build your faith that it will continue to nourish you. For the removal of any pain or disease, do you take the advice and follow the directions of a physician? Here you exercise faith in his skill; and both he and you exercise it also in the efficacy of the remedies he prescribes. You go out to your accustomed labours. And what is the principle which excites you to this exertion; which gives life and vigour to your efforts? Is it not the faith that you will receive the reward of your toils? The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth, and hath long patience for them, till he receive the former and the latter rain. Are you induced, by the advice or the assurance of another, to an experiment, from which you hope for, or are confident of, a better reward of your labours? The end of your faith is still the same,-the reward you anticipate; but the ground of it becomes the experience and the testimony of him, whose advice and practice you have followed. Having committed any task to another, and being told that it is per, formed, do you pursue your plans with the same assurance, as if you had seen that the work was accomplished? It is the assurance of faith, which rests perhaps only on your general confidence in the veracity of him whom you have employed. You believe, when your are told that one of your neighbours, whom you saw yesterday in health, is to day stretched on the bed of sickness; or that some distant part of the world has been shaken by earthquakes, or destroyed by fire. In fine, in all our conversation, when we neither discern nor suspect a motive to deceive us, nor perceive any absurdity or contradiction in the relation, we readily yield our faith, and are actuated by our belief. The convictions of faith become as strong as those of sense; and we as truly act by faith when we eat, when we labour, and when we confide in the skill or the veracity of each other, as when, believing the promises of God, we give all diligence to make our calling and our election sure.

But let us extend our views of the operation of this great principle; and trace to their sources some of the actions, or courses of actions in men, of which we may form a judgment not less correct than themselves.

Have you seen the richly freighted vessel, returning to repay the enterprise of her owners? She has been under other skies; in other climes; among other people. She has exchanged the produce of her own soil for that of other regions. They who entrusted their fortunes to the expedition, are now recompensed for their confidence. But follow back the steps of this enterprise, and observe how few of them were guided by actual knowledge. Had he who was most interested in it never seen

the country, to which he sent his property? Then he knew of its existence only from the testimony of others; and however ample may have been this testimony, it could have produced only faith. He believed the existence of the country that had been described to him. He believed what he had read or heard of its inhabitants, its productions, and its wants. Led on by this faith, he entrusted his property to the ocean, notwithstanding the uncertainty of winds and waves. He confided in men who might die; or who might be treacherous, as others had been. But it was the strong belief that they would live, that they would be honest, and that the vessel which bore his property would escape storms and shipwreck, as others had escaped them, which animated his hopes of her return, and made him sanguine in his calculations. Seest thou then how faith wrought with his works; and that, but for his faith, he would never have undertaken the enterprise, whose rewards have so greatly enriched him?

Observe a man, the object of whose supreme desire is the glory of a great and distinguished name. He has regard to it in every plan he forms; in every course he pursues. It is almost constantly in his thoughts. It engages his strongest and best affections. He considers the time, and strength, and talents as comparatively lost, which have not been employed in its service. He not only gives his days and nights to toil, and anxiety, and suffering, for the accomplishment of his purpose: not only denies himself innumerable gratifications, which are every day offered to his understanding and his senses; but he exposes himself to every danger; he is every moment ready to meet death, and perhaps actually falls a victim of death, in the great cause to which he has devoted every faculty of his soul. But does he not as truly act by faith, as he does, who, in a course of religion and virtue, is seeking the honour that comes from God only? Is he not equally a martyr to his faith, as he is, who submits to death, or incurs the penalty of death, rather than give up his principles as a christian, or renounce his faith in the gospel of Christ? He believes, but he cannot know that he will obtain the glory that he seeks. And such are all the actions that have regard to the ends of human ambition.

Deprive man of faith in the ordinary course of circumstances and of events, and what would be the consequences? Or suppose any one resolved never to act, but where he had the certainty of knowledge to guide him. He would not labour; for he cannot know that he will be rewarded. Or if his family have not the means of support for another day, he will use no

exertions to obtain them; for he cannot know that either he or they will live till to-morrow. Or if hungry himself, he will not eat; for it is impossible to be certain that the first food he takes to sustain him, will not be the cause of his death. But I need not pursue the supposition. Its absurdity is apparent. It is glaring. We could no more live without faith in the testimony of others, or of our own observation and experience, than we could live without our senses, or without air. An unbeliever of revelation therefore lives by faith in the ordinary cir cumstances and events of life, as much as the most zealous disciple of Jesus; and he who scoffs at faith as a principle of religion, is as much actuated by it in his own daily business and pleasures, as is the most pious in his endeavours to live as the grace of God teaches; or as the dying christian, who rejoices in the anticipated happiness of heaven.

From this view of faith we infer, first, that it is a principle of our nature, equally as hope, or fear, or desire. It is as much a principle of our nature, that we should believe upon sufficient testimony, and conform our conduct to our belief, as that we should like, and dislike; or, as that we should seek what we love, and avoid that by which we feel aversion, And we should act not less inconsistent with our nature, if we should refuse ever again to be actuated by faith, than if we were resolved henceforth to deny ourselves both food and sleep, and not to trust even for a moment to the evidence of

our senses.

Second, In requiring us to walk by faith in his moral government, God demands of us no more than he does in his common providence. And in requiring us to seek the rewards and happiness of heaven, by that faith in Christ and in the instructions of his gospel, which will engage in its service our entire wills and our best affections, he demands no more than we cheerfully do every day, to obtain the riches and the pleasures of the world. It is an appointment of the providence of God, that we should believe the labour of spring and summer, to be necessary for the security of a harvest in the autumn. It is an appointment of the moral government of God, that we should believe in the necessity of a life of religious and moral obedience-a character and life conformed to his revealed will, in order to his final approbation of us, and our eternal happiness. Admit the doctrine, that God is a moral Governor, and there is far more evidence of an inseparable connexion between our hearts and habits and character here, and our condition hereafter-between our present moral state and our future happiness,-than between our best directed labours, and the

riches and pleasures of the world for which we make so many efforts, and submit to so many sufferings. Though our labours are necessary to obtain the fruits of autumn, and we have sufficient grounds for our faith that, in due season we shall reap if we faint not, yet here, it may be, that a burning sun may dry up the springs of vegetation; or a desolating storm may tear it from its roots; or innumerable insects may be commissioned to devour it ; or, at the very moment when our work of preparation is about to terminate, death may arrest us,--another may become the heir of our possessions, and enjoy the long anticipated fruits of our exertions and our hopes. But if God is a moral Governor, and the great purposes of his government are not accomplished in this world, by the full reward of piety and virtue, and the full punishment of impiety and vice, it is as certain as that God lives, and is wise, and holy, and good, that these purposes will be completely effected hereafter. In proportion then as the rewards and punishments of the future life are more certain, than the attainment of the objects of our faith in this life,--and they are so, in proportion as our future existence is more certain than it is whether we shall live till to-morrow, or to the greatest age of man,--in the same proportion is it more reasonable, that we should live by faith in the objects of eternity, than in those of this world.

By this view of faith we are therefore led, thirdly, to a comparison of the objects themselves of this world, to the pursuit of which we are prompted by the faith of obtaining them, with those in which God demands our faith as accountable and immortal beings. By the light of God's word, examine his moral government; and by the aid of the same light, penetrate as far as you can into that eternal futurity, in which the soul, purified by intercourse with its Creator, and by obedience to his laws, will see him as he is; will become one of the bright and happy society that encircles his throne; and, forever delivered from pain, and sorrow, and want, will forever advance in knowledge, and piety, and virtue, and happiness. On the objects here presented to our contemplation and promised to our fidelity, let attention be fixed, till the mind and heart have formed such sentiments as they are capable of obtaining, of the grandeur and worth of the prize of steady confidence in God, and of persevering devotion to his will. Then bring together every good that the world can give you; and say, which shall hereafter be the objects of your highest love, your strongest solicitude, and your most earnest pursuit. Do you waver in making your choice' I will only remind you, that the things which are seen-which can here be possessed and enjoyed,are temporal. But the things which are unseen are eternal,

MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS.

KNOWLEDGE OF ONE ANOTHER IN THE FUTURE STATE.

THE question, whether we shall know our friends in the future world, has at some time probably interested every christian. Little direct information is to be gathered from the scriptures, and different opinions are prevalent, formed with various degrees of decision. Perhaps the following extract from a letter of Bishop Watson, though short, comprehends all that can be fairly said upon the subject.

"Our Saviour has said, that we shall be like the angels of God,' immortal; yet St. John has said, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be:' there is no contradiction in this. We are sure of immortal life; but the connexions, habits, relations, intercourses of that life, are not revealed to us. I dare not speak with confidence on a subject whereon St. John professes his ignorance.

"Had you asked me, whether we should in a future state experience pain, and sorrow, and death, I should have answered, No. Had you asked me, whether we should retain a memory of our good and bad deeds, I should have answered, Yes; because I am certain that the righteous Judge will give such a righteous judgment, that every individual will have a consciousness of its rectitude. But when you ask me, whether we shall know one another in a future state, I hesitate in my reply. All that can certainly be known on the subject is this,-That God will not withhold from those, whom he adopts as his sons, any thing which can contribute to their happiness; and if the earthly connexions formed in this first scene of existence will contribute to our happiness, they will be continued to us, and that continuance implies a future recognition of beloved connexions. Yet, on the other hand, it may be said, if we know our friends and retain sentiments of affection towards them, we must also know our enemies, and thus be again exposed to emotions of fear, dislike, aversion: but in a future state we expect freedom from bad passions, and real tranquillity of mind; and it is probable that human affections will be absorbed in the love of God and of our Saviour.

"The strongest text for our mutual knowledge in a future state, occurs in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, chap. ii. ver. 19, where Paul says, that They will be his hope, his