Thousands of children have lived and died in the Valley of Destruction, slaves to Satan and the world, and they have had their reward. But where are they now? Holy children, too, have lived and died in the service of God. Those who once mocked at them, can mock at them no more, for they are gone to their own place. But where are those holy children now? Foolish children counted their lives madness: but now are they numbered with the sons of God. Will you follow them to glory? Is eternal rest in the Kingdom of God better than endless burnings? Is it better to ride forth with the armies of heaven, to see the stars in their brightness, or to be confined as a living man in an adamantine coffin, in the prisons of darkness for ever? Is the company of your Creator, your Saviour, your Sanctifier, better than the company of Satan and his angels? Is it sweeter to rest at your Saviour's feet, to be refreshed by his smiles, to have all tears wiped away from your eyes? or is it sweeter to be tormented for ever?

Choose, my children, your portion. If it is hell you choose, take your fill of the world:

make haste, your day is short, it will soon be closed in endless night. But if heaven is your portion, you must up and be doingyou must ascend, I repeat to you, the difficult Hills of Faith and Holiness, and stop not till you reach the Delectable Mountains of Peace-Peace with God-Peace with your own conscience-Peace with your fellowcreatures-Then shall you have a view of the spacious Promised Land, the land of oil olives and honey. It is a pleasant land-it shall be yours, the length and breadth of all the land as far as Faith can see.

ADDRESS VIII.

"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."-Matt. v. 10.

I HAVE been endeavouring, my dear children, in what I have lately said to you, to give you some few outlines of the character of a holy child. They are very imperfect indeed; for who can properly describe those heavenly touches with which the Spirit of God new moulds the soul of man? But such as the outlines are, they will serve to shew you to yourselves, and make you see how far you have gone astray; and I hope they may fill you with some earnest desires to find the narrow path which leads to glory, the King's Highway of Holiness.

May the Spirit strengthen these desires, till you are filled with earnest longings after your eternal inheritance! For when you are indeed born again, you shall be the sons and daughters of a King; and, after you have

spent a little time in this land of your ba nishment, this prison-house, you shall be set at liberty, you shall dwell in the land that is very far off, and see the King in his beauty: for ye are the redeemed of the Lord; and ye shall come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon your head, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

But I must declare to you the whole coursel of God: if you cast in your lot with the people of God, you must count your cost; you must, through tribulation, enter into glory; if you are faithful in doing your duty, you will meet with persecution.

I shall, therefore, in the first place, proceed to explain to you, how it is, that if you follow righteousness you shall be persecuted. Next, I shall try to shew you, how those who are persecuted shall be blessed.

We may in this place explain righteousness to mean, the doing our duty in that state of life to which it has pleased God to call us. Take it in this sense, and you will soon see very plainly how righteousness leads to persecution. For what is doing our duty? it is being about our heavenly Father's business, and

I

following after the will of God in our particular situations, as we would follow after our meat and drink. Now, we all know, that doing the will of God is a very different thing from doing our own will or the will of men. Sometimes it may happen that what it is right for us to do may be pleasant to ourselves and pleasant to other people. Suppose, for instance, your parents were to give you some money to divide among several poor people, or some presents to distribute to your brothers and sisters, the thing would be pleasant to yourself as well as to other people; but it often happens, that what is right for us to do is unpleasant to other people, and then we must follow the will of God, instead of our own will, or the will of others. Giving up our own will is self-denial; it is often called also, taking up our cross. But when we do what is against the will of men, we make men our enemies for that time. We must expect some treatment from them that is not pleasant to us, and which may be called persecution. I will give you a few examples of this. Suppose your parents were to desire you to gather the fruit of a certain tree in their