A Christian has always the ground of being perfectly happy before God, because he is perfectly saved. This is the right state of a Christian - that of confidence, not in the flesh (carnal confidence), but confidence and joy before God. A state of want of confidence aud of uncertainty as regards himself is a state in which the Christian may be found; he may pass through it, and that even because of a certain work produced in the soul by the Holy Ghost, but it is not his proper state. What the Holy Ghost gives is certainty. Wherever there is uncertainty, it results from the working of our own hearts, even though in connection with (and, in a sense, grounded upon) what is really the work of the Spirit. I may believe that God is holy, and, seeing sin in myself, may begin to reason on my own worthiness as to whether I can or cannot come to God - whether I can have anything to say to God. There may be the desire to go to Him, but then I do not know whether He will accept me. This is not faith; and yet it is constantly the state of soul in which Christians are found. It is not properly a Christian state; it is reasoning upon things known by faith, things found out through faith, but it is not faith. We find in the word of God that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin; that by the blood of the cross He has made peace; that our sins and iniquities are remembered no more; and, if faith is in exercise, we are happy - we get peace. Faith is the simple-hearted reception of what God has said. J. N. D.