why will ye die?" 10 We know also that it is not His will that any of us should perish. And who can say but that when we turn earnestly towards Him, our difficulties will vanish away, as the walls of Jericho fell down flat before the children of Israel when they blew the trumpets and shouted, in obedience to God's command? 11

Well indeed would it be for us, dear brethren, if the great difficulties which surround us in our preparation for heaven, would, as we feel them more keenly, rather drive us to seek more earnestly for the grace of God, unto whom all things are possible, than tempt us to put aside the thought of improvement until our difficulties are removed. For could we thus bring ourselves, with simplicity and sincerity, to give up this subtle self-confidence, and, reposing in the strength of God, to work "while it is day," before "the night cometh, when no man can work;" 12 then we should find that God would do more for us than we dare ask or think. Then would He do for us what He has done for others of His children who have "put their trust in Him, and were not confounded." 13

Let us contemplate some of His dealings with His people, and see how those things which have ever been found impossible with man, have been proved possible with Him; how through trials greater than human nature could endure, He has carried His elect in patience, comfort, joy, and perseverance to the end. Happy sight for the ministers of Christ! a

joy which they may be permitted sometimes, dear brethren, to communicate to those of you who have not witnessed such scenes, by telling of the grace of Christ which they have seen working mightily in His hidden and humble ones in the hour of their deep affliction. Let me lay before you one such picturea picture which, I believe, every minister of Christ will acknowledge to be a true one.

See an aged servant of the Lord, who, by the grace of God, has been carried through the varied trials, joys, sorrows, fears, and hopes of active life, gradually withdrawn from the busy world, more and more confined to the sick room, and at length unable to rise from a bed of pain and weariness. Here may be seen the triumph of patience in her perfect work; and a picture of the peace of one whose mind is stayed upon God.14 Pain cannot mar that heavenly peace, and weariness cannot fret that meek, submissive mind. Day after day recurs the same almost unvarying round of prayer and praise, intercession, and giving of thanks. For we do not find these patient sufferers occupied in thoughts of self alone. Their interest in life is not gone; for what they feel no longer for themselves they do feel for others. Their joys, their sorrows, their trials are often in their thoughts and in their prayers. They pray for the ministers of Christ, that they may be wise to save their own souls, and win the souls of others to salvation. They pray for the young, knowing that they are surrounded with the same fiery trial of sore temptations which they themselves once endured, 14 Vide Isaiah, xxvi. 3.

and through which the Lord brought them alive, wounded, perhaps, and weakened, in the contest, and yet in the end conquerors by the power of God. They pray for poor sinners, that they may be converted from the error of their ways, and for those who are seeking a better portion, that they may persevere unto the end. And when these their lonely occupations are broken in upon by our visits, we find them so humble, so thankful, so hopeful, so gentle, so full of love, so considerate, so ready to depart, so willing to remain, awaiting "the Lord's leisure," until He shall give them "their heart's desire," 15 that the chamber of sickness and approaching death seems almost in such cases like a little heaven on earth.

Here, then, behold, dear brethren, what things are possible with God! See how, in the case of these His aged servants (amid the decay of bodily, and perhaps even of mental, powers), the fear of death, and the love of this world, and all the evil passions of the mind-fretfulness, anger, pride, selfishness are brought into subjection to the allsubduing grace of God. And this great work, remember, has been accomplished, and these saints well nigh prepared for heaven, in spite of all the difficulties and temptations which have beset them from their childhood upwards. And even until the end of life, and right through the death-struggle, the grace of Christ works mightily in them, lest even in their last hour they should for any pains of death fall from Him.

And why, dear brethren, should He not do for us as He has done for them? Are not we too the work of His hands, the price of His blood, the very members incorporate of His mystical Body? I know that the enemies of our salvation are far too mighty for us to contend against in our own strength, and that they are even at this moment hedging up against us the narrow way of life with thorns; but the path will never look clearer or smoother before us, until we press onward courageously and vigorously; but when we do, it will be made plain. God has means of working for us that we know not of. I have hinted at one of them in describing the blessed condition of His aged and feeble saints, the value and the force of whose prayers on our behalf we shall perhaps never know until the resurrection of the just. While you fight the good fight of faith, the prayers of many hidden saints of God, some perhaps within the veil, and some still burdened with a frail and sickly mortality, the heavenly aspirations of the aged, the only half-understood petitions of little children, and the sympathetic pleadings on your behalf of those who are labouring with you in the fire of trial, are ever ascending up before the throne of God, acceptable and availing for your spiritual health, through His merits, who ever liveth to make intercession for you.

Confiding, therefore, dear brethren, in Him to whom all things are possible, let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that He worketh in us ever by His heavenly grace. Let us put off no one good work, no work belonging to our eternal salvation, until it can be done more easily; but whatsoever our hand findeth to do, let us do it with our might, remembering that our Lord has told us, that "the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."16 Riches, if rightly used, and so held as to be given up cheerfully at God's bidding, cannot keep from the kingdom of God those who trust in the Lord; much less can poverty, or sorrow, or cares, or sickness, or the sins of others, their unkindnesses, or their enticements.

"Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching !" 17