in their hopes. All the promises of God in Christ Jesus are yea and amen; and it is because of their certain and punctual accomplishment, that the hope which they inspire is a hope which maketh not ashamed.1 When the verse is regarded in this view, its reference is to the distant future-not to the time past when the promises were made, not even to the present time when the promises are believed, but to that future time when in act and by performance the promises will all be made good. When found in very truth that the glory, now only revealed, and looked forward to but in perspective or by anticipation, is fully realised-then will the believer lift up his head and rejoice. Otherwise, ashamed of the vain and illusory imagination on which he had before rested, he would sink into despair.

Or, secondly, the text may be understood in reference to the present time, when the promises are only as yet believed, and the fulfilment of them is still in reserve. Even at this earlier stage, might faith have a present and powerful effect in repressing shame, and more especially the shame of making the avowal of itself, and so of testifying for Christ. Like every other principle of strong and felt urgency within, it may delight in the vent and forthgoing of its own utterance, and in bearing down the restraints whether of shame or of fear, which might have otherwise intercepted the expression of it. "I believed, therefore have I spoken." "My heart was hot within me, and the fire burned-then Psalm cxvi, 10.

1 Romans, v, 5.

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spake I with my tongue. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." These verses point not to the future vindication and triumph of our faith by the verification of its object; but to the present antagonism and victory, so to speak, of the principle of faith over the principle of shame as exemplified by our Saviour, who, for the joy that was set before Him, but was only yet in prospect, endured the cross and also despised the shame. Thus too the apostle was not ashamed, and that because of the certainty he felt in Him whom he believed, and the firm persuasion he had of His ability to save him. And so he bids Timothy not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, who Himself tells us that whosoever shall be. ashamed of Him and of His words, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father. It is therefore a present feeling, a present sensibility, that is spoken of in all these passages; and of which it is required that in the strength of our faith it should be overruled, and not given way to. We like this view of the text. It binds so together the belief of its first clause with the confession of its second-making them, if not so identical, at least so inseparable, as fully to explain the common virtues or common effects which are ascribed to each of them; and fully to harmonise the saying, that 'confession is unto salvation,' with the saying, that "the end of our faith is the salvation of our souls.'

'Psalm xxxix, 3.

3 1 Peter, i, 9.

3 2 Matthew, xii, 34.

From the proposition of this verse, a certain converse proposition might be drawn, that might well be used as a criterion by which to test and to ascertain the reality of our faith. If it be true that whosoever believeth on Him is not ashamed, then it should be true that whosoever is ashamed of Him doth not believe. Or in the terms of the preceding verse, Whosoever maketh not confession of Him with the mouth, believeth Him not with the heart. How comes it then, that Christ and all which is expressly Christian, are so habitually and systematically excluded from society as topics of conversation? What shall we say, even of those who are denominated the professing people, what shall we say of their silence on the sacred themes of the soul and the Saviour and eternity, amid the companionships of this world? When do we ever meet with the free and copious utterance that would flow from the mouth on these subjects, if only the heart was full of them? The general emigration of a whole neighbourhood from one country to another in this world, would be the constant talk of all its parties and throughout all its families, for months before the embarkation, and while the busy work of preparations and outfits was going on. How is it that we meet with nothing like this, on the subject of that universal emigration from one world to another, which, by successive transportations across the dark valley and shadow of death, will so surely and in so short a time, overtake the whole of our living population? Is it because there are no outfits,

no preparatious, and therefore no prospects to talk about?-these having no place in the converse, just because they have no place in the business or in the hearts of men? They are seldom or never the subjects of speech just because they are seldom or never the subjects of thought. Or if there be any who think of them, but are ashamed to speak of them-such we say is the overbearing magnitude of the interest at stake, that it needs but a realising sense of them to put to flight both the fear and the shame of this world. The engrossing affection of the great and the one thing needful would displace and subordinate every inferior affection of our nature; and, on the other hand, the total want of a practical earnestness or concern therein, as evinced by the tenor and talk of almost every company, might well justify the, question-Verily, is there such a thing as faith upon the earth?

Ver. 12, 13. 'For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.' But even a universal apostacy or unbelief would not make the faith of God to be of no effect. He is true, though every man should be a liar; and the precious truth announced in these verses invests with an ample warrant the messengers of salvation, who might go forth the bearers of a full and unexcepted commission, to assail even a whole world lying in wickedness and unconcern,

by plying with the overtures of a free salvation, each and every individual of the great human family. God, it is said here, makes no difference between the Jew and the Greek; and there are some, who, in defending the articles of their own scientific theology, would make the universality of the gospel offer lie in this-that, now when the middle wall of partition is broken down, it might be offered to men of every nation. But the Scriptural theology carries the universality farther down than this-and so as that the gospel might be offered, not merely to men of every nation, but to each man of every nation. God is not only no respecter of nations, He is no respecter of persons. It is not only whatsoever nation shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved; but whatsoever man of that nation shall call upon the name of the Lord, he shall be saved. We are not now probing into the depths of the Almighty's government; or speculating on the counsels of a predestinating God. But on the authority of these verses, we are attempting to give forth the plain and palpable duties of every minister and every hearer-which is for the former to knock at every single door, and crave admittance for the gospel into every single heart, making an honest, and in the most obvious sense of the term, a real tender of salvation to every man; and for the latter to respond with the same honesty and in full confidence, to the call that has been thus sounded in his hearing-So that his call back again shall not be of words