them? what remedy has the gospel provided for their case? To such persons we may answer that

2dly, Faith enables us to overcome the evils and terrors of the world.

Our Lord, when delivering his last instructions to his disciples, told them, that as they were not of the world, they need not marvel though the world should hate and persecute them. As the propagators of a new religion, they were no doubt called to suffer hardships from which we are happily exempted: yet there are many evils in the world to which good men are still exposed. They are liable, in common with others, to poverty and contempt, to disease and death. Even their religion itself sometimes subjects them to peculiar sufferings; for, "as he who was after the flesh formerly persecuted him who was after the spirit, so is it now." Christians are not, perhaps, compelled in the present age to suffer tortures or death for their religion, but they must often encounter ridicule and reproach. They are often made the song of the drunkard, and the byword of fools. Their reputation is often wounded by the scourge of the tongue; their motives are misrepresented, and their attachment to religion is reviled as folly and fanaticism.

These are some of the terrors of the world; and the victory which we are to gain over them does not imply insensibility to suffering. It consists in resignation to the appointments of heaven, and in marching resolutely forward in the righteous ways of the Lord, notwithstanding all the obstructions which may oppose, and all the terrors which may alarm us. Now, the considerations which unassisted reason furnishes, in order to enable us to vanquish the terrors of the world, are feeble and insufficient: Let us inquire, then, how faith enables us to overcome these terrors.

It does so, in the first place, we may observe, because it assures all good men that they are under the constant protection of a Being of infinite excellence, and that, therefore, nothing can befal them inconsistent with the highest wisdom, or with boundless benevolence. It leads them to consider the calamities of life not as marks of divine vengeance, not as accidental or unaccountable occurrences, but as means of moral discipline and religious improvement, appointed by their Father in heaven. It assures them that however mysterious the ways of Providence may appear to them, yet all things work together for good to them who love God, who are the called according to his purpose.

In the next place, faith enables the christian to overcome the terrors of the world, by the prospect which it gives him of the glory and happiness of heaven. Even the men of the world willingly submit to present evils, in hope of future advantages: and surely, then, that man who professes to walk by faith, and not by sight, would be unreasonable and inconsistent, were he to allow himself to sink under the pressure of the sufferings of the present time,-sufferings which, when set in opposition to his future enjoyments, vanish as unworthy to be compared with the glory which is to be afterwards revealed. Who is there that would not for a few weeks submit patiently to the hardships of poverty, were he assured that such submission would procure him an ample fortune? And shall the christian complain of being subjected to such hardships for a short period on earth, when he is assured that he has treasures laid up in heaven, where neither moth nor rust can corrupt, and where thieves do not break through or steal? Who would repine at the inconveniencies of a short journey, were he assured that a

few days would conduct him to the sweet solaces of home? And why, then, should the christian murmur at the inconveniencies necessarily attendant on his pilgrimage on earth, when his faith assures him that he shall soon receive an eternal welcome to the house of his heavenly Father? The inconveniencies and sufferings of the present condition, when contrasted with the happiness of the future state, appear all of them supportable, and most of them slight and transient. In short, there is no affliction that can befal us, which the faith of the gospel does not thus enable us either to endure or to overcome.

If we mourn because death has torn from our affections those whom we loved as our own souls, faith consoles us by the assurance which it gives of an inseparable and eternal re-union with them in that land into which no sorrow can enter. If our characters are grossly and injuriously calumniated, if we have the misfortune to lose the good-will of our fellow-creatures, then faith assures us that we possess the approbation of Him whose favour is better than life; it directs our views to a day of trial and retribution, when our reputation shall be purified of all those stains with which the breath of calumny has tarnished it, when our righteousness shall be brought forth as the light, and our judgment as the noon-day. If trials and temptations assail us, if dangers encompass us on every side, if we are menaced with tortures and death, if the world should muster against us even all its terrors in dreadful array, then faith directs us to look up and see with Stephen, Jesus standing on the right hand of God, his face beaming with tenderness and love, his arm extended to save. It tells us to look at those things which are not seen, and enables us to endure, as seeing Him who is invisible. It promises us an incorruptible

crown of life, when the riches and honours of this world shall have been swept into oblivion; and thus, by the hopes and consolations which it inspires, it not only prevents us from sinking under our sorrows, but causes the light and momentary affliction of the present life to "work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

We may remark farther, that the faith of the gospel enables us to vanquish the terrors of the world, by exhibiting to us the animating example of the glorious Captain of our salvation. There is scarcely a temptation or an evil to which we can be exposed, but he encountered and overcame it. For our sakes he endured the privations of poverty, and all that is galling in reproach and insult. His whole life was embittered with sorrows, and at last he submitted to an ignominious and an agonizing death. Even at the termination, however, of his illustrious career, when forsaken by his Father, when abandoned by his friends, and betrayed by his enemies, even in these trying circumstances, he showed no symptoms of impatience or pusillanimity. He "endured the contradiction of sinners against himself," but "when reviled he reviled not again." "He gave his back to the smiters, and his cheek to them that plucked off the hair, he hid not his face from shame and spitting," he bore, in short, every insult and every indignity, yet the serenity of his mind remained unruffled, and he expired at last in exultation and triumph. He thus suffered, leaving us an example; and if we could keep his example steadily in view, it would inspire us with courage in the midst of danger, it would comfort us in all our tribulation, and dispose us to submit to the sufferings of life, and the toils of virtue, with contentment and cheerfulness.

Had the time allowed, I ought to have remarked to

you, finally, that faith enables the christian to conquer the world by leading him to depend incessantly on supernatural strength. This reliance, which it enables us to exercise in reference to whatever we are called either to do or to suffer, is one of its most characteristic operations, when it is considered as a regular principle of conduct; and it is, at the same time, the vehicle or channel by which strength is imparted to the sister graces of hope and charity, and indeed to all the other graces and principles of the renovated nature. Hence it is, that while it must occupy on earth the foremost rank, if not the foremost place, among christian virtues, it is of all the graces the most humbling and dependent in its nature, being as repugnant to pride and self-confidence as heat is to cold, and light to darkness.

Such, then, are the means by which faith enables us to overcome the world. In the ages that are past it has conferred supernatural strength on those who had no might, it has given courage to the coward and hope to the desponding. Through faith the Old Testament saints were enabled to encounter dangers the most appalling, to achieve exploits the most difficult and glorious, and to endure sufferings, at the recital of which humanity revolts. "Through faith they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments, they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins,