e; we
know, in the case of His saints; and we certainly do not know the limit
of His carrying forward in those objects of His special favour the work
of purification, and renewal through His Spirit. But for ourselves, we
know full well that much as we may have attempted, we have done very
little, that our very best service is nothing worth,--and the more we
attempt, the more clearly we shall see how little we have hitherto
attempted.

Those whom Christ saves are they who at once attempt to save
themselves, yet despair of saving themselves; who aim to do all, and
confess they do nought; who are all love, and all fear, who are the
most holy, and yet confess themselves the most sinful; who ever seek to
please Him, yet feel they never can; who are full of good works, yet of
works of penance. All this seems a contradiction to the natural man,
but it is not so to those whom Christ enlightens. They understand in
proportion to their illumination, that it is possible to work out their
salvation, yet to have it wrought out for them, to fear and tremble at
the thought of judgment, yet to rejoice always in the Lord, and hope
and pray for His coming.

[1] Ps. xlix. 2-10.

[2] Eccles. iii. 19.

[3] Rev. xx. 12.

[4] Luke xxiii. 42.

SERMON II.

Religion a Weariness to the Natural Man.

"_He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is
no beauty that we should desire Him._"--Isaiah liii. 2.

"Religion is a weariness;" such is the judgment commonly passed, often
avowed, concerning the greatest of blessings which Almighty God has
bestowed upon us. And when God gave the blessing, He at the same time
foretold that such would be the judgment of the world upon it, even as
manifested in the gracious Person of Him whom He sent to give it to us.
"He hath no form nor comeliness," says the Prophet, speaking of our
Lord and Saviour, "and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that
we should desire Him." He declared beforehand, that to man His
religion would be uninteresting and distasteful. Not that this
prediction excuses our deadness to it; this dislike of the religion
given us by God Himself, seen as it is on all sides of us,--of religion
in all its parts, whether its doctrines, its precepts, its polity, its
worship, its social influence,--this distaste for its very name, must
obviously be an insult to the Giver. But the text speaks of it as a
fact, without commenting on the guilt involved