189 / 674
SEAM.
XL.]
LIVING
ABOVE
THE DEAD.
169
and
divine
original,
by
keeping the
soul
pure, and
holy,and
humble, in the
midst
of
all this
darkness, and
this
dis-
consolate state
;
"
He
that
hath
this
hope
will
purify him-
self,
even
as
Christ
is
pure,"
1
John
iii.
3.
A
presuming
hope
that
carries
no
spring
of
holiness
in
it,
can
neither
honour God nor
profit
men.
But there
are other
occasions
also in this
life,
for
the
exercise
of
the grace
of
hope,
viz.
amidst
huge
and
threatening
difficulties,
that relate
to
the public
interests
of
religion.
When
the feeble and
doubting christian
sees
the
affairs
of
the church
of
Christ
sinking
daily, he
is
at-
most ready
to sink
and
die too,
and
to
despair for
Zion;
and
it
is
the language
of
his unbelief,
"
by
whom
shall
Jacob
rise,
for
he
is
small
?"
But
the
stronger christian,
who knows how to live
upon a
promise, can reply,
that
the God
of Jacob
is
almighty,
the
king
of
Israel
is
the
true
God and everlasting
king,
and the
interest of
the
church
shall rise again,
even
though
it
were
drowning;
for not
all
the
floods on
earth, nor
even
the
gates
of hell
shall
prevail against the
church
that
is
built upon
Jesus
the
rock
of
ages
:"
And
Jesus
himself
receives
his
special
tribute of
glory from
his
saints on
earth,
while
they
tri-
umph
in
this hope.
There
are
also some seasons
wherein a living
saint ho-
árours
God
in
this world, by
maintaining
his
hope in
the
midst
of
various trials
that attend
him in his
private
af-
fairs,
and especially
when
poverty and distress overtake
him
like an
armed
mari,
and
he
hath no
other
help
nor
hope
left,
but
in some
gracious
words
of
promise,
and
some
unknown
appearances
of
providences
in his
behalf.
Blessed
are the
poor
who
can live
by
faith
!
A christian honours
God
also
greatly
in
the
days
of
sickness,
and the
hour of
death,
when
he feels
nature
sinking, and
flesh
dissolving; yet
he
can look
upon
his
withering
limbs
without
dismay, in
the hope
of
the
re-
surrection, and speak
in the
language
of
holy
Job,
"Though
after
my
skin worms
devour
this body,
yet
in
my
flesh
shall
I
see
God,"
Job
xix.
26.
I
grant that
the saints
who
are
in
heaven, the spirits
of
the
just
made perfect, wait
also, and
hope
for the
resur-
rection
of
the
body,
and
all the
promised
blessings
of
that
day
;
but
they have
a bright and sure prospect
of it
by
the
light
of
glory,
in
which they
read
all
the
pro-