it._ They think it is quite as likely chance mav bring to them success as failure. Dul this sort of hope never can become a duty, n feeling which a man ought to have potent and go'l"erning in his breast. We do not want a future dependent on chance, or ~atural ,•nrlo"l•,ments, or favourable circumstances. We want a future which shall become hright to every hume.n being because of his humanity, because of his character, because nne of tbe elements in bringing it about is his own choice. 2. Tliis bright outlook tou·ards the future is secui·ed by Christian faith. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for." More correctly, faith is a substance of things hoped for. Dengel alleges that the metaphor is taken from a pillar standing under a heavy weight. We accept the explanation, only adding to it that this heavy weight rests on more pillars the.n one, and all of them are necessary. The things hoped for will never come into existence for as unless they be related to us by a present, practical faith, Suppose to each of L\\"O men a quantity of seed is given. One of them sows his portion, and then to him i. harvest is among the things hoped for, his hope being reasonable and based upon an act of faith when he put his seed into the ground. The other, not sowing, if he hopes for a harvest, is clearly under a delusion. 'l'he thing he hopes for bas no substance; he has done nothing to show real faith. The thing indicated by the word "faith" is ~nmctbing practical ; not a man merely saying he believes, but showing his faith by his works. Such a faith becomes a matter of conscience. Jaod gives to the man who wishes for the gift a peculiar insight, a deep conviction in the heart, which is worth more than any argument. 'l'he course taken may not satisfy others, ma.y provoke their laughter, their wonder, their pity; but after all the one thing needful is not that our course should be clear to others, but clear to ourselves. If we go wrong in our course through neglect of the Divine voice speaking within us, it is we who suffer the most. \Ve must look to God altogether, and be will give us the right impulse, and concentrate our faculties so that we shall not drift through life, but rather speed onward with a rlefinite aim, concerning which, in our own best moments, we shall have a full assurance that we cannot miss it. These heavenly certainties are not to be revealed by flesh and blood. So much turns on faith that it is no wonder it is so much dwelt on in the .New Testament. Of what a glorious life, of what beatific imaginations, does unbelief deprive ns? H. FA.ITH IN ITS RELATIOl!I" TO THE UNSEEN. " Faith is the substance of things horoo for; " it is not called the substance of things unseen. For it is in no sense the ~ubstance of things unseen. 'l'hey exist, whether we believe them to exist or not. But faith may become to our hearts the evidence of these unseeu things. Certainly there can be no other evidence. To all our natural faculties there is presented nothing but a bundle of phenomena, and whatever we may think of beyond them comes into our minds simply because we are unable to believe that there is nothing beyond them. '!'here is an outward man, perceptible to the senses, feeling through the senses a like 11leasure and pain; but there is also an inward man, a deep, invisible existence, to which God and Christ appeal, as having the proper sphere of its life in the great invisible outside of it. It is by Jaith that the invisible in us is to profit by the invisible outside of us. Prayer is a recognition of the invisible. We are to endure as seeing him who is iuvisible. The only source of inspiration for a real and full Christian life is to be found in the invisible. And when the invisible rules, when faith lays hold of its riches, then even the visible becomes a more glorious and profitable thing than it ever can do while sense rules alone.-Y. Ver. 2.-The great characteristic of the elders. I. THE TEilM BY WHICH THEY ARE INDICATED. The elders. Those spoken of are those who had lived the life of the flesh. centuries before, but the term is not used merely to indicate this fact. We know from the subsequent illustrations that the men of long ago are meant; but there is a much more comprehensive meaning in their being spoken of as 'ltp<ufJ{,,,.,pa,. np,ufJf,,,.,pos is a relative word, its correlative being ,,,tI,,,.,pos (see 1 Pet. v. 5). 'l'he elder and the younger are to be taken together as part of one community, and the younger are to be in subordination to the elder. These elders are to be thought of, not ae the dead, but as the still living. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are among these elders, and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the God, not of the dead, but of the living. Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, or any other of the glorified believers, could have appeared on the 'l'HE Jl:PlSTLE TO THE tlECREWS. 343
Mount or 'l'rcmsfiguration as easily as Moses or Elijah, had this been the necessary thin'!. And these elders, who have received a good report through faith, are not to be made perfect without us. II. THEIR RELATION TO FAITH. They received a good report. 'l'hey harl. witness borne to them. Surely there is great inclusiveness in this word. 1. Their faith stood fo them in the place of evidence from experience or obsavation. They wPre at the beginning of things. 'l'hcy had no histories, traditions, and customs to fall back on. 'l'hey had to trust the deepest impulses of their own hearts. We are the inheritors or' discoveries and benefits which, in the beginnings of them, can have had little ground but faith. 2. Their faith is the great element which makes them memorable. The gocd men among them were better men because they were believers. Indeed, the only good- uess that can be anything more than a matter of fashion and convention must come 1hrough faith. Take faith out of the lives of Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and ycu have nothing that should lift these men out of the common multit11de. Testimony could be borne as to their faith ; but we know that testimony could not be borne to other very desirable qualities in human character. Abraham had no very great regard for truth, and Jacob was utterly disingenuous. But they were believers, and in this one fact was sufficient leverage to secure their ultimate salvation, and make them adequate agents for the Divine purposes. 3. In their faith they become witnesses to us. We see plain results of their faith up to a certain point, We see Noah justified in building the ark. We see Abraham justified in leaving his own country. We see Joseph justified in giving commandment concerning his bones. We do see that he who sows in bare faith reaps a harvest corresponding to his faith. And so we must take heed lest these elders, now being witnesses to us, may one day become witnesses against us.-Y.