None can be properly said to have a substantial hope, except those, who are not making the comforts of this world the principal object of their pursuit, but are looking forward to something hereafter, which they both desire and expect to obtain, and thus can say with the apostle Here we have no continuing city: 'but we seek one to come.'

Moreover, if this hope be a scriptural hope, it must not only be formed on a scriptural basis, but directed also to objects, which scripture has revealed. It must be not an undefined anticipation of something, that is desirable, not a fanciful imagination of joys, which possibly have no foundation in the nature of things, or, if they have, may not be designed for us by the wisdom of our Maker. The hope of a Christian is defined by the promises of the Bible. It has respect to those wants of our nature, which the Bible discloses, and to those blessed revelations of futurity, which announce to the sincere believer, that his wants shall be eventually and abundantly supplied. Hence it is, that the hope of a Christian, however it may vary in degree or clearness, will always

consist essentially in two particulars. It will be a hope of salvation, and a hope of glory.

When I speak, in the first place, of a hope of salvation, I do not mean what (I fear) is too commonly understood by that term, the pardon of sin, and consequent admission into a state of happiness. Salvation in scripture, my brethren, has a higher meaning than this. The same word is used in the Gospels to express bodily and spiritual salvation. 'Believe only !'-said our Saviour to the ruler of the synagogue, whose daughter was even then dead. 'Believe only!

' and she shall be made whole.' That is-' She 'shall be raised from the dead, and restored to 'perfect health'-, as just before he had said to the woman, who touched the border of his garment-Thy faith hath made thee whole.' In each of these instances little benefit would have been done to the sufferers by a mere change of their condition or circumstances, if their disease were not cured, and their health recovered. This was the main object of their desire; and, if this were not granted, whatever else was done for them, they met with a repulse. Accordingly this is the very idea, which the word

conveys and hence it is translated in those passages by the phrase, to be made whole. Now spiritual salvation is analogous to bodily salvation. It imports not merely a translation from earth to heaven, a removal of external evils, as hunger, pain, and death, but a recovery of that righteousness and true holiness, which is the healthy state of the soul. Spiritual salvation therefore means a recovery of spiritual health, and a return to that perfect conformity to the divine will, which was the original endowment, as the want of it is now the great defect of our nature This spiritual recovery indeed, is wrought gradually, not like the miraculous cures, performed by our Saviour on earth, with a view of strengthening the faith of his disciples. Sin is extinguished by little and little. It requires a long course of discipline, and perseverance in a sound method of treatment. But the ultimate result, when God is the physician, who undertakes our spiritual maladies, is, that the patient becomes morally and spiritually whole, without any remainder of original corruption, being entirely conformed anew to the end of his creation and

the will of his maker: and, unless this is done for him, the experienced believer well knows, that the mere removal from earth to heaven would be no benefit to him, the society of angels would be irksome, and the service of God unwelcome.

This, therefore, is the first object, to which his hopes point; and this is what he desires, when he professes to hope for salvation. But yet beyond even this there is another and a higher blessing, permitted to his hopes: for he looks not for salvation only, but for glory. That is to say, to a state of blessedness, inconceivable perhaps to to our present faculties, but yet promised to believers, as a never-failing accompaniment of salvation. That glory is now possessed by the Saviour, and is given to his disciples. It is in fact the crown of righteousness, which he will bestow at that day on all them, that love his appearing and, having thus been graciously made a subject of promise, it is a legitimate object of hope.

Such then, brethren, is the blessed hope of a Christian, a hope, with which, if he

value it aright, he would not part for all the world can offer him, a hope, not limited to the expectation of pardon and of some few gratifications, such as our present faculties may comprehend and enjoy, or which earthly appetites may appreciate, but a hope, that reaches to a participation even of the divine nature, and aims at nothing less than the glory, which Jesus Christ, having now entered into his rest, holds in reserve for his disciples. This hope every true Christian cherishes; and he rests on Christ to give it him.

But proportioned to the greatness of this hope is the necessity of assuring ourselves, that it rests on a solid foundation. We must have a reason of the hope, that is in us; and that reason must be such, that we may not have cause to dread a disappointment in the season of trial. This is the second and main point on which I desire to address you, brethren.

There are too many persons (it is to be feared), who profess themselves Christians, merely because their friends and neighbours