III. We propose to examine the operation of Christian hope, by pointing out the way in which it effects our safety. It "entereth into that within the veil."

The metaphor thus supplied is a mixed or double one. That part of it which compares hope to an anchor, we have seen, is not only correct, but exquisitely beautiful; and the part which refers to the veil is equally striking, employed as it is to exhibit the Saviour as the author and end of our hope. True it is that an anchor goes downward, and this figure may appear to represent hope as rising upward, or as cast out horizontally; but in reality there is no confusion in the imagery employed. You can understand how a vessel may ride in safety with lengthened cable, while her anchor is placed securely on the solid land. But the exact idea apparently conveyed by the apostle is true, not only to possibility, but to actual occurrences, and that in their most minute form. He compares the state of man without Christ, to that of a ship at sea in imminent peril of being engulfed in the mighty waters; the Gospel invites him to its sheltering and friendly harbour; he enters it, drops the anchor beneath the veil of the covering waters, into the invisible ground which forms their bed, and is thus held, sure and steadfast. This poetical idea of the anchor cast within the covering of waters probably suggested the allusion to the veil of the tabernacle and temple. The hope thus described is therefore represented as entering into that within the veil, and laying hold of it; and thus, as the anchor which is cast within the veil of the covering waters, it fixes the soul in security and peace.

There are some particulars supplied by the imagery, as now contemplated, which require further exposition, in order that we may perceive the operation of Christian hope. We may look with advantage at the place into which hope enters, the way in which it passes through the veil, the object it there embraces, and the security consequently derived by believers.

The place into which hope enters, is within the veil. You are aware that the veil separated the most holy place from the other parts of the temple. The hallowed and separated space within was the special dwelling-place of God, and was constituted a type of the heavenly world. Through the veil the High Priest went once a year to intercede on behalf of the people, having first, and without, made atonement for sin. This fact is transferred in a figure to the priesthood of Jesus Christ. He offered himself without spot, on the altar of Calvary, and with his own blood passed into the heavens to appear within the veil, in the presence of God for us. There are the great and commanding objects which attract and sustain the exercises of our hope. It is the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. As you look within the veil there is the manifestation of Deity, not frowning in wrath or speaking in terror, but beaming forth in goodness, and proclaiming his forgiving love. There is Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, interceding for the guilty, and perfuming with his own merit the services and sacrifices of his people. There is the glorious fountain of spiritual influence, the "seven spirits before the throne;" the Divine Spirit in the fulness and power of his grace, placing himself under the administration of the Saviour, who sheds abroad abundantly the various benefits his church requires. There within the veil are millions of happy redeemed souls, who have washed their robes and made them white in Le blood of the Lamb, and are now without fault before the throne. Christ is the Forerunner, and others have followed him. A multitude whom no man number have passed to dwell with him within the veil. It is the place in which the Son of God carries on the purposes of his mercy, expecting till his enemies become his footstool, and it is the spot from whence he will return,

invested with all the glory of complete triumph, to reign for ever. Into this place our hope enters, and by its discoveries we are comforted, as the blessed expectation of going to dwell in the world of purity and joy is built up and confirmed.

The way in which our hope enters the invisible world requires some illustration. 'I'he heavens are a veil between us and God, between our apprehensions and the secrets of eternity. We know little comparatively of the eternal state of being awaiting us beyond this life, and of those spiritual creatures to whom we are now related, and who will then be our companions. They may walk the earth or throng the air, but we neither hear their voice nor see their shape. Our dear departed relatives and friends who have passed within the veil never return to describe the region in which they dwell, or to unfold the secrets of their happiness. God, in whom we live and move, and who is not far from every one of us, is to us the Great Invisible. There is a veil thrown upon all spiritual things, and all our natural views are bounded by the horizon of the firmament. The veil is impenetrable in itself, but it is rent and parted to the power of hope, by the entrance of Christ within it. The veil hides heavenly things, but it is only as deep water hides the solid ground, and as the anchor parts the waves to settle on its appointed resting place, so Christian hope passes through the heavens to realise its ultimate object.

In noticing the workings of this principle we may remind you that it enters the veil under the guidance of faith, and by the line of the written word of God. Great things are said of the value of faith in our Christian career. "We walk by faith." "By faith we stand." Its connection with hope is intimate, and by its power we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Faith soars as upon the wings of a dove, and surveys the goodly land afar off. It enters the rent veil, and passes into the holiest of all. It goes down like a thing of life, through the dark troubled waters over which we glide, and conducts our hope, like an anchor, to substantial realities. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The faith which is genuine and heavenly is regulated by the rule of divine truth. This is the warrant of faith, and the materials by which hope is fed and nourished unto eternal life. We know as much of heaven as God has been pleased to reveal to the eye of faith through the medium of his truth. From this revelation we are not to depart when pondering the joys of heaven, and hoping for its bliss, otherwise we might be anticipating a Pagan elysium, or a Mohammedan paradise, instead of the rest which God hath prepared for them that love him.

It thus appears to us that the objects embraced by hope are pre-eminently glorious, and worthy of its author. "That within the veil." It does not rest in the veil, but in something beyond it, and which is disclosed only within it. As an anchor cannot rest in the waves, but is borne down to something more permanent beyond, so our hope reposes not in the veil, but on the wonderful realities found within it. Our Father is "the God of hope." Our Saviour is "the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope.” The atonement he offered is "the hope set before us." The immutable promise and oath of God are the reasons of our hope. We find within the veil not a material ark, containing the tables of the law, not a mercy seat and golden cherubim, the work of men's hands, which are the figures of the true, and patterns of things in the heavens, but the glorious realities which they typified. We hope in God the Father, as the author of the promise of eternal life; in Jesus, his beloved Son, as the medium through which it flows; and in the Eternal Spirit, by whose work it is applied to the heart. Here then is the firmest ground for hope and conG 2

fidence, and we say triumphantly, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ?"

"Fixed on this ground will I remain,

Though my heart fail, and flesh decay;
This anchor shall my soul sustain,

When earth's foundations melt away."

The security derived by believers from the influence of hope in the promises is now apparent. While the vessel is at anchor a storm may arise, and if the anchorage be unsafe, or the anchor or the cable fail, she may be driven on the rocks, and be wrecked even in sight of land. In the case, however, of the Christian, the anchorage can never fail; the ground into which it is cast can never deceive, for it takes hold of "things in which it is impossible for God to lie." Retaining our hold of it we are to see that our personal confidence, like the strongest cable, is never parted. Hold fast the beginning of your confidence, for it hath great recompence of reward, and by its might you will live through all the storms of life, and be eventually received to the haven of eternal repose. "With Christ in the vessel we smile at the storm," and we shall presently be at the desired haven where winds and waves shall distress no

more.

This subject, while yielding abundant consolation to "those who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before them," solemnly appeals to those who are out of this harbour of refuge. To you we speak in words of fidelity and affection, and in terms suggested by the figure of the text. You are in imminent peril, though you know it not. You have not that hope which is the sheet anchor of the Christian life, and from present circumstances, alas! you are unconcerned. Now you hear no tempest, you see no signs of a gathering storm; you give your sails to the wind and your streamers float on the breeze. And in certain latitudes and with favouring weather you may pursue the voyage of life without thought of a harbour, or of a sufficient anchor. But see you not that cloud arise out of ocean no larger than a man's hand, which will presently overspread the heavens above you? Hear you not the moaning of that wind which speaks of the gathering tempest? See you not the mustering of destructive elements which in the shape of quivering lightning and overwhelming thunder may lay you low? Mark you not the rising of the waters which in their coming fierceness may sweep your deck? Discern you not already the formation of that whirlpool of divine displeasure which may engulf you for ever? And what will you do in the dark and stormy night? What will you do on the lake of death? Ah, how will you do in the swellings of Jordan? Without the hope of the Gospel you will miserably perish, in deep despair; and when "the sea shall give up her dead,” you will rise to meet the frown of a rejected Saviour, and to hear him say, "Depart!"

But the coming storm is delayed; there is a lull in the wind; and you may avoid the devouring gulf. Lo! there rises to your view the harbour of refuge, and there stands out in sight the friendly beacon, which invites you to the haven. Oh, flee to it without delay, and find there an anchorage of peace and security, till the storms of life be overpast. But delay not a day, or even an hour, lest you be undone for ever. "Behold now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation!"

Maritime Extracts.

HURRICANE IN THE ATLANTIC.

The schooner Cygnet, Captain Goss, of St. John's, Newfoundland, left that port on the 23rd of November last, bound for the Herring Ground in Fortune Bay. She had in all seven hands-viz., five seamen and two coopers. When lying to, off St. Peter's, on the 4th of December, she was overtaken by a hurricane from the N.N.W., which carried away all her rails, stanchions, covering boards, boats, &c., swept the deck, opened her seams, and compelled the crew to let the ship scud before the wind under a part of her three-reefed foresail. She leaked considerably, and it was only by baling water out of the cabin that she was kept afloat by the crew, whose only food was biscuit soaked in salt water. In this condition they scudded a distance of about 1,000 miles in seven days. The barque Quentin Methys, Captain Michaelsen, of and for Antwerp, left Havana on the 15th of November. On the 10th of December, she experienced a tremendous storm from the N.N,W., which carried away her foretopmast-yard, sails, jib-boom, flying jib-boom, mizen, and all sails and rigging attached, hove the vessel on her beam-ends, and forced the crew to throw part of her cargo overboard. While in this act, on the 12th of December, in latitude 37 30 N., longitude 30 40 W., they descried the Cygnet bearing down, and lay to for her under close-reefed maintopsail and spencer. The schooner got under the lee of the barque, and one of her crew hove a fishing-lead and line ou board; to this the barque's studding-sail halliards were fastened, and the Cygnet's crew, after throwing off their heavy clothes, fastened the halliards round their waists, and were in succession drawn on board the barque, with the exception of Edward Oats, aged 33, a cooper, who had been speechless, insensible, and in a dying condition for three or four days previously. Great danger was incurred while the two vessels lay so near together in a heavy sea; the schooner's stern was once so close as to carry away the barque's iron outrigger on the starboard quarter. The Cygnet's crew were benumbed, frostbitten, and unable to stand for ten days after joining the barque. Mr. Michaelsen and his people, like true Samaritans, chafed their swollen limbs with brandy, anointed their wounded feet with ointment, supplied them with clothing and nourishing diet, and brought them safely to this port. Senor Antonio Ferrer and his lady, who, with their two children, are passengers from Havana, confirm Mr. Goss in his expressions of gratitude towards the humane and kind-hearted Belgians belonging to the Quentin Methys.

Miscellaneous.

TOUR OF DEPUTATION TO NOTTS AND DERBY.

The Rev. E. Adey writes :-You will be pleased to hear that, notwithstanding the unexpected visit of your deputation to Leicester, yet that the Rev. J. Smedmore cordially permitted him to address the usual week-evening congregation; and on the following morning accompanied Mr. Adey in several calls on friends who were absent from our lectures on the condition and claims of seamen.

On the following evening, I was invited to address the Charter-street Baptist Congregation, and enjoyed the satisfaction of receiving donations from several of Mr. Lomas's friends. Among the generous Northumberland contributors are recorded the names of the Independent High Sheriff of the county, and the Baptist parliamentary representative of the town.

The Rev. J. T. Mursell, Dr. Legge, and other ministers, proposed that a public meeting should be held in the autumn, when an efficient auxiliary can be established.

On Sunday, at Derby, I had the pleasure to preach to a large congregation, in the spacious and splendid chapel of Dr. Pike; and to a similar number, at Victoria-street Independent Chapel, in the evening.

On the following evening, a numerous and highly respectable public meeting was convened in the Town Hall, under the presidency of J. Williamson, Esq., who opened the business with most appropriate remarks on the excellence and efficiency of the operations of our Society, and on the importance of establishing an auxiliary for Derby.

The Rev. J. Gawthorne, the venerable minister of Victoria-street Chapel, justified the character of the Society, and advocated the cause of seamen in a very impressive manner.

The Rev. J. Stevenson, M.A., detailed his experience and observation concerning the utility of religious efforts for mariners.

The Rev. J. Farebrother related several important facts confirmatory of the usefulness of the Society in foreign parts; and stated that while in India he had hoisted the Bethel flag at Calcutta, and preached with much joy to grateful sailors.

Your deputation detailed the origin and object and operations of the Society, and appealed to the sympathies and support of the assembly in behalf of the numerous and comparatively neglected state of British and foreign mariners. He was followed by the Rev. H. J. Adams, of Newark, who delivered a most eloquent and energetic speech, and proposed the immediate formation of a Derby Ladies' Auxiliary.

The appeal was responded to, and at the close of the public business several ladies of the highest respectability remained, and accepted cards and collecting books. The lady of the Mayor of Derby consented to be treasurer; and the lady of the worthy Chairman, secretary. On the following day, numerous ladies commenced their work of benevolence among the charitable inhabitants, and hopes are entertained that the funds of our Society will be enriched by their praiseworthy efforts.

NEW MARINERS' CHAPEL, GLOUCESTER.

We have much pleasure in directing the attention of seamen and their friends to the following notice of the opening of a Mariners' Chapel, at the fast increasing port of Gloucester. We hail every such local movement with pleasure, and heartily desire that the blessing of Almighty God may crown this effort for the good of seamen :—

The sailors, watermen, and others, who frequent Gloucester, are hereby informed that, in humble dependence on the Divine blessing, the Mariners' Chapel at that port was opened for public worship on Sunday, the 11th of February, 1849, and that it is intended that divine service should be regularly performed every Sunday, at half-past ten in the morning, and at half-past two in the afternoon. This chapel, for the use of mariners, has been erected at the expense of their friends, in hopes that they will avail themselves, as often as