a 1 Pet. i. 3.
The Christian has a further ground of hope, in his own actual experience of these things : for in coming to God through Christ, he has found peace to his soul : he has received grace, whereby he is enabled to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear : and " through the hope that is in him he does actually purify himself, even as Christ is pure V
Here then he stands as upon a rock, that defies the assaults whether of men or devils.]
It is a hope that raises him up above all the things of time and sense —
[In the prospect of all the blessings that are promised to him, how empty and insignificant do all earthly things appear! They are regarded by him as the dust upon the balance, yea, as lighter than vanity itself. However important the concerns of this world may seem, they are but for a moment : whereas the objects of the Christian's hope are everlasting. Nor are the sufferings of this present world, how formidable soever in themselves, regarded by him as worthy of any consideration, in comparison of the glory which he sees revealed before his eyes, and which he expects shortly to inherit0. Here is the great secret of all his movements. Even in this life a man will endure much labour and self-denial, in order to obtain some great advantage : what then will not a man both do and suffer, who has all the glory of heaven in view, and an assured prospect of attaining it, if only he " hold on his way," and " be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel ? "
Such being the Christian's hope, let us inquire, II. What is his duty in relation to it ?
The principle which operates so forcibly on the Christian's mind cannot be fully appreciated by one who is a stranger to it in his own soul : yet may it, by a judicious statement, be brought so far within the view of an unenlightened mind, as to carry convic- tion with it to the heart and conscience : and every one who professes it should be ready to afford to an inquirer all possible satisfaction respecting it : he should " be ready to give to every one a reason of the hope that is in him :"
1. With frankness and fidelity —
[It is here supposed that an inquiry is made respecting it: for otherwise it is by no means expedient that a Christian be bringing forward his own personal experience, and making
b 1 John hi. 3. c Rom. viii. 18.