name you may call it) though weak in its first appearance, if attended to, the power of opposition will be directed from the mind; and it will grow stronger and stronger in the divine life till God shall be all in all. And this is the very extent, to bring us into a heavenly state, and beget a new heart and a new mind, through the operation of a living faith, which will overcome this corrupt influence into which nations and men have fallen. And when we come under the influence of this faith, then we shall come to know what it is to eat the flesh of the son of man and to drink his blood; not to take the bread and wine as symbolical of that which is to come, for in so doing we deny the coming of Christ in the flesh, and content ourselves in the use of those things which perish in the using.

Baptism, with water, may cleanse from the filth of the flesh; and bread and wine may nourish the body; but all the waters of the sea can never cleanse the soul of one sin, and all the bread and wine can never nourish up the soul to eternal life. We now need none of these types

and figures and carnal rites and ceremonies. We do not want to go back to former dispensations, but to come more fully to that of which we make a profession, and to experience its regenerative effects. And what is the blood of Christ? It is the life. I have a hope in Christ, and a hope in salvation through him, but not in the unparalleled act of malevolence in the Jews; I have no hope of salvation in any act of wickedness-It is in his life, and in the power of his resurrection. His death being a legal offering under the law, by which they fulfilled and finished their charter, which had been broken and abrogated, it is a beautiful type of the substance into which we should come. The blood is the life, the circulating medium, which gives vitality to the whole system. When the life of Christ, of holiness and obedience to our heavenly Father, comes to rule and reign in us, we shall be supported by the life of Christ. Then we shall know what it is to drink his blood, and to have our souls nourished thereby into eternal life. Now, in what does the blood circulate? Does it circulate in the body? So the life of Christ as it circulates in the soul, brings all our angry passions and perverse dispositions into accordance with its own nature. There is one kind of flesh of men, another of beasts, another of fishes, said the Apostle. Now as we come under the infance of any of these particular pro

pensities, we may be considered as partakers of their flesh or nature, for this is equally emblematical and symbolical as that of Christ. Though I lead the life of a beast under the influence of beastial passions, and debase myself, yet I partake not of their flesh-I have still the form, nature and flesh of a man; if I partake of the nature of Christ, though I continue in this mortal body, yet being regenerated and born again I am not ashamed to call such brethren, for he was begotten of God and born of the virgin; and the same power brought forth in us in the same virgin purity, we shall become partakers of the same nature, because we are of the same seed, and hence grow from strength to strength, from stature to stature, and we shall be brought out of the bondage of sin and corruption, into the glorious liberty of the sons and daughters of God. The fundamental power of these operations, baptism, brings living faith and holy confidence, unshaken love. Now this faith, which works by love to the purifying of the heart; has nothing which is not essential to salvation; no dogmas which are incomprehensible; neither are we called on to believe in the dogmas of any sect or society of the various divisions which we meet with in the world; which, instead of giving an united appearance, has caused us to split and divide, so that even in the present day, christendom, so called, is more like the beasts with many heads