tempered edge not all the host of hell could ever withstand. When we are obliged to pass, though shrouded in darkness, between the craggy precipice and the wily snare, here is the torch of celestial fire to show us at once our danger and escape. It is this lamp of heaven which David tells us was a light to his feet. When worn out with fatigue, here is the water of life to recruit our spirits. Here is the food with which our Redeemer covers our table in the wilderness-food of every kind, from milk to strong meat, suited to all ages and all degrees of strength, and set before us in all the vast profusion which a God can furnish. The weary traveller who has passed through an inhospitable wild, and is exhausted by the scorching sun, does not more relish the cool refreshing stream, the fragrance of the opening flower, or the luxuriant fruit, than does the Christian that divine repast which his Lord has prepared for him. None but they who have been filled with the fatness of God's house can conceive the rapture of the believer's soul when his faith is enabled to grasp the promises of the covenant, and to press from them their unutterable sweetness. It is when the great Dispenser of new covenant bliss satisfieth their mouths with good things that their youth is renewed like the eagle's. When

he makes them sit down under his shadow with great delight--when his fruit is sweet to their taste-when his Holy Spirit descends in the dew of his sacred influences, and gladdens their dejected hearts-these moments of love, these droppings of his myrrh, repay a thousandfold their sorrow and their suffering. This indeed is not their common privilege. They walk by faith and not by sight, and therefore their brethren who dare not lay claim to such distinguished honor, and whose trembling knees totter while they follow in the footsteps of the flock, should not be discouraged. Christ looks with peculiar tenderness upon these lambs; and if in sovereignty he does not think proper to feast them so highly as others, yet he holds around them his almighty arm, and keeps from them the roaring lion and the ravenous wolf. He puts them into his bosom, and carries them, they know not how, through difficulty and danger, sets them in a plain path, and enables them to run with cheerfulness the way of his commandments. Nor let those stronger disciples, whom the King has dignified with peculiar marks of his favor, indulge a slothful temper. It is after these seasons of joy that they may look for some of the rudest attacks of their enemies. The combat is still before them,

and many a terrible wound may they receive ere it be ended. But shrink not, O Christian! shrink not from the conflict; wounded you may be, but not mortally. No blow can be so fatal as to be incurable by the balm of Gilead. The great Physician of souls, whose judgment never errs, whose skill never fails, hastes to the relief of his people, pours into their painful wounds his sovereign balsam, and not only applies but blesses his own prescription. Thus we see that the believer's hardest trials are softened with a consolation and a joy with which a stranger to his life can never intermeddle. There is not within these walls a child of God, (and I hope there are a goodly number,) who will not join issue in the bold assertion. Try the experiment if you please. Watch the Christian in his most afflicted hours. When, beset with his spiritual enemies, his agonizing soul is almost overwhelmed, ask him, in this moment of anguish, to part with his Redeemer-promise, as the reward of compliance, all the sensual delights that can enter into a voluptuary's heaven. Know, vain man, that he would spurn thy most splendid offer he would cleave more closely to the cross, and tread thy baubles in the dirt; and indeed it cannot be otherwise, for the circumstances of the Christian and the carnal

man are exactly the reverse of each other. In few of the wicked is the cry of conscience so completely stifled as not to fill the soul occasionally with serious alarm. The hopelessness of the sinner's cause cannot but imbitter his joy, and give to all his griefs their most corroding venom: whilst the enjoyment of the Christian, cheered with the goodness of his cause, carry with them an unutterable relish, and soften all the pains of his pilgrimage. Surely, then, he has every reason to pity those who affect to pity him, and to triumph in the reflection that he fights so good a fight.

But 3. The Christian fights a good fight because he fights in good company.

Agreeable society prevents despondence, lightens toil, and inspires courage. Let the believer then look around him, and see how many excellent ones of the earth, even in this day of coldness when multitudes have left their first love, are seeking with him a better country, a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Let faith's keen eye glace over the field of action, and view the bright, the numerous bands that appear on the Lord's side. View them, believer, pressing towards the mark, the prize of their high calling of God in Christ Jesus. View them, and refrain, if thou canst, from congratu

lating thyself at being enrolled in the list, and sharing the labors of the blissful throng. View them, and say, does not a holy emulation burn in thy bosom? Does not the animating sight impart fresh vigor, and stimulate thee to strain every nerve in order to keep pace with those soldiers of Christ? But these are not your only companions: the angels of God are never absent. Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister unto them who shall be the heirs of salvation? This has been their delightful employment from the commencement of the gospel to the present hour. It is true, they do not now, as in former times, visibly interfere for the people of God, but their agency is not the less real nor effectual. It is as much a promise of the covenant as any other: He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. From a thousand evils which we never suspect, do these heavenly friends protect our souls. About thee, O Christian, these armies of heaven have many conflicts with the hosts of hell-conflicts which thou never shalt know till thy warfare be ended, and the hallelujahs of eternal victory fill the temple above. What a thought is this? That Jehovah should dispatch, to support our faltering steps, the