that she could neither travel nor look beyond the scenes of to-day. But faith ought so to people all the future with the presence, the guardianship, the love, and the faithfulness of God, that the soul, in her journeyings and her searchings, should find no cause for anxiety and no ground for fear.

This is the privilege, and this should be the aim, of the Christian-not to shut out the future, as though he dared not look on what it may contain; but to take the future, as well as the present, as his own; to feel that the same God inhabits both, and that, wheresoever God is, there must be safety for His people. But, alas! through the weakness of their faith, Christians live far below their privilege; and hence, when they look into the future, it seems full of boding forms and threatening shadows; and the survey only makes them less resolute under present troubles, and less alive to present mercies. If this be a just description of any amongst yourselves, we beseech them to give great attention to our text, and to strive to base a rule for their practice on the principle which it announces as pervading God's dealings. We say to you with respect to your duties, "As thy days so shall thy strength be." The Christian, when in health, fears that he should not bear sickness as he ought; in sickness he fears, that, if restored to health, he should not keep his vows and resolutions; when not exposed to much temptation, he fears that he should fall if he were; when apparently tasked to the utmost, he fears that exemption would only generate sloth. But let him be of good cheer: our text is a voice from the unknown futurity, and should inspire him with confidence. Sickness may be at hand, but so also is the strength for sickness; and thou shalt be enabled to take thy sickness patiently. You may be just

recovering from sickness; and life-for it is often harder to face life than death; he who felt nerved to die may be afraid to live-life may be coming back upon you with its long array of difficulties, and toils, and dangers; but be of good cheer, the Author of life is the Author of grace; He who renews the one will impart the other, that your days may be spent in His service. And sorrows may be multiplied: yes, I cannot look on this congregation, composed of young and old, of parents and children, of husbands and wives, of brothers and sisters, without feeling that much bitterness is in store. I can see far enough into the future to discern many funeral processions winding from your doors: I miss well-known faces from the weekly assembly, and the mournful habits of other parts of the family explain but too sadly the absence. But be of good cheer the widow shall not be desolate, the fatherless shall not be deserted; when the grave opens, there shall be the opening of fresh springs of comfort; when the clouds gather, there shall be the falling of fresh dews of grace; for heaven and earth may pass away, but no jot, and no tittle of the promise can fail, "As thy day so shall thy strength be."

And if you ask proof that we are not too bold in our prophecy, we might appeal, as we have already appealed, to the registered experience whether of the living or the dead. This experience will go yet further, and bear us out in predicting peace in death, as well as support through life. I have to pass through the trial from which nature recoils the earthly house must be taken down, and the soul struggle away from the body, and appear at the tribunal of my Judge. How shall I feel at such a moment as this? Indeed I dare not conjecture. The living know not, cannot know, what it is to die: we must undergo,

before we can imagine, the act of dissolution: life is an enigma in its close, as in its commencement; we cannot remember what it was to enter, we cannot anticipate what it will be to quit, this lower world. Yet if there be strength and collectedness in that fearful extremity to meditate of God, "my meditation of Him shall be sweet."1 I shall remember that God hath promised to "swallow up death in victory ;"2 and that what He hath promised, He will surely perform. May I not therefore be glad in the Lord? The things that are temporal are fading from the view; but the things that are eternal already crowd upon the vision. The ministering spirits wait to conduct me; the heavenly minstrelsy sends me notes of gracious invitation; one more thought of God as my Father and Friend, one more prayer to "the Resurrection and the Life,"3 and I am in the presence of Him who has never failed in accomplishing His word to His people. Bear witness, yes, we must appeal to the inhabitants of heavenly places, to glorified spirits who have fought the last fight, and now "rest from their labours."4 We will ask them how they prevailed in the combat with death; how, weak and worn as they were, they held fast their confidence in the hour of dissolution, and achieved a victory, and soared to happiness? Listen for their answer: the ear of faith may catch it, though it be not audible by the organ of sense. were weak in ourselves; we entered the dark valley, to all appearance unprepared for wrestling with the terrors with which it. seemed thronged. But wonderfully did God fulfil His promises. He was with us; and He ministered whatever was necessary to the sustaining our faith and securing our safety. And now, be ye animated by our 3 John xi. 25.

1 Psa. civ. 34.

2 Isa. xxv. 8.

We

4 Rev. xiv. 13.

experience. If ye would win our crown, and share our gladness, persevere in simple reliance upon Him who is alone "able to keep you from falling;"1 and ye also shall find that there is no season too full of dreariness and difficulty for the accomplishment of the words, "As thy days so shall thy strength be."

1 Jude 24.

SERMON X

PLEADING BEFORE THE MOUNTAINS

“Hear ye,

mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the Lord hath a controversy with His people, and He will plead with Esrael. ℗ my people, what have E done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee ? testify against me.” -MICAH vi. 2, 3.

A

MONGST all the pathetic expostulations and remonstrances which occur in the writings of the prophets, none ever seem to us so touching as this which is found in the first chapter of the book of Isaiah-"The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." You will at once understand that in our estimation the pathos is derived from the reference made to irrational creatures, to the ox and the ass which have not been endowed as man hath been with the high faculty of reason. It is an extraordinary proof of human perverseness and ingratitude that there should not be as much of attachment and of acknowledgment of ownership manifested by men towards God, as by the beasts of the field towards those who show them kindness or supply them with food. And we feel that no ac1 Isa. i. 3.