"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." -2 Cor. iv. 18. "For we walk by faith, not by fight."-2 COR. V. 7. CHRISTIAN FAITH, OR RELIGION. High on the world, see where Religion stands The Book of Truth his guide from day to day. CHRISTIAN Faith or Religion is here represented standing upon a globe. This denotes that the Chriftian, although he is in the world, yet, like a ship at sea, he is above the world. In her hands she holds the opened volume of God's Holy Word. She is looking upward, to show that she expects light from above to shine upon the sacred page. With one arm she embraces the cross, signifying that her only hope of falvation is founded on the death of Jesus Chrift. This is an emblem of that religion which God in his mercy has given to mankind. He who possesses it rests his all-his foul and body, his time and his eternity-upon the atonement of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. While some are trusting to the mere mercy of God out of Chrift, and others to their self-righteousness, others again to the interceffion of men, women, and angels, his language is, 'Tis all my hope, and all my plea, for me the Saviour died. God forbid that I should glory, fave in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The cross of Christ is the mighty lever that is to roll the world back again to God. All true Christians have so understood it. Constantine the Great took advantage of this fact-the common faith of the early Christians in the power of the cross. When going to fight against Maxentius, he related to his army that he saw (fome fay in a vision) a cross in the sky, bearing this inscription, εν τούτῳ νικα "By this, conquer." It inspired the foldiers with courage. The cross was seen inscribed on every banner; the emperor led his army to triumphant victory. The Holy Scriptures are very precious to him who has true faith. He regards them as the words of God-as a divine proclamation of grace to man-as a record of parental love-as a history of his dear Redeemer, and of his own redemption as the title-deed of his own glorious inheritance as the only rule of his faith and practice. With its facred leaves open before him, he looks upward and prays, “O Lord, open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." While some neglect and despise the Holy Book, and others depend pon human creeds, and the musty traditions "the Fathers," he exclaims, "O how I love thy law! Thy statutes have been my fongs in the house of my pilgrimage." of By his faith in the cross, the Bible, the power of prayer, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, the Chriftian overcomes the world, enjoys communion with God, becomes meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the faints in light, and finally join in the fong of Mofes and of the Lamb for ever. Then embrace Religion, "and you shall be presently installed in the poffeffion of all the benefits and immunities of the Redeemer's purchase without deduction, and without qualification; you shall emerge from under the dark shadows of the fall, into the effulgence of the light, and the plenitude of the joy, of a renovated, heaven-born nature; and the filent tide of oblivion fhall instantly close for ever over all your paft fins, and shall be immediately admitted into the circle he redeemed of the Lord. Your brow shall be encircled with a double dem of life and righteousness; a patent to all the titles and illustrious dignities of the nobility of heaven shall be made out for you, which nothing in time or eternity shall alienate or refcind. Paradise shall unlock for you its everlasting gates, and you shall behold the interminable future through a vista of the brightest hopes, and inherit a name immortal in the records of glory." "Which hope we have as an anchor of the foul, both fure and steadfast."-HEB. vi. 19. "For we are saved by hope.”— Rom. viii. 24. HOPE. On Truth's substantial rock, Hope takes her feat, HOPE is represented in the picture above as being seated upon a rock. Worldly hope has always some supposed foundation on which it relies. But Christian hope has for a foundation the rock of truth, God's most holy word. In the |