that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." There is no other. It is well written-"He that believeth on Him shall not make haste." The Eternal Foundation groweth up into the soul, and becomes eternal being and life, in every one, that believeth on Him. The believer's rock and the Rock of the Divine Nature are the same. His safety and joy repose on the very eternal ground of all that is God.

"PRECIOUS FAITH."

ACCORDING to the teaching of the New Testament a poor man is one whose inheritance, whether great or small, is in this world. On the other hand, a rich man is one who is superior to this world's fortune. And the very reason why he cares, comparatively little about his wordly estate, is because he is a rich man. He is "rich in faith." Let who will doubt the reality of this wealth, it is essential wealth. The doubters are doubters because they are not possessors. No one who has faith doubts his wealth. It is impossible to compare worldly possessions with faith. Faith if it be only as a grain of mustard-seed is a point of reality, but the world is vanity. It is not the pious theorist, but the royal experimentalist, the inductive philosopher, who cries out, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." No man is strong, no man is wise, no man is rich compared with the man who has New Testament faith. Faith makes a man at once master of this

world and the heir of Heaven. Words cannot represent the wealth of faith.

II.-Faith is God's point of contact with the soul. Hence the creature, through his faith, can be made purer, wiser, stronger, nobler, happier, world without end. "All things are possible to him that believeth." For God worketh in him, and "with God nothing is impossible." God withholds nothing from faith. He imparts Himself to faith. Abram gives up all for faith; but he finds a greater portion in the God of all. I am thy exceeding great reward." Abram must receive the sign in his name of countless endless multitude, to teach us that the inheritance of faith is unutterable. Thy name shall be Abraham. The added letter is from Jehovah's Name, teaching us that faith establishes a unity between God and His creature, and therefore opens to the creature infinite resources.

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III. Whatever God in the Gospel of His Dear Son has done for us, faith makes her own. Jesus has wrought out salvation for us, but through our faith that salvation is also wrought out in us. Faith keeps a loving, steady eye on Jesus, and while the soul looks to Him, the Holy Spirit traces the same image in the soul's own

eternal life and love. As it is written: "We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” The soul of faith is love, for faith cleaves to Jesus, more and more, and never tires. Faith retires with its Beloved into the very inmost closet of the soul, and protests with joy unspeakable and full of glory, "He is mine." His birth, His life, His words, His works, His obedience, His sufferings, His wounds, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His glorification are mine. And all these are very near to faith. For the Spirit of the Lord cooperates with faith to bring the things of Christ into the soul:-in a word, to make the bride and the Bridegroom more and more one.

It

IV. Well might the Apostle say, "Precious IV.-Well faith." It brings another world into this. opens rivers of consolation in the parched desert. It brings the fruits of Paradise to the soul. It is light in the darkest hour, and peace in the wildest storm. Under deep poverty and tribulation, Jesus whispers in the ear of faith: "Thou art rich." "I know thy tribulation and poverty; but thou art rich." Rev. 11.9. In a world of change and sorrow we want the stay of a strong arm, and the comfort

of an unchangeable sweetness. We find this Strong Arm and this Divine Sweetness in faith.

V.-But this is a world of shadows as well as

Indeed, how could a real world be a tried

trials. world? But a world in which the unreal is taken for the real, ought to be a world of sorrow. Change, decay and suffering, which, in an unreal world, are inevitable, are turned to good account: they help man to die to the unreal world, that, by a new birth, he may be brought into the world of faith. Faith saves us from being befooled and ruined in this world of shadows. Faith is the victory which overcometh the world. One beam of absolute truth

detecteth the consummate plausibility of "things seen." Faith is such a beam of Truth in the soul. With the ease of an instinct Faith accomplishes, if not the impossibility, the contradiction, of not looking at things seen, but of looking at things not seen. Faith is like one who sees not what he sees, because he sees so fully what he sees not. If an inferior thing be visible, and a superior invisible, it is important that there should be in us some eye, which shall behold the invisible. Faith is that eye. Our sight blinds us till faith comes. The world is more than a match for the soul, if the light and life of Faith be not there. Through the