ple of filial affection, which renders their work a service of
perfect freedom, are capable of as active and as persevering exertions,
as the votaries of fame, or the slaves of ambition, or the drudges of
avarice?"

Thus, without interruption to his labours, he may interpose occasional
thoughts of things unseen; and amidst the many little intervals of
business, may calmly look upwards to the heavenly Advocate, who is ever
pleading the cause of his people, and obtaining for them needful
supplies of grace and consolation. It is these realizing views, which
give the Christian a relish for the worship and service of the heavenly
world. And if these blessed images, "seen but through a glass darkly,"
can thus refresh the soul: what must be its state, when on the morning
of the resurrection it shall awake to the unclouded vision of celestial
glory! when, "to them that look for him, the Son of God shall appear a
second time without sin unto salvation!" when "sighing and sorrow being
fled away;" when doubts and fears no more disquieting, and the painful
consciousness of remaining imperfections no longer weighing down the
spirit, they shall enter upon the fruition of "those joys, which eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of
man to conceive;" and shall bear their part in that blessed
anthem--"Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto
the Lamb," for ever and ever!

Thus (never let it be forgotten) the main distinction between real
Christianity, and the system of the bulk of nominal Christians, chiefly
consists in the different place which is assigned in the two schemes to
the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel. These, in the scheme of nominal
Christians, if admitted at all, appear but like the stars of the
firmament to the ordinary eye. Those splendid luminaries draw forth
perhaps occasionally a transient expression of admiration, when we
behold their beauty, or hear of their distances, magnitudes, or
properties: now and then too we are led, perhaps, to muse upon their
possible uses: but however curious as subjects of speculation, after
all, it must be confessed, they twinkle to the common observer with a
vain and "idle" lustre; and except in the dreams of the astrologer, have
no influence on human happiness, or any concern with the course and
order of the world. But to the _real_ Christian, on the contrary, THESE
_peculiar doctrines constitute the center to which he gravitates!