COMPLETE IN CHRIST.

“Ye are complete in Him.” — Colossians 2:10.

THE pardoned sinner for awhile is content with the one boon of forgiveness, and is too overjoyed with a sense of freedom from bondage to know a wish beyond. In a little time, however, he bethinks himself of his position, Ms wants, and his prospects: what is then his rapture at the discovery that the roll of his pardon is also an indenture of all wealth, a charter of all privileges, a title-deed of all needed blessings! Having received Christ, he hath obtained all things in him. He looketh to that cross upon which the dreadful handwriting of ordinances hath been nailed; to his unutterable surprise he beholds it blossom with mercy, and like a tree of life bring forth the twelve manner of fruits — yea, all that he requires for life, for death, for time,-or for eternity. Lo! at the foot of the once accursed tree grow plants for his healing, and flowers for his delight; from the bleeding feet of the Redeemer flows directing love to lead him all the desert through — from the pierced side there gushes cleansing water to purge him from the power of sin — the nails become a means of securing him to righteousness, while above the crown hangs visible as the gracious reward of perseverance. All things are in the cross — by this we conquer, by this we live, by this we are purified, by this we continue firm to the end.

While sitting beneath the shadow of our Lord, we think ourselves most rich, for angels seem to sing, “Ye are complete in him.” “COMPLETE IN HIM!” — precious sentence 1 sweeter than honey to our soul, we would adore the Holy Spirit for dictating such glorious words to his servant Paul. Oh! may we by grace be made to see that they really are ours — for ours they are if we answer to the character described in the opening verses of the Epistle to the Colossians. If we have faith in Christ Jesus, love towards .all the saints, and a hope laid up in heaven, we may grasp this golden sentence as all our own. Reader, hast thou been able to follow in that which has already been described as the “way which leads from banishment?” Then thou mayst take this choice sentence to thyself as a portion of thine inheritance; for weak, poor, helpless, unworthy though thou be in thyself, in Him, thy Lord, thy Redeemer, thou art complete in the :fullest, broadest, and most varied sense of that mighty word, and thou wilt be glad to muse upon the wonders of this glorious position. May the great Teacher guide us into this mystery of the perfection of the elect in Jesus, and may our meditation be cheering and profitable to our spirits! As the words are few, let us dwell on them, and endeavor to gain the sweets which lie so compactly within this little cell.

Pause over those two little words, “in Him ” — in Christi Here is the doctrine of union and oneness with Jesus — a doctrine of undoubted truth and unmingled comfort. The Church is so allied with her Lord that she is positively one with him. She is the bride, and He the bridegroom; she is the branch, and He the stem; she the body, and He the glorious Head. So also is every individual believer United to Christ. As Levi lay in the loins of Abraham when Melchisedek met him, so was every believer chosen in Christ, and blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in him. We have been spared, protected, converted, justified, and accepted solely and entirely by virtue of our eternal union with Christ.

Never can the convinced soul obtain peace until, like Ruth, she finds rest in the house of her kinsman, who becomes her husband — Jesus the Lord. An eminent pastor, lately deceased, said in one of his sermons, “How, I am as sure as I am of my own existence that wherever God the Holy Ghost awakens the poor sinner by his mighty grace, and imparts spiritual life in his heart, nothing will ever satisfy that poor sinner but a believing assurance of eternal union with Christ. Unless the soul obtains a sweet and satisfactory consciousness of it in the exercise of a living faith, it will never ‘enter into rest’ this side eternity.”

It is from oneness with Christ before all worlds that we receive all our mercies. Faith is the precious grace, which discerns this eternal union, and cements it by another — a vital union; so that we become one, not merely in the eye of God, but in our own happy experience — one in aim, one in heart, one in holiness, one in communion, and, ultimately, one in glory, manifest union is not more real and actual than the eternal union of which it is the revelation; it does not commence the union, nor does its obscurity or ,dearness in the least affect the certainty or safety of the immutable oneness subsisting between Jesus and the believer. It is eminently desirable that every saint should attain a full assurance of his union to Christ, and it is exceedingly important that he should labor to maintain a constant sense thereof; for although the mercy he the same, yet his comfort from it will vary according to his apprehension of it. A landscape is as fair by night as by day, but who can perceive its beauties in the dark? — yen so we must see, or rather believe, this union to rejoice in it.

No condition out of Paradise can be more blessed than that which is produced By a lively sense of oneness with Jesus. To know and feel that our interests are mutual, our bonds indissoluble, and our lives united, is indeed to dip our morsel in the golden dish of heaven. There is no sweeter canticle for mortal lips than the sweet song, “My beloved is mine, and I am His:” — “E’en like two bank-dividing brooks, That wash the pebbles with their wanton streams, And, having rang’d and search’d a thousand nooks, Meet both at length in silver-breasted Thames, Where in a greater current they conjoin; — So I my best beloved’s am, so he is mine.” Verily the stream of life floweth along easily enough when it is commingled with him who is our life. Walking with our arm upon the shoulder of the beloved is not simply safe, but delightful; and living with his life is a noble style of immortality, which may be enjoyed on earth. But to be out of Christ is misery, weakness, and death — in short, it is the bud, of which the full-blown flower is damnation. Apart from Jesus we have nothing save fearful forebodings and terrible remembrances. Beloved, there is no Gospel promise which is ours unless we know what it is to be in Him. Out of him all is poverty, woe, sorrow, and destruction: it is only in him, the ark of his elect, that we eau hope to enjoy covenant mercies, or rejoice in the sure blessings of salvation. Can we now enter-tam a hope that we are really hidden in the rock? Do we feel that we are a portion of Christ’s body, and that a real union exists between us? Then may we proceed to unfold and appropriate the privileges here mentioned.

Ye are complete in Him. The word “complete” does not convey the whole of the meaning couched in the original word . It is upon the whole the best word which can be found in our language but its meaning may be further unveiled by the addition of other auxiliary readings.

I. YE ARE COMPLETE IN HIM. — Let us consider the meaning of the phrase as it thus stands in our own authorized version. We are complete. In all matters which concern our spiritual welfare, and our soul’s salvation, we are complete in Christ. 1. Complete without the aid of Jewish ceremonies. — These had their uses.

They were pictures wherewith the law, as a schoolmaster, taught the infant Jewish church; but now that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster, for in the clear light of Christian knowledge we need not the aid of symbols: — “ Finished are the types and shadows Of the ceremonial law.” The one sacrifice has so atoned for us that we need no other. In Christ we are complete without any addition of circumcision, sacrifice, passover, or temple service. These are now but beggarly elements. They would be incumbrances — for what can we need from them when we are complete in Christ? What have we to do with moon or sun now that Christ hath shone forth like the sun in his strength? Let the dim lamps be quenched — they would but mock the dawn, and the sunlight would deride their unneeded glimmerings. We despise not the ceremonial law — it was “the shadow of good things to come,” and as such we venerate it; but now that the substance hath appeared, we are not content with guesses of grace, but we grasp him who is grace and truth. How much more highly are we favored than the ancient believers, for they by dally offerings confessed themselves to be incomplete! They could never stay their hand and say, “It is enough,” for daily sin demanded daily lambs for the altar. The Jews were never made complete by their law, for their rites “could never make the comers thereunto perfect;” but this is our peculiar and superior privilege, that we are perfected by the one offering on Calvary. 2. We are complete without the help of philo sophy. — In Paul’s time, there were some who thought that philosophy might be used as a supplement to faith. They argued, contended, and. mystified every’ doctrine of revelation.

Happy would it have been for them and the Church had they heeded the words of Paul, and kept entirely to the simplicity of the Goal, glorying only in the cross of Christ. The Christian has such a sublime system of doctrine that he never need to fear the vain speculations of an infidel science, nor need he ever call in the sophisms of the worldly wise to prop his faith — in Christ he is complete. We have never heard of a dying believer asking the aid of a worldly philosophy to give him words of comfort in the hour of dissolution. No! he has enough in his own religion — enough in the person of his Redeemer — though in the comforts of the Holy Ghost. Never let us turn aside from the faith because of the sneer of the learned: this a Christian will not, cannot do — for we see that eternal evidence in our religion which we may call its best proof, namely, the fact that in it we are complete.

No man can add anything to the religion of Jesus. All that is consistent with truth is already incorporated in it, and with that which is not true it can form no alliance. There is nothing new in theology save that which is false.

Those who seek to improve the Gospel of Jesus do but deface it. It is so perfect in itself that all additions to it are but excrescences of error; and it renders us so complete that aught we join with it is supererogation, or worse than that. David would not go to the fight in Saul’s armor, for he had not proved it; so can we say, “the sling and stone are to us abundant weapons; as for the mail of philosophy, we leave that for proud Goliaths to wear.” One of the most evil signs of our day is its tendency to rationalism, spiritualism, and multitudes of other means of becoulding the simple faith of our Lord Jesus: but the Lord’s chosen family will not be beguiled from their steadfastness, which is the only hope of an heretical generation; for they know whom they have believed, and will not renounce their confidence in him for the sophistries of “the wise and prudent.” 3. Complete without the inventions of superstition. — God is the author of all revealed and spiritual religion; but man would write an appendix. There must be works of supererogation, deeds of penance, acts of mortification, or else the poor papist can never be perfected. Yea, when he has most vigorously applied the whip, when he has fasted even to physical exhaustion, when he has forfeited all that is natural to man — yet he is never sure that he has done enough, he can never say that he is complete; but the Christian, without any of these, feels that he has gained a consummation by those last words of his Savior — “ It is finished!” The blood of his agonizing Lord is his only and all-sufficient trust. He despises alike the absolutions and the indulgences of priest or pontiff; he tramples on the refuge of lies which the deceiver has built — his glory and his boast ever centering in the fact that he is complete in Christ. Let but this sentence be preached throughout the earth, and believed by the inhabitants thereof, and all the despots on its surface could not buttress the tottering church of Rome, even for a single hour. Men would soon cry out, “Away with the usurper! away with her pretensions. there is all in Christ; and what can she add thereto, saving her mummeries, pollutions, and corrupt abominations.” 4. We are complete without human merit, our own works being regarded as filthy rags. — How many there are who, while waxing warm against popery, are fostering its principles in their own minds! The very marrow of popery is reliance on our own works; and in God’s sight the formalist and legalist: are as contemptible, if found in an orthodox church, as if they were open followers of Antichrist. Brethren, let us See to it that we are vesting alone in the righteousness of Jesus, that he is all in all to us. Let us never forget that if we are perfect in him, we are perfect only in him. While we would diligently cultivate works of holiness, let us be careful lest we seek: to add to the perfect work of Jesus. The robe of righteousness that nature spins and weaves is too frail a fabric to endure the breath of the Almighty, we must, therefore, east it all away — creature doings must not be united with, or regarded as auxiliary to Divine satisfaction.

We would be holy, even as God in, but we are still confident that this will not be supplementing the great righteousness which is ours by imputation.

No; though compassed with sin and surrounded by our depravity, we know that we are so complete in Jesus that we could not be more so, even were we free from all these things, and glorified as the spirits of just men made perfect.

Blessed completely through the God-man, let our unbelief be ashamed, and let our admiration be fastened upon this interesting and delightful, state of privilege. Arise, believer! and behold thyself “perfect in Christ Jesus.’ Let not thy sins shake thy faith in the all-sufficiency of Jesus. Thou art, with all thy depravity, still in him, and therefore complete. Thou hast need of nothing beyond what there is in him. In him thou art at this moment just, in him entirely clean, in him an object of divine approval and eternal love. Now, as thou art, and where thou art, thou art still complete. Feeble, forgetful, frail, fearful, and fickle in thyself, yet in Him thou art all that can be desired. Thine unrighteousness is covered, thy righteousness is accepted, thy strength is perfected, thy safety secured, and thy heaven certain. Rejoice, then, that thou art “Complete in him.” Look on thine own nothingness and be humble, but look’ at Jesus, thy great representative, and be glad. Be not so intent upon thine own corruptions as to forget his immaculate purity, which he has given to thee. Be not so mindful of thine original poverty as to forget the infinite riches which he has conferred upon thee. It will save thee many pangs if thou wilt learn to think of thyself as being in Him, and as being by his glorious grace accepted in him, and perfect in Christ Jesus.

II. YE ARE FULLY SUPPLIED IN HIM,-Having him, we have all that we can possibly require. The man of God is thoroughly furnished in the possession of his great Savior. He never need to look for anything beyond., for in him all is treasured. Do we need forgiveness for the past? Pardons, rich and free, are with Jesus. Grace to cover all our sin is there; grace to rise above our follies and our faults. Is it wisdom which we lack? He is made of God unto us wisdom. His finger shall point out our path in the desert; his rod and staff shall keep us in the way when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. In our combats with the foe do we feel want of strength?

Is he not Jehovah, mighty to save? Will he not increase power unto the faint, and succor the fallen? Need we go to Assyria, or stay on Egypt, for help? Nay, these are broken reeds. Surely, in the Lord Jehovah have we righteousness and strength. The battle is before us. but we tremble: not at the foe; we feel armed at all points, clad in impenetrable mail, lot we are fully supplied in him. Do we deplore our ignorance? He ,will give us knowledge; He can open our ear to listen to mysteries unknown. Even babes shall learn the wonders of his grace, and children shall be taught of the Lord. No other teacher is required; He is alone efficient and allsufficient.

Are we at times distressed? We need not inquire for comfort, for in him, the consolation of Israel, there are fats full of the oil of joy, and rivers of the wine of thanksgiving. The pleasures of the world are void to us, for we have infinitely more joy than they can give in Him who has made us complete.

Ah! my reader, whatever exigencies may arise, we shall never need to say, “We have searched, but cannot find what we require; for it is, and ever shall be found in the storehouse of mercy, even in Jesus Christ.” “It hath pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell ;” and truly none of the saints have ever complained of any failure in Him. Tens of thousands of them have drawn from this sacred well, yet is it as full as ever, and all who come to it are supplied with the full measure of their necessities. Jesus is not one single sprig of myrrh, but “a bundle of myrrh is my beloved unto me;” not one mercy, but a string of mercies, for “my beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire.” “In Christ is a cluster of all spiritual blessings, all the blessings of the everlasting covenant are in his hands and at his disposal; and saints are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in him. He is the believer’s wisdom, righteousness, sanctifications and redemption. There is not a mercy we want but is in him, or a blessing we enjoy but what we have received from him. He is the believer’s ‘ “all in all. ’ “ The word translated “complete” is used by Demosthenes in describing a ship as fully manned — and truly the Christian’s ship, from prow to stern, is well manned by her captain, who himself steers the vessel, stills the storm, feeds the crew, fills the sails, and brings all safe to their desired haven. In every position of danger or duty Christ himself is allsufficient for protection or support. Under every conceivable or inconceivable trial, we shall find in him sufficient grace: should every earthly stream be dried, there is enough in him, in the absence of them all.

His glorious person is the dwelling-place of all-sufficiency. “In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;” as the fullness of Deity is sufficient to create and sustain a universe of ponderous orbs, and whole worlds of living creatures, can it be supposed that it will be found unable to supply the necessities of saints? Such a fear would be as foolish as if a man should tremble lest the atmosphere should prove too little for his breath, or the rivers too shallow for his thirst. To imagine the riches of the incarnate God to fail would be to conceive a bankrupt God, or wasted infinite.

Therefore, let us set up our banners in his name, and exceedingly rejoice.

III. A third reading is —YE ARE SATISFIED IN HIM. — Satisfaction is a jewel rare and precious. Happy is the merchant-man who finds it. We may seek it in riches, but it lieth not there. We may heap up gold and silver, pile on pile, until we are rich beyond the dream of avarice, then thrust our hands into our bags of gold, and search there for satisfaction, but we have it not. Our heart, like the horseleech, crieth, “Give, give.” We may erect the palace and conquer mighty nations, but among the trophies which decorate the hall, there is not that precious thing which worlds cannot buy.

But give us Christ, let us be allied to him, and our heart is satisfied. We are content in Poverty — we are rich; in distress we have all, and abound. We are full, for we are satisfied in him.

Again, let us explore the fields of knowledge; let us separate ourselves, and intermeddle with all wisdom; let us dive into the secrets of nature; let the heavens yield to the telescope; and the earth to our research; let us turn the ponderous tome and Dore over the pages of the mighty folio; let us take our seat among the wise, and become professors of science: but, alas! we soon shall loathe it all, for “much study is a weariness of the flesh.” But let us turn again to the fountain-head, and drink of the waters of revelation: we are then satisfied. Whatever the pursuit may be, whether we invoke the trump of fame to do us homage, and bid our fellows offer the incense of honor, or pursue the pleasures of sin, and dance a giddy round of merriment, or follow the less erratic movements of commerce, and acquire influence among men, we shall still be disappointed, we shall have still an aching void, an emptiness within; but when we gather up our straying desires, and bring them to a focus at the foot of Calvary, we feel a solid satisfaction, of which the world cannot deprive us.

Among the sons of men there are not a few of restless spirit, whose uneasy souls are panting for an unknown good, the want of which they feel, but the nature of which they do not comprehend. These will hurry from country to Country, to do little else but attempt a hopeless escape from themselves; they will flit from pleasure to pleasure, with the only gain of fresh grief from repeated disappointments. It were hard indeed to compound a medicine for minds thus diseased. Verily, the aromatics and balms of Araby, or the islands of the sea, might be exhausted ere the elixir of satisfaction could be distilled, and every mystic name in the vocabulary of the wise might be tried in vain to produce the all-precious charm of quiet. But in the Gospel we find the inestimable medicine already compounded, potent enough to allay the most burning fever, and still the most violent palpitations of the heart. This we speak from experience, for we too were once, like the unclean spirit, “seeking rest and finding none ;” we once groaned for an unseen something, which in all our joys we could not find, and now, by God’s great love, we have found the water which has quenched our thirst — it is that which Jesus gives, ‘“ the living water” of his grace. We revel in the sweets of the name of Jesus, and long for naught beside. Like Naphtali, we are satisfied with layout, and full of the blessing of the Lord. Like Jacob, we exclaim, “It is enough.” The soul is anchored, the desire is “satiated with fatness,” the whole man is rich to all the intents of bliss, and looketh for nothing more. Allen, in his Heaven Opened, represents the believer as soliloquizing in the following joyous manner: — “O happy soul, how rich art thou! What a booty have I gotten! It is all mine own. I have the promises of this life, and of that which is to come.

Oh! what can I wish more? How full a charter is here! Now, my doubting soul may boldly and believingly say with Thomas, ‘ My Lord and my God.’

What need we any further witness? We have heard his words. He hath sworn by his holiness that his decree may not be changed, and hath signed it with his own signet. And now return to thy rest, O my soul! for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. Say, if thy lines be not fallen to thee in a pleasant place, and if-this be not a goodly heritage? O blasphemous discontent! how absurd and unreasonable an evil art thou, whom all the fullness of the Godhead cannot satisfy, because thou art denied in a petty comfort, or crossed in thy vain expectations from the world! O my unthankful soul, shall not a Trinity content thee? Shall not all-sufficiency suffice thee? Silence, ye murmuring thoughts, for ever. I have enough, I abound, and am full. Infiniteness and eternity is mine, and what more can I ask?”

Oh may we constantly dwell on the blissful summit of spiritual content, boasting continually in the completeness of our salvation IN HIM, and may we ever seek to live up to our great and in estimable privilege. Let us live according to our rank and quality, according to the riches conveyed to us by the eternal covenant. As great princes are so arrayed that you can read their estates in their garments, and discern their riches by their tables, so let our daily carriage express to others the value which we set upon the blessings of grace. A murmur is a rag which is ill-suited to be the dress of a soul possessed of Jesus; a complaining spirit is too mean a thing for an heir of all things to indulge. Let worldlings see that our Jesus is indeed a sufficient portion. As for those of us who are continually filled with rejoicing, let us be careful that our company and converse are in keeping with our high position. Let our satisfaction with Christ beget in us a spirit too noble to stoop to the base deeds of ungodly ‘men. Let us live among the generation of the just; let us dwell in the courts of the great King, behold his face, wait at his throne, bear his name, show forth his virtues, set forth his praises, advance his honor, uphold his interest, and reflect his image. It is not becoming that princes of the blood should herd with beggars, or dress as they do; let all believers, then, come out from the world, and mount the hills of high and holy living; so shall it be proved that they are content with Christ, when they utterly forsake the broken cisterns.

IV. The text bears within it another meaning —YE ARE FILLED IN HIM: — so Wickliffe translated it “And ye ben fillid in Hym .” A possession of Jesus in the soul is a filling thing. Our great Creator never intended that the heart should be empty, and hence he has stamped upon it the ancient rule that nature abhors a vacuum. The soul can never be quiet until in every part it is fully occupied. It is as insatiable as the grave, until it finds every corner of its being filled with treasure. Now, it can be said of Christian salvation, that it, and it alone, can flit the mind. Man is a compound being, and while one portion of his being may be full, another may be empty. There is nothing which can fill the whole man save the possession of Christ.

The man of hard calculation, the lover of facts, may feast his head and starve his heart; — the sentimentalist miry fill up his full measure of emotion, and destroy his understanding; — the poet may render his imagination gigantic, and dwarf his judgment ; — the student may render his brain the very refinement of logic, and his conscience may be dying : — but give us Christ for our study, Christ for our science, Christ for our pursuit, and our whole man is filled. In his religion we find enough to exercise the faculties of the mast astute reasoner, while yet our heart, by the contemplation, shall be warmed — yea, made to burn within us. In him we find room for imagination’s utmost stretch, while yet his kind hand preserves us from wild and romantic visions. He can satisfy our soul in its every part. Our whole man feels that his truth is our soul’s proper food, that its powers were made to appropriate Him, while He is so constituted that he is adapted to its every want. Herein lies the fault of all human systems of religion, they do but subjugate and enlist a portion of the man; they light up with doubtful brilliance one single chamber of his soul, and leave the rest in darkness; they cover him in one part, and allow the biting frost to benumb and freeze the other, until the man feels that something is neglected, for he bears a gnawing within him which his false religion cannot satisfy. But; let the glorious Gospel of the blessed Jesus come into the man, let the Holy Spirit apply the word with power, and the whole man is tilled — every nerve, like the string of a harp, is wound up, and gives forth melody-every power blesses God — every portion is lighted up with splendor, and the man exclaims — “ There rest, my long divided soul, Fixed on this mighty center, rest.” “Shaddai, ” the Lord all-sufficient, is a portion large enough to afford us fullness of joy and peace. In Him, as well as in his house, “there is bread enough and to spare.” In the absence of all other good things, he is an overflowing river of mercy, and when other blessings are present, they owe all their value to Him. He makes our cup so full that it runneth over, and so he is just what man’s insatiable heart requires. It is a fact which all men must acknowledge, that we are never full till we run over — the soul never has enough till it has more than enough; while we can contain, and measure, and number our possessions, we are not quite so rich as we desire. Pauperis est numerare pecus — we count ourselves poor so long as we can count our wealth. We are never satisfied till we have more than will satisfy us. But in Jesus there is that superabundance, that lavish richness, that outdoing of desire, that we are obliged to exclaim, “It is enough — I ’m filled to the brim. ” How desirable is that state of mind which makes every part of the soul a spring of joys! The most of men have but one well of mirth within them; according to their temperament, they derive their happiness from different powers of the mind — one from bold imagination, another from solitary meditation, and a third from memory; but the believer has many wells and many palm-trees, for all that is within him is blessed by God. As the waters cover the sea, so has Divine grace flooded every portion of his being. He has no “aching void,” no salt land, and not inhabited,” no “clouds without rain ;” but where once were disappointment and discontent, there are now “pleasures for evermore.” for the soul is “filled in Him.”

Seek then, beloved Christian reader, to know more and more of Jesus.

Think not that thou art master of the science of Christ crucified. Thou knowest enough of him to be supremely blest; but thou art even now but at the beginning. Notwithstanding all thou hast learned of him. remember thou hast but read the child’s first primer; thou art as yet on one of the lower forms; thou hast not yet a degree in the sacred college. Thou hut but dipped the sole of thy foot in that stream wherein the glorified are now swimming. Thou art but a gleaner — thou hast not at present handled the sheaves with which the ransomed return to Zion. King Jesus hath not showed thee all the treasures of his house, nor canst thou more than guess the value of the least of his jewels. Thou hast at this moment a very faint idea of the glory to which thy Redeemer has raised thee, or the completeness with which he has enriched thee. Thy joys are but sips of the cup, but crumbs from under the table. Up then to thine inheritance, the land is before thee, walk through and survey the lot of thine inheritance; but this know, that until thou hast washed in Jordan, thou shalt be but as a beginner, not only in the whole science of Divine love, but even in this one short but comprehensive lesson, “COMPLETE IN HIM.”

TO THE UNCONVERTED READER.

FRIEND — We will venture one assertion, in the full belief that thou canst not deny it — -thou art not entirely satisfied. Thou art one of the wearylooted seekers of a joy which thou wilt never find out of Christ. Oh! let this chapter teach thee to forego thy vain pursuit, and look in another direction.

Be assured that, as hitherto thy chase has been a disappointment, so shall it continue to the end unless thou dost run in another mariner. Others have digged the mines of worldly pleasure, and have gained nothing but anguish and despair; wilt thou search again where others have found nothing? Let the experience of ages teach thee the fallacy of human hopes, and let thine own failures warn thee of new attempts.