November 23

God is your Father, and death your deliverer, and heaven your home, tend to make you less happy? What has the world done for you? Have you not found the way of transgressors hard? Forsake the foolish and live. All is "prepared" for you—God is ready to receive you, angels are ready to rejoice over you, believers are ready to hail you—"All things are ready—Come unto the marriage."

NOVEMBER 23—"HE THAT DOETH TRUTH cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."—John 3:21.

Or the individual here spoken of, the CHARACTER, the BUSINESS, and the AIM are all very instructive and improving.

What is his CHARACTER? "He doeth truth." It is not said he readeth truth, heareth truth, speaketh truth, but doeth truth. Doing truth is rather a peculiar expression; and the question is how truth is to be here understood. Now there is the truth of doctrine, and the truth of sincerity.

He doeth truth according to the former of these who pays it practical attention. In this case the truth is the word of God, which is filled, not with curious speculations, but matters of unspeakable importance; and designed not to inform our judgments only, but to sanctify and govern our hearts and lives. Hence it is called, "the way of truth," because it is something in which we are to walk: we frequently read of "walking in the truth." "If ye know these things," says our Saviour, "happy are ye if ye do them:" and he compares the man who heareth his sayings and doeth them not to a fool who builds his house upon the sand and is ruined by the storm. The Apostle speaks of "the work of faith;" and tells us the word of God "worketh effectually in them that believe." The whole of it is a doctrine "according to godliness." No part of it can be uninfluential when properly regarded. Its threatenings are designed and adapted to awaken our fear. Its promises are to excite our hope. It is needless to mention its commands—these can be given for no other purpose than to be obeyed. And are we not commanded to forsake the world, to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, to follow the Saviour, to go forth to him without the camp bearing his reproach, and when we have done all to say we are unprofitable servants, and to look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life? And he that doeth this doeth truth.

He doeth truth according to the latter of these who acts consistently with his convictions of it. There are many who resist their belief; or, as the Apostle says, "hold the truth in unrighteousness:" the word is, imprison it. They will not suffer it to enter their tempers, and sway their conduct. They believe that the world is vanity and vexation of spirit, and the belief is true, yet it does not induce them to forsake it. They believe that the worship of God in their families is a duty, and the belief is true, yet they neglect it. The same may be said of a thousand other things. But the man that doeth truth gives up himself to his convictions, and follows them whithersoever they lead him, regardless of consequences. He may have little knowledge for the time, but he conforms to it; for sincerity cannot consist with the omission of any known duty, or the indulgence of any known sin. Nathanael was the very man in our

text; and therefore our Lord said of him, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." He had laboured under considerable mistakes; but he loved retirement, and had been alone praying to be made wise unto salvation. He had little light, but he sought for more; he was open to advice and reproof; he complied with Philip's invitation, "Come and see" for thyself; and upon our Saviour's intimation, "When thou wast under the fig tree I saw thee," he exclaimed, "Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel!"—And upon this Jesus promised to show him "greater things than these."

There are some who are not equally prudent and kind. They are not tender of persons who cannot for the time go all their lengths. Yet were not they led into their present views step by step? Have they not been for years learning what they do not yet sufficiently understand? And do they wonder that others are not completely initiated in a few days or weeks? What a difference is there between the dawn and the day! and yet is not the one the beginning and the pledge of the other? And "the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." And "then," says the prophet, "shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." If I see a man convinced of sin, humbled under a sense of his unworthiness, delivered from the spirit of the world, and seriously engaged in the use of the means of grace, let me not be harsh because he feels some doubts and difficulties from which others are now delivered: let me affectionately admonish him, as far as he has already attained, to walk by the same rule, and mind the same thing, assured that if in any thing else he be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto him in his own time, and way, and degree. Let me not engage him in angry disputes, or force upon him the deep things of God which he is unprepared to receive; but leave him for time, and observation, and experience to enlarge his views, and be willing to teach him as he is able to hear it. Paul gave strong meat to them that were of full age, and who by reason of use had their senses exercised to discern both good and evil: but he fed babes with milk—Some give babes strong meat, yea, and even the bones of controversy!

It is well for persons to try their ground, and to feel their own way; and he walketh surely that walketh uprightly; and he that doth his will shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God. Some of the most eminent characters that have adorned the Church attained their evangelical sentiments by degrees, and principally derived them from experience. The changes in nature are gradual; the seasons melt into each other; there are no disruptions. There also things are slower in their growth in proportion to their value. The oak, the king of the forest, does not shoot up all at once like nettles and reeds. The mushroom is the vegetation of a night—We are not fond of mushroom-converts. We have never been taught by the result to admire those who instantly become so wise, talkative, disputatious, and decisive. Their knowledge gets dangerously in advance, while its companions and guardians, experience and practice, are left so far behind. The knowledge they boast of

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