SERMON XXII.

ON THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN FAITH.*

ST. JOHN V. 4.

Whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world; and this is the "victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."

THESE words, which are prescribed by our church for the instruction of this day, are taken from the Epistle of St. John; and there is perhaps no portion of Scripture more proper for our meditation at this season, than that short but beautiful epistle.

The great events which the Apostle had witnessed were passed. The Master whom he followed, and the Friend whom he had loved, had ascended into Heaven; and the faith which he taught was now beginning to spread itself through a rejoicing world. It was at this time, when the distance of years enabled him to look back upon all the wonders which he had witnessed with gratitude, rather than with astonishment; when experience had taught him all the joy, and all the exaltation of Christian belief;— and when he saw "the glad tidings of salvation," pervading every region around him, that he poured out to his disciples the overflowings of his heart, im the epistle which we are now considering.

* First Sunday after Easter.

Among the different epistles of the Apostles, adapted to peculiar exigencies of the infant church, and perhaps fully intelligible only when these temporary exigencies are understood, the character of the Epistle of St. John is peculiar. It is not a system of doctrine, or a detail of reasoning or of proof. It is, on the contrary, a simple display of faith and of feeling;-a representation of the mercy of God, on the one hand, and of the sentiments that become man, on the other;—the picture of a mind penetrated at once with the glory of the revelation it had received, and filled with all the moral and prophetick influences which such a revelation can infuse. There is a tone accordingly of triumph and of joy through the whole of it, which cannot be read without emotion; and which, better than all the reasoning in the world, impresses upon us the conviction of that exaltation of thought, that ardour of benevolence, and that purity of soul, which the Gospel of our Lord is formed, from the experience of the Apostle, both to create and to maintain.

In these hours, therefore, when we are in circumstances not unlike those of the Apostle,-when we have just returned from a nearer approach to this revelation of mercy, and when its influences are yet warm in our hearts,-I know not that I can point out any portion of Scripture more proper for your private study, or for the instruction of your children, than this memorable epistle. It is short, and intelligible even to the young. It addresses itself to the highest principles, and to the best feelings of their

nature. It is fitted to make religion appear lovely in their infant eyes: and thus to afford them the surest of all preservations against the temptations and the dangers of the world through which they are destined to pass.

Into that world we are all, young and old, about to return; it is through its dangers, and hardships, and temptations, that we are all appointed to travel to our final home; and to be able" to overcome it," is the wish not only of religion, but of reason. To account for its dangers, we have no necessity (I fear) to have recourse to any dominion of evil beyond ourselves. It is in our own bosoms where it dwells; in those various appetites and desires which make up our nature; which in themselves are all legitimate and useful, but which when suffered, like the desires of the poor prodigal of the Gospel, to gain the mastery over reason and conscience, lead headlong to folly, to guilt, and to ruin. It is in holding the firm dominion over them;-in subjecting appetite to the control of reason;-in restraining desire when it approaches the boundary of duty;-in maintaining over every lower passion the high and habitual authority of Conscience, that the true dignity and interrity of the human mind is alone to be displayed. Wherever this dominion is wanting, the character sinks gradually into every thing that is base and contemptible; the lofty and distinguishing features of man become obliterated;-and his nature descends, but too fast, to the level" of the brutes that perish." While to overcome the world" with all its habitual sins, and all its hereditary errours, has been in

of

every age the object of the moralist, it is not now only the object, but the ambition and the prayer the Christian. "Whatsoever is born of God," sayeth the Apostle," overcometh the world." To us, my Christian brethren, these words include every thing. They remind us of that eternal source from which we sprung, and of that immortal end to which we return. They remind us, that we derive our lineage from something greater in nature than man, and that we are born for loftier scenes than those of a temporary world. While they point, from the narrow space on which we stand, to the infinity of the past and of the future, they call us to remember that that narrow space is a scene of danger;—that if, in the hours of trial, much is to be won, every thing also may be lost;-that the soul which loses the command of itself, loses also the hopes which the promises of the Gospel had once displayed to it;--and that, in the final home of existence, they only will be recognized as " born of God," who have " overcome the world."

What then is the high and commanding principle which can arm us for this field? which, amid all the temptations of the world," can put into our minds

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good desires," and, amid all its dangers, can "ena"ble us to bring them to good effect?" To this question the answer of the Apostle is ready, and decisive :—“ And this is the victory that overcometh "the world, even our Faith." Upon these few, but momentous words, I presume, in moments like the present, to offer you a few reflections.

1. It is the first assertion of the Apostle, that the faith of the Gospel is "able to overcome the world.” This assertion I feel it is unnecessary at present to confirm by any process of argument or illustration. I shall withhold myself, too, from any exemplification of it in the history of those who, in every age, have overcome the world, and passed, under its influence, through time, as men who looked and who marched to immortality. I wish rather, in the present hours, to appeal to your own feelings and your own experience, and to ask you, whether, in those late exercises of faith in which we all have been engaged, you have not yourselves felt something of that power and of those influences? I would ask you, my brethren, whether, when you lately retired for a time from the world, you did not feel somewhat at least of its fascination to be broken,-some of its delusions dispelled, some of its chains relaxing ?-I would ask you, whether, when you approached the altar, and raised your eyes to the cross, and saw the Saviour who suffered upon it, you did not feel the impression of something high and holy in that nature for which the Son of God thought it not too much to die, and the conviction of some nobler service than that of this world, in which his followers were called to be employed? -I would ask you, whether, when you saw him with the eye of faith, rise again from the grave, and ascend to the throne of his Father, and seat himself at the right hand of the Eternal Majesty, that he may continue to make intercession for all that believe in him, you did not feel as if the gates of eter