remember who it is that is engaged in our behalf, we shall never despond. For what is there that God cannot effect? If there ever was any thing to be despaired of, it was, that Jesus should be restored to life after he had been committed to the tomb. But did not " the stone which the builders had disallowed become the head-stone of the corner?" and shall not He who was " crucified through weakness" "put all his enemies under his feet ? " Then I say, let no man entertain desponding thoughts, as though he were beyond the reach of mercy: for however "far off we may be from God, we may be brought nigh by the blood of Christ." Only let us call on Him " who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were ;" and let us, " against hope, be- lieve in hope*;" and, like Abraham, we shall be made " friends of God," yea, and sit down, at last, with Abraham in the kingdom of our God, for ever and ever.]
1 Rom. iv. 17, 18.
Luke xiv. 1 — 4. And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sab- bath-day, that they watched him. And behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day ? And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go.
ALTHOUGH the Gospel requires those who embrace it to become dead to the world, it does not forbid us to maintain occasional and friendly intercourse with unenlightened men. St. Paul rec- tifies a mistake which had arisen in the Church upon this very subject, and tells us that to renounce all connexion with the ungodly, would be to exclude ourselves from the world altogether3. But peculiar caution is necessary when we are in their company ; and the most effectual way of counteracting their pernicious influence is, to labour to do them good. This we may learn from our Lord's own example in
a 1 Cor. v. 9, 10.