Faith

The Psalmist's advice is , Commune with your own heart , speak to yourselves , which few certainly do , for you will the most of men in no place so rarely as in company with themselves . But it is my desire that you should be on terms of closest intimacy with your own selves , and , as becomes students , stay at home , dwell with and speak often with yourselves . Seriously consider , To what purpose do I live ? Whither am I going ? Ask thyself " Hast thou any end or purpose thou pursuest , and in what direction the bow is aimed ?"These things which I have embraced for the Christian faith , and so often heard , about a future world , about eternal life and death , whether they are true or false ? If they be true , as we all undoubtedly profess to believe they are , then certainly , the greatest affairs of this world are vain , and lighter even than vanity itself ; our pleasures bitter , and our honour vile and dishonourable . O, how ignorant men covetous of glory are , as to what it is to be sought for ! Nay , eagerly catching the shadow of glory , they avoid and turn their backs upon that which is true and solid and everlasting . The future happiness of the righteous is a thing above all our expression , ay , and exalted beyond all conception , oh , to what a wonderful height ! By comparing great things with small , we can trace out so much of those lofty and invisible blessings by earthly and familiar things . In this respect also , the Holy Scriptures let themselves down to our level , as the Hebrews express it , "The law of God speaks the language of the sons of men ." They represent that celestial life under the names of an inheritance , and of riches , and under those of a kingdom and a crown , but along with epithets that are neither common to , nor in congruity with any earthy glory or opulence . It is an inheritance , but , incorruptible , undefiled , and that fadeth not away . It is a kingdom , but one that cannot be moved , or shaken , much less destroyed ; which cannot be said of sublunary thrones , as all history abundantly testifies , and also our own so recent experience . To you , if you put your faith in the Gospel , an inheritance so great and a crown so unfading are offered . Hearken , ye sons of Adam , ye greedy and ambitious race ; lo, here is room , not only for exciting , but for satiating a laudable avarice and ambition ; but we are forced to confess that faith in these things is a rare virtue . O precious faith !- for among the large flocks of believers in these lands , any one may , without injustice , exclaim , Where is the man who believes? Never shall that man persuade me that he believes in heavenly things , who cleaves to this earth , nay , who does not scorn and despise it with all its allurements , and strain every nerve to the utmost of his desire and effort , with this one end in view , that he may obtain those boundless and eternal blessings . Robert Leighton