may have attained, let us, with St. Paul, " forget the things which are behind ; and reach forth unto those that are before, and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesusp" We have enemies, greater than Sennacherib, to withstand, and difficulties greater than Hezekiah's to overcome. We have to combat the world, the flesh, and the devil : but the principle which prevailed in Hezekiah will prevail in us ; and the victory which awaited him awaits us also, if we will betake ourselves to God in prayer, and place all our confidence in him alone. " Wisdom and knowledge shall be the strength of salvation" to us ; and we shall be " more than con- querors through Him that loved us."
And well may such a victory be expected of us. We have long been, through the munificence of our Founder, and are now become, in a more especial manner, elevated to a very high degree of celebrity through the splendour of our outward appointments. Why, then, should we not be alike distinguished for our eminence in those moral excellencies which he wished us to aspire after ; and which we are bound, by every consideration of gratitude and of duty, to display ? He sought not to make us rich in this world, but "rich towards God:" and by the compe- tence he has provided for us, he has cut off all excuse as arising from the pressure of conflicting duties. The world, then, may well expect this at our hands. And does not God expect it also ? It is He, in fact, who has brought us hither, and invested us with these advantages. Yea, he has done infinitely more for us: he hab given us his only-begotten Son, " who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be richq." Let us seek, then, " the true riches" even those which Christ has purchased for us on the cross, and which he freely offers to us in his Gospel. We must all admit, that these treasures have had but little attraction hitherto in our eyes, and that we have sadly misimproved the
p Phil. iii. 12 — 14. q 2 Cor. viii. 9.