py in the prospect beyond death. And his son Jacob, an hundred and forty seven years old when he was dying declared that he had waited for the salvation of God;-waiting faith is strong faith. And after he had blessed his children, and had given commandment concerning his bones, he quietly as if he had been going to sleep, gathered up his feet into the bed, and died in peace, an old man and satisfied. All these lived in the world, strangers and pilgrims, looking for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And they were not disappointed of their hope, they all died in faith -in an act of faith, and were gathered to their people, to the general assembly and church of the first-born. When they came to the end of their faith, they came to heaven. The moment they expired, they entered the city, which God had prepared for them: and their bodies, sleeping in the dust, are in the covenant of life, and shall be raised and glorified in the morning of the resurrection. For our Lord proves that the dead shall rise from this very circumstance: he says to the

Jews-"Have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living." In this faith the patriarchs died: being children of the resurrection, they left their bodies in the hand and care of a covenant God, well assured that he would raise them up to glory and life everlasting, according to that good word, wherein he had caused them to put their trust.

These examples of the loving-kindness of God to his aged servants were recorded for our learning that believers, if God by his providence should bring them to old age, might be encouraged to trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with such a confidence of their hearts, as not to doubt of the divine truth, or of the divine power. Whatever he was to them, he is the same to usour God as well as theirs-our covenant God engaged to glorify both body and soul: on whom we are commanded to cast all our cares and concerns in extreme old age. If

what is of nature be failing, what is of grace cannot. If the life of sense be dying, the life of faith should flourish the more: it is a life that cannot die: for the branches thrive and bring forth fruit in their old age, not of themselves, but because they are engrafted into the heavenly vine, in which they live for ever. "I am the vine, says Jesus, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit : for without me ye can do nothing." But through my Spirit strengthening you, he will make you bud and flourish, and fill the face of the world with fruit. He will so fill you with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Christ Jesus, to the glory and praise of God, that your last days shall be your best days.

In this view of old age, it may become a favourable time for exercising and improving faith because the activity of the life of sense is abating, and thereby many things are removed, which before obstructed the growth of the spiritual life. Now is the time to learn to walk by faith, and not by sense.

A believer young in years, and young in experience, is often tempted to judge of himself by his feelings, more than by the word of God. In a good frame he is a good believer. Then all is well with him. But when he is walking in darkness, he is very apt to question his state-"If all be right with me, why am I thus ?"-My present frame is very dull and uncomfortable-I am not so lively as I used to be in prayer, or in ordinances-my delight in God, and the things of God, is far short of what it was formerly—perhaps I have been deceiving myself, and crying, Peace, peace, when there was no peace for

me.

From this temptation age itself is a sort of deliverance: self-activity is weakened, and thereby through grace, self-dependence. The believer, if he be a good scholar, will now learn to walk more by faith, and less by sight. The vigour of his senses is decaying. The high spirits of youth are abating. His present lesson is very plain and simple, and while he attends to what is passing in him, and about him, he has a thousand monitors,

calling upon him now to learn and practise a perfect dependence on those things which are always one and the same, without any variableness, or the least shadow of turning. One record of God. One Saviour. One Spirit. One faith, of which the Saviour is the author and the finisher. This faith is made to grow and flourish, as there is less dependence on other things and as age itself tends to weaken this dependence, it becomes in the hand of the Holy Spirit, a favourable time to live less upon the things which are seen, and more upon the things which are not seen. Less of sense, more of faith. One scale rises as the other falls. The outward man dying, the inward man grows more lively-yea, grows into Christ Jesus, and that in all things. O blessed old man-thou hast lived to a good time, when this is thy experience: when in the prayer of faith thou canst cast all thy burdens on thy Saviour: "Lord, keep me, a poor helpless creature-now I feel that of myself, I can do nothing, as I ought, or as I wish to do. Glorify thy grace in me, and strengthen me mightily by

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