vation, through the finished work of the Mediator. And it will be our chief business to engage you with the metaphorical description which the apostle gives of this hope, and thus aptly to introduce the peculiar claims of the Floating Church. St. Paul likens this hope to an anchor; and then declares of this anchor, or the hope, that it "entereth into that within the veil." Let these be our topics of discourse:

The first, that the christian's hope is as an anchor to his soul.

The second, that this hope, or this anchor, "entereth into that within the veil."

expresses it, "with every wind of doctrine;" and whatever, therefore, tends to the keeping us in the right faith, in spite of gusts of error, must deserve to be characterized as an anchor of the soul. But, we may unhesitatingly declare, that there is a power, the very strongest, in the hope of salvation through Christ, of enabling us to stand firm against the incursions of heresy. The man who has this hope will have no ear for doctrines which, in the least degree, depreciate the person or work of the Mediator. You take away from him all that he holds most precious, if you could once shake his belief in the I. Now the idea which is immediate- atonement. It is not that he is afraid of ly suggested by this metaphor of the examining the grounds of his own conanchor is that of our being exposed to fidence; it is, that, having well examgreat moral peril, tossed on rough wa- ined them, and certified himself as to ters, and in danger of making shipwreck their being irreversible, his confidence of our faith. And we must be well a- has become wound up, as it were, with ware, if at all acquainted with ourselves his being; and it is like assaulting his and our circumstances, that such idea existence, to assault his hope. The is in every respect accurate, and that hope pre-supposes faith in the Savior; the imagery of a tempest-tossed ship, and faith has reasons for the persuasion girt about by the rock and the quick- that Jesus is God's Son, and "able to sand, as well as beaten by the hurri- save to the uttermost :" and though the cane, gives no exaggerated picture of individual is ready enough to probe the believer in Christ, as opposition, these reasons, and to bring them to under various forms, labors at his ruin. any fitting criterion, it is evident, that We are not, indeed, concerned at pre- where faith has once taken possession, sent with delineating the progress, but and generated hope, he has so direct only the steadfastness of the christian; and overwhelming an interest in holdbut here, also, the ocean, with its waves ing fast truth, that it must be more than and its navies, furnishes the aptest of a precious objection, or a well-turned figures. If there be any principle, or cavil, which will prevail to the loosenset of principles, which keeps the chris- ing of his grasp. And therefore do we tian firm and immovable amid the trials affirm of the hope of salvation, that he and tempests, which, like billows and who has it, is little likely to be carried winds, beat on him furiously, it is evi- about with every wind of doctrine. We dent that we may fairly liken that prin- scarcely dare think that those who are ciple, or that set of principles, to the christians only in profession and theoanchor, which holds the ship fast, whilst ry, would retain truth without waverthe elements are raging, and enables ing, if exposed to the machinations of her to ride out in safety the storm. insidious reasoners. They do not feel And all, therefore, that is necessary, in their everlasting portion so dependent order to the vindicating the metaphor on the doctrine of redemption through of our text is, the showing that the the blood and righteousness of a Surehope of which St. Paul speaks is just ty, that, to shake this doctrine, is to calculated for the giving the christian make them castaways for eternity; and this fixedness, and thus preventing his therefore, neither can they oppose that being driven on the rock, or drawn in-resistance to assault which will be ofto the whirlpool.

There are several, and all simple modes, in which it may be shown that such is the property of this hope. We first observe, that there is great risk of our being carried about, as an apostle

fered by others who know that it is their immortality they are called to surrender. You may look, then, on an individual, who, apparently unprepared for a vigorous defence of his creed, is yet not to be overborne by the strongest

onset of heresy. And you may think by the strength of reason, and not to account for his firmness by resolv- through the might of mental energy, ing it into a kind of obstinacy, which that moral shipwreck is avoided; but makes him inaccessible to argument; that a hope of salvation will keep the and thus take from his constancy all vessel firm when all the cables which moral excellence, by representing it as man weaves for himself have given imperviousness to all moral attack. But way like tow; and that thus, in the we have a better explanation to pro- wildest of the storms which evil men pose; one which does not proceed on and evil angels can raise, this hope the unwarranted assumption, that there will verify the apostle's description, must be insensibility where there has that it is an anchor of the soul, and not been defeat. We know of the indi- that, too, sure and steadfast. vidual, that he has fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before him in the Gospel. And you may say of hope, that it is a shadowy and airy thing, not adapted to the keeping man firm; but we assert, on the contrary, of the hope of salvation, that he who has grasped it, feels that he has grasped what is substantial and indestructible; and that henceforward, to wrench away this hope would be like wrenching away the rafter from the drowning man, who knows that, if he loosen his hold, he must perish in the waters. Ay, the hope is too precious to be tamely surrendered. It has animated him too much, and cheered him too much, and sustained him too much, to be given up otherwise than inch by inch-every fraction of the truths on which it rests being disputed for, with that vehemence of purpose which proves the consciousness that with defeat can come nothing but despair. And therefore is it that so little way is made by the teacher of infidelity and error. He is striving to prevail on the individual he attacks, to throw away, as worthless, a treasure which he would not change for whatsoever earth can proffer of the rich and the glorious; and where is the marvel, if he find himself resisted with the determination of one who wrestles for his all? You may liken, then, the believer in Christ to a vessel launched on troubled waters, and you may consider scepticism and false doctrine as the storms which threaten him with shipwreck. And when you express surprise that a bark, which seems so frail, and so poorly equipped against the tempest, should ride out the hurricane, whilst others, a thousand times better furnished with all the resources of intellectual seamanship, drive from their moorings, and perish on the quicksand; we have only to tell you, that it is not

But there are other respects in which it may be equally shown, that there is a direct tendency in christian hope to the promoting christian steadfastness. We observe, next, that a believer in Christ is in as much danger of being moved by the trials with which he meets, as by attacks upon his faith. But he has a growing consciousness that "all things work together for good," and therefore an increasing submissivenessin the season of tribulation, or an ever-strengthening adherence to God, as to a father. And that which contributes, perhaps more than aught besides, to the producing this adherence, is the hope on which the christian lays hold. If you study the language of David when in trouble, you will find that it was hope by which he was sustained. He describes himself in terms which accurately correspond to the imagery of our text. "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts; all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me." But when the tempest was thus at its height, and every thing seemed to conspire to overwhelm and destroy him, he could yet say, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul! and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." It is hope, you observe, to which he turns, as the principle through which the soul might best brave the hurricane. And can we wonder that a hope, such as that of the believer in Christ, should so contribute to the steadfastness of its possessor, that the winds may buffet him, and the floods beat against him, and yet he remains firm, like the wellanchored vessel? He knew that, in throwing in his lot with the followers of Jesus, he was consenting to a life of stern moral discipline, and that he

and force him back to the habits and | And therefore,-to bring the matter scenes which he has professedly aban- again under the figure of our text,doned. The danger of spiritual ship- we can declare of hope, that it miniswreck would be comparatively small, ters to christian steadfastness, when the if the sea on which he voyages were temptations of the world, the flesh, and swept by no storms but those of sor- the devil, combine to produce waverrow and persecution. The risk is far ing and inconstancy. Again we liken greater, when he is assaulted by the the christian to a ship, and the temptasolicitations of his own lusts, and the tions by which he is met to a tempest, corrupt affections of his nature are which threatens to drive him back, and plied with their correspondent objects. cast him a wreck upon the shore. And And though it too often happens that it would avail nothing that he was furhe is overcome by temptation, we are nished with the anchors, if such they sure, that, if he kept hope in exercise, may be called, of a philosophic love of he would not be moved by the plead- virtue, of a feeling that vice is degradings of the flesh and the world. Let ing to man, and of a general opinion hope be in vigor, and the christian's that God may possibly approve selfmind is fixed on a portion which he denial. If these held the ship at first, can neither measure by his imagina- they would quickly give way, when tion, nor be deprived of by his ene- the storm of evil passion grew towards mies. He is already in a city which its height. But hope-the hope of a hath no need of the sun, neither of the heaven into which shall enter nothing moon; whose walls are of jasper, and that defileth; the hope of joys as pure whose streets of gold. Already he as they are lofty, and as spiritual as joins the general assembly and church they are abiding; the hope of what the of the first-born-already is he the eye hath not seen, and the ear hath equal of angels-already is he advanc- not heard, but which can be neither ating with a shining company, which no tained nor enjoyed without holinessman can number, towards the throne of this hope, we say, is a christian's sheetGod and of the Lamb, and beholding anchor in the hurricane of temptation; face to face the Creator and Redeemer, and if he use this hope, in his endeaand bursting into an ecstasy of adora- vors to bear up against the elements, tion, as the magnificence of Deity is he shall, by God's help, weather the more and more developed. And now, worst moral storm; and then, when the if, at a time such as this,-when it may sky is again bright, and the mighty almost be said that he has entered the billows have subsided, and the vessel haven, that he breathes the fragrance, again spreads her canvass, oh! he shall and gazes on the loveliness, and shares gratefully and rejoicingly confess of the delights of the Paradise of God,- this hope, that it is an anchor of the he be solicited to the indulgence of a soul, and that, too, sure and steadfast. lust, the sacrifice of a principle, or the pursuit of a bauble,-can you think the likelihood to be great that he will be mastered by the temptation, that he will return, at the summons of some low passion, from his splendid excursion, and defile himself with the impurities of earth? Oh! we can be confident and the truth is so evident as not to need proof-that, in proportion as a man is anticipating the pleasures of eternity, he will be firm in his resolve of abstaining from the pleasures of sin. We can be confident, that if hope, the hope set before us in the Gospel, be earnestly clung to, there will be no room in the grasp for the glittering toys with which Satan would bribe us to throw away our eternity.

II. Now, throughout these illustrations we have rather assumed than proved that christian hope is of a nature widely different from that of any other. But it will be easily seen that we have claimed for it nothing beyond the truth, if we examine, in the second place, the apostle's statement in regard of a christian's hope, that it "entereth into that within the veil." The allusion is undoubtedly to the veil, or curtain, which separated the holy place from the holy of holies in the temple at Jerusalem. By the holy of holies was typified the scene of God's immediate presence, into which Christ entered when the days of his humiliation were ended. And hence we understand by the hope, or the anchor, entering