of earth, when compared with the things of heaven. Then may we not argue, that if in matters pertaining to time there is constantly found so much of effort required, there is constantly perceived so much of difficulty connected with any enterprise, surely we must anticipate difficulties in connection with those schemes which take in not the interests of time, but the interests of eternity? Is it a light matter to glorify God? Is it a trifling enterprise to reach the portals of the skies? Is it a little war which the Christian has to carry on against fleshly lusts, against "the prince of the power of the air," against all the power of the present evil world? No, reader, there is nothing little in connection with heaven; nothing little in regard to the salvation of the soul; nothing little in the concerns of the Christian life. All is great; all is stupendous; all is on a gigantic scale. Well, therefore, may the Christian expect difficulties -ay, great difficulties. Well may he expect to have to battle his way toward heaven. Well may he expect to have to hew out by his own arduous endeavours the pathway from this world to glory. It is so from the very nature of the case.

Scripture, also, confirms the truth of these assertions. Everywhere the Bible implies or asserts that it is no easy thing to be a Christian. Everywhere the Bible describes the Christian life by expressions, and under metaphors, which evidently indicate toil and difficulty, trial, painful effort. Is a soldier's life a life of ease? Is a man that has to run in a race and win the prize by being first-is that man to be looked upon as one passing quietly and easily along life? When the apostle speaks of "fighting a good fight," does he talk of something like play? When he speaks of warring a spiritual warfare, does he speak of a very easy contest? So throughout the Bible, whatever are the descriptions which it contains of the Christian life, they are descriptions which require

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us to take into our view much difficulty and much pain.

Moreover, I might appeal to the experience of my Christian reader to bear me out in these assertions. I am quite sure your own experience of the Christian life has made you well acquainted with this truth, that we must pass through difficulties-ay, "through much tribulation," if we would enter into God's kingdom. You have felt how difficult it is to be a Christian-you have had a struggle in your Christian experience. For a while you went on well, and nought seemed to hinder you; but by-and-by the mountain rose before you, the hill Difficulty appeared in your way, and you had to climb, by painful, slow, and toilsome exertion, its rugged sides. Yes, I am quite certain that your experience of the Christian life, however small it is, must have made you acquainted with this important truth. Even those who are young in spiritual experience have learned this. They have learned that if they would be Christians, it is not to be done by wishing, it is not to be done by hoping, it is not to be done by believing even. It is to be done by the daily bearing the cross, by the persevering climbing up the steep summit of the hill Difficulty, by the mortification of many a darling lust, by the overcoming the force of many an attractive temptation, and by "crucifying the old man "—the worldly, sinful, fleshly lusts. Crucifixion is the most painful sort of agony of which the human frame is susceptible; and the believer is said to "crucify the old man;" pointing out again to us what a difficult thing it is to go on in the Christian life.

You discover this by experience. You have fancied you were not going on at all; your progress was so slow. It has seemed to you as if the life of God could not exist at all in you; for so constantly you failed in the endeavour to advance, and in growing in grace. You tried; but you saw Satan was too strong,

he world was too strong, your own corrupt heart was 00 strong. You could scarcely get a step forward as you climbed the hill Difficulty.

I am not now about to speak of what the difficulty consists. It must vary of course with different individuals, with different temperaments. The difficulties vhich are difficulties to one are not the same to >thers. But in the pilgrim's path there is always some hill Difficulty over which his passage lies, and up which he must climb.

We observe, further, that the men of this world for trifles do and dare many things. To carry out some favourite project, what will not man endure? What will not a man of science do in order that he may carry on some investigation which promises for him new and wonderful results? He will spend day after day, consume the midnight oil, and wear out the strength and power of his life-to effect what? To establish some natural law, to make new scientific discoveries-discoveries which may be useful, or which may serve to hand down his name with renown to posterity. And the warrior for a trifle will peril his life, will shed his blood, and will count his scars as honourable things, in order that his fellow-creatures may look upon him as a brave and as a skilful soldier, in order that he may acquire earthly, perishable renown. We find constantly, by every-day observation, that for trifling things-(for what are these but trifles, when compared with the concerns of the soul, when contrasted with eternity?)—for these trifles men count not their lives worthy; for these, men will hazard their very existence, will undergo unheard-of privations, will cheerfully part with all their wealth. And if they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, what shall not the Christian do, what shall not the Christian bear, to obtain an incorruptible crown?

It is no trifling pursuit, reader, that we are employed in. It is no earthly enterprise. It is not to gain à name

amongst the great ones of this world; but it is to make quite certain that our names are in the Lamb's book of life; to make our calling and election sure. It is to gain that crown of glory which is kept for those who are "faithful unto death." It is to obtain admission into the presence, and the favour, and the glory of our Redeemer. And shall we not be put to shame by the men of this world, if we are sluggards in this heavenly endeavour, if we shrink back appalled by the perils of the enterprise, if we hesitate to give up all-wealth, happiness, life itself, considering the glorious prize of our high calling, which is before our view, and animating our exertions?

Besides, it is useful to have these hills of difficulty to climb. They form part of that gracious, loving, wise discipline which our heavenly Father employs for the right training of His children's minds. They serve, by the efforts they require to call forth, to brace up the energies of our souls for still higher exertions-they serve to "make us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light." They serve to make us stronger, more vigorous Christians than we otherwise should be. A man always leading a life of luxury and ease and indolence must be a man physically weak; and a Christian always leading a life of spiritual ease, and of spiritual luxury, and of spiritual indolence, must be a believer spiritually weak. He will never grow; he will never become strong; he will never attain to the stature and measure of Christ, unless he have these difficulties in his way-difficulties testing the power of his faith; difficulties testing the sincerity of his zeal; difficulties meant to call out his strongest efforts, in order that, thus disciplined, thus braced up, thus strengthened, he may go on more vigorously in the way to glory.

There are some who shrink from difficulty-not by actually turning back in the road whence they came, but by seeking some new path which leads round the

mountain. Formalism and hypocrisy come to the foot of the mountain Difficulty, and then they turn aside. Ah, reader! the formalist and the hypocrite like ease; they like religion to have no difficulties in the way. But when difficulties appear, when there is a cross to be carried, when there is a hill to be climbed over, then it is that the formalist and the hypocrite are tried in the balance of the sanctuary and found wanting; then it is that they eagerly look out for some path, at the side of the hill, by which they may evade the difficulties in the Christian life which have arisen before them. We do not say that Formalism and Hypocrisy mean to go out of the path altogether. They look upon those paths at the side of the hill as paths which only, for a short distance, lead out of the way, and which, most probably, wind round the hill, and then come back into the road again. And so they do not abandon all notion of being Christians, but hope, by evading the difficulties (although the evasion is itself a departure), to find some means of getting back into the way again.

But this is unlikely, for those paths are the paths of Danger and Destruction; and the probability is, that those who have begun thus to wander out of the right road, on account of the difficulties of the Christian life, will be found soon afterwards stumbling on the dark mountains of error. It is more likely that they will go astray, and remain in the congregation of the dead, than that, having gone astray, they will come back afterwards into the King's highway of holiness.

But here it is important to answer the question, which I can easily suppose to be addressed to me. "May not God's own children thus shrink from difficulties, and go aside with the hope, as they think, by some little allowable circumlocution to get round the hill rather than clamber over it; and so come back into the way again? Is it only the hypocrite and the