September 9

"But there are some of you that believe not."—John 6:64.

THE chapter from which these words are selected, contains our Lord's celebrated sermon on himself as the bread of life. This was a doctrine at which the Jews stumbled, because they were destitute of that spiritual perception, by which alone they could discern the beautiful and interesting representation. Let us view

THE AFFECTING TRUTH RECORDED. Who are they that believe not?

Those that discover a spirit of indifference. When the Gospel is not valued above every thing else, and its blessings sought after with intense anxiety and earnestness, it is not rightly believed.

Those that live in the neglect of religious duties. There are many duties connected with godliness, in the neglect of which it is impossible for a true believer to live. There are some who habitually absent themselves from the house of God, and yet profess to believe in the truths and doctrines of Christianity; but whatever they may pretend, they are only practical atheists.

Those that yield to despair. The Christian has his doubts and fears; but when there is a constant discrediting of the truth of the Gospel, this is unbelief. We should beware of the two extremes, presumption and despair. —Be not high minded, but fear.

THE REASONS THAT MAY BE ASSIGNED.

Insensibility. The man who knows and feels his lost estate, will not be long before he seeks to remedy it. There must be conviction by the law, before there is conversion by the Gospel.

The pride of reason. This made the Greeks count the Gospel foolishness; they could not imagine how there could be a system of religion, without bearing some affinity to the false principles they entertained in their minds. Reason cannot comprehend the unbounded essence of the Deity, no more than a man near the sun could grasp it in his arms; neither can reason understand all the revelation of God, more than an individual can inclose all the beams of the sun in his eye. We have natural proofs of the being of a God, but we have not capacities to comprehend the infinite perfections of his nature. When reason is lost in its upward flight, let faith lay her hand upon Scripture, and say, "Yea, let God be true, and every man a liar."