reating within us, under God's grace,
those parts of the Christian character in which we are deficient;
wearisome to learn modesty, love of insignificance, willingness to be
thought little of, backwardness to clear ourselves when slandered, and
readiness to confess when we are wrong; to learn to have no cares for
this world, neither to hope nor to fear, but to be resigned and
contented!

I may close these remarks, by appealing to the consciences of all who
have ever set about the work of religion in good earnest, whoever they
may be, whether they have made less, or greater progress in their noble
toil, whether they are matured saints, or feeble strugglers against the
world and the flesh. They have ever confessed how great efforts were
necessary to keep close to the commandments of God; in spite of their
knowledge of the truth, and their faith, in spite of the aids and
consolations they receive from above, still how often do their corrupt
hearts betray them! Even their privileges are often burdensome to
them, even to pray for the grace which in Christ is pledged to them is
an irksome task. They know that God's service is perfect freedom, and
they are convinced, both in their reason and from their own experience
of it, that it is true happiness; still they confess withal the strange
reluctance of their nature to love their Maker and His Service. And
this is the point in question; not only the mass of mankind, but even
the confirmed servants of Christ, witness to the opposition which
exists between their own nature and the demands of religion.

This then is the remarkable fact which I proposed to show. Can we
doubt that man's will runs contrary to God's will--that the view which
the inspired word takes of our present life, and of our destiny, does
not satisfy us, as it rightly ought to do? that Christ hath no form nor
comeliness in our eyes; and though we see Him, we see no desirable
beauty in Him? That holy, merciful, and meek Saviour, the Eternal, the
Only-begotten Son of God, our friend and infinite benefactor--He who
left the glory of His Father and died for us, who has promised us the
overflowing riches of His grace both here and hereafter. He is a light
shining in a dark place, and "the darkness comprehendeth it not."
"Light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light."
The nature of man is flesh, and that which is born of the flesh is
flesh, and ever must so remain; it never can discern, l