the wilderness, departed from our Lord " only for a season." At the close of our Saviour's life, that wicked adversary made his assaults more powerfully than ever. And so he may do with you. You may have a long intermission of trials, both within and without : but you never know what a single day may bring forth. Gird on, then, your armour daily, even the whole armour of God ; and " war a good warfare" even to th? end. When you first begin to follow Christ, you come to him as your only Saviour ; and, professing to renounce every other ground of hope, you say, " In the Lord have I righteousness and strength." You profess, also, to " live altogether by faith on him ;" " receiving every thing out of his fulness," precisely " as the branch from the vine." This, then, is the course in which you are to continue. It is this which brings your trials upon you : it is because " you live godly in Christ Jesus, that you suffer persecution :" and by persevering in this path, you shall surely attain the promise in my text, " You shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation."]
3. Let all keep their eye fixed upon the heavenly prize —
[It was " to this that Moses looked, when he accounted the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt'," And you, brethren, if you keep the felicity of heaven in view, will think little of the labour or the pains which you may endure in the acquisition of it. True, you must not look to it as what you are to earn by labour, or to merit by suffer- ings : you must look to it as the purchase of the Redeemer's blood, and as the gift of his grace. But still it will be ac- corded to those only who seek it in God's appointed way : and it is *' through much tribulation only that you are to hope to attain it." If this appear formidable to flesh and blood, open the sacred volume, and see how others before you have triumphed, and how glorious the recompence will be when once it is attained. Survey the meridian sun for a few mo- ments, and all earthly glory will appear dark : and get Pisgah views of the heavenly glory, and all earthly trials, how dark soever they may appear to the natural man, will have a splendour round about them, not unlike to the fiery furnace which was to preserve and sanctify the Hebrew youths, or like the fiery chariot which was to transport Elijah to the realms of bliss. In the near views of heaven, you will welcome either sufferings or death; and, like the first martyr Stephen, you will bless the murderers who are transmitting you to the full enjoyment of it.]
i Heb, xi. 26.