s faith.--We use the word in the
Christian sense of trust in God. When a man feels that God is with him
he can stand up against all the powers of earth and hell. "If God be
for us, who can be against us?" The heroes of the past, who subdued
kingdoms and wrought righteousness, have all been men of faith. Recall
Hebrews xi., the Covenanters, the Ironsides of Cromwell, the Huguenots,
Luther, Knox. Their faith may not have been so enlightened as it might
have been had their knowledge been wider. Their religious creeds may
have contained propositions that are no longer accepted, but they were
strong because of their undoubted faith in God. When His presence is
an abiding presence with us and in us, our

Strength is as the strength of ten,
Because our hearts are pure.

He who fears God will know no other fear.

The third source of courage is sympathy.--A man who has God with him
will be brave if he stand alone, but he will be greatly helped if he is
in company with others like himself and knows that he has the sympathy
of good men. You remember St. Paul on his journey to Rome reaching a
little village about thirty miles from the great city. The look-out
for him was very depressing. He had appealed to Caesar, but what
likelihood was there of his obtaining justice in Caesar's capital. He
might be thrown to the lions, or made to fight for his life in the
Coliseum, a spectacle to the Roman multitude. Then it was that a few
Roman Christians who had heard of his approach came out to meet him,
and, it is said, "he thanked God and took courage." Such was the power
of sympathy. If we would be encouraged we will seek it. If we would
encourage others we will give it.

We will only say in closing this chapter that its subject is most truly
illustrated by the life of our Lord himself. The mediaeval conception
of Christ was that He exhibited only the passive virtues of meekness,
patience, and submission to wrong. From the gospels we form a
different idea. He vanquished the devil in the wilderness; He faced
human opposition boldly and without fear; He denounced the hypocrisy of
the Pharisees, and encountered their rage and violence. He went calmly
along His appointed path, neither turning to the right hand nor to the
left. Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, could not deter Him from doing
His Father's work. Amid a tumultuous tempest of ill-will He moved
straight forward, foreseeing His death, "setting His face toward