This, my brethren, is the glorious hope with which our Blessed Saviour fills the heart of every earnest christian, by the glad tidings of the gospel: a hope, which nothing but the knowledge of our own wilful wickedness can deprive us of, a treasure which nothing, but sin only, can take away from us. To you, to me, this glorious hope is given. And shall we forfeit it? shall we hesitate to do our utmost endeavours, to take every step that may serve, through our Blessed Saviour's death for us, to make our hope perfected in Heaven? shall we, in one word, give up the rewards of eternity, for the follies, vanities, and sins which we are now tempted to indulge? If so, if we encourage the sins which do so easily beset us, and burden our souls with a weight of wickedness, instead of laying these things aside, we may run our race indeed, but it must be without patience, comfort, hope, or joy. For what patience under affliction, what comfort in the day of trial, what joy or hope in the hour of death, can there be to that man who is unable to look H up with confidence to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith? But when the soul is freed from sin, how different is the case! When the earnest christian walks before God in singleness of heart, keeping innocency, and taking heed to the thing that is right, and preserving himself unspotted from the world-or when the returning penitent flies from his sins with sorrow and with shame, seeking the mercy and forgiveness of his God; and casting away the weights that formerly pressed down his soul, and the sins which have so easily beset him, obeys that God in newness and holiness of life, he may run his race, though it be in the midst of trouble, with patience and in peace. For he knows and is sure that the light afflictions of this present world, which are but for a moment, will work for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory in the world to come; he believes, that, if he continue stedfast and faithful to the end, he shall be received into the joy of his Lord, and that God will make him to be numbered with His saints, in glory everlasting. May God enable us to have a right judgment, and a righteous choice, in all things, that such may be the happy end of our race, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. SERMON X. PSALM xlviii. 13. For this God is our God for ever and ever: He shall be our guide unto death. THE longer we live and the more experience we have of ourselves, the more we feel convinced what poor weak creatures we are, and how much we stand in need of help, and strength, and comfort, to keep us out of the evils, or support us under the difficulties of this life, or to lead us in the way which goeth into life eternal. In the troubles and trials which all men must expect to meet with, what should we do if we had only to look to ourselves for comfort? In the temptations to wickedness which beset us, how should we escape, if we had no strength but our own to trust to? How, in short, weak beings as we are, inclined by nature to evil, how should we ever be able to make ourselves fit for the glories of the kingdom of Heaven, if we were left entirely to ourselves? Thanks be to God, the christian hopes, and believes, and knows, that he is not left in so unhappy a condition; that he is not left to himself, that he is never without a friend. When we look about us, when we raise our eyes to heaven above, or turn them upon the earth beneath, and behold all the wonderful and beautiful works which they contain, our reason tells us that there is, that there must be, a God: that we, and the things which we see around us, could never have had our own being at all, if some one more mighty than ourselves had not given it to us. We see that the earth on which we are placed, brings forth food enough to support all its inhabitants, though they are daily increasing in numbers: this teaches us that there must be some good and glorious Father of all, who loveth every thing that He has made, and whose mercy is over all His works. There never yet was the nation or people found, who had not |