and our highest "profit." What earthly honour is of any avail, if the Infinite Source of all glory condemn us at the last day to eternal shame and confusion of face? What profit would it be to us, if we could gain the whole world, and lose our immortal souls? No! it is the height of folly, thus to choose the worldly mammon before the true riches; to forsake God for the creature; and to prefer earth to heaven, and time to eternity.

In conclusion, let us bring this subject home to our own hearts by humble self-examination. Are we not conscious that we have been guilty of the sin of forsaking God? Have we not neglected to cherish a due sense of his presence; to reflect with lively gratitude upon his goodness, especially that highest instance of it in the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ his Son, for the pardon of our offences; have we not forsaken him as respects studying his word, keeping his laws, praying to him in our necessities, praising him for his benefits, and living to his glory? Let us further consider the extreme folly, as well as the guilt and ingratitude of so doing. For we are wandering from Him who alone can make us truly happy. We are weak, and we refuse to repair to the infinite source of strength for help and protection. We are sinful and justly exposed to the displeasure of God: yet we slight his invitation to return to

Him for pardon; we reject the salvation freely offered to us by his infinite mercy. Let us be convinced, and may the Holy Spirit convince us, before it be too late, of the greatness of our loss, the aggravation of our guilt, and the awful risk we incur by this sinful and unhappy course. Who but that gracious Being whom we thus ungratefully neglect, can support us in the hour of severe trial, bestow on us a hope full of immortality and glory when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and be our exceeding great reward in the eternal world? All other things may, and must disappoint our hopes; but God can never fail us. If we make him our portion, he will supply whatever is necessary or beneficial for us, for the body and the soul, for time and for eternity. Let then the rich count his favour their most valuable possession; let the poor seek it as that which can infinitely compensate for all their shortlived troubles: let the young return to him in youth; let the aged cleave to him in age; for to all persons, and under all circumstances, to walk humbly with God, and to enjoy his fatherly approbation in Christ Jesus, is the highest honour, the most splendid reward.

168

SERMON XIV.

DYING IN FAITH.

HEB. Xi. 13.
These all died in faith.

Here

THE eleventh chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews may be regarded as a grand historical picture, representing "the power of faith in God." The Apostle has introduced a variety of interesting groups, each of which is actively engaged in itself, yet contributes, with admirable skill, to the effect of the whole. we behold Abel offering unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, and Jehovah testifying of his gifts. There we see Enoch translated that he should not see death, and arriving at the gates of eternity by a new and mysterious path. In another prominent part of the picture is exhibited the illustrious individual who forms the bond between the antediluvian and the postdiluvian world, moved with fear, and preparing an ark to the saving of his house. A still more striking character is

the father of the faithful, wandering as an outcast from his native land, in obedience to the command, and under the guidance and protection, of Him who had promised that his seed should become as the stars for multitude, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore, innumerable. Again, we behold a most affecting group; the faithful Patriarch binding his son, his only son, Isaac, whom he loved, upon the altar of sacrifice, and about to plunge the instrument of death into his bosom. On one side we see the children of five successive generations, combined in distinct yet connected groups: here the faithful Sarah, the parent of the race, forgetting her incredulity, and convinced, by experience, that nothing is too hard for the Lord; and there the long afflicted Isaac and Jacob, about to quit for ever the sorrows of life, and bequeathing with their dying lips-the one to his children, the other to his children's children--the sacred patrimony of a patriarchal benediction. On the other side, we behold the infant Moses, at first floating in his ark of bulrushes, upon the waters of the Nile; and, at length, come to years of discretion, and spurning all the honours of a court, for the cause of his afflicted country, and his country's God; "choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming

the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt." I will not point you to the numerous other individuals that fill the canvas; either, for instance, to those active groups, the Rahabs, the Gideons, the Baraks, the Samsons, the Jephthas, the Davids, the Samuels, and others, who are exhibited as subduing kingdoms, working righteousness, obtaining promises, stopping the mouths of lions, quenching the violence of fire, escaping the edge of the sword, waxing valiant in fight, and turning to flight the armies of the aliens:or to those passive groups who are seen supporting trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, of bonds and imprisonments; who are represented in attitudes of intense pain, as stoned, as sawn asunder, as slain with the sword, or are seen wandering about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented.-Passing by all these, and endeavouring to form a general idea of the whole of this sublime picture, I would ask what is it that gives unity and design to these apparently confused and miscellaneous groups? How is it that the Apostle has contrived so admirably to bring together these numerous individuals, of various climes and colours; the rich and the poor, the learned and the illiterate, the young and the old; Abel, from the neighbourhood of Eden; Moses, from the land of Egypt; Abraham, from Ur of the