its exertions? Visit the chambers of sickness, and of health; and see how different the same persons are under the two different states! View persons under painful bereavements, and see them afterwards in the full enjoyment of all earthly comforts! Truly, if we regarded heavenly things only, we might rather congratulate men on troubles than on the absence of them, and account prosperity their greatest snare. To all then who are looking forward to any worldly acquisitions or comforts, or who are now living in the possession of them, we would urge with peculiar earnestness the necessity of vigilance, lest having " begun in the Spirit, they end in the flesh." Hear the exhortation of an inspired Apostle: " Follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord ; looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God ; lest any root of bitter- ness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled3:" there you may see the hidden nature, the growing tendency, the baneful effects of sin ; its effects in the heart, the Church,
the world O that we may be ever on our guard against
its secret workings; and most of all on our guard, when ease and prosperity are administering opiates to our souls !]
" Suffer ye then, Brethren, a word of exhorta- tion b " —
[When ye are released from your present warfare, and are dismissed to your eternal inheritance, ye will be beyond the reach of sin: in the bosom of your God your holiness and felicity will be complete. But, as long as you are in this world, you will need to have every word of Joshua's injunctions repeatedly enforced. See then to it that you " love the Lord your God," who has redeemed you from sin and Satan, death and hell
See that, from a sense of love to him, and his love to
you, your obedience be carried to its utmost possible extent; and strive to "be perfect even as your Father which is in
heaven is perfect " And, since it is certain that you
will find many things to draw you away from him, mind that you " cleave to him with full purpose of heart," " abhorring
that which is evil, and cleaving to that which is good"
Lastly, let all your affections centre in Him, and in his ways: let "your whole heart and your whole soul" be engaged in his service; and let the delight which you experience in fulfilling his will, be manifested, " not in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth;" so that your bitterest enemy, or most watchful observer, may have no room to doubt either the excel- lence of your principles, or the reality of your attainments.]
a Heb. xii. 14, 15.
b Heb. xiii. 22. If this were on the occasion of disbanding troops, the commendation given by Joshua, as well as his exhortation, should, as far as was applicable, be insisted on.