regard it as purely giving credit to God's testimony, when he sets forth
Christ as a propitiation for our sin, and invites one and all in the
world to cast upon Him the burden of their reliance, and then see how,
by immediate transition, one might enter into peace, and become a
confiding, tranquillized, and happy creature_, simply because convinced
that the most powerful of beings, whom he aforetime regarded as an enemy
and an avenger is pacified toward him, and now makes him a free proffer
of fellowship and forgiveness. It is of the greatest importance to the
secure and perfect establishment of a believer's peace, that it should
be a matter of believing, and believing only. It is also an imperative
necessity that the comfort and confidence should spring from the proper
object of belief, which is the sureness of God's own testimony, and not
from the consciousness of love or gratitude, or any moral quality in
ourselves!

I heard Dr. Andrew Bonar, while preaching in Philadelphia, during a
visit to this country, tell about a dying elder who was asked by
friends who clustered around his couch, "How do you feel, now that the
hour of your departure has come, and you hear the voice that calls you
home? Have you still joy and peace?"

"Oh," he said, "I am not thinking about joy or peace, or my feelings. I
am not thinking about myself at all. I am just lying here _thinking
about Christ_. I am thinking about what He has done and suffered for
me; and what He is doing for me in heaven. Yes, He is 'a hiding place
from the wind.'

"'Rock of ages cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee.'

"That is what we have to do in life and in death. Where can we find
rest and refuge in a dying hour, but by thinking upon and trusting in
_Him_ who is 'the shadow of a great rock in a weary land?'"

Our peace, our joy, our hope, our all in life and in death, are the
results of confidence in Christ. Our dear, departed sister had heard
the sweet voice of Jesus saying, "I am the dark world's light; come
unto me, thy morn shall rise and all thy day be bright." Her trust was
not in this vain and transitory world, though smiling and fair, she
trusted not His joy, for sorrow was there. Her faith had found an
anchor--a sure abiding home; she had a strong consolation because she
had fled for refuge and had laid hold of the hope set before her in the
Gospel.

The sweet and tender and loving words of John were ever present to her
ear: "If we w