would wish thus to live on forever! still the tempted, still the sinful, still afar from the chief manifestations of the glory of the Deity, and from the home of the spirit where the beloved shall stay in our presence forever. That world is what we would have this to be to content us, and as there is no path to it but through the gate of death, leaning on the arm of him who died and rose, we would enter with thanksgiving. Death to the body must then be regarded as a wise ordination of our heavenly Father, and decreed because the mortal frame was not intended to be the eternal tabernacle of the spirit. We come then to the teaching direct of our Lord. The Savior taught that the true believer would never enshroud death in garments of horror, as do those who are all their lifetime subject to bondage through fear of death, but would look upon death as a friend. He meant the same as is implied in death being abolished, its power destroyed, its being swallowed up in victory, i. e. by Christianity the province of death is seen to be connected with man's good, and the revealed glory of the future changes it from being an enemy to a kind messenger of God. According as man's vision is limited to this life, and his affections all centered here, he will regard death with horroras unmixed evil. To such Christianity comes to lead on the vision to the scenes beyond the bounds of mortality, and win the affections towards the beauties and glories of that world to which Jesus arose; when those celestial scenes are clearly discerned, and those beauties and glories are rightly prized and loved, the horrors once associated with death depart-death as once seen is no longer be held-and whereas he once was deemed to be the 'king of terrors,' the tyrant to imprison in the dark dungeon, he is now the kind and gentle servant who unlocks the gate through which we enter to our home indeed-to those we loved and lost, and to life immortal. Thus has it been with the true believer. Many beautiful illustrations it has pleased God to give us; and in my mind the case of Stephen is always associated therewith. What a simple, but elo quent recital is that of the sacred historian con cerning his death! He was surrounded with malicious enemies, with many demonstrations of active malice, and yet he could gaze up and see heaven opened--and there he saw the Lord Jesus, the rapture of whose smile was powerful enough to overcome the pain of the death-stones as they flew from the hands of his foes. And though he died amid showers of stones-a most awful death-yet the historian speaks of him as falling asleep! Beautiful thought! At rest in the calmness and beauty of that heaven he saw opened. And to the true believer, the approach of death is but as the visitation of sleep after a weary day. He can lie down willingly on the pillow on which his Lord hath lain, and trust that his waking will be to strength that will never fail, to brightness that will never fade, and to joys that know no shadows. FAITH. "Voice of vain boding! away, be still! WHAT is christian Faith? It is the result of the direction given by revelation to those faculties by which we receive and confide in the reasonable and credible testimony of others, in matters beyond our own personal sight or experience. It is not a mysterious and undefinable feeling, but rational, active, and powerful conviction, by which the mind is possessed of the greatest and best truths. Every day we exercise faith of a certain character, and the same process of the mind brings religious faith. In both cases the reasoning powers must be employed; else we shall dignify credulity with the name of faith; for that man, or that religion, that makes demands on us for implicit belief-belief in which independent, calm, and thorough thought has no part, does but require us to be credulous. The sacred witnesses of heavenly truth treat man as a being of mind, gifted with an intellect he should use, reason which he should honor, and a power to investigate and decide for himself which he should not permit to remain inactive. They never cry down reason, for it is man's crown of glory, though brightened and beautified by Christianity, It makes us capable of receiving and of appreciating the worth of a revelation from God. Let it be justly honored. Christian faith has been defined as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen;" or, as others have rendered it, it is such a firm persuasion, as gives, as it were, a substance, or present existence to the good things we hope for. This is the perfection of faith; for he that has such a confidence, or trust, or conviction, that he shall in due time receive the object of his hope as if he already possessed it, has perfect faith in the being from whom the good is to come. Faith is the bodying forth of Hope. It makes distant good a present reality. It is to the christian what genius or imagination is to the artistit bodies forth the pictures of the spiritual on which Hope delights to gaze, and thus brings before the mental eye a panorama of heavenly life and beauty. Truly hath it been said, that "Faith in a better than that which appears in the present, is no less required by art than by religion." To make heaven more our home than the very sanctuary of childhood's joys-the scenes of life's holiest days, and the spot consecrated by the presence of our parents and the affection and fidelity of the beloved, is the province of true faith. This is has done this it is doing-this it will do. For it has had and has all the power of Hope in union with it- -as we read that it is the substance, or bodying forth, of things hoped for, and must there. fore be in harmony with hope. In verity, then, Faith cannot embrace, as a final result, that which is repulsive to Hope. Is not this enfolded in what St. Paul says of believing, that it enables the believer to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory? This seems to be the highest possible joy--the most glorious rejoicing, and must therefore result from a faith embracing the greatest conceivable good of the universe. Faith is the celestial telescope by which the far off world is brought near to the spiritual eye. What a glorious world of light and loveliness! As we gaze, all is beautiful-all is joyous, and we catch the sight of the soft shadows of the trailing garments "Of forms that mortals may not see, Move with unutterable grace." If forms of horror and misery should mingle with the beautiful images thus presented, the soul's rejoicing would not be full of glory; an aching void must be felt, and the issues of faith would be unsatisfying. Here then is the true test. Christian Faith satisfies the most enlarged affectionthe most expanded sympathy. We cannot hope beyond its promises, no more than the soul can go beyond the presence of the Omnipresent. "One adequate support For the calamities of mortal life |