May 26

the effect of justification, in freeing us from a sense of guilt, and giving us peace and joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the atonement. And this grace wherein we stand is not only the most delightful privilege, but according to the Apostle it is necessary to our serving God. For how can we pursue our work to advantage while we are pressed down with a burden too heavy for us to bear? How must we be labouring in the fire, and wearying ourselves for very vanity, while we are thinking of atoning for our lives, or going about to establish our own righteousness? Believers have nothing to do here—Their sins are expiated; the righteousness in which they appear before God is provided. They therefore cease from their legal and tormenting drudgery, and enter into rest, and are made free indeed—and free to attend entirely to their grateful and pleasant work of pleasing and serving God in the Spirit of his Son—There is nothing servile in their obedience, and therefore it is not partial and constrained; but full, and of a ready mind—They are upholden by his “free Spirit.” They are sons that serve him: for they have not received the spirit of bondage to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, whereby they cry, Abba, Father. Not that they indulge in a careless, presumptuous manner in dealing with God; but they feel their relation to him, and knowing that God is not only pacified towards them, but that they are accepted in the Beloved, and are now not only reconciled but infinitely dear to him, they have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Jesus; and can draw near in full assurance of faith. They feel their unworthiness, but they know they are welcome—welcome to approach his gates—welcome to enter his house—welcome to sit down at his table—welcome to hang upon his arm—welcome to lean on his bosom—welcome at all times and in all circumstances to spread their wants and cares before him with a certainty of relief. For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty!

While we believe the importance of the possession, and know that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his; let us rejoice that our heavenly Father will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him; and that he giveth more grace. Let us, therefore, be enlarged in our desires; and not only have the Spirit, but be filled with the Spirit.

MAY 26.—“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God.”—Hebrews 12:15.

We are here admonished not to “fail of the grace of God.” There is a difference between failing of the grace of God, and failing from it. We are persuaded the Scripture gives no real countenance to the doctrine of falling from grace. The certainty of the end includes the necessity of the means; and therefore we can, with consistency, make use of every warning and motive against declension and apostasy, while yet we believe that the righteous shall hold on his way, and are confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. When the angel had announced the safety of all on board, and the apostle believed God that it should be as it had been told him; yet he made no scruple to say to the Centurion and the soldiers, when

the mariners were meanly leaving the vessel, "Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved." Dr. Owen, no mean critic, contends that the word here rendered to fail, signifies always to want, to come short; and never, to fall from actual possession. We say, the trees this year will fail of a crop: we say to a racer, see that you fail not of the prize, and to a warrior, see that you fail not of the victory: and in all these instances we intend not the loss of a thing when obtained, but the not obtaining it. The meaning therefore is, take heed that you miss not the grace of God; or, as it is expressed in an earlier part of the Epistle, "Therefore fear, lest, a promise being left you of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it."

The caution implies importance, acquirableness, and danger.

It implies importance—It is as much as to say, your supreme concern should be to secure the grace of God—This is the principal thing—

And needful were the world our own."

Even the devil is good authority here; he knows the worth of what we neglect and despise; and all his aims and devices are to keep us from seeking after it. The grace of God is—The only source of relief under conviction of sin—The only principle of true obedience—The only safeguard of prosperity—The only support under trouble—The only deliverance from death—The only meethess for heaven—The evidence, the earnest, the foretastes, the beginning of eternal life.

It implies acquirableness. The admonition would be futile unless the grace of God were within our reach. It is impossible to read the Scripture, and not perceive that the inestimable blessing is not only revealed to our view, but proposed to our hope, and pressed upon our acceptance. We are commanded to be "renewed in the spirit of our minds;" and to be "filled with the Spirit;" but the command, or it would be absurd, involves the possibility of the thing. Grace is laid up in the Mediator for this very purpose. It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell for our use. "He received gifts for men, and even for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them." We have also the promise; "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find." The invitation also is universal: "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." We can appeal to actual instances. How many in heaven, how many also on earth, who by nature were all children of wrath, even as others, and in whom was no good thing, are now the partakers of the grace of God in truth. We are encompassed with a great cloud of witnesses; and each of them testifies that he is good and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all that call upon him.

But it implies danger. Unless it was possible, and very possible, that we should come short of it, the Apostle would not have expressed himself with such peculiar earnestness—"Looking"—"diligently;" nor have extended the caution to all, whatever advantages they have in their favour—"Lest any man fail of the grace of God." You may fail of the grace of God—Though you were born