The translation of sinners "from the power of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son," is the joy of Christians and the admiration of angels.

Every penitent and pardoned soul is a new witness to the triumphs of the Redeemer over sin, death, and the grave.

How great the change that is wrought! The child of wrath becomes a monument of grace--a brand plucked from the burning! "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." How marvellous, how interesting is the spiritual history of each individual believer! He is, like David, "a wonder unto many;" but the greatest wonder of all to himself.

Others may doubt whether it be so or not; but to him it is unequivocally proved, that, from first to last, grace alone reigns in the work of his salvation.
The character and privileges of real Christians are beautifully described in the language of our Church, which, when speaking of the objects of Divine favour and compassion, says: "They that be endued with so excellent a benefit of God, be called according to God's purpose in due season; they through grace obey the calling: they be justified freely: they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good works; and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity." Such a conception and display of the Almighty wisdom, power, and love, is indeed "full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members; and drawing up their minds to high and heavenly things: it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation, to be enjoyed through Christ, and doth fervently kindle their love towards God." Nearly allied to the consolation of a good hope through grace, as it respects our own personal state before God, is that of seeing its evidences shed lustre over the disposition and conduct of others.

Bright was the exhibition of the union between true Christian enjoyment and Christian exertion, in the character whose moral and spiritual features I am attempting to delineate.
It seemed to be the first wish of her heart to prove to others, what God had already proved to her, that Jesus is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." She desired to evince the reality of her calling, justification, and adoption into the family of God, by showing a conformity to the image of Christ, and by walking "religiously in good works;" she trusted that, in this path of faith and obedience, she should "at length, by God's mercy, attain to everlasting felicity." I had the spiritual charge of another parish, adjoining to that in which I resided.