certain. From this let our hearts draw new and glorious energy, and our hopes their buoyancy, and our courage its inspiration and its life.

Nothing can be surer than this inheritance to them that overcome. God's promises are true as history-his prophecies real as performances; there is no precariousness or contingency in the words of God; what he has said is " yea and amen." We may therefore act upon the promise of God, regarding it just as good as if the day it is due were past. The kingdoms of this world rise and fall like the ever-ebbing and ever-flowing tides of the sea; but the testimony of God remains as the rock-unseen today amid the froth and foam of the waters; but visible to-morrow, strong in its foundations, and unscathed and undiminished from the collision. In the presence of all created things, God rises above them in majesty and glory, and in their decay he remains.

This inheritance which is promised to the victor is possessed of transcendent excellences and beauty. The "all things" include "the tree of life," and "river of life," and "crown of life;" it is uncorruptible and undefiled, and fadeth not away. There is no worm in any of its cedars; no rust or tarnish upon its gold; no moth in its garments; no pain, or disease, or death amid its inheritors; nor any monuments left of sorrow, of suffering, or of death. Every joy that blooms in it is everlasting-it "fadeth not." A little pleasure that endures long, is preferable to much that is evanescent; on the least and greatest of the joys of heaven is the stamp of eternity. It is an "everlasting rest," "eternal in the heavens." It is beyond the breath of sin, the mildew of mortality, the wear of age, the influence of decay. It lies beyond and above the tide-mark of time, and is not wasted by the waves of eternity.

The certainty and clearness of this revelation is no ordinary element of victory. A perfect state was as much the pursuit of heathenism as a perfect man. We have no need now to visit the Nile, and the Pyramids, and the Ganges, in quest of some lingering ray from the future yet unquenched. All immortality is clearly brought to light in one clear Apocalypse. It is now partly let down from heaven.

Let us be encouraged also by the shining roll of those who have overcome and inherited the promises. How radiant with these conquerors is the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews!

"By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea-shore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims of the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned: but now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his onlybegotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was a-dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three

months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first-born should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea, as by dry land: which the Egyptians essaying to do were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jepthae, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings, and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy :) they wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: for God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect."

In each of these, faith was the victory that overcame the world; and the fruition of the inheritance, and the fulfilment of the promise was the corresponding reward. Nor did the

overcoming ones cease from the earth when these disappeared. The bequests they made have served successive generations, and the glorious succession continues. Polycarp, immediately after the apostles, when summoned to renounce his Saviour, beautifully said, "Eighty and six years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my king who has saved me?" When tied to the fagots, and enduring the slow torture of the kindling fire, he thus victoriously prayed: "O Father of thy beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, through whom I have received the knowledge of thee, O God of angels and powers, and of the whole creation, and of the whole family of the just who live before Thee, I bless Thee that thou hast thought me worthy of this day and this hour, to obtain a portion among the martyrs in the cup of Christ, for the resurrection of both soul and body to eternal life in the incorruptibleness of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, and for all things, I praise Thee, I bless Thee, I glorify Thee, through the eternal High-priest, Jesus Christ, thy beloved Son, through whom be glory to Thee, along with him in the Holy Spirit, both now and ever. Amen."

earth, to rise and reign Luther overcame where the world rose against

The Paulicians protested faithfully in the cast; and the Waldenses, amid the fastnesses and caves of the Cottian Alps, withstood the influx of superstition and error for centuries, and preserved their faith, like their own Alpine snows, in its virgin purity and beauty. Wickliffe and Huss fought manfully, and fell before the sword of the enemy on amid the white-robed throne in glory. few had long stood; the church and Luther, and he boldly grappled with both; burning the pope's bull; despising the threats of princes; and claiming for mankind the privilege given them from on high, of reading an open Bible, and worshipping God in spirit and in truth. Latimer, too, overcame, lighting in England a candle not yet put out. Oberlin overcame cold, and distance, and weariness, and spread among ignorant and uncultivated tribes the blessings of pure religion. In what Christian language are not the names of Knox, and Bunyan, and Felix Neff, and Henry Martyn, and Eliot the apostle of the Indians, now heard? They were not a few of them "in perils by the heathen, in perils of the city, in perils in

SECOND SERIES.

the wilderness, in perils in the sea; in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness;" but they overcame and entered into glory. "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame; and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."