ment. Preaching and reading the divine word will do little good, but as faith is thus in exercise. The Israelites, we are told, heard the word, but it did | not profit them; because they did not mix faith with what they heard. The state of their souls was like an unhappy patient with a deranged stomach, whose food will never nourish him, because the chemical process of digestion is incomplete. Let us see, then, that we have faith which will enable us to receive, from the exhibition of his glorious character and his varied | offices-which will enable us to receive from his assured fullness of grace and divine influence-which will enable us to derive from his exceeding great and precious promises, all that comfort, all that support, and all that strength, which our spirits need.

We may say that the Patriarch intended faith by the root that was in him, because faith is the source of spiritual production. Botanists tell us that the root performs the part of a tender parent, by preserving the embryo plant in its bosom: and thus all the stems, and leaves, and petals, and fruit, are found in the root. Here the analogy is very complete: because as the root is the source of production to the plant, so faith is the source of every other grace in the soul. Do I need repentance to be exercised? Faith must look upon him whom I have pierced; and then I shall mourn, and be in bitterness, as one that mourneth for his only son. Do I hope for the glory of God? Hope is the daughter of faith, which receives the testimony of life and immortality brought to light by the gospel. Do I possess peace? Peace results from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; for "being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." We find, then, Sirs, that faith is the source of spiritual production. Thus we read of "the hearing of faith," and "the prayer of faith," and "the obedience of faith," and "the victory of faith." "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith." See, then, friends, that faith is indeed the radical grace, as from it the production of every other grace comes. It is said in ecclesiastical history, that Julian the Apostate reproached the Christians as those who cried, Only

believe. The church of Rome has repeated this charge against Protestants, saying, that we make faith every thing. Brethren, let us show, that while we contend for faith as the means of justification, we regard faith as a seminal grace, as a grace that produces the fruits of holiness. Let our faith bud, and blossom, and bear fruit. Let it be found to produce fruit in the lips, even praise to our God-fruit in the hands, even acts of Christian liberality, and diligence, and laboriousness-fruit in the_life, manifesting our consecration to Him whose we are, and whom we desire to serve.

Let us notice, in the second place,

HOW THE PATRIARCH MANIFESTED

THAT THIS ROOT WAS IN HIM. "Why persecute ye him, seeing the root of the matter is in me?" It was found in him, first, by the confession which he uttered. Faith has ever been the parent of a good confession. "I believed," said the Psalmist, "therefore have I spoken." The apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, recognizes this same principle:-"The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." So that, a confession of the truth is one of the legitimate effects of faith. It was thus the faith of Job was manifested. "I know that my Redeemer liveth." He believed in a Redeemer-a living Redeemer-a Redeemer not yet incarnate; and yet with such confidence did he believe in him, that he was enabled to triumph over the afflictive circumstances by which he was surrounded. His faith evidenced these things: she did not see them, for they were afar off; but she knew them. Faith has been compared to the patriarch Jacob. When he was dim of sight, and his son Joseph brought his little grandchildren to him to be blessed, and he put his hand on the younger instead of the elder, and gave him the blessing, and when Joseph wished to correct him, he said, "I know it, I know it." He did not see the boy, but he was directed by the

light within to the right child. Let it be our happiness, then, to have a faith like Job's to know the Redeemer, though we have not seen him; remembering that this characterized some of the saints even in the apostolic age :"Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory."

Now, if the root be manifested by a confession made of the Lord Jesus Christ, what are we to say to you, my brethren, who profess to believe in the Son of God, and yet are ashamed of him before men. There are some of you that are most reluctant to avow your Christianity-ashamed, foolishly and sinfully ashamed, to declare yourselves the disciples of Christ-have kept yourselves back from identifying your persons with his people, your name with his cause. Remember he has said, "He that is ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of the Father with the holy angels." We cannot bear the dread laugh of the world, in an age so tolerant and latitudinarian as our own. Oh, Sirs, how should we endure persecution? how should we endure the prison, and the rack, and the gibbet, and the stake?-how should we be enabled to cry with the first Christians, when they were brought into the area of the amphitheatre, I am a Christian, though ferocious lions were about to tear them, and the more savage multitude to exult in the shedding of their blood? Let us remember, that our faith is to be shown by our confession; and let it be our desire to confess the Son of God before men. We have all need to consider that we are very deficient here; and let me charge my own conscience, and charge yours, to make a more steadfast avowal of our attachment to the truth as it is in Jesus.

How the Patriarch manifested that this root was in him is, secondly, to be seen by the satisfaction he avows. In the confession to which we have referred, he could say, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." At this moment Job had little that he could call his own. Where were his health and strength? Gone. Where were his riches and reputation? Gone.

Where were his family and friends? Gone. See him sitting, as it were, upon a dunghill, a miserable and squalid object, stript of all the ordinary possessions of life. What can he call his own? "I know that my Redeemer liveth." Having nothing, he possessed all things. Being poor, he was now eternally rich. Faith in the Son of God satisfied his mind under all the desolations, and amid all the ruin, which Divine Providence had spread around him. And whether we be placed in Job's circumstances or not, allow me to say, that it is only appropriating faith in the Son of God that can satisfy the mind. Some may have been long seeking the living among the dead-long seeking to satisfy the cravings of their immortal spirits with earthly good. They have been, to use an emphatic metaphor, like the wild asses on the mountains, snuffing up the wind, finding nothing to satisfy their appetites, nothing to meet the craving of their spirits. But the man that is enabled to look to the Redeemer-the individual that can, by faith, anticipate his second and glorious coming-the individual who knows he is united with him, and that, at length, he shall be quickened with him, and reign with him-that man has satisfaction such as the world cannot impart. If Job enjoyed this satisfaction under the dispensations in which he was placed— if he, who had no written scriptures(mark that word-Job had no written scriptures)—if he, who had no regularly constituted system of worship, and but one typical appointment which could lead his mind to Christ-without the advantages of the ministry, and the light which has been diffused, by the coming of Christ, upon the whole system-if he could so triumph in Jesus Christ, and find such satisfaction in him-really, Sirs, we might attain to greater comforts than we possess, if we were not so unbelieving. Lord, increase our faith; and then our comforts and our consolations shall multiply.

The Patriarch manifested that this root was in him, thirdly, by the disposition he displayed. You have heard of the patience of Job: he has become proverbial among the sons of men for the endurance which he manifested

ship, and launched forth the vessel from the shore upon the ocean, must have had faith in those principles which have now become so certain that we overlook their existence. Now a man builds a ship, and launches her forth upon the bosom of the deep, himself seated at the helm with triumph; because he knows that, from the principle of the laws of matter, that vessel will be borne upon the bosom of the waters, and ride in triumph there. Now, you are not called to make the experiment for the first time; though a knowledge of the principles God has laid down might enable you to launch forth on the deep. But you have seen soul after soul, millions after millions of the people of God, casting their troubles all upon Christ, launching forth upon the ocean of his love, who have been sustained and borne onward till they arrived at the haven of eternal rest. Oh, then, for a simple faith to cast ourselves upon the Son of God-to cry to him, "Lord, save me, or I perish." Without any precaution, as it regards qualification and a previous state of fitness to come to Christ, let us feel that our guilt and our misery are warrants to come; just as a melancholy accident would be the warrant for you to bear the patient to the door of yonder hospital, and claim admission for him, that he might be healed. Jesus is able and willing to receive all that come unto him. God enable us with the simplicity of faith to trust in him.

"Dost thou believe on the Son of God," is a question of great moment to you. "He that believeth on the Son hath life; and he that believeth

not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." This is a question that belongs to every class of individuals. It belongs to the aged especially; because there may be but a step between them and death. But it belongs, too, to those in middle life; for they need the comforts and consolations which faith in Christ confers. It belongs to the young, to you, my dear children, who surround me on every hand, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that the wrath of God is not to be revealed, but it now rests just as the penalty of the law rests upon a criminal, as soon as his judge has pronounced sentence, and who, at any moment, may be carried to the scaffold, and endure the penalty. When we hear, as we have heard during the past week, and as we hear every week, only the instances are not commonly so splendid, and death does not always take so high a mark-when we hear how uncertain life is, and how, in the midst of all the excitement and gladness of friends, and associates, and admirers, and in the midst of prosperity and enjoyment, we may be cut off at a stroke-oh, Sirs, how necessary it is to believe on the Son of God, and to be prepared, that whether we live or die we may be the Lord's. Let me beseech you to give all attention to the matter, and see that you are interested in the Son of God. Then the root of the matter shall be found in you-a root which shall put forth glorious blossoms that shall not fade, and bring forth the fruits of holiness, through a happy immortality: which God grant, for Christ's sake.—Amen.

that many commentators consider them as successive clauses in the same petition. That we may profitably enter into the discussion of the words