ry covenant, with His own precious
blood. Then it surely follows, we cannot believe without being
justified; and we cannot be justified without being sanctified.
"Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God, through
our Lord Jesus Christ," and this peace we can only have by being one
in Christ and abiding in Him. It is a peace the world cannot give nor
take away; a peace that subdues all evil passions, a peace that keeps
us patient and cheerful under difficulties; that keeps us humble and
truthful under trials and temptations. This is the grace that must
prevail in a distressing hour; and, filled with the sweet peace, we
can sing "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, etc.," and this
sanctifying grace makes us heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ,
who owns us for brethren and writes our names in the Book of Life.

But some may inquire: "How can we become perfect at once?" Do you see
that little babe? As soon as it is born it is a _perfect child_;
perfect in its father's love, perfect in its mother's tender care;
perfect as a child--not yet a perfect man, but all the _germ of the
man is there_. His limbs, hands and feet are perfect; of his body
there is no part lacking; and under the fostering care, and tender
nursing of his mother, the rigid but wholesome discipline of the
father, he must grow to perfect _manhood_,--and who can fix the time
when the child ceases and when the man begins. Or, see the branch in
the vine; as soon as it shoots its buds out of the vine, it is a
branch in the vine, and never ceases to be such until cut off. The
grain of mustard seed cast into the ground becomes a tree; but who can
tell when it ceases to be a plant. So is every one that is born of the
Spirit. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, thou hearest the sound
thereof and canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth."

As soon as we believe we are perfect in Christ; and through the wise
and just discipline of God the father, and the loving and tender care
of Christ as our mother, being fed with the w