My heaven in Thee! O God! no other heaven My heaven in Thee! O Father! let me find 5 TUESDAY MORNING. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?-1 John v. 5. WHAT stronger testimony can be given to the power of this principle of faith in Christ? If it be sufficient to overcome the world, to give life through his name, to effect the Christian regeneration, and a spiritual union with God, to what purpose can it be insufficient, to what work unequal? If this faith be weak, what faith can be called strong? And that faith in Christ does do this; that it strengthens the soul with such principles, and fills it with such resources, that it does not need the world for its happiness, and is capable of resisting its allurements and its terrors, of rising superior to its sin and its misery, there are "clouds of witnesses." The apostles and martyrs who endured all things, and, in the midst of all, "sang praises unto God"; and humbler Christians, in the depths of poverty and distress, yet cheerful, content, and rejoicing; men injured, threatened, and persecuted, yet patient, serene, and uncomplaining, while they can appeal to Him who judges righteously; men lingering in painful sickness, cut off from the engagements of life, their prospects blasted, their hopes disappointed, their props torn away, yet not cast down nor dismayed; but finding, in the dower of faith and heavenly hope, a compensation for their trials, and a victory over the world. - Equally complete is their triumph over spiritual evil. They walk amid the deceitful disguises and fatal ambushes of sin, unseduced and unharmed. Though the passions within ally themselves to the solicitations without, and war against their souls ; though the constitution of their bodily frame, and the temper of their mind, the circumstances in which they are thrown, the company which they frequent, and the cares which occupy them, all combine to introduce some disorder in their spirits, to allure or surprise them to what is wrong, and array them, even against their wills, in disobedience to God; yet, over this fearful combination, against which unassisted man might combat in vain, these men of faith triumph. "God hath given them the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Faith, where its dominion is established in the soul, acts like some superior charm to quell the inferior nature, and awe the rebellious passions to submission. It brings up to them the image of the glorious Master to whom they are bound; of the holy God, who is watching, that He may judge them; of the future world, whose inheritance depends on their purity; and of all the misery and horrors which follow in the train of unsubjected passions and voluntary sin. These press upon their minds with united and intuitive operation; and, with the spontaneous indignation of the patriarch, they put the temptation to flight with the cry, "How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" Have I acknowledged Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, so heartily, that he is really and habitually my master, and that his authority rules and controls me in all things, so that this faith works by love, purifies my heart, and overcomes the world? Is it in me the parent of holy desires, pure dispositions, good living, and earnest aspirations after the excellence and the bliss of heaven? It is for these qualities that faith is valuable. It is by these that it works out our salvation. It is this efficacy in reforming, purifying, elevating, spiritualizing the human character, that constitutes the glory of the gospel. When it has done this, it has accomplished its great work. If it be doing this for me, I may be satisfied that it is neither fatally erroneous, nor weak. But if it be pure as that of angels, and yet do not display this moral power, it is no better than 66 sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal." THOU, who didst stoop below Wearing the form of frail mortality, Thy crown of victory won, Hast passed from earth, passed to thy home on high. Man may no longer trace In thy celestial face The image of the bright, the viewless One; Save with faith's raptured ear, Thy voice of tenderness, God's holy Son! Those who have placed their hope, their trust, in thee; Before thy Father's face Thou hast prepared a place, That where thou art, there they may also be. It was no path of flowers, Beloved of the Father, thou didst tread; And shall we, in dismay, Shrink from the narrow way, When clouds and darkness are around it spread? O thou, who art our life, Be with us through the strife! Was not thy head by earth's fierce tempests bowed? |