[He who has been " the Author of your faith must also be the Finisher V " Be strong only in the Lord, and in the power of his might u." Commit your soul into the Saviour's hands, and entreat him to " keep you from falling x :" so shall you " stand perfect and complete in all the will of God y," and " be kept by the power of God through faith unto everlasting salvation z"]
1 Heb. xii. 2. u Eph. vi. 10. x Jude, ver. 24.
? Col. iv. 12. z 1 Pet. i. 5.
2 Pet. i. \2 — 15. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance ; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover T will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
IN every period of the world, the servants of God, at the close of life, have laboured with more than ordinary assiduity to impress on the minds of their people the truths, which, from the commencement of their ministry, they have inculcated. When Moses had brought the Israelites to the very borders of Canaan, he was ordered to " write a song, and to teach it to the children of Israel, that to the latest period of time it might be a witness against them for the Lord," in the event of their turning from him to serve other gods3. Joshua, in like manner, at the close of his life, called for all Israel, and charged them to " fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and truth ;" and, on their engaging so to do, he said, " Ye are witnesses against yourselves, that ye have chosen you the Lord to serve himb." St. Paul also, how affectionately did he warn the elders of Ephesus, who had come to take their leave of him at Miletus0!
a Deut. xxxi. 19, 29, 30. and xxxii. 1 — 43.
b Josh, xxiii. 2. and xxiv. 14, 21, 22. c Acts xx. 17, 28.