smile would tell him that his person and character were not strange. A kindling of tender sympathy would glow upon their countenances, and he would feel that he was there a husband, a father, and a friend. And when from such recollections he should go back to the scene of resort where every look told him he was a stranger; he would at least be solaced by the memory of that distant home. And if he were besides a pilgrim, travelling in the direction of his native land, his affections would then bound over every obstacle, and would bring him in sacred anticipation to that well known spot where his wanderings would cease, and the movements of his heart be met and understood.

Such in fact, was the condition of these servants of God. Their confession that they were "pilgrims and strangers in the earth," was the result of certain promises of God with which they were familiar. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, they were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

God had revealed to their view a distant scene of full and perfect happiness; a world of knowledge purity and bliss; "a city that had foundations, whose builder and maker was God;" a world new in its character and pursuits; quite

indeed opposed to those of the present world. God had also illuminated their minds as to the value and the duration of that future abode, and had given to them a taste for the nature of its enjoyments. He had put their hearts into a sympathy and accordance with its objects and inhabitants. He had there given to them a final home and a sanctuary; and in the pursuit of that rest, they were willing to become on earth but as strangers and pilgrims.

This condition of mind, this living by faith in future realities, had been typified by the residence of the patriarchs in the land where they had no present possession, but which was nevertheless the land of promise destined for the future descendants of Israel.

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"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should afterward receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." It was thus entirely with reference to the future promises of God, that these men accounted themselves to be at present but as strangers and pilgrims.

The great objects connected with the promises of revelation are however as certain and as valuable to the servants of God in one gene

with the

This sal

ration as in another. The lapse of years deducts nothing from their worth. The Gentile Christian of the present time has an equal interest in the promises of salvation, pious Israelites of those elder days. vation is addressed to our hopes and fears, to our sympathy and solicitude with the same force as to theirs. If we believe the promises of God, and "are persuaded of them, and embrace them," we shall equally with the patriarchs confess that here "we are pilgrims and strangers;" we shall acquire the sacred habit of throwing forward our thoughts and affections to the final resting-place which is provided for us; to "those new heavens and that new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, and "where the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall lead us to fountains of living water, and where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes."

As the words of the text are thus fairly applicable to every real Christian, let us with God's blessing contemplate more closely, THE IMPORT OF THIS CONFESSION, WITH THE CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH IT IS MADE.

"And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." There is a very cold and philosophical method of admitting that which none can deny; viz. that in this world we have no continuing city. No man is

so careless of his circumstances, and so ignorant of events around him, as to be surprised at the confession that we are but sojourners upon earth. No man expects to live longer than during the average term of human years. But there is, I repeat, a cold and philosophical mode of making this confession. It is made without consideration, without any fair reference to the results of death, or to the responsibility of life. It is made with levity, or with apathy. It implies no detachment of the affections from earthly things; no sense of relationship to the providence of God, and to the great dispensation of Christianity. It is the reluctant accordance of the understanding with the visible demonstrations of mortality; but it implies no conformity of the moral feelings with those awful and affecting demonstrations.

The confession of the text however is a confession of the heart, as well as of the understanding. It is the result of a peculiar state of the affections. The circumstances under which the patriarchs made this concession were remarkable. They saw afar off certain promises of God; and they were persuaded of them, and embraced them; and in consequence, they confessed themselves to be strangers and pilgrims on earth. In like manner, it is said of Moses, "that he endured as seeing him who is invisible;" that "he chose rather to suffer

affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, because he had respect to the recompense of the reward."

In like manner, the revelation of a future! world; the promise of Christ's return to the earth; the promise of eternal life in him; of endless felicity in his presence; these promises give to the minds of those who believe them, a new view and estimate of present things. They now comprehend the history of their mortality, and the reason why earthly objects cannot fill up the capacity of their hearts for bliss. They have received God's record respecting the condition of the world. They find it to be under the curse of God on account of sin. Hence man in his best state is alto

gether vanity. "He cometh up, and is cut down, even like a flower, under the mower's scythe." But this part of the revealed record is not that part which is calculated to exert the most desirable influence upon his heart. All this lesson his own experience has taught him, although it has not disclosed to him the true source of his misery. With the fact of sorrow and of death he has grown up familiar; and did the record of God pause at this point, he would find little in it to attract his mind. But the record contains the promise of restoration. "A deliverer shall come and turn away ungodliness from Jacob." The deliverer did