flee away.' In the present world, which is fitly compared to a waste howling wilderness, where are pricking briars and grieving thorns, the Christian must expect to meet with many obstructions; with much to perplex his mind, to excite discouragement, and to impede his journey. But ere long, he will pass the waters of Jordan, and reach the desired haven where he shall peacefully enjoy the object of his hope without interruption and without satiety.

The children of God, during their pilgrimage on earth, bear no marks by which men of the world recognise their heavenly birth, or learn to estimate their high privileges. 'A good man is subject, like other mortals, to all the influences of natural evil; his harvest is not spared by the tempest, nor his cattle by the murrain; his house flames like others in a conflagration; nor have his ships any peculiar power of resisting hurricanes: his mind, however elevated, inhabits a body subject to innumerable casualties, of which he must always share the dangers and the pains; he bears about him the seeds of disease, and may linger away a great part of his life under the tortures of the gout or stone; at one time groaning with insufferable anguish, at another dissolved in listlessness and languor.'

Afflictions and poverty; persecutions, fines, imprisonment and death, are not viewed by the giddy and the gay, the wise and the prudent, as indications of sonship, but as tokens of extreme depravity and enormous guilt: as expressions of divine vengeance rather than of mercy: as the frowns of an incensed judge, not as the salutary chastisements of a loving father. But some, or all of these, the children of God experience: yea, says an apostle, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. In the world, said

the despised Saviour, you shall have tribulationFor if ye were of the world, the world would love its own but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.'

It is usually our similitude to others, says an excellent Prelate, that makes them think and speak well of us whosoever commends another, commends something that he supposeth at least he hath in himself; and this is the reason of that woe of our Saviour-woe to you when all men shall speak well of you. When wicked men speak well of us, it is a sign that we are too much like them. Even an Heathen could say, when highly applauded by the vulgar, 'What evil have I done, that these men praise me?'

:

The disciples of Christ are an afflicted and poor people in general, literally poor; and on this account, frequently viewed by the world as mean and contemptible. Their heavenly Father is pleased, for the best reasons, to withhold from them many things that glitter in the eye of sense; that are sure to attract notice, and which generally secure to the owner, of whatever character, unqualified tokens of adulation and respect. But the Christian is not without his consolations. Exclusion from transitory good is abundantly recompensed by the contemplation of objects that dignify while they delight; that irradiate the mind and exhilarate the heart; that raise the affections above terrestrial scenes, and enable the soul, not merely to anticipate, but to realize something of the felicities of glory. Considerations these of immense worth,-'compared to which all other is to man, condemned as he is shortly to die, but puerile amusement, a house of cards, a bubble blown up into the air, and displaying deceitful colours in a momentary sunshine.'

What strong encouragement, therefore, what sublime pleasure must it afford the weary pilgrim, labouring under the infirmities of decaying nature, to reflect that the period is fast approaching when the soul, released from the bondage of corruption, shall be completely sanctified; all its faculties enlarged; all its powers invigorated: when every perplexing doubt, every anxious fear, every distracting care, shall be banished for ever: when nothing shall divide his heart, or interrupt his worship; but, having entered into rest, he shall joyfully unite in singing with all the ransomed of the Lord, Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father: to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.'

But though the saints of the Most High be now despised and rejected; though they be accounted by the wicked as the refuse and offscouring of all things, and their end to be without honour, this will not always be the case. No; when put into possession of the new Jerusalem, it may be said with an emphasis, They shall no more be termed forsaken for God, their everlasting Father, will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There shall be no more sorrow, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. Then shall they review with grateful hearts, all the way in which the Lord led them in the wilderness: the way in which they were frequently discouraged; in which they had enemies powerful and numerous to encounter, and concerning whom it shall be sung with triumph, 'We are more than conquerors through him that loved us.'

We are, it is true, in the present state, absent

from the Lord; we walk by faith, not by sight. God hath put a distance between the promise and the performance, so that it may be said, in a comparative view, that the present life is rather a life of hope than of enjoyment; and that the good things he gives relate more to the future than the present.' But in the realms of glory and of blessedness, the saints will see face to face, and know even as also they are known. The glories of the celestial city are viewed through a glass darkly; but in the full fruition of God, their eyes shall see the king in all his beauty. They shall exult in the full display of his infinite perfections, and stand astonished at the breadth and length, the depth and heighth, of the love of Christ; while they joyfully experience the accomplishment of his own prayer, Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me.'

The felicity of the saints on earth is frequently interrupted, and always imperfect. But in the heavenly world it will be perpetual, vigorous, and complete. For could their happy souls look forward to a moment that should terminate their bliss, the prospect would strike a damp on every enjoyment-it would fill them with horror. But a thought like this can never enter the mansions where perfection reigns and glory triumphs, Their happiness will be unspeakable, immutable, and eternal. They will be subjects of an everlasting kingdom. Their inheritance will be incorruptible. They will be ever with the Lord, in whose presence there is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for ever

more.

Such are the prospects and such the pleasures exhibited by the Scriptures to invigorate faith

and inspire hope with confidence. For what is death to that mind which considers eternity as the career of its existence? What are the frowns of fortune to him who claims an eternal world as his inheritance? What is the loss of friends to that heart which feels, with more than natural conviction, that it shall quickly rejoin them in a more tender, intimate, and permanent intercourse than any of which the present life is susceptible? What are the fluctuations and vicissitudes of external things to a mind which strongly and uniformly anticipates a state of endless and immutable felicity? What are mortifications, disappointments, and insults, to a spirit which is conscious of being the original offspring and adopted child of God; which knows that its omnipotent Father will, in proper time, effectually assert the dignity and privileges of its nature? In a word, as earth is but a speck of creation, as time is not an instant in proportion to eternity, such are the hopes and prospects of the Christian in comparison of every sublunary misfortune or difficulty. It is therefore, in his judgment, the eternal wonder of angels, and indelible opprobrium of man, that a religion so worthy of God, so suitable to the frame and circumstances of our nature, so consonant to all the dictates of reason, so friendly to the dignity and improvement of intelligent beings, pregnant with genuine comfort and delight, should be rejected and despised.'

That there remaineth a rest to the people of God, the Christian has no doubt. O happy state! Surely the hope of enjoying it must administer strong consolation. What are the momentary trials of the present life, when compared to an eternity of blessedness? they are nothing-they are lost in the comparison. A sight of danger and of difficulties; of enemies numerous and power