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struggle on; telling both that efforts here made shall not be made in vain. Now, suppose that this system shall be carried in one glorious mass into the soul of man, filling up the canals of thought, infusing itself through every conviction, embalming both the intelligence and the heart with its power. What then? I will tell you. Christ is in that soul the hope of glory. The truths and promises of the Divine Word have gone inward-taken their seat upon the throne of thought; they have become the aliment of the mind, and now adorn every apartment with the moral furniture of the Gospel. The mind need not ascend into heaven to bring Christ down, or descend into the deep to bring Him up, for the word of faith, which represents Him, is already there, and through it He is there. The doctrines of the Gospel, through which Christ shines, leaving behind Him a long trail of light, every ray of which is a ray of hope, now constitute the spiritual tapestry of the soul. Whether you look into its conviction, or into the Bible, you will find the same things, for these convictions are now the receptacles, the vehicles of the words of eternal wisdom. Blessed man is he who carries this treasure within himself; heavenly orthodoxy is that which enthrones Christ, not as an abstraction, but as a Divine Savior, imparting the hope of glory. Brilliant vision, which first enshrines the personality of the Savior, and then reviews his attributes, the essential and the official! This is having the word of Christ dwelling in us "richly in all wisdom." Time may

waste, or fires burn up our paper creeds; but here is a creed no flame ever touched, whose free and unchained action no prisons ever bound. Misfortune and commercial disaster may cover our earthly heavens with darkness; but here is a hope beyond casualty-itself a great moral cone of glory, its apex lost in the skies. The opening grave may becken us to our long sleep in the dust, but as we lie down in its damp and silent chamber, Christ, the hope of glory, will tell us to be of good cheer, for in a little season we shall be with Him in His Kingdom.

2. The indwelling of Christ implies those conditions of the heart, which are the appointed and proper antecedents of the hope of glory.

I do not suppose that the impenitent possess anything like that completeness of view in regard to the scheme of Christian redemption, which belongs to the child of God. They never can possess it while they keep so far from the scheme. In this position no eloquence or argument can preach it with its proper fullness into their intelligence. I suppose, also, that some Christians have immensely better views on this subject than others. It is really painful to see the horrible ignorance of some in reference to that which is to carry them to heaven; it is their fault and their loss-a dishonor to themselves and their religion. No wonder they are so much in the dark, for they do not read, and study, and pray over their Bibles sufficiently, to have the clearest form of light. They

depend too much upon their preacher to give them ideas; these they but half digest, hence they sit in the mere twilight of truth.

While then Christians exceed the impenitent in their conceptions of truth, and some Christians far exceed others in the same department, I must not fail to notify you that Christian experience does not wholly consist in the mere apprehension of a theory, however divine, beautiful, or sublime. The religion of him, with whom Christ dwells as the hope of glory, is not naked thought, even in the loftiest sphere to which thought ever passed. There is something more in that mind. This I have styled "conditions of the heart," in the proposition just announced. These conditions are implied in the fact of an indwelling Christ. Without designating the extent of the exercises, I affirm the following things of every Christian, i. e. that he entirely relies upon the merits of Christ for the salvation of his soul, that his affections are drawn out towards Him in the form of love, and that his character in its essential features is like that of his Savior. These are the conditions of a pious heart, a heart in which Christ dwells; and if we cannot abide this test, our hopes are vain, and should at once be relinquished. He is infinitely worthy of our confidence and love; He is also a perfect model for our imitation; and if in these particulars we totally fail, it is self-deception to imagine that we are His. They are the Biblical terms of discipleship, and must be realities in us, or we are not the followers of the Lamb. They are also our exalted privileges, and can never be viewed with aversion, except as we ourselves shall be unholy and sinful. We may perfect our theological theories, as we would polish a literary scheme; we may assemble all the Bishops and Popes of the globe to bless us and baptize us, but without these conditions of the heart, we are strangers to Christ, to the true spirit of that religion He gave to

man.

The hearer will now observe, that these spiritual conditions constitute that moral state of human being, which according to the rules of the Gospel, is the proper antecedent of a hope of glory. They suppose the subject to be standing in a position where the Gospel cannot fail to save him-where God is pledged to save him; indeed they are a part of salvation, salvation from sin to holiness in its early stage. They constitute the individual the friend of Christ, from whose hand no power shall ever be able to pluck him. The plan of God is graciously to pardon, and for ever to justify a soul when in this state, and thus, through Christ, invest it with a title to eternal glory. It is a state of mind, which secures salvation to a certainty, not a mere probability, but an absolute certainty, not on account of its meritorious power, but because it connects the soul with Christ and the scheme of life, which is based upon Him. In one word, it is that condition of the soul which the God of the Gospel has designated, as that without which He never will, and with which He always will, bestow eternal life. The thief on the cross said to the expiring Savior, "Lord, remember

me, when thou comest into thy kingdom." He was answered, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." How quickly the Gospel took effect, and became to that dying thief "the power of God unto salvation." His prayer evinced a proper temper towards Christ; and in an instant the whole energies of the divine scheme encircled him, and his salvation was affirmed by Him, who was then shedding his blood to procure it. Let us have the same temper, and substantially the same promise is ours to-day-this moment at all times-in life and in death. How proper it is, that we should always be in this moral state! Christ in worthy of it; it is the only state which can fit us for happiness in a heaven where he reigns. If then it be our state, it is no presumption for us to hope, to hope with confidence; not to hope is to do injustice to the Gospel and its promises. The certainty that it is ours, and the certainty of our salvation are always equal to each other.

In view of this train of thought, I ask you to consider the following reflections:

1. The difficulties which Christians and recent converts experience in regard to their hopes, depend upon one, or all of three causes. They may fail clearly to apprehend the nature of hope; they may not distinctly see that it is an exercise of their own minds coming into existence, in certain circumstances. If they in any way materialize the term, and then seek for hope, they will of course seek in vain; their very efforts will deepen their own obscurity, and what they seek will always elude their grasp. Hoping is purely a process of the mind, and when the facts are present, which authorize the process, then we are to put forth the exercise, i. e. mentally do the work. And if in the light of appropriate facts, the mind refuse to hope, then any labor expended beyond the region of facts to obtain a hope, must necessarily be labor lost. The mind is working at an enormous disadvantage, and the result to which it arrives is more likely to be an optical illusion, than the hope of a Christian, as provided for in the Scriptures. Again, they may fail to apprehend the proper data, or Bible grounds for the exercise of hope. These are to be found in the plan of salvation by Jesus Christ, and if the great features of this plan lie obscurely in the understanding, the mind is rendered proportionately incompetent to decide the question, whether it ought to hope or not. Feebleness of spiritual perception enfeebles all exercises, which in the order of nature are consequent thereupon. Strong and lifegiving views of Christ, as revealed in the economy of redemption, are essential to strong and powerful hope. He will be to us "the hope of glory" according to the fullness with which He dwells in

us.

If He dwell in our hearts by faith, if His word dwell in us "richly in all wisdom," if we attain the "riches of the full assurance of the understanding," then surely it cannot be difficult to give to every man that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us. This high attainment of knowledge is the privilege of him only

who labors to comprehend Christ, as He is made known in the Scriptures. One reason why many Christians hope so feebly, is to be found in the fact, that they know so little of the blessed Savior; and this imperfect knowledge arises from the neglect of God's Holy Word. More study, more mental labor upon the field of revelation would make Christ more precious, by giving the soul a better knowledge of Him; it would increase the subjective intensity of all spiritual exercises, by giving a larger and clearer objective range to the mind. "The treasures of wisdom and knowledge," which are hid in Christ, are to us of no avail, unless our minds are put in communion with those treasures. They are majestic elements in Him, but efficient in us, only as transfered to our apprehensions. If we would hope with power in Christ, we must be filled with the knowledge of Him " in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." If we would have this knowledge, we must make the Bible the vade mecum of our lives. This book, properly used, will clarify the pious intelligence, make the heart glow with love, and faith, and hope; it will feed the soul with spiritual manna, and give power to every exercise of the "new man.' Its neglect, sinful in itself, is an unconceivable loss in the department of Christian experience. Again, Christians may not treat in a proper manner the question, whether their piety be genuine. There is a wide difference betweena strenuous effort to serve Christ and thus be His, and an equally strenuous effort to determine that we are His. In the latter case we are likely to be selfish-in the former our motive is benevolent and Christian; in the one case we are looking mostly at ourselves-in the other we are contemplating the will of our Master, and seeking to do it; in the one we are not yielding the fruits of piety, but searching for them -in the other we are yielding these fruits, and thus giving the best evidence that we are Christians, evidence most likely to be apparent to our own eyes. Deep and ardent piety carries with itself an incidental demonstration of its own existence; its nature is to be self-luminous; and, if it be the condition of hope, then the speediest way safely to hope is to develope the condition. Whether we are, or are not Christians is not the great question of our lives. He who makes it the chief point of thought, resolved to do nothing else until he settles this, will find it in experience the most difficult inquiry that ever engaged his powers. Let him take a wiser course, let his mind survey the requirements and privileges of the Gospel of Christ, let him address his heart with the utmost energy to the life of Christian holiness-this is not only the surest way to be a Christian, but also the surest route by which to discover the fact. It generates the evidential light of piety; it places this light at a point of easy observation; the spiritual eye naturally falls upon it, sees the fact without laborious search; the consciousness of attachment to Christ suggests the reality of union with Him, of safety in His hands, and sweetly unfolds the hope of glory. My brethren, be what you wish to discover, and the dis

covery will become a comparatively simple work; here spend your power, and God will give you light.

2. The characteristic, by which all false hopes may be known, is this, i. e. they are not preceded by the proper antecedents. This mistake may be committed in either of two ways.

In the first place, the mind in hoping, may build its hope on some other plan besides that of the Gospel. The Apostle assures us, that "other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." This proposition excludes everything but Christ in the work of the soul's salvation. The religious experience of the Apostle was conformed to this idea; he counted all things loss for "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ ;" he depended on nothing else, on no other being. If, therefore, in the exercise of hope, we place our dependence upon anything but Christ, our hope has a false antecedent, and is of no value. We may not trust in our own exercises; we have no authority for trusting in the general character of God; we must give up all and take Christ as our Divine Savior, or in omitting to do so, we lose the benefit of His salvation. It is enough to secure the condemnation of every other scheme, to know that it is not of God, and is condemned by that which is of God. Man may plan; Christ alone can save. Talk not, sinner, of the plausibility of your theory; it has no warrant beyond that which you, a worm of the dust, can give it; you must forsake it, or in keeping it, die with it. You cannot prove its safety in a single item, and the thought that the veto of God is upon it, ought to make you tremble and abandon it. What madness is it in man to put the worthless figments of a dream where God has put His well-beloved Son.

In the second place, men may profess to hope in virtue of the Gospel, without accepting and personally appropriating Christ by faith and love. As the Bible reveals but one Savior, so it reveals but one moral state, common to all who shall be saved by His blood. We must believe in Him, we must love Him, we must prove both our faith and love by obedience to his commandments; we must appropriate, according to the Gospel rule, the blessing He proposes to give. This a man cannot do, and remain a hardened sinner, or a mere religious formalist. There are exercises, exercises of the heart, in whose absence neither the amplitude, nor the power of the atonement will avail for our salvation. These exercises constitute a spiritual religion, accurately delineated in the word of God, having its seat and theatre of exhibition in the soul of man, elementary and essential in his preparation for the privileges and joys of the life to come. To secure these, it is appointed that the Gospel shall be preached, and Jehovah sends down the Holy Spirit to give it power in subduing and changing the hearts of men. The promises shine forth-the law thunders with convicting power-the terrible things of eternity are unveiled, that those, who are in controversy with God, may suspend their opposition, and yield to the claims of Christ. If they decline to do this,

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