them in death. He will guide them here by His counsel, and will hereafter receive them to glory. Be strong then in the Lord, all ye who fear Him. Be patient and hope to the end. Live in the discharge of your duties, in the enjoyment of your privileges. Live in faith, in hope, and love. Let your devotion be that of the Psalmist, "Whom have we in Heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that we desire besides Thee." Let your rejoicing be that of the Prophet, Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine, the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls— Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will joy in the God of my Salvation*."

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* Psalm lxxiii, 25. Habbak. iii, 17, 18.

SERMON XV.

THE CHRISTIAN'S REST THROUGH FAITH.

HEBREWS, iv. 1.

Let us therefore fear lest a Promise being left us of entering into His Rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

ST. Paul, in this Epistle to the Hebrews, makes great use of the Old Testament. Writing to Jews, he naturally attempts to explain to them the design and privileges of the Gospel, by a reference to the types and shadows of the Jewish law, and to different circumstances in the Jewish dispensation and history. Thus, in the chapter before the text, he had been reminding his readers of the case of their fathers in the Wilderness. Having been brought out of Egypt under the guidance of Moses, and conducted to the very borders of the land of Canaan-the Land of Promise where they were to rest from

entrance into it. By their misconduct they provoked the displeasure of the Almighty; who having sworn in his wrath that they should never enter into His Rest, condemned them to wander forty years in the wilderness, till all that generation should be dead.

From this aweful display of divine judgement, St. Paul took occasion to admonish the Hebrews, and to caution them against coming short of that far better and more valuable Rest, which Christianity offered to them, and of which the Land of Promise and the Rest to have been enjoyed in it by their fathers, were but types and shadows: "Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into His Rest, any of you should seem to come short of it."

Christianity provides a Rest for its followers. Christ has said "Come to Me, and I will give you Rest." This is the promise left to us in the Gospel, the promise of the New Testament. But like those, who were under the Old Testament, we may seem to come short of it. We may fail to enter into this Rest. Professing ourselves to have been brought out of a worse than Egyptian bondage, baptized unto Christ, as the Israelites were "unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea," we may yet like them come short of the promised Rest, and may perish in sight and even on the borders

1 Cor. x, 2.

of our Canaan. Surely then we need the admonition in the text, and may well entertain for ourselves and for each other, the apprehensions therein expressed. It shall be the object of the present discourse to enforce this admonition. And may the Spirit of Christ bring it home to our hearts; and implant and increase in us that Holy Fear, by which the Lord preserves His people and keeps them faithful to Himself.

In discoursing on this subject, I shall endeavour to shew,

I. What is that Rest, which is promised in the Gospel, And,

II. What is the Reason, why any to whom the Gospel is preached come short of it.

I. The Rest promised in the Gospel is twofold; first, that glorious and everlasting Rest reserved for the people of God in Heaven; when all tears shall be wiped away from their faces for ever; when they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, and shall rest from all their labours: and secondly, the state of Rest on earth; that peace and serenity, that consolation and security, which the true Christian enjoys here, and to which the Prophet in these beautiful words refers; "And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever *."

But in fact these two Rests, though seemingly different, are virtually the same. The one is but the beginning and foretaste of the other. The Christian's Rest on earth is but the earnest and anticipation, the commencement and the pledge, of that Rest, which remains for him in Heaven. In nature and essence, in source and principle, they are both the same. The one begins here, and the

other succeeds hereafter. The one leads to the other: nor will any person enter into the Heavenly Rest who does not on earth enter into that Rest, to which Christ now calls us by his Gospel. In speaking therefore of this earthly Rest, let me be understood as including also the Heavenly Rest, which belongs to it as its necessary consequence and final consum

mation.

But perhaps it may be said, that to represent the state of the Christian on earth as a state of Rest, is to give a very different view of it from that which the Scriptures generally exhibit. They describe it as a race, a struggle, a warfare. They tell us, that we "must strive to enter in at the strait gate ;" and that "through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of Heaven ;" and surely these are expressions which convey ideas very opposite to those of Rest and Repose. But still, notwithstanding the truth of these remarks, the Christian's state on earth is in