I. THE PRINCIPLE.

How blessed a thing is faith ! In a world like this, where we come out of darkness, only for sight and sense to return to darkness again; where in the meantime we walk amid a strife of jarring passions, interests, elements, which at every turn beset and harass us,-the world with all its beauty yet in strange, dread isolation from the universe and its Maker;-how blessed is that which at once transforms every thing for us; by which the mouths of lions are stopped, the violence of fire is quenched, the dead are raised up, or, more wondrous still, we find strength to endure whatever evils, because of the joy before us! Surely, to man, such faith is "precious faith." And to God how precious! for faith means the heart's return to Him from whom we all had fallen. The isolation, the darkness, the evil, are no necessary parts of the inheritance designed for us, but the tokens of our shame and of our sin. The light which faith perceives is the light of a new life begun in the sovereign grace of God from out of death in trespasses and sins.

No wonder, then, if we turn with ever-fresh interest and delight to the record of faith's actings in by-gone days, in sympathy with those who lived and walked and suffered in the power of it; and to learn for ourselves, encompassed with the trials through which they have preceded us, the lesson of their conflict, and the secret of their victories. God uses them thus with us, knowing our weakness, encouraging us by those whose kinship with our weakness is that which most encourages us, as the apostle reminds us even of an Elias, that he was a man of like passions with ourselves; Scripture hiding nothing of the failure and infirmities which show how truly he was that, for the purpose of preserving for us in full power the sweetness of that assurance.

In this chapter, we have a long catalogue of things which faith wrought in the saints of old, expressly given to stir our hearts by the remembrance; and it is my purpose, if the Lord will, to take them up one by one, and see what virtue He may give to distill out of them for blessing to souls. We may not seem to have fallen upon days susceptible of some shapes in which that which we seek exhibited itself in them. Perhaps it may only serve the more to appeal to us, when our danger is that of laxity, and timid shrinking from penalties not to be compared with theirs. It is good to remember that, however circumstances alter, they do not affect the reality of that for which God is seeking as earnestly as ever, that it " may be unto praise, and honor, and glory, at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

What, then, is faith ? " Faith is the substance " -or "substantiation,"-says the apostle,"of things hoped for, the evidence [or conviction] of things not seen." This was the principle of lives so dear to God, so bright to us:" for by it the elders obtained a good report." They had their eyes upon the unseen; and more, they had their hearts in it. Drawn by what was theirs beyond mortal sight, they were in the darkness of the world as stars that shone out of a black sky. Their lives were not so much better in degree than other men's, as they were different in character. And as with stars of varying magnitude, each star was yet a star, not to be confounded with any other thing.

And no less still is the life of faith entirely different from any other life. It may be found in a garret, and very often is, for "God hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith ; " but wherever it is, its true character and dignity will shine out. It is like nothing else in the world, for its glory is not of the world.

The heart and life under the power of things unseen! This is not honesty, justice, uprightness, benevolence, or any or all other things in repute among men; although it will produce all this, no doubt. So too to these may be added an orthodox belief and profession of Christianity. Men may believe in Christianity and in Christ, with never a doubt intruding, and yet never faith. " Many believed in His name when they saw the miracles which He did; but Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, for He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man." It was " in man " to believe after this fashion,-all thoroughly human, and no more. But it is not to such a class I am addressing myself now, although the reminder may help to fasten inquiry upon our souls, if we do not,-although believers to whom Jesus has committed Himself,- mistake often for the life of faith a life of moralities and benevolent activities, covered with a Christian dress:a life in which, we shall discover, if God stir our hearts to look, none of the trials, difficulties, rejection by the world, which a life of faith supposes, and on the other, little of the presence of Jesus, or of the glow upon the spirit of him who said, "Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God."

The light of heaven shines only on the pilgrim-path, and faith is ever :and only in this world a pilgrim. A path narrow indeed, but opening out in prospects of unutterable glory just there where for men at large rests impenetrable darkness. And then faith has, not a king's highway, and on the other hand, not merely guide-posts along the road, but a living Leader, whose word must be sought at His mouth, and followed often into strange places, where no path may be but by a rift in the sea, and every resource of our own fail us.

For the Christian, there is but one hindrance to faith in reality, for every other finds its strength in this. Faith is subjection, dependence, and so confidence; and this is the order of its development in us. Self-will is its opposite and enemy ever, the one means and method of attack of the whole power of Satan and the world. Self-judgment-the opposite of self-occupation-is that which maintains faith in simplicity and power therefore. If we complain of weakness of faith, the real reason is here, in not suffering that which God declares fully to control us. Christ, if received by us, must be sovereign in us; and the sovereign source of supply, if indeed out of our bellies shall flow rivers of living water.

Let us ask ourselves, then, as we begin these histories, and if we are satisfied that we live by faith, Do we walk by faith? Are our lives honestly surrendered to Christ their Lord ? For it is certain a path of faith can have no meaning for us if it be not so; that we cannot have faith for any thing but God's path. And for each one of us, whatever our circumstances, to take that path will individualize us, bring conscience into thorough exercise, make all kinds of difficulties for us which nothing but the wisdom and power of God can meet, cast us upon Him, therefore, in a very real way, which will not leave us in the least doubt of what is meant by a walk of faith; and what its issue will be, let faith say. Surely no saint of ancient or modern times would give a bad report of the way the Lord led him, any more than of the end to which He led. No witness here but beckons us forward. First of all, Leader of all, He who coming from the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, tells us from the depths of such a humiliation,-" My meat is to the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work." ( To be continued, D. V.)