around him is dark and stormy, he can lift up an eye to Heaven,
radiant with hope, and glistening with gratitude. At such a season, no
dangers can alarm, no opposition can move, no provocations can irritate.
He may almost adopt, as the language of his sober exultation, what in
the philosopher was but an idle rant: and, considering that it is only
the garment of mortality which is subject to the rents of fortune; while
his spirit, cheered with the divine support, keeps its place within,
secure and unassailable, he can sometimes almost triumph at the stake,
or on the scaffold, and cry out amidst the severest buffets of
adversity, "Thou beatest but the case of Anaxarchus." But it is rarely
that the Christian is elevated with this "joy unspeakable and full of
glory:" he even lends himself to these views with moderation and
reserve. Often, alas! emotions of another kind fill him with grief and
confusion: and conscious of having acted unworthy of his high calling,
perhaps of having exposed himself to the just censure of a world ready
enough to spy out his infirmities, he seems to himself almost "to have
crucified the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." But let
neither his joys intoxicate, nor his sorrows too much depress him. Let
him still remember that his _chief_ business while on earth is not to
meditate, but to act; that the seeds of moral corruption are apt to
spring up within him, and that it is requisite for him to watch over his
own heart with incessant care; that he is to discharge with fidelity the
duties of his particular station, and to conduct himself, according to
his measure, after the example of his blessed Master, whose meat and
drink it was to do the work of his heavenly Father; that he is
diligently to cultivate the talents with which God has entrusted him,
and assiduously to employ them in doing justice and shewing mercy, while
he guards against the assaults of any internal enemy. In short, he is to
demean himself, in all the common affairs of life, like an _accountable_
creature, who, in correspondence with the Scripture character of
Christians, is "waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ." Often
therefore he questions himself, "Am I employing my time, my fortune, my
bodily and mental powers, so as to be able to 'render up my account with
joy, and not with grief?' Am I 'adorning the doctrine of God my Saviour
in all things;' and proving that the servants of Christ, animated by a
princi