The Foundation of Hope

“It is a fearful thing,” says a distinguished writer for an immortal being to have no hope for eternity, but it is scarcely less dreadful to have a hope, — it may Ije a confident hope, — which, if there be any truth in the Bible, must make him who cherishes it ashamed and confounded, world without end.”* Hence the necessity and tremendous importance of looking well to the foundation on which we rest our expectations of everlasting happiness. Every wise builder will take especial care, when he is about to erect an edifice, that the foundation is good, and his solicitude will be in exact proportion to the magnitude, height, and importance of the intended structure. Our Lord closes his Sermon upon the Mount with an allusioQ to this, where he speaks of the different results of building upon the sand or upon a rock. What deep anxiety, then, should be felt by him whose structure of hope is to rise as high as heaven, to stand against all the assaults of time, and to last through eternity. What is a palace, a pyramid, a castle, or a temple, compared with this P

The dond-ospped towers, the gorgeoas palaees.
The solemn temples, yea, the great globe all which it inherits, shall dissolve,
And, like the baseless fabric of a vision.
Leave not a rack behind.

* Dr. John Brown.

But the superstructure of a believer’s hope, if well based, shall outlive this whole material frame, and at length converted into full and blessed fruition, shall exist for ever. But how awful the consideration that, if ill-placed, he will see all his expectations vanish in a moment, and will sink to the depths of despair, when he looked for ineffable and eternal enjoyment.

Every hope must rest upon something. To desire and expect a future good without some ground for it, is a folly men are very rarely guilty of; though very common is the folly, very near akin to it, of indulging in anticipations which rest upon the sand.

When we consider the object of Christian hope, its unmeasurable vastness, its infinite glory, and its eternal duration, and consider also that this is an expectation cherished by a creature so mean and so sinful as man, it seems indeed, at first sight, a high presumption to anticipate such an eternal destiny. To see a man guilty of a thousand sins, and depraved in his nature, pointing up to heaven, and on to eternity, and hear him say, “I am looking for all that,” is something very surprising. Surely such a man ought to look well to the basis on which rest such high expectations. In searching for this basis, we must be g;uided exclusively by Scripture. It is not what man says, but what God says. It is not by the teaching of philosophy, but by the revelations of Scripture, that we can come to a knowledge of this. Speculation will not do here. Conjecture is worthless here. We know nothing about heaven itself, and can know nothing about the way to it, but what the Bible tells us. Woe, eternal woe, to the man who sets aside the testimony of inspiration, and ventures forward into the darkness of the iAvisible world with no better light than the glimmering taper of his own reason; while blessed is the man who, in his progress to etemitj, says, ‘’ Thy word is a light unto my feet, and a lamp unto my path,” and who is guided by the light of this heaven-kindled lamp to his everlasting home.

And what doet this inspired and infallible record say? In one short, simple, beautiful passage, which he that runs may read, the whole matter is summarily expressed. The apostle thus commences his first epistle to Timothy, — ‘* Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Saviour, and the Lord Jesus Christ, which IS OUR HOPE.” The same view is presented in another much misunderstood passage, I mean Col, i., 27., — “Christ in you, the hope of glory** It is usual to consider the Apostle as referring to the indwelling of Christ in the heart, forming his image there, and new creating the soul by his Spirit. But is the work of Christ in us, or the work of Christ for us, the foundation of our hope? Is it Christ, subjectively or objectively, on which we found our hope P If it be Christ in us, then our dependance is upon something of our own. The true translation is “Christ among you;” set forth before you, exhibited to you in the preaching of the word. This rendering is given in those bibles which have marginal references.

The Lord Jesus Christ our hope! These few precious words deserve to be written in letters of gold, to be engraven on every rock where mortals could read them, to have monumental pillars erected in every abode of lost sinners and mortal men to bear the glorious inscription, — yea, to be printed in starry characters on the sky, that men may look upward from the sins and sorrows of time, the ravages of death, and the extinction of their earthly expectations and read them with raptures of delight. Yet, since they are written on the imperishable page of Scripture, this is unnecessary; for there they are presented in legible characters to the eye of every man that has a bible. I^ Lord Jesus Christ our hope. It is blissful to repeat it. Yes, there is hope for lost sinful man, and Christ is that hope. Hear it, ye children of mortality, who all your life, ‘* through fear of death, are subject to bondage.” Hear it, ye tribes of the earth, “groaning and travailing in pain together until now.” Hear it, ye subjects of incurable disease, casting longing, lingering looks behind, as ye bend your steps, weak and weary, yet reluctant, towards the gloomy vale from which none return, — there is hope of immortality, and Christ is that hope. This is plainly told us in another place, — ‘’Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ,” — I Cor. iii, 11. So again even in the prophetic scriptures it is said, “Behold I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious comer stone, a sure foundation,” — Isaiah xxviii, 16. This is quoted by the apostle Peter, 1st Epistle, ii, 4, — “To whom coming, as to a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious.”

But it will be necessary here to explain in what sense Christ is the foundation of hope. “All hare sinned and come short of the glory of God,” and thus heaven is forfeited by us all. ^’ There is none righteous, no not one.” No man can now hope for eternal happiness on the ground of his own obedience. Every one has not only forfeited heaven, by his personal transgression, but deserved hell. The fall, so far as what man can do for himself, extinguished hope for ever. The gate of Paradise above is as truly closed and barred against him, as regards his own ability to open it, as was the gate of

D 2

Paradise on earth to Adam after his apostacy. If it be ever opened again to the children of men, it must be done by God*8 own hand. If ever the hope of immortality be kindled in the bosom of man, it must be by God himself. His infinite benignity desired to open the closed gates, and render heaven accessible to guilty men. But how can he do it consistently with his truth, which declared death should be the punishment of sin? With his holiness, which must demonstrate itself before the universe, as opposed to sin, and infinitely hating it? With his justice, which must manifest itself, by inflicting the threatened and deserved punishment P How can he do it in harmony with the wisdom and authority of his law? How can he do it and uphold the principles of his moral government, and the majesty of his throne be maintained? Can he open heaven to the aspirations, the pursuit, and the possession of the apostate race of Adam? Will not the inhabitants of Paradise retire or stand aghast when they see such rebels entering? Will not the moral universe be perplexed by such a seeming eclipse of God’s infinite holiness and justice, and feel as if his mercy had demolished the throne of his majesty, and raised her seat upon the ruins of rectitude P And yet it is a fact that God has opened the kingdom of heaven to the children of men. How shall harmony then be restored to the seemingly jarring attributes of justice and of mercy? The apostle explains the mystery in that wondrous language,-*-” Ye are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus,” — Rom. iii., 24 — 26. Glorious passage! Wondrous language 1 Divine light is here seen throwing its splendour back upon the dark shadows of the Levitical law, and all the dispensations of grace since the fall of man; extending its illumination to the mystic terms of the revelation to our first parents in the garden; explaining the words of the prophet, as well as the symbols of the priest; exhibiting the moral law given in thunder from Sinai, in all its unviolated authority; covering with a flood of radiance the throne of the eternal Governor of the universe; and yet at the same time proclaiming the mercy of God in all its fullness and freeness, and thus laying the foundation of hope for the vilest sinner upon earth. Yes, the atonement of Christ, the real all-sufficient and complete atonement of Christ; the atonement, in its true sacrificial intent, as a means of manifesting the glory, by satisfying the claims, of divine justice; that only doctrine which can give meaning to Scripture, glory to God, and hope to man; without which Judaism is an insoluble enigma, and Christianity a contradiction. This, this is the foundation, the only foundation of a sinner’s hope, and a saint’s consolation. This is expressed in innumerable passages of both the Old Testament and the New. Isaiah declared it in the verse already quoted, and in another no less clear and explicit, where he says, ‘’ The chastisement of our peace was upon him: the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all, and by his stripes we are healed.” — chap. liii. Jeremiah declared it where he calls him “the Lord our Righteousness.” — xxxiii, 16. Daniel declared it where he speaks of Messiah as “finishing transgression, making an end of sins, making reconciliation for iniquity, and bringing in everlasting righteousness.” — ix, 24. And Zeehariah declared it where he speaks of a ‘’a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness,” xiii, 1. In all these passages, and very manyothers, is Christ set forth as the foundation of our hope; the ground on which we are to rest all our expectations of eternal salvation.

A more extended and minute consideration of one of these passages may now with propriety be introduced, as furnishing us with a most instructive, encouraging, and consolatory view of the foundation of the christian’s hope. I mean the language of Isaiah, xxviii, 16, “Therefore thus saith Jehovah, Behold, Hay in Zionfor a foundation,^ a stone, a tried stone.” That this applies to Christ is certain by its being so used by the apostle Peter, 1st epistle, 2nd chapter. There may be also an allusion by the apostle, in this passage, to Psalm cxviii, 22: — “The stone which the builders disallowed is become the headstone of the comer.”* The force of the metaphors in all these passages is much enhanced by the statements of modern travellers in relation to the immense stones which the ancients were accustomed to place in the foundations of their temples and walls, some of which are remaining to the present day. In Eobinson’s Palestine mention is made of this in reference to the walls of Jerasalem, in which he conjectures is still found some of the masonry of the very temple built by Solomon, consisting of vast blocks: and in the foundations of the temple at Balbec,

The Eii|[rlipl reftden win peroeiTe in this etme, m in mauj othmt, % Terbftl difference between the quotation in the New Testament and the original passage in the Old Testament, in explanation of which it may be observed that the writers of the former gvneralty quote tiia Beptnagint or Greek rersion of the Jevrish Scriptures, and sometimes they giro neither the Hebrew nor Greek in exact words, but in the way of substance or paraphrase.

now for ages in ruins, stones have been found measuring seventy feet long bj fifteen thick.

One of the greatest of the Nonconformist divines* published a wonderful treatise under the title of “The Living Temple.” His design is to represent the soul of man as originally created to be a temple for an indwelling deity, by the fall reduced to ruins, and restored by the mediation of Christ. A long passage from this extraordinary production of sanctified genius will be acceptable to every reader, and manifest the intellectual majesty of its author. Speaking of the original temples, he says: — ‘’The stately ruins are visible to every eye, that bear on their front, yet extant, this doleful inscription, ‘He be God omce dwelt.’ Enough appears of the admirable frame and structure of the soul of man to shew the divine presence did some time reside in it; more than enough of vicious deformity to proclaim, he is now retired and gone. The lamps are extinct, the altar overturned, the light and love are now vanished, the one of which did once shine with so heavenly brightness, the other bum with so pious fervour. The golden candlestick is displaced and thrown away as an useless thing to make room for the throne of the prince of darkness. The sacred incense, which sent rolling up in clouds its rich perfumes, is exchanged for a poisonous, hellish vapour, and instead of a sweet savour, there is a stench. The comely order of the house is turned into confusion; the beauties of holiness into noisome impurities; the house of prayer into a den of thieves, and that of the worst and most horrid kind, for every lust is a thief, and every theft sacrilege. Continual rapine &nd robbery are committed upon holy things. The

* Job]i Howe.

noble powers which were designed and dedicated to divine contemplations and delight, are alienated to the service of the most despicable idols, and employed unto vile intuitions and embraces, to behold and admire lying vanities, to indulge and cherish lust and wickedness. What, have not the enemies done wickedly in the sanctuary? How have they broken down the carved work thereof, and that too, with axes and hammers, the noise whereof was not to be heard in the building? Look upon the fragments of that curious sculpture which once adorned the palace of the great king; the relics of common notions; the lively prints of some undefaced truth; the fair ideas of things, the yet legible precepts that relate to practice. Behold, with what accuracy the broken pieces shew themselves to have been graven by the finger of God, and how now they lie torn and scattered, one in this dark comer, another in that, buried in heaps of dirt and rubbish. You come amidst all this confusion as into the ruined palace of some great prince, in which you see here the fragments of a noble pillar, there the shattered pieces of some curious imagery, and all lying useless and neglected among heaps of dirt. He that invites you to take a view of the soul of man, gives you but such another prospect, and doth but say to you, “Behold the desolation” — all things rude and waste. Why is it thus? The faded glory, the darkness, the disorder, the impurity, the decayed state in all respects of this temple too plainly show the great inhabitant is ffofie”

But let us now glance at a few of the beauties of the apostle’s vivid description of this basis of our immortal hopes.

Behold, saith God, “/ lay in Zion a stone.” This declaration is worth worlds, since it imports that the whole work of man’s redemption is of God’s planning, executing, and proposing. It is no matter of human device or angelic suggestion; the wondrous conception sprang up in the intellect and heart of God, or rather was there from all eternity* “God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him, should not perish, but have eternal life,” “He that spared not his own Son, but freely gave him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” In building our hope on Christ, we are resting it where God has directed us to place it. It was God that sent Christ; God that qualified him for his work; God that sustained him through it; God that raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand. All, all is divine, and therefore all is secure. None can he lost who place themselves on that foundation, which God himself has laid. Let the believer rejoice in his security. Noah was not more safe in the ark which was built under divine direction, when God shut him in, than the christian is who has trusted his eternal all to Christ. God guarantees his safety. He may boldly say, ‘*Lord, I am where thou has directed me to place my foot. I have laid hold of thy hand, and I cannot perish, unless thou lettest me go, which thou hast promised never to do.”

And then dwell upon that word, a stone-, not sand, which may shift; not earth, which may sink; not wood, which may rot; but a atonSy and not a small, inconsiderable stone, which may be crushed, but a rock. So said Christ to Peter, “On this rock will I build my church.”* In Christ there is every thing to constitute

* That it was not Peter’s person, but Peter’s confession, that is the troth of Ohrisf 8 Mestiahship, that oar Lord meant, is evident from hi« an all-sufficiency to bear the hopes of his universal church. A man resting his weary limbs, and building his hope of repose and safety on the mightiest mountain in our globe, may as rationally fear that the granite mass would sink beneath his weighty as the man who is building upon Christ may fear that the basis of his expectations will fail him. This, and this only, is rock, and all besides is sand, or mud, clay, or stubble.

This stone is ekct, chosen by infinite wisdom for the purpose, and altogether fit for it. The wise master-builder is careful not only to choose a good kind of stone for his foundation, but the best of its kind. This word is evidently intended as a translation of the Hebrew phrase, a “tried stone.” All things among men are chosen after trial. Experiments are made, when great weights are to be suspended, or great pressure endured, whether the material employed will be sufficiently strong for the purpose. In the present case there needed no tentative process. The Lord Jesus was accurately known to his divine Father to be every way fitted for his work. As man, he was perfect, and had no sins of his own to atone for, and had a body given to him to offer up in sacrifice, while as God he gave to this act of sacrifice an infinite value. Millions upon millions in faith of God’s judgment have ventured to build their hopes on this foundation; and who ever found it insufficient P All the hosts of hell, all the powers of darkness, infidels, heretics, and philosophers, have endeavoured to subvert it, but it has

singularly striking change of words. Fetor is from the Greek word petro$, which signifies merely a itone t hut pHra, which is the form our Lord uses in reference to the foundation of his church, signifies a rock. As if he had said, “I build it not on thee, Fetor, for thou art but a stone, but upon the rock of my divme mitskm.”

defied their efforts. Not the slightest chip of this indestructible basis have they detached from the mighty mass. Let the enlightened christian say if he has not tried it and found it sufficient. Let the dying believer testify and say if he does not find it enough in the prospect of eternity. Let the palm-bearing multitude, which no man can number round the throne, bear witness, if it has not been foimd upon trial, enough for their safety.

It is a chitf comer stone; it is the stone in the angle of the building, on which the two walls meet and unite, and which, therefore, gives compactness and strength to the edifice. It is in Christ that Jew and Gentile are asso« ciated; it is in him that all meet and become a building fitly framed and compacted together.

Another quality mentioned is that this stone is ‘* pre’ ciou8,” How true! Yes, inestimably precious. “The Deity filling his human nature with all manner of grace in its highest perfection, made him infinitely precious and excellent. Not only was he thus precious and excellent in himself, but he is of precious virtue, which he lets forth and imparts to others; of such virtue that a touch of him is the only cure of spiritual diseases. Men tell of strange virtues of some stones, but it is certain that this precious stone has not only virtue to heal the sick, but even to raise the dead.’’ Dead bodies he raised during his abode upon earth, and dead souls he doth still raise, by the power of his word. Precious is Christ to his Heavenly Father; precious to all angels in glory; and who can better tell of his infinite value than those who have built upon it their immortal hopes, and find continually how happy they are who believe in him.

And shall I forget the other property, so strange, so seemingly unnatural, “a living stone?” What a conspicu* ous place in the Scripture does that word life sustain, and especially in connection with our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ and life seem to be almost convertible terms; “I am the life” he said more than once; he is the living vine, the living head, living bread, and living water, and here is a living stone, than which nothing seemed farther from vitality. Had there been discovered a stone of such mysterious power that whatever dead substances were placed upon it should immediately be made alive, for what a wonder would it stand in God’s universe. Here in a figurative sense is the very thing. Here is a living stone, which has not only life itself, but imparts it to all brought into contact with it. Our translators have unnecessarily and unwisely interpreted the original, in application to Christ by a participle, and in application to believers, by an adverb, calling Christ the living stone, and christians livehf stones; whereas it is the same word in the original in both places. They have thus marred the beauty, and weakened the force of the passage. It is the Spirit’s design to represent believers not only as livelt/, but as living, and deriving all vitality from their connexion with Christ.

Now after this description of, and encomium upon, the foundation of his hope, let the believer exult, as he well may in his security. Let him see the force of the apostle’s exhortation, “Rejoice in hope J” Let him take the lamp and go down and survey the basis of his high and glorious expectations, and repose with confidence on the foundation which God has laid in Zion.

If this be, as we know it is, the only ground on which we can depend for everlasting life, how vain and ruinous are all those refuges of lies to which so many betake themselves against the wrath to come. It is a dreadful thing to be deceiving ourselves in a matter of such tremendous importance as that of eternal life. I will, therefore, with the intention of guarding men against this fatal error, point out some of the prevailing mistakes on this subject.

Some are buoying up their expectations with a vague reliance on the benignity, of the divine nature. They have taken up false, because partial, views of the character of God; and abusing the apostle’s declaration “that God is love,” misinterpret thisr sublime description of deity, as if it implied that pure and infinite benevolence could never consign his creatures to eternal misery. We might fairly ask how they know that God is merciful; and if they answer that scripture declares it, they should recollect that the same scripture tells them ^’ he will by no means clear the guilty;” and that if there be a thousand promises to the penitent believer, there are a thousand threatenings against the impenitent unbeliever. We know nothing of God’s goodness, but from the same source as we know of his justice. If we look to Grod’s Providence, we see indeed in our own comforts many proofs and displays of his kindness; but we see also in our e^Mcomforts many displays of his justice. If criminals, why so many enjoyments; if favorites, why so many sufferings? Justice, if God be a perfect moral being, must be as essential an attribute of his nature as mercy, and *’ as no perfection of the divine character can be manifested in a manner incompatible with any other perfection, even though no revelation had been given on the subject, it must have been, to say the least of it, so exceedingly doubtful whether such an exercise of benignity as the pardon and salvation of a sinner, be reconcilable with righteousness, as to make it, in the highest degree, irrational to rest a hope of final happiness on such a supposition.“* Such people merge all God’s other attributes in his mercy. They cannot daim, says Dr. Guthrie, originality for this idea. Its authorship belongs to the “father of lies.” — Satan said so before them. It is the identical doctrine that damned the world. The serpent said to the woman, *’ Thou shall not surely die.’’ Do not rest your hope on such a baseless fancy.

Others go still further in their presumption, and rest their hopes even upon the equity of Qod. They may possibly be not only free from vice, but living in the practice of many virtues. They may present a striking contrast to the infidels and profligates around them by all the moralities and decorum of conventional goodness; but having altogether incorredt notions of the spirituality, extent and obligations of the moral law, as the rule of human conduct, and notions not more correct of themselves as regards the state of their hearts, they imagine that their good deeds so far counterbalance their bad ones, that it would be injustice in God to destroy them. Their expectations of salvation rest then upon their own doings, and they seek to be justified by their works. Instead of resting exclusively, as taught to do, upon the righteousness of Christ, they go about to establish their own righteousness. With the fig-leaf apron of their own good deeds, and, as they suppose, better intentions, they seek to cover their moral nakedness, and avert the stroke of divine justice.

Xot a few, and especially those who are called to endure the privations of poverty, and the various ills often connected with it, are indulging the vain idea thai having suffered so much in this Itfe, they shall be exempted

*’Dt, John Brown.

from, all suffering in the next, and shall, like Lazarus, be carried by a convoy of angels to heaven. What inadequate views does such a mistake evince of the evil nature of sin, the justice of Grod, and the multitude of their trans* gressions. No. A life as long as that of Methusdah, spent in all the destitution and disease of Job upon the dunghill, would be no atonement for sin, and afford no ground to depend upon for salvation.

Church relatumBhi and privileges, ever since the time of the Jews, who cried, ‘* The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are we,” have constituted a basis of hope to multitudes. They have been much more anxious to find the true church than the true Saviour, and have made, in fact, the church their Saviour. This is the pernicious and destructive error of the* followers of Anti-Christ. Theirs is, in their opinion, the true church, and all that are in the true church are safe. The church guarantees the safety ‘of her children, and the poor deluded creatures are satisfied with her bond. And are there not multitudes in other churches, besides that of Rome, who are indulging in the same fatal delusion? They have been made christians, they suppose, by baptismal regeneration — have been acknowledged such by confirmation — have been sealed by the Sacrament, and are thus brought within the bonds of the covenant. And how many, in voluntary unestablished churches, are relying upon their public profession and union with the church. Alas, alas 1 in how many cases is a hollow and inconsistent profession the sole ground of dependence for eternity I How many have no other evidence that they are true christians, than their profession that they are such, backed by the admission of those who have received them to fellowship and the table of the Lord. This admission is considered and used by them as a certificate, of personal religion, the badge of discipleship, which, as it has received the seal of the minister of the church on earth, will not be disputed as a passport to the church in heaven. I pen these lines with a deep and sorrowful conviction that I am describing the melancholy condition of large numbers in all our churches, who find their counterpart in those of whom our Lord speaks, “Not every one that saith unto me. Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doeth the will c my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name; and in thy name have cast out devils; and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” — Matt. vii. 21-23. These terrific words should sound through the whole church with the solemnity and impressiveness of an alarm belL What a salutary fear and trembling they should awaken] To what a close and anxious examination they should lead! Mistaken professors are going by myriads to per* dition. Myriads and myriads are walking to eternity over the rotten plank of a formal and insincere profession, which will break beneath their feet, and let them fall into the burning gulf below. In several of my works I have spoken of these deluded professors, and will never cease to sound the note of warning. Tor not only is it a dreadful thing to go down to the pit with a lying profession, but a pomble thing; not only a possible case, but a certain one; and not only a certain one, but a common one. Let the reader of these pages see to it, that he is not one who is only a professor. Perhaps there is a still more subtle, if not more dangerous deception than even this; and that is, the case of those who are relying upon the religious exercises of their own minds for their salvation. They renounce all dependeuce upon their external works, but are relying upon their internal state. Some are laying hold of their orthodoxy, the clearness of their views, the correctness of their knowledge, the scripturalness of their opinions. Sound doctrine we know is important, it is the source of all pious feeling, and all holy conduct: but apart from pious feeling and holy conduct, will no more save us than correct notions of astronomy or geography. It is not the doctrine about

Christ we are to depend upon, but Christ himself. Then there is with some a reliance upon the act qf faith. It is a belief of their own belief, rather than a belief in Christ, they look to. Their object of faith is their own faith. Their faith does not lead them to Christ, but stands between them and Christ. They forget that we are not saved for our faith, but by it. Perhaps this is the most subtle working of unbelief of all. Persons of an imaginative, sensitive, or emotional character, are prone to rest their hope on their feelinpa. Their feeling are the barometer that indicates their confidence, which rises and falls with emotional pressure. If lively in prayer, if rapturous in joy, if profuse in tears, if strong in impression, they are fall of hope; but, with the least variation of feeling, they are all doubt, fear, and despondency. They little consider, for they little know, how much all this depends upon the state of another barometer than that which they hang up in their own variable humanity. This is a very insidious and seductive method of keeping our soul from the true foundation. There is no more merit in our emotions, than in our actions; and we have no more warrant to depend upon the former, than we have upon the latter. Christ out of ourselves, and apart from ourselves, is the only founda-. tion; and we must go out of ourselves, and away from ourselves, to depend upon him. It is for want of seeing this in the early stages of religious concern, that so many are kept so long in a state, in some cases, of delusive peace, and in others, of unrelieved anuety. And it is to this also, that real believers, true christians, are to trace those perturbations of mind, those alternations of hope and fear, elevations and depressions, to which, to their great distress, they are so liable. Did they but keep their eye steadily fixed on Christ, and less microscopicaUy upon their own feelings, their peace would be less disturbed, and their joy far more settled and abundant.

And let it here be distinctly understood, and ever remembered, that nothing can alter, add to, or diminish this foundation. Could the believer live on earth to the age of Methuselah, could he fill those nine centuries with the most unblemished holiness, the richest christian experience, the most zealous labours, and the most diffusive charities, all this would not add a single stone, or a particle of strength, to this foundation. Even then, his dependence for salvation must be as exclusive and entire upon Christ as at the first moment when he came to him for pardon; or as that of the dying thief upon the cross, who had not a single good action on which to place any dependance. And the real Christian knows and feels this. As he is closing the long series of holy actions which have filled up his life as he looks back upon the past now about to be lost in the eternal future, and is standing upon the threshold of his “Father’s house,” and expects evcYy moment the door to open, he exclaims with gratitude and humility,

^’Lord Jesus, into thy hands I commit my spirit, for thou hast redeemed me. My hope, my only hope is in thee.”

Bat there is another thing to be taken into account when speaking of the foundation of christian hope, and that is the promise of Qod, How is it we are able to assure ourselves that we can build upon this basis of the Saviour’s infinite merits? If I know that an individual has done something for mif future benefit in common with the welfare of many others, I still want his assurance that I shall reap the advantage of what he has done. Hence though we believe that Christ died as a ransom for all, and is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, yet I need his positive assurance that I shall reap the advantage of this wondrous work of mediation. I have it: “He that believeth, and whosoever believeth, shall be saved.” It is not a probability or a peradventure, but a positive certainty; God has said it. A thousand promises declare it. The firmanent of the New Testament is studded with them. They come out upon our view thick and shining like the stars of heaven on a clear and cloudless night. The design of the death of Christ was to make an atonement for sin; and God’s promise is that we, each one of us individually, shall partake of the blessed result of these sufferings of Christ. Here is the ground of our expectation; and in speaking of this expectation, the promises of God must always be united with the merits of the Saviour. And even this is not all, for we must also have an entire faith in the power, and unchangeableness, and faithfulness of Gtyd to fulfil his promise. Notwithstanding the atoning death of Christ, notwithstanding the promise of God, if we could doubt the divine power, fidelity and immutability, we should still

E 2 find we had no soUd base on which to rest our expectations of eternal life. Now again we say, look at your foundation, the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God, the promise of God, who cannot lie, and the infinite attributes of the divine nature, and “Uejoice in hope of the glory of God.”