pped up in this. We
get a firm grasp of truth by prayer. Communion with Christ is the best
proof of Christ's existence and Christ's love. It is so even in human
life. Misgivings gather darkly round our heart about our friend in his
absence; but we seek his frank smile, we feel his affectionate grasp:
our suspicions go to sleep again. It is just so in religion. No man is
in the habit of praying to God in Christ, and then doubts whether
Christ is He "that should come." It is in the power of prayer to
realize Christ, to bring him near, to make you feel His life stirring
like a pulse within you. Jacob could not doubt whether he had been
with God when his sinew shrunk. John could not doubt whether Jesus was
the Christ when the things He had done were pictured out so vividly in
answer to his prayer. Let but a man live with Christ anxious to have
his own life destroyed, and Christ's life established in its place,
losing himself in Christ, that man will have all his misgivings
silenced. These are the two remedies for doubt--Activity and Prayer.
He who works, and _feels_ he works--he who prays, and _knows_ he
prays, has got the secret of transforming life-failure into
life-victory.

In conclusion brethren, we make three remarks which could not be
introduced into the body of this subject. The first is--Let young and
ardent minds, under the first impressions of religion, beware how they
pledge themselves by any open profession to more than they can
perform. Herod warmly took up religion at first, courted the prophet
of religion, and then when the hot fit of enthusiasm had passed away,
he found that he had a clog round his life from which he could only
disengage himself by a rough, rude effort. Brethren whom God has
touched, it is good to count the cost before you begin. If you give up
present pursuits _impetuously_, are you sure that present impulses
will last? Are you quite certain that a day will not come when you
will curse the hour in which you broke altogether with the world? Are
you quite sure that the revulsion back again, will not be as impetuous
as Herod's, and your hatred of the religion which has become a clog,
as intense as it is now ardent?

Many things doubtless there are to be given up--amusements that are
dangerous, society that is questionable. What we give up, let us give
up, not from quick feeling, but from principle. Enthusiasm is a lovely
thing, but let us be calm in what