fidelity. Have you now any cause for fear? Be strong: fear not. See 1 Tim. iv. 10.]
To the careless unbeliever let me also speak —
[Tell me, Have not you cause to fear? Think of the danger to which you are exposed. And where will you find "a shield?" Think of the recompence that awaits you: how different from that of the believing soul! Exceeding bitter
will be " thy reward" O that I could awaken you to
fear! The world and the devil say, " Fear not." But I say, " Fear, and tremble." Yet will I say, that Ab ram's God may still be thine : he was once an idolater, as thou art : the sovereign grace that elected him, may fix on thee : the cove- nant made with him is open to thee ; and all the blessings of it will be thine, if, like him, thou wilt be " strong in faith, giving glory to God." The seed for whom he waited, is come : the blessings, to which he looked forward, are poured out upon all the families of the earth. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ, and they shall all be thine.]
Gen. xv. 5, 6. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
THE enjoyment of the divine presence is truly sa- tisfying to the soul. In having the light of God's countenance we have all that we can desire : we are elevated above earthly things ; the possession of them cannot add to our happiness ; the want of them can- not diminish it. Yet, in another sense, the soul is not satisfied: the more it has of God, the more it desires ; nor will it ever be satisfied, till it shall have attained the full, uninterrupted, everlasting fruition of him. Unspeakably blessed was the state of Abram, when God, in return for his active and disinterested zeal in rescuing Lot from captivity, gave him that promise, " I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." This was sufficient to dissipate all fear with respect to confederacies that might be formed against