In reference to the first proposition, deduced from the words before us, we may certainly imply from St. Peter's question, that the righteous are placed beyond the reach of moral injury from the ungodly. "And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?"

Now, I take this to amount to an unequivocal declaration, that no one will harm us, provided we do what the text leads us to infer will be a security against harm. "He that followeth after righteousness and mercy," says the wise man before quoted, "findeth life, righteousness, and honour." Such an acquisition places us absolutely above the reach of harm. The ungodly cannot really hurt us, where they cannot deprive us of any of the divine blessings; where they cannot rob us of the endearing approbation of a good conscience; where they cannot exclude us from "those things which make for peace." "If God be for us, who can be against us?" The malice of ungodly men may, indeed, harass and distress the righteous, but cannot actually harm them, for "what is man, whose breath is in his nostrils?" He may, it is true, cause the body to suffer; the soul is, nevertheless, beyond all the efforts of his malice-and it is on account of the latter only, that harm is to be feared. "If the Lord be on our side," vain are all the hostile attempts of man. Hence the divine warning--" be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can

whom ye

shall fear;

do. But I will forewarn you fear Him, who, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear Him."

It will be readily admitted that a good man may be traduced and lowered by calumny in the estimation of capricious and fallible men. Nevertheless, in the estimation of Him "who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity," of Him "whose wisdom is from above," he suffers nothing. His vital interests are, therefore, nowise affected by the machinations, the malice, the hatred, of ungodly men. God is his judge, and upon His unerring determination his condition in eternity depends, where alone any essential harm can happen to us, if we should be there pronounced unfit to participate in its blessings. Should the world be disposed to look upon a righteous man as vile in their eyes, from the misrepresentations of "evil doers," which is truly a special and very rare case, for the authority of bad men must be always questionable, and can never, therefore, obtain general trust; still even then, all the harm he suffers is, the evil report of those whose bad opinion cannot deserve a regret, where it is so rashly accorded; and whose good opinion can be nothing worth," where it would be, with like probability, given upon authority equally exceptionable. It is, however, altogether against the experience of fact, that good men suffer generally through the calumnies of the flagitious, in the.

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estimation of those who dispassionately judge, and whose judgment, therefore, is alone worth regarding. The best men are every where the most respected, the most courted, the most beloved, the most trusted, and often even by the very wicked; and they are every where incomparably the most happy.

Again-The following of that which is good, places us above the influence of evil. I take the word evil here not in the sense of sin, but in that of temporal sufferance, whether physical or moral, in all its manifold varieties. It was a celebrated maxim of heathen philosophy, that “a wise man can suffer no disgrace." It is a still wiser maxim of Christian philosophy, that a good man can suffer no evil, because religion places him beyond its influence. We are not prepared to maintain that the good man is insensible to suffering, but only that whilst religion impresses upon his heart the fugitive nature of all terrestrial objects, and the eternity of those for which he is reserved in Heaven; whilst he feels the truly secondary nature of " things below," compared with the everlasting glory of "things above"; whilst, moreover, he is sensible that his body is afflicted here for the benefit of his soul hereafter; whilst, in short, he feels with the Apostle, " that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in him"; his afflictions shall be, "as the morning cloud and as

the early dew that passeth away," transient and superficial when present with him, rendered easily supportable by faith in Christ Jesus, and "the hopes that are set before him," through his mediatorial mercy; when past, readily discarded from the memory, or but remembered as a motive to bless God for his chastening "to the saving of the soul." Therefore it is, that whilst, in the absence of religion, we become susceptible of every little calamity, and "in this tabernacle do groan, being burthened;" a trust in God neutralizes, as it were, the effects of temporal evils, by raising our minds, as has been already observed, above the contingencies of this fluctuating state, and fixing them upon the glorious prospect of a future world, where our beatitude shall be transcendant and unabating; where "the ransomed of the Lord shall come with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; where they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Moreover, by balancing the interests of eternity against those of time, we lose all sense of the passing afflictions of the one, in the hope and longing after those permanent blessings which are assured to us in the other.

If we invest ourselves in the whole armour of righteousness, seeking the aid of God's holy spirit to strengthen and advance our holy resolutions, we shall be altogether secure from harm; because, all the malice of the Devil will be defeated by our

resistance to his assaults, and the crown of the Christian's triumph will reward our conquest through Jesus Christ. "Whoso feareth the Lord shall not fear nor be afraid, for He is his hope. For the eyes of the Lord are upon them that love Him; He is their mighty protection and strong stay; a preservation from stumbling, and a help from falling." "The Lord is our upholder." Christ is the rock of our salvation. Whilst we stand firm upon this rock, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against us." We are secure from all perils from without; from all dangers from within. In his blood only can "our robes be made white." He is "our strength and our Redeemer." Faith, however, in him, is the great condition of salvation. We must come to him to have life, for "without him we can do nothing."

Is it not then our interest to be righteous? Are we not absolutely benefited by religion even in this life, and shall we not be incalculably more so in the next? Is there a Christian who doubts this? Why then forbear to practise it "with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our strength"? Why evade its duties? Why become "lovers of ourselves, more than lovers of God," knowing that He shall be the arbiter of our destinies in a future world?

Religion is our only safeguard against the perils of eternity, our only security for its joys. It raises us above the influence of evil, as we have