it will lead to that result, provided the beginning and end be pure. But in every great act our great question must be, Does God sanction that? does God authorize it? is this according to his will? And, if it be so, then let us bravely do it. We have nothing to do with the profit, or the pleasure, or the pain, or the displeasure. We have to act from principle; and expediency, however it may be denied, always follows principle; principle does not always follow expediency. Do what is right, and expediency will follow it. Do what is expedient in the face of principle, and we shall see that it is neither expediency nor principle. God's great law is, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." God says, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together." “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." "Search the Scriptures; for they are they which testify of me." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." "Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." Some pious persons say, that we should not be so excited about the interests of pure religion, that we ought to be more moderate. Moderation is admirable when applied to things of this world. The apostle says moderation is good,- Let your moderation be known unto all men." In your preference of form, in your love of the world, pray be moderate. But you cannot be moderate in Christianity. Did we ever hear of a man being moderate in honesty? Why, moderate honesty would be absolute theft. Did we ever hear of moderate truth? Moderate truth would be a lie. You cannot be moderate in being good. If a thing be right, you are to do it with all your heart; and if a thing be wrong, you are not to do it at all. It is the old story that one needs to be reminded of every day. Men will bear earnestness in com

merce, in politics, in all that relates to this world; but the moment that a man is earnest in his attachment to the truth, that moment they think much religion has made him mad.

This walk is preeminently a safe walk. That we are sure of. "The Lord is thy keeper." "Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep."

It is a happy walk; for it will take from disease its disappointment, from sorrow its sting, from death its agony. It will lend the wings of an eagle to him that halts; and it will reveal, in all things, and in spite of all that is around us, God making all things work together for good to them that love him, and who are called according to his purpose. And when we come to die, as we must die, if we shall not be translated as Enoch was, or transfigured on the Mount of Tabor, as Jesus was, our death shall be so denuded of its bitterness, of its sting, and of all that makes it death, that when the Christian dies the great truth shall be fulfilled, it is not he, but death, that dies. If not translated living into heaven and happiness, as Enoch was, yet, when we come to lie down on the last sick bed, that will be our death-bed, we shall find that our death differs in name only from Enoch's, and that we too, like Enoch and Elijah, shall be translated. The present roughness of the road will make the end of the journey only more delightful. The stormy wind and the tempest will make the sweet calm of our Father's home only the more beautiful. "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye;" ye are in the path that your sainted predecessors walked, and they do not repent that they pursued it, for they are now in the presence of God and the Lamb for ever and ever. And we, having walked with Enoch, with Elijah, with Abraham, with Paul, with Peter, and with him the great author and the finisher of our faith, through all channels of this life, we shall find our closing sigh only the prelude of our great exultation, and the last groan trans

figured into the first note of the everlasting jubilee, and wings imparted to the departing soul never seen by the soul in clay, on which it will be borne to the presence of him with whom it walked upon the earth, and in whose presence it will live and rejoice for ever and ever.

Are we walking with God? Are we believing the testimony that is given us? Have we confidence in him? These are voices from Enoch yet dead. The real question is not, are we Roman Catholics? or, are we Protestants? but, are we, what it is possible not to be, and yet to be either, are we Christians? Are we changed? are we walking in the light of God's countenance? If so, then we are walking with him from whom neither death nor life shall separate us; and when the enemy shall come in like a flood, we shall oppose him, and raise the standard of Enoch, and triumph. Such is an ancient and unspent voice, sounding from realms of glory; Enoch's voice, but laden and musical with God's truth.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ILLUSTRIOUS ELDERS.

But here a deeper and serener charm

To all is given ;

And blessed memories of the faithful dead

O'er wood and vale and meadow-stream have shed

The holy hues of heaven.

"For by it" (faith) “the elders obtained a good report."- HEBREWS 11: 2.

THE first verse in Hebrews 11 is the answer to the question, what faith is, and the second verse tells us the fruit it bears that "by it the elders" of ancient days, whose names are inscribed in this chapter on a monument far more enduring than brass, Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, and David, "obtained a good report."

Faith is perfect confidence in the truth of God, a perfect certainty that the least word that God has said is surer than the strongest foundation that man has ever laid; but it is a faith that never can be alone. It "worketh by love," it "purifieth the heart," says the apostle, "it overcometh the world." For a man to say, "You have faith, but no works,” is absurd. If there be no works, there can be no faith. speak of faith without good fruits, is just as absurd as to speak of the sun shining without light, or a fire blazing without heat. If there is no heat, there is no fire; if there is no light, there is no sun above the horizon; if there are no good

To

works, there is no faith, but very faithlessness, the absolute negation and want of it.

Now, these "elders," it is said, "by it obtained a good report." Not by deference to the fascinating sheen of splendid. things that were before them, not by the power or the attraction of things visible at all, though such, doubtless, may have had their influence; but by confidence in what God had said, and the certain conviction that what he had promised he would abundantly fulfil, they "obtained a good report," which, like ointment poured forth, has not lost its fragrance, nor ever will.

This faith by which they overcame the world, which wrought by love, and by which they "obtained a good report," is not contrary to reason. Persons talk as if to disbelieve the Bible were the highest rationalism, and as if to accept the Bible were the highest fanaticism; as if it were impossible to be a rational man, and yet a believer. Where there is the strongest faith, there ever is the exercise of the purest and the noblest reason. Reason is not contrary to faith, but an ally to it; there is, however, this difference between them: reason leaves the conviction cold and outside, there to remain dead and barren; faith seizes the truth, appropriates it to itself, feeds on it, and unfolds its fruits in all the efforts of a beautiful, consistent character. Reason is valuable as a servant, and a subject to faith, but it is in no respect contrary to or inconsistent with faith.

It is remarkable, too, in looking throughout the Scriptures, how frequently faith is referred to. One does not wonder that some should have given faith so lofty a place in the creed; but one should wonder that any in the Christian church should have given such a low and subordinate place to it. If one should ask, "What shall I do to be saved?" the answer is, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." When Jesus saw the centurion characterized by distinguished love, by beautiful