e
country, and she made them swear to her that, when this should take
place, they would shew mercy to her father's house. The engagement was
strictly fulfilled. When the city was taken, and the other inhabitants
destroyed, the woman was preserved, with all her kindred. In this very
simple occurrence, the woman is represented, by the sacred writer, as
having been saved by faith. The object of her faith was the event which
she confidently expected,--that the city of Jericho was to be destroyed.
The ground of her faith was the rapid manner in which the most powerful
nations had already fallen before the armies of Israel,--led, as she
believed, by a divine power. Acting upon this conviction, in the manner
in which a belief so deeply affecting her personal safety was likely to
influence any sound mind, she took means for her preservation, by making
friends of the spies. Her faith saved her, because without it she would
not have made this provision; but, unless she had followed out her
belief to the measure which was calculated to effect this object, the
mere belief of the event would have availed her nothing. When we
therefore ascribe important results to faith, or to any other mental
operation, we ascribe them not to the operation itself, but to this
followed out to the consequences which it naturally produces, according
to the constitution of the human mind. In the same manner, we may speak
of one man, in a certain state of danger or difficulty, being saved by
his wisdom, and another by his strength. In doing so, we ascribe such
results, not to the mere possession of these qualities, but to the
efforts which naturally arose from them, in the circumstances in which
the individual was placed. And, when the inspired writer says, that
without faith it is impossible to please God,--he certainly refers to no
mere mental impression, and to no barren system of opinions; but to the
reception of certain truths, which in our present state of being are
entirely the objects of faith, and to all that influence, upon the moral
feelings and the character, which these must produce upon every mind
that really believes them.

* * * * *

On this great subject, much misconception appears to have arisen from
not sufficiently attending to the condition in which, as moral beings,
we are placed in the present state of existence, and the important part
which must be performed by the mental exercise called faith. As p