believing", yea " with joy unspeakable and glorified0"-
Uur anticipation of a successful issue to our conflicts will be almost, as it were, an antepast of heaven p. Nor shall we be disappointed of our hope at last*. Our way may be « through much tribulation : yea, we may « be scarcely saved'," that is, with vast difficulty; we may "be saved so as by fire-" but we shall never perish: « it is not the will of our Father that one of his little ones should perish*;" nor shall one grain, however sifted, or however small, be missing from his garner11.] 3
Address —
1. Those who are proceeding on their voyage with- out any apprehension of danger —
[The mariners, though warned by Paul, thought little of danger till it was too late. And have not we innumerable warnings from all the inspired writers? yet we go forward thinking of little but temporal ease and prosperity. But how soon may the hour arrive, when, like the mariners, we shall be glad to part with all that we possess, for the preservation even of our bodily lives, and much more for the salvation of our souls ! Let us in a time of ease and prosperity consider tins, and stand prepared for troubles and for death itself, lhat servant alone is truly "blessed, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find thus watching."]
2. Those who are harassed with storms and tem- pests—
[Many there are, who, in this ever-changing state of things, are " afflicted and tossed with tempest, and not comforted." m ver- 36. n Rom. xv. 13. o i Pet j 8
p Rom. viii. 33—39. q Isai. xlv. 17. ' 1 Pet iv 18
s 1 Cor. hi. 15. t Matt. xviij 14_ u Amos'ix>'9 '