true of hope. All are opposed to sight-Faith is sight when it becomes certainty-Trust is sight when it becomes experience—and Hope is sight when it becomes fruition; but none of them is or can be such in itself and at the beginning-so that to be what they are there must be along with them a possibility of doubt and error. This is the very condition of their exercise, for it is the very condition of their existence; and if there be room for very grave doubt, and a hazard of very serious error, there will be all the greater need for another set of qualities—namely: caution, candour, patience, and diligence in the investigation of evidence. For to believe without any grounds at all for belief is not faith, but folly; to trust without ANY reason for confiding is blind reliance, and to hope without a promise, and some reason to believe that he who made it can perform it, or to expect in any other way a future good for which there is no sort of evidence, is not rationally to hope but blindly to anticipate. Hence the necessity for some light. There must be darkness, but then that darkness must not be total. There must be obscurity, otherwise the qualities in question could have no existence; but there must also be a certain degree of light, otherwise, working wholly in the dark, they would work at random and amiss. Thus, on the supposition that we are fallen creatures in a state of pupilage for the requisite capacity to enjoy what we have lost, supposing it recovered, the actual state of things, a state, that is, of light, but not of daylight, is precisely the state that is best adapted to our improvement. For, granting that any illumination, either much greater or much less than

that which we actually enjoy, would be inconsistent with the profitable exercise of faith, trust, hope, candour, caution, humility, diligence, and patience, we can perfectly understand how these qualities, working in proper activity and proper combination, can produce a capacity for a very high degree of moral and spiritual happiness. Well directed and properly enlightened they would form a character that might almost be called sublime.. Faith, trust, and hope, are pre-eminently principles of action, and in conjunction with love would produce the most cordial obedience. They would call forth all the virtuous dispositions of which a human being could be capable, and since, if anything in morals deserves to be called an axiom, it is "that virtue is happiness," they would furnish him with sources of the highest, the purest, and the most abiding enjoyment. Bring faith, trust, and hope, to bear upon the subjugation of our evil propensities, and how powerfully they operate! Bring them again to bear upon the cultivation of our moral principles, and how effective are the motives which they bring into operation! If, then, they act so as to lead at last to the formation of the only character that qualifies its subject for just the sort of happiness which we suppose a fallen creature to have lost and to be seeking to recover, they answer an end of the utmost conceivable importance. So far we have confined ourselves to the consideration of the character which they produce and the happiness which such a character would occasion; dwelt upon their connexion with the other principles of our nature, and shown how the general combination causes a capacity for moral and

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spiritual happiness by improving and exalting the general character. But faith, trust, and hope, are elements of enjoyment in themselves. Is there not a real satisfaction in believing? What a multitude of cares and anxieties may be prevented or mitigated simply by trusting? And as for hope, its effect upon enjoyment is proverbial. Now we cannot agree with those who believe that there can be no place whatever for these sentiments in heaven. We believe, on the contrary, that the texts of Scripture which are generally quoted to prove that there cannot be, are not satisfactory; that a state which rendered them impossible in any degree would be inconsistent with creatureship, and that their operation, even in heaven, will be among the sources of the future enjoyment of the blessed. But this is not the general opinion of Christians, and we waive it as not essential to the argument, which is only that the character which they form, when rightly combined and exercised, is just the character that gives a capacity for the sublimest enjoyment. Conceding, then, that in heaven these dispositions are not to operate, how invaluable are they on earth! Are they not real blessings even in this life? Thus, upon the hypothesis that man has fallen, this phenomenon of darkness, and just the sort of darkness that surrounds us, is precisely what might have been expected. It is relieved by the light of revelation, but even this is not so overpowering as to forbid the exercise of qualities which greatly conduce to the future happiness of a creature supposed to be both fallen and immortal, but which could have no scope except in a state in

many respects of much obscurity, and which, even in this world, are corrective of many sorrows, and sources of much enjoyment. The particular quality for which, in the present day, there seems to be the greatest need, is patience. There are certain difficulties which evidently require more knowledge than we possess at present for their satisfactory removal, but this knowledge we are thoroughly convinced will yet be within our reach, provided those difficulties are not essential to the proper education and discipline of our moral and spiritual faculties. Our duty, then, as reasonable creatures, is to watch and wait. "The vision will surely come, though it tarry, wait for it." But there are other difficulties which may never be surmounted, never at least in this life, and this it is plain, so far from perplexing us, ought to strengthen our faith, since it is no more than what might have been rationally anticipated from the very nature of a dispensation such as that which the fall has involved. The most that could reasonably be looked for, even as regards the truth of revelation, is a preponderance of the proofs in its favour over the proofs, or what seem to be proofs, that it is a human invention; and that there is such a preponderance no one who has studied the subject and has even the remotest pretension to honesty and fairness can hesitate for one moment to acknowledge.

And it is very important to remember that since, according to the supposition, the cause of the fall was moral, and not intellectual, the mode of restoration should be one that improved the heart rather than one that only enlightened the understanding. A Revelation,

therefore, to answer its purpose need not satisfy curiosity, and need only communicate as much light as would enable us to discover the truths which were most likely to influence practice. Nothing can be more certain than the possibility of acting through a perverse state of the heart in direct opposition to the clearest and strongest convictions of the judgment. The drunkard is as satisfied as any demonstration could make him that his habit is fatal to his health, his reputation, his worldly success, and even, it may be, his very life, yet he indulges it, and if the light of Christianity were a thousand times clearer than it is, it is probable that without some strong influence on the will, the conscience, the affections, or all these together, men in general would not act upon it or act up to it at all more consistently than they do at present. If a spectator be anxious to ascertain the precise colour of a particular object but view it through stained glass it will be tinged with the hue of the medium through which he beholds it, be the light ever so intense. It is not, then, by increasing the light, but by taking the stain from the window that the true colour can be distinguished. Now, our passions, prejudices, and sins are the medium through which we naturally look upon the sort of truth which Christianity reveals, and if these be the real causes of all essential error in our judgments of that truth, it is not by increasing the evidence but by improving the heart that such error can be rectified. It is remarkable, accordingly, how often and how emphatically this is set before us in Scripture. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and He will show them his covenant." "He that will do his