and kindling in your soul, at the contemplation of the prize of your high calling? Adopt, then, the apostolic prayer," that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." Eph. i. 17, 18. Do you anxiously desire to attain a good hope through grace, that you are constituted heirs of the inheritance which God has provided for them that love him? Implore, then, the testimony of that Spirit who "beareth witness. with our spirit, that we are the children of God." Rom. viii. 16. Is it your desire to obtain some foretaste of that blessedness which is reserved for believers in heaven? Seek, then, with earnestness, the influences of that Spirit, who is "the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." Eph. i. 14. You have often perhaps lamented, with deep concern, the feebleness and fluctuation of your hope of immortality. May you not trace its defects to the want of fervour and importunity in prayer, for the influences of that Spirit which God has absolutely promised to them that ask him? Honour, by your petitions and expectations, that Divine Author of happiness as well as holiness, in the soul of man, and you will not long have to lament the absence of the pleasures of hope.

2. Let us seek these pleasures by the exercise of a vigorous faith.

The connexion between faith and hope is strikingly exhibited in the beginning of the eleventh chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith, then, is a confident reliance on the testimony of God concerning things invisible; and hope is the expectation of obtaining them. Faith removes from the mind doubt as to their reality, and hope removes doubt as to their attainment. In order to the pleasures of hope, two questions must be satisfactorily answered. Is there undeniable truth in the representations of future glory? and will that glory be ours? Now faith effectually banishes from the mind all uncertainty in reference to the former of these questions. It does even more than this; for it places reliance on the Divine testimony concerning the way to heaven, as well as on the testimony concerning heaven itself. The God of salvation has testified that whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall have everlasting life. John iii. 16. The question then, Am I authorized to cherish the Christian hope? is reduced to the simple inquiry, Do I truly believe on the Son of God? If of the possession of this faith I have satisfactory evidence, I am entitled to rejoice in the hope of glory. Let me then firmly embrace the promise of eternal life, given by Him who cannot lie. Let it be my daily delight, as it is my grand security for the con

tinuance of spiritual enjoyments, to be looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith. Let the eye of my intellectual vision be perpetually directed to an unseen world and an unseen Saviour; that I ever may be prepared to say, "whom having not seen, I love; in whom, though now I see him not, yet believ-. ing, I rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 1 Pet. i. 8.

3. Let us seek the pleasures of hope in connection with the pursuit of holiness.

"Follow peace with all men," said an apostle, "and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord; looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God." Heb. xii. 14. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Tit. ii. 11—14. Unless habitually engaged in the cultivation of holiness, we shall be alike destitute both of inclination and of aptitude for the employment of "looking for that blessed, hope." If the love of sin be cherished, or even tolerated in our hearts, clouds of awful and portentous gloom will gather and thicken around us, obscuring the prospect of futurity, and intercepting every ray of glory from the world of

blessedness. Be it then ever our solicitous concern to exercise ourselves unto godliness, and to maintain a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards man. 1 Tim. iv. 7; Acts xxiv. 16. Never let it escape our recollection, that the kingdom of God within us, as preparatory to the kingdom of God above, is "righteousness," no less than "peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." Rom. xiv. 17.

Finally. With a view to the lively and habitual enjoyment of the pleasures of hope, let us endeavour to accustom ourselves to just and cheerful views of dissolution.

The most formidable impediment to the Joys of hope is, with many Christians, the fear of death, by which, in a lamentable degree, they are held in bondage. Alas! how distressing must it be, to live in perpetual fear of that which we know to be unavoidable! How unspeakably desirable is it, to rise superior to the fear of that foe which we must of necessity encounter! And is it too much to expect this attainment? Did not our Lord and Saviour die, that he might destroy death and him that had the power of it, and that he might deliver them who, through fear of death, had all their life-time been subject to bondage? Heb. ii. 14, 15. What cause then has the believer in Jesus for anxiety or trepidation? What is it for a Christian to die, but simply to depart and to be with Jesus, which is far better than, under any circumstances, to remain on earth! What is it but simply the separation of the soul from the

body, in order to a more intimate union with the Saviour! Ought we not to be willing, were it necessary, to suffer a thousand deaths in order to an admission into glory? Shall we then unnecessarily suffer a thousand deaths in fearing one? Let us rather say, with apostolic tranquillity and exultation, "We are persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. viii. 38, 39.

CHAPTER X.

THE PLEASURES OF DOING GOOD.

If there be any one character which secures, from men of every class, the tribute of a voluntary and respectful homage, it is the character of the philanthropist, who devotes his life to the work of doing good. When the ear hears him, then it blesses him; and when the eye sees him, it bears witness to him; the blessing of him who is ready to perish comes upon him, and the disconsolate heart he causes to sing for joy. Such a man is perpetually diffusing happiness around him; can he then be himself a stranger to delight? Costly may be his sacrifices, numerous his privations, and