our course, armed for future triumphs, made wiser, holier, and happier every day. But, it may be asked, how did the apostles confirm the souls of the disciples? By reminding them of their blessed hope; by showing them the deep springs of peace that were in the Bible; by praying with them, by solving their difficulties, by encouraging them in assailing the obstacles that opposed and beset their progress; by all those means and elements, those words in season, those explanations of the Scripture, those appeals to conscience, those sympathies with suffering, those fervent prayers, that beautiful example-by all these confirming and strengthening the Christian disciples in holding fast the truth they knew, and in growing in grace as they grew in days and in years.

And then, in the second place, they exhorted them to continue in the faith; that is, in the truth, as that truth is embodied in the Scriptures and preached by every faithful minister. But how, you ask, were they to continue in the faith? First, in greater acquaintance with its truths. We have not learned all that is contained in the Bible, even the most mature and instructed Christian. There are seams of gold in this precious Volume that we have not yet reached; there are pearls on the floor of this glorious ocean which we have not yet descended to or brought up into the light of heaven. There are not new truths unknown to us, but old truths in interesting lights, in profitable applications, giving to each his food or meat in due season; in the knowledge of which we should grow, according to the prescription of an apostle, "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." "Search the Scriptures; for these are they

which testify of me." "The Scriptures are able to make you wise unto salvation." To continue in the faith; that is, to continue in growing acquaintance with the contents of the Bible, with the hopes, the promises, the privileges, the prospects, of every page of it, is one of the very first duties, and not the least precious privilege, of every true believer. And, secondly, they exhorted them, no doubt, to grow in the experience of it. Christianity, on the printed page, is meant to be translated into Christianity in the living heart. To grow in acquaintance with the page without is perfectly compatible with no growth in experimental acquaintance with the power of that page in the inner and living tablets of the heart. We are to grow, not only in the knowledge of the Gospel as an outer thing, but in the experience of the Gospel as a life and power in our hearts, our intellects, our consciences. Put its promises to the test, and see if they will stand the pressure. Put its precepts into action, and see if they are real. Live Christianity as well as read it; act it as well as study it. It is not a mere theory for philosophers to speculate on; it is a life for every man and all men to enjoy, to live, and to illustrate.

They exhorted them also to continue, in the third place, in the profession of the faith. We are not only to believe it, to continue in learning it, to continue in living it; but we are also to continue in professing it. The apostle Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; it is the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation." Now, if we believe this blessed religion, if we accept it as a life, if we think it is really precious, then we shall not be ashamed to say So. To profess the religion that in our hearts we

Our

believe to be divine, seems one of the very first and plainest duties that devolve upon a Christian. Nay, our Blessed Lord says, that if we do not confess him before men, he will not confess us before his Father in heaven; and that if we be ashamed of him, he will be ashamed of us in that day. That soldier would be a coward who hides his uniform; that Christian must be insincere in his convictions who is ashamed of them. In reading the history of Christians of old we find they gloried in the Cross: instead of being ashamed of the truths of the everlasting Gospel, they felt it their sorrow that they could not openly enough, boldly enough, widely enough, proclaim the name of that Blessed Master in whom they gloried, and to whose cause they were committed. And, in the next place, we must be exhorted to continue in the practice of the faith. religion is not only a knowledge, a life, a profession; but it is also a practice. The leaves are for blossoms, and the blossoms are for fruit. We believe that we may do; we accept the Gospel, that in our lives we may embody and illustrate it: and if our religion does not help us, not so perfectly as we would, but far more than the world has ever done, to live soberly, righteously, and godly; if it fails to enable us to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God, then it is not Christianity that is to blame, but we that profess it, but in our hearts and consciences do not cordially and without hesitation accept of it. "By their fruits ye shall know them,” is an infallible test of true Christianity. And when you cannot profess the Gospel, because inexpedient or impossible, you may silently, and not with the less effect on that account, so practise it that your light shall shine around you, and men

seeing it shall glorify your Father which is in heaven. When we cannot speak for Christ, we can always act for him. When we have not even courage to rebuke the error that we hear, or to assert the truth that we believe, we must, if we be Christians at all, have courage to live the truth, and let it be felt, and seen, and noticed, without ostentation or parade, that we are living epistles, written not with pen and ink, but by the Holy Spirit of God. In the next place, we must be exhorted to continue in spreading and propagating this. If it be a religion that has benefited us, it can benefit others. If it lights us to our everlasting home, it will light others also. Either it is worth spreading, or it is not worth accepting at all. Hence the greatest saint always feels upon him that moment the greatest obligations; and by a very beautiful law, the more we try to spread religion among others, the more delightful its reflex action is upon our own hearts, and consciences, and minds; till he that gives most receives most, and he that does most only enjoys the more. And in the next place, we must continue in the vindication of it. We live in a day when this faith, in which we are to continue, is assailed. Satan has found out that he cannot uproot Christianity: but he has not yet discovered that he cannot successfully poison, undermine, and render it of none effect. Where he cannot crush, he labours to poison; where he dare not openly oppose, he labours secretly to undermine. Old heresies appear in new form; new errors appear in captivating disguises. If we be Christians-if our souls are confirmed in the knowledge and love of the truth, then we shall vindicate this faith,-contend for the faith once delivered to the saints; and detach from it, as we have

opportunity and power, the error that would adhere to it, and deface its beauty and disparage it in the estimate and the acceptance of mankind. I have spoken, then, of continuing in the faith. You naturally ask, But what is this faith? It is not. form, not ceremony, not ecclesiastical politics. All ecclesiastical battles are bad; all tumult and excitement on subjects external to religion generate no good. The faith we are to spread, to contend for, to cherish, to deepen in our hearts, to live in our lives, is that faith whose essential articles are the expiatory virtue of Christ's sacrifice alone, pardon through his blood alone, justification by his righteousness alone, regeneration by his Spirit alone, sanctification through the truth alone; the way to heaven, Christ alone; the title to heaven, his finished work alone. These are the truths, which are not ornaments, but essentials; not the flowers on the capitol, but the base on which it rests; not the colouring and drapery of the Christian, but his innermost, his deepest, and his truest life. For these truths we are to contend; these truths we are to live and to commend to all mankind, until the whole earth is filled with the glory and the praise of Him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light, confirmed our souls in the truth, and taught us to continue in the profession, the practice, the vindication, and the life of that faith which was once delivered to the saints.

Then, adds the preacher in this passage, "through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God." Now, this was not peculiar to the days of Paul or of Barnabas; it is just as characteristic of our own as it was of theirs. In some shape, in some period of life, through much tribulation each one of us must