of death, in whom a faith is found, that needeth not to be ashamed, enabling the ransomed sinner to meet death with a smile, and, looking unto Jesus, to say with unshaken confidence, "Into thy hands I commit my spirit-thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth." My dear children, may our God fulfil in you the work of faith with power! The means are your's, the power is God's. The prevalence of faith is often found in the severer exercise of it, because we are then most humble and prayerful; and nothing can so much as this delight and exalt the Christian, recommend religion, and shew forth the praise and glory of God. There are seasons wherein God is pleased, in a peculiar manner, to make his power known in this respect. Sometimes it has appeared in a time of great afflic tion. What fervour of humble, believing prayer has then been manifested! What meekness and content, what justifying of God, what firm adherence to the truth, what willingness to make every sacrifice which God requires! Sometimes it has appeared when the Christian has been called to arduous and hazardous duty. It was found in the experience of Abraham, of Moses, of Caleb, of David; of Apostles and Martyrs. There have also been found instances, wherein faith has been eminently manifested in times of outward prosperity, as in the case of Moses in Egypt, &c. There are those, also, in whom the peaceable fruits of righteousness have been found to appear abundantly after times of severe exercise; so abundantly, as to make it manifest that God has been fulfilling in them the work of faith with power. Their growth in grace has been manifest, as the stature of a child many times after some severe bodily illness; as the growth of a tree sometimes after much pruning; as the progress of a ship that has been driven by a stormy but fair or side wind. Endearing fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ will, also, always have a sweet influence on our faith, our love, our gratitude, our whole temper and life. We cannot converse habitually with Heaven without becoming heavenly; we cannot live in the beams of the Sun of Righteousness without feeling a powerful attraction heavenwards. May you thus live! May your trials be thus sanctified, and you will count them among your most valued blessings! May the Lord fulfil in you, my dear children, this work of faith with power! Amen, and Amen. By this time, I suppose, you are returned from G, and are deliberating on the happiest me thod of pursuing the journey of life which you have (with submission to the sovereign will of Heaven) pledged yourselves to accomplish together. May the Prince of Life shine on your union, and preserve it, through a long succession of years, with increasing advantages! As you proceed in this journey, you must count upon changes. Revolving years, perhaps revolving days, will exhibit still new scenes; some of them pleasureable, but many of them distressful. Sometimes you will taste the love of God in wilderness comforts, and realize more blissful enjoyment in wilderness prospects. At other times, clouds and darkness will encompass your paths; you will find yourselves amidst dismal deeps and dangerous snares, toiling in what to you may appear fruitless and hopeless service, till your soul is "discouraged because of the way." Your wisdom, then, will be to "lay a good foundation against the time to come;" to lay up your "treasure in heaven.' That is a bank which never fails. In its unsearchable riches all they who have obtained precious faith have one common interest, and have access to it at all times and from all places. And such is the immensity of treasure there, that there never was a draft presented in the faith of Jesus but was admitted and honoured: the great Lord of all, with every grant, still encouraging and inviting further and larger demands, says, in infinite grace, According to your faith be it unto you;" accounting himself most honoured by the largest expectations. I have no doubt, my dear children, but it is your solicitude to begin this journey with God, and to engage his presence with you. Suffer me to say, you cannot be too explicit in the solemn business of covenanting with God. I have known various seasons wherein I have greatly needed the strong consolation which a transaction of this nature is calculated to provide: and I have known seasons wherein this plea, "Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good," sent up to Heaven from the darkness and deeps of affliction, has obtained returns incomparably more precious than thousands of gold and of silver. Thus commencing your pilgrimage under the influence of a Divine promise, you must remember what you are leaving, and whither you are tending; remember that you have professed to renounce with abhorrence the idols of your native state, the sin of your heart, and the corruption that is in the world through lust; that henceforth it must become your great aim to be "made free from sin," to have "your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life," with God and in God. O blessed end of our faith! how far it transcends what Israel found in the promised land! O glorious hope, amidst the labours and troubles of our way! We are travelling home to God In the way the fathers trod: They are happy now, and we Soon their happiness shall see, You will find abundant advantage in keeping this end in sight; the sense of many a trouble will be diminished, and your joy in the Lord will prevail, in proportion to the fixedness of your eye and heart in this respect. If your heart be directed into the love of God, you will estimate your happiness, not by the measure of creature-good you enjoy, but by the nearness of your soul's approach to its proper centre; you will value outward dispensations in proportion as they express the love of God to you, or as they speed your progress to the chosen rest; you will value your connections and friends in proportion as they excite your love to God, or as expressions of his love to you; and you will form your opinion of God's dealings with you, not by sense, but by faith; not by their appearance, but by God's covenant as to their effect. You will then suppress many gloomy and complaining thoughts you will charge your soul to believe that God is faithful who hath called you, to follow where he leads, and to rest assured, that if he lead you into darkness and into deeps, it is the right way to the blessed end which his promise bids you expect. Indeed, if God should be pleased to lead you about in the rugged path of suffering, "through a land of desert and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death," it will perhaps be to instruct you further in the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the deep depravity of your own heart: being thus instructed, you will silence yourselves under the hand of God, feeling (in a measure at least) as |