my faith has become weak, my love has grown cold, and my prospects are darkened"? Oh, let me urge you, therefore, to return to the Shepherd and Bishop of your soul. Confess your misdoing, and He will heal all your backslidings and love you freely.

And, dear sinner, unto you I say, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." It is thy privilege to attain this blessed experience. And if thou art found without it in the great day, thou art lost, forever lost.

SALEM, NEW JERSEY, February 1st, 1848.

PRESENT SUFFERINGS AND

FUTURE GLORY.

FOR I RECKON THAT THE SUFFERINGS OF THIS PRESENT TIME ARE NOT WORTHY TO BE COMPARED WITH THE GLORY WHICH SHALI BE REVEALED IN US."- Romans viii. 18.

F we are desirous to know how some men have attained to honorable standing among their fellows, we shall learn that their glory and honor were preceded by toil and suffering.

Do we contemplate the military chieftain whose name now causes the enemies of his country to tremble and her friends to rejoice; at whose bidding thousands cheerfully follow to the field of battle and of death? He arrived not at this hon

orable position without sufferings. His history presents us with a life of anxiety, toil, and care. Through many afflictions has he passed. Many privations has he endured. Many deeds of noble daring has he achieved prior to his exaltation.

&

Do we view the statesman who now holds a prominent place among the counselors of the nation, or fills legislative halls with his eloquence, and whose name sounds throughout the land as one whom the people delight to honor? Be assured, he has not attained to his elevated position without toil and suffering.

Contemplate we the scholar who now is foremost in the republic of letters? He has not acquired this distinction without unremitting toil of body and of mind. He has proved, in his own experience, that "much study is a weariness of the flesh."

And should it be thought strange, then, that the Christian, who strives for nobler things, should pass through "much tribulation" to the kingdom?

No great and important object is accomplished without effort. And in proportion to the estimate we put on the desired object will be our effort. And when the contemplated good is realized, then trivial will seem the toil and suffering endured in its acquisition, not worthy to be compared with the object obtained.

Does the Christian lament that he has suffered when glory crowns him or the statesman that he has toiled, when his ambition has attained its reward or the scholar that he has spent weary

days and sleepless nights, when he has ascended the hill of science? And think you the glorified saint now regrets that while a resident of earth he preferred "to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season," that he counted the "reproach of Christ of more value than all the treasures" of earth? Does he now lament that he denied himself, took up his cross, and followed Jesus through evil as well as good report? Is he sorrowful now that the battle is fought, and the victory won; that the race is terminated, and the crown obtained; that the pilgrimage is ended, and the rest gained; that the voyage over life's tempestuous ocean is accomplished, and the haven of eternal repose entered; in fine, that his toils and his sufferings are consummated, and his eternal glory commenced, to be perpetuated forever? Surely the sufferings were light when compared with the glory.

Well might Paul, who endured such sharp and ceaseless afflictions, but was highly favored in having a glimpse of heavenly glory, exclaim, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

I. Let us consider the sufferings referred to in the text.

Christianity does not exempt from sufferings in this world; but the follower of Jesus is graciously sustained amid all his afflictions, and realizes that they aid in making up the number of the "all things" which "work together for his good." In the "present time," the Christian is called to suffer temptation. As he passes through this fiery ordeal, he feels-he suffers; but trusting in the Captain of his salvation, he is enabled to war a good warfare, to fight the good fight of faith, and to overcome his potent foe; yea, to come off more than conqueror, through Him who loved him." He, like his Master, may be tempted to distrust, presumption, ambition, and idolatry, but using the panoply God has provided, he shall be enabled to stand, and, though severely tried, shall not fall by his

enemy.

The Christian shall meet with opposition and suffer persecution; for it is written, "All they who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." In former days the followers of Jesus were greatly persecuted. "They wandered about in sheep-skins, in goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented." "They counted not their lives dear unto them." So strong was their confidence, so sterling their integrity, that nothing