FAITH AND FEELING.

We are saved by faith and not by feeling, yet there is a relation between holy faith and hallowed feeling like that between the root and the flower. Faith is as permanent as the root which is ever embedded in the soil, feeling is casual and has it's seasons. The bulb does not always shoot up the green stem, far less is it always crowned with it's many flowers. Faith is the tree, the essential tree, our feelings are like the appearance of that tree during the different seasons of the year. Sometimes our soul is full of bloom and blossom, and the bees hum pleasantly and gather honey within our hearts. It is then that our feelings bear witness to the life of our faith, just as the buds of spring bear witness to the life of the tree. Anon, our feelings gather still greater vigour, and after we come to the summer of our delights, again perhaps, we begin to wither into the sear and yellow leaf of autumn, nay sometimes into the winter of our despondancy and despair will strip away every leaf from the tree, and our poor faith stands like a blasted stem without a sign of verdure. And yet, so long as the tree of faith is there, we are saved. Whether faith blossom or not, whether it bring forth joyous fruit in our experience or not, so long as it be there in all it's permanence, we are saved, Yet should we have the gravest reason to distrust the life of our faith if it did not sometimes blossom with joy and often bring forth fruit unto holiness.

SEASONS

The things which are seen are types of the things which are not seen. The works of creation are pictures to the children of God of the secret mysteries of grace. God's truths are the apples of gold, and the visible creatures are the baskets of silver. The seasons of the year find their parallel in the little world of the man within. We have our winter-dreary, howling winter-when the north wind of the law rushes against us, when every hope is nipped, when all the seeds of hope lie buried beneath the dark clods of despair, when our soul is fast fettered like a river bound with ice, no waves of joy or flowings of thanksgiving. Then thanks be unto God, the soft south wind breathes upon our soul, and at once the waters of desire are set free, the spring of love comes on, flowers of hope appear in our hearts, the trees of faith put forth their young shoots, the time of the singing birds come in our hearts and we have joy and peace in believing through our Lord Jesus Christ. That happy springtime is followed in the believer by a rich summer when his graces, like fragrant flowers, are in full bloom, loading the air with sweet perfume, and fruits of The Spirit, like citrons and pomegranates swell into their full proportion in the genial warmth of the Sun of Righteousness. Then comes the believer's autumn, when his fruits ripen and his fields are ready for the harvest, the time has come when The Lord shall gather together His "pleasant fruits," and store them in heaven. The feast of ingathering is at hand, the time when the year shall begin anew, an unchanging cycle, like the years of the right hand of The Most High.