he has not the Spirit of Christ, and is none of his. Ah! "the heart is deceitful above all things."

2. "

Desperately wicked." This word is borrowed from the book of the physician. When the physician is called to see a patient past recovery, he shakes his head and says: This is a desperate case. This is the very word used here. "The heart is desperately wicked"-past cure by human medicine. Learn that you need conversion, or a new heart. When we speak of the necessity of a change to some people, they begin to be affected by it, and so they put away some evil habits, as drinking, or swearing, or lying; they put these away, and promise never to go back to them; and now they think the work is done, and they are in a fair way for heaven. Alas, foolish man! it is not your drinking, or your swearing, or your lying, that are desperately wicked-but your heart. You have only been cutting off the streams-the heart remains as wicked as ever. It is the heart that is incurable. It is a new heart you need. Nothing less will answer your need. Learn that you must go to Christ for this. When the woman had spent her all upon physicians, and was nothing better, but rather worse, she heard of Jesus. Ah! said she, if I may but "touch the hem of his garment I shall be made whole." Jesus said to her: "Daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith hath made thee whole." Come, then, incurable, to Christ. The leprosy was always regarded as incurable. Accordingly, the leper came to Jesus, and worshipping, said: "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Jesus said, I will, be thou clean; and immediately his leprosy was cleansed." Some of you feel that your heart is desperately wicked; well, kneel to the Lord Jesus, and say: "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." You are a leper-incurable; Jesus is able-he is also willing to make you clean.

3. Unsearchably wicked: "Who can know it?" No man ever yet knew the badness of his own heart. We e are sailing over a sea the depths of which we have never fathomed. (1.) Unawakened persons have no idea of what is in their hearts. When Elijah told Hazael what a horrible murderer he would be, Hazael said: "Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?" The seeds of it were all in his heart at that moment; but he did not know his own heart. If I had told some of you, when you were little children playing beside your mother's knee, the sins that you

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were afterwards to commit, you would have said: dog, that I should do this thing?" and yet you see you have done them. If I could show each of you the sins that you are yet to commit, you would be shocked and horrified. This shows how ignorant you are of your own heart. I suppose that the most of you think it quite impossible you should ever be guilty of murder, or adultery, or apostasy, or the sin against the Holy Ghost; this arises from ignorance of your own black heart: "Who can know it?" (2.) Some awakened persons have an awful sight given them of the wickedness of their own hearts. They see all the sins of their past life, as it were, concentrated there. They see that their past sins all come out of their heart-and that the same may come out again. And yet the most awakened sinner does not see the ten thousandth part of the wickedness of his heart. You are like a person looking down into a dark pit-you can only see a few yards down the sides of the pit; so you can only see a little way down into your heart. It is a pit of corruption which is bottomless: "Who can know it?" (3.) Some children of God have amazing discoveries given them of the wickedness of their own hearts. Sometimes it is given them to see that the germs of every sin are lodging there. Sometimes they see that there never was a sin committed, in heaven, in earth, or in hell, but it has something corresponding to it in their own heart. Sometimes they see, that if there were not another fountain of sin, from which the fair face of creation might be defaced, their own heart is a fountain inexhaustible enough to corrupt every creature, and to defile every fair spot in the universe. And yet even they do not know their own hearts.

You

are like a traveller looking down into the crater of a volcano; but the smoke will not suffer you to look far. You see only a few yards into the smoking volcano of your own heart.

Learn to be humbled far more than you have ever been. None of you have ever been sufficiently humbled under a sense of sin; for this reason, that none of you have ever seen fully the plague of your own heart. There are chambers in your heart you have never yet seen into. There are caves in that ocean you have never fathomed. There are fountains of bitterness you have never tasted. When you have felt the wickedness of your heart to the uttermost, then lie down under this awful truth, that you have only seen a few yards into a pit that is bottomless

that you carry about with you a slumbering volcano-a heart whose wickedness you do not and cannot know.

II. The witness of the heart.

1. "I, the Lord." We have seen that we do not know one another's hearts; for "the heart is deceitful." Man looketh on the outward appearance. We have seen that no man knows his own heart-that the most know nothing of what is there; and those who know most, see but a short way down. But here is an unerring witness. He that made man knows what is in man.

2. Observe what a strict witness he is: 66 I, the Lord, search the heart, I try the reins." It is not said, I know the heart-but, I search it. The heart of man is not one of the many objects upon which God turns his all-seeing eye, but it is one which he singles out for investigation: "I search the heart." As the astronomer directs his telescope upon the very star he wishes to examine, and arranges all his lenses, that he may most perfectly look at it, so doth God's calm eye pore upon the naked breast of As the refiner of silver keeps his eye upon the every man. fining-pot, watching every change in the boiling metal; so doth God's eye watch every change in the bosom of man. Oh! natural man, can you bear this? How vain are all your pretences and coverings; God sees you as you are. You may deceive your neighbour, or your minister, or yourself -but you cannot deceive God.

3. Observe, he is a constant witness. He does not say I have searched, or I will do it but, I search—I do it now, and always. Not a moment of our life but his pure, calm, searching eye has been gazing on the inmost recesses of our hearts. From childhood to old age his eye rests on The darkness hideth not from him. The darkness and the light are both alike to him.

us.

4. Observe his end in searching: "Even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."-Verse 10. In order to know the true value of an action, you must search the heart. Many an action that is applauded by men, is abominable in the sight of God, who searches the heart. To give an alms to a poor man, may either be an action worthy of an eternal reward, or worthy of an eternal punishment. If it be done out of love to Christ-because the poor man is a disciple of Christ-it will in no wise lose its reward; Christ will say: "Inasmuch

as ye did it to the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me." If it be done out of pride or self-righteousness, Christ will cast it from him; he will say: "Depart, ye cursed -ye did it not unto me." The reason, then, why Christ searches the heart is, that he may judge uprightly in the judgment. Oh, sirs! how can you bear this, you that are Christless? How can you bear that eye on your heart all your days, and to be judged according to what his pure eye sees in you? Oh! do you not see it is a gone case with you? "Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified." Oh! if your heart be desperately wicked, and his pure eye ever poring on it, what can you expect, but that he should cast you into hell? Oh! flee to the Lord Jesus Christ for shelter for blood to blot out past sins, and righteousness to cover you. "See, God, our shield."

Learn the amazing love of Christ. He was the only one that knew the wickedness of the beings for whom he died. He that searches the hearts of sinners died for them. His eye alone had searched their hearts; ay, was searching at the time he came. He knew what was in man; yet he did not abhor them on that account-he died for them. It was not for any goodness in man that he died for man. He saw none. It was not that he saw little sin in the heart of man, that he pitied him and died for him. He is the only being in the universe that saw all the sin that is in the unfathomable heart of man. He saw to the bottom of the volcano-and yet he came and died for man. Herein is love! When publicans and sinners came to him on earth, he knew what was in their hearts. His eye had rested on their bosoms all their life-he had seen all the lusts and passions that had ever rankled there; yet in no wise did he cast them out. So with you. His eye hath seen all your sins-the vilest, darkest, blackest hours you have lived, his pure eye was resting on you; yet he died for such, and invites you to come to him; and will in no wise cast you out. Amen.

'SERMON XX.

TRUST IN THE LORD.

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."-PROV. iii. 5.

WHEN an awakened soul is brought by God to believe on Jesus, he enjoys for the first time that calm and blessed state of mind which the Bible calls peace in believing. The sorrows of death were compassing him, and the pains of hell getting hold on him; but now he can say: "Return unto thy rest, O my soul." It is not to be wondered at, that when this heaven upon earth is first realized in the once anxious bosom, the young believer should often imagine that heaven is already gained, and that he has bid farewell to sin and sorrow for evermore. But, alas! it may need but the passing away of one little day to convince him that heaven is not yet gained-that though the Red Sea may be passed, yet there is a wide howling wilderness to pass through, and many an enemy to be overcome, before the soul can enter into the land of which it is said, that "the people are all righteous."

The first breath of temptation from without, or the first rise of corruption from within, awakens new and strange anxieties within the believing bosom. He had just put on the breastplate of the Redeemer's righteousness, but these noxious vapours tarnish and bedim its burnished steel. Alas! he cries, what good will it do me to be rid of all accusations from past sins, if I am not secure from raising up new accusers in the days to come? What good will the forgiveness of past sins do me, if, every step of my life, I am to fall into new sin?

The young believer in this state of mind is just like a traveller in the midst of a dangerous wood. He has been brought into a place of perfect security for the present. He can hear the cry of the wolves behind him without the least alarm, for he is brought into a fortress-a strong tower, where he is safe; but when he thinks of his farther journey -when he remembers that he is still in the midst of the