heered and borne up by the same assurance amidst every difficulty,
discouragement, and danger. Whatever else is doubtful, this, at least,
is certain, that in every endeavour to save sinners, we are but
expressing our sympathy with Jesus in His love to them, in His longing
to see of the travail of His soul, and to be satisfied in their
salvation; and that when experiencing the deepest sorrow because
men will not believe, we are only sharing the sufferings of Him who
mourned on account of unbelief, and wept over lost Jerusalem because
it would not know the things of its peace. All this is as certain
as that there is such a living person as the Saviour, unchanged in
character, everywhere present, seeing the evil and the good, hating
the one and loving the other, whose labour and whose joy is that God's
name should be hallowed, His kingdom come, and His will be done on
earth as it is done in heaven.

Oh, how depressing, how deadening, to have any doubts as to this
reality of the interest which our God and Saviour takes in the good of
human souls! How must the dread thought silence the tongue, wither the
heart, and paralyse the hand, that however ardent the wish influencing
us to be good ourselves, or to do good to others, God is indifferent
to both, and has no real interest in either--as if we had more love,
more holiness, and more desire that the kingdom of righteousness
should advance, than the loving and holy God! Nay, how is it possible
for us to have any true love at all to human friends unless it is
first kindled by Him, and is in sympathy with Him, who loved His
neighbour as Himself?

Let me here remind you of the only other alternative set before
you,--it is the awful one of being a "labourer together" with Satan.
Our Lord rejects neutrality; for such is really impossible. He
recognises the _no_ real friend as a positive enemy. "He that is not
with me is against me;" "He who gathereth not scattereth;" "Ye cannot
serve God and mammon," but must serve either. Now, Satan has a work
on earth. It is this spirit which "worketh in the children of
disobedience." Will we, then, work with him in his desire to destroy
our own souls? Will we have "fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness," and take part with that wicked one in his dread work of
opposing the kingdom of light, and advancing the kingdom of darkness
in the world? Will we assist him in tempting others to evil,--in
entangling souls more and more in the mesh