flying before you as you advance.

Your pursuit of

them is like chasing the sun over the western hills, while it is ever receding and sinking before you as you go. The very winds of heaven, the storms. and tempests, the droughts and damps, all proclaim that here is no abode of delight. The pains you have already felt in your frames admonish you that though health may now be blooming on your cheeks, the poison of death is lurking within. Diseases must wilt you down, sickness must cause you to faint, distress writhe every limb. The depravity of men will not be more favorable to your peace, than it has been to the peace of those who have lived before you. Their selfishness and envy and intrigues and churlishness will sometimes disturb you, and mar all your joys;-while the friends who have soothed and cheered you, will successively fall and die by your side, and leave you as one that wanders in a bleak world alone. A dark uncertainty will ever hang over your path; and soon, very soon, if life is till then prolonged, you will be seen with trembling limbs and faltering tongue, lamenting, like the patriarch, "Evil and few have the days of the years of my life been." Methinks a voice of one who is unseen, speaks to you to-day," Children, build not your hopes on the earth. You are but young pilgrims here. Yonder is your home. Seek first of all the kingdom of heaven. Lay up for yourselves treasures there."

Men of suffering, of disappointment and sorrow! the subject has also a word for you. Think it not

strange, as though some strange thing had happened unto you, that afflictions are now your portion ? Could you expect exemption from them here? Did not your heavenly Father tell you, that "in the world ye shall have tribulation ?" He is now only fulfilling his word, he is proving that his promises are all true. Complain not of his faithfulness; murmur not at its truth. Remember that the same hand, which has stricken you, is also pledged to give relief to those who confide in him. The same God who hath said, "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten," hath also said, "I will never leave nor forsake you." If ye were without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, God would not deal with you as with children. There is a blessing in your present sorrows. The more grievous are your trials now, the richer may be your joys hereafter; the harder are your toils, the brighter may be your crown; the more irksome your task, the sweeter will be your repose. John, in his revelation, represents the most conspicuous, the most honored, and the most happy in heaven, as those who have been the greatest sufferers in the world. For when, in the midst of those scenes he was exalted to view, it was asked by one of the elders before the throne, "Who are these that are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they?" he heard it replied, "These are they who have come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." You may soon stand among them. You may now be preparing in

sadness to join that princely band,

- pure as the

purest, peaceful as the most blest. Droop not then under the burthen that is upon you,

-

- faint

not when thou art rebuked, linger not in mournfulness here. Awake! Arise from the dust, and gird yourselves for the way. Move steadily on to

your rest.

Fellow-sufferers in a world of tribulation! let us learn to fasten our hopes on the skies, be grateful for the comforts that are scattered along our path, wait patiently all the days of our appointed time till our change come, and reckon with the heaven-aspiring apostle, that "the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed,"

SERMON IV.*

JOHN XVI. 33.

BUT BE OF GOOD CHEER; I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD.

LITTLE did we anticipate, when last I was permitted to address you in this sacred place, and was discoursing to you from the words which immediately precede the text, that we should so soon, and to such an extent, be made to realize their import, in our own personal experience. As I look back to that hour, it seems as if a prophetic inspiration had prompted me then to repeat to you the declaration of our Saviour in his farewell address to his disciples, — and to dwell upon the sentiment In the world ye shall have tribulation." And now, that, after so long a time of separation and painful suspense, I come to address you once more, and for the last time as your pastor, my mind involuntarily fastens upon the words that follow: "But be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

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We may not expect, that we shall ever be entirely free from causes of disquietude, or secure against

* For explanation, see Preface.

repeated disappointments, while we live in the world. Neither the apparent constitution of the world, nor its history, nor the united testimony of mankind, nor our own experience, nor the express declarations of God, will allow us in such anticipations. We may not, in the day of adversity, presume to look forward for coming scenes of satisfying prosperity, which will make us recompense for the sufferings of the past. If we seek for consolation in the things of this life, they will certainly fail us. If at any time we should seem, at last, to have gained the desired condition, it will soon prove delusive, or be to us as the ghostly harbinger of some swiftcoming calamity. "It hath long been my observation of many," said the experienced Baxter, "that when they have attempted great works, and have just finished them; or have aimed at great things in the world, and have just obtained them; or have lived in much trouble, and have just overcome it; and begin to look on their condition with content, and rest in it; they are then usually near to death or ruin." The Saviour did not permit his disciples to hope for satisfactory enjoyment of the pleasures or the comforts of the world; but, as he led them through scenes of mingled joy and sorrow, he pointed them onward, and bade them look above and beyond the world, and in the midst of tribulation, still to "be of good cheer."

Instead, therefore, of dwelling in sadness upon our disappointments and afflictions, and of adding unnecessary gloom to this parting hour, or of cheat