intimidate him ? who shall persuade him ? Bid him relax his diligence, and give way to carnal ease and pleasure ; he will say, ' Go, offer your advice to one that is running in a race, or fighting for his life: will he listen to you? expect not me then to listen, who am running for eternity, and fighting for my soul.' Is he called to suffer ? He knows for whose sake it is that he is called to take up his cross ; and he takes it up with cheerfulness, and " rejoices that he is counted worthy to bear it." Has he naade considerable advance in the ways of God ? He does not on that account relax ; but " forgetting what is behind, and reaching forward to that which is before, he presses on towards the mark for the prize of his high calling of God in Christ Jesus ^" These are the things which are chiefly insisted on throughout the whole of this chapter : and, as such were the operations of faith in the days of old, such also they are at this hour ; and such will they be to the very end of time.]
See you not then, beloved,
1. How little there is of true faith in the world ?
[If you will believe the report which men give of them- selves, there is no want of faith at all. Evei-y one who calls himself a Christian, considers it as a matter of course that he possesses faith. But how would faith operate under other circumstances? Let a man believe that a house in which he is sitting is on fire ; or that a vessel in which he is embarked is ready to sink ; will he not evince the truth of his faith by some efforts to escape ? But here men profess to believe all that God has spoken about the danger of their souls, and the way opened for their deliverance, and yet are as unconcerned about either the one or the other as the beasts that perish. Alas ! how fearfully do they deceive their own souls !
But even in the religious world there is an awful want of faith. For how little are men actuated by the truths which they profess to believe ! How strong is the hold which earthly things yet retain of the believer's soul, and how faint are his
impressions of eternity ! Well might our Lord say,
" When the Son of man cometh, shall he find fiiith on the earth *=?" Know ye, brethren, that " if you had faith but as a grain of mustard-seed, it should remove mountains :" and, consequently, you may judge of the smallness of your faith by the slender effects which it has produced upon your souls. Pray ye then to Him who alone can give you faith ; " Lord, help my unbelief;" " Lord, increase my faith."]
2. In what way alone you can hope to vanquish all your spiritual enemies ?
b Phil. ill. 13, 14. <= Luke xviii. 8.
2318.] Abel's offering instructive to us. 371
[It is " by faith that you are to walk, and not by sight." In order to form a correct judgment of things, listen not to the report of sense, but consult the testimony of faith. Send faith as a spy to search out the heavenly land that is before you. If you attend to the voice of unbelief, it will tell you of no- thing but Anakims that are invincible, and " of cities that are walled up to heaven." But if you ask for the account which faith will give, it will tell you, " They are bread for us*^," and shall be as easily devoured, and as profitably to our souls, as the food that is put into our mouths. What the effect of this principle shall be upon your souls, you may see in the case of the Apostle Paul. Greater trials than his you cannot expect to encounter: and greater supports you cannot need. But whence arose his supports? He was animated by " a spirit of faith ;" by that, he foresaw the issue of his conflicts : and by that he was upheld : and, through the influence of that, all his afflictions appeared but light and momentary, yea, and the very