I'ACK 
 
 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 
 
 639 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED IN 
 
 OF 
 
 TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, 
 
 FEBRUARY 23, 1851. 
 
 California BY 
 
 WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D., 
 
 MASTER OF THE COLLEGE. 
 
 Printed by Requett. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. 
 CAMBRIDGE: J. DEIGHTON. 
 
 M.DCCC.LI.
 
 Camftrftrge : 
 
 Srlntrt at tile Mnibcrsfts tirrss.
 
 THE following Sermon was written without any 
 view to its being printed, and was delivered in the 
 ordinary course of College services. Several of those 
 who heard it having expressed a desire to see it in 
 print, I gladly offer it to them in that form, with my 
 affectionate wishes for their welfare, and especially for 
 their spiritual welfare. 
 
 W. W. 
 
 TRIMTT LODGE, 
 February 24, 1851. 
 
 2111264
 
 A SEKMON, 
 
 ISAIAH XXX. part of 15th verse. 
 In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. 
 
 rpHESE words occur in a warning addressed by 
 - the prophet Isaiah to his countrymen, in which 
 he rebukes them for seeking strength for their weak- 
 ness and help for their distress by recourse to foreign 
 allies and new friends; instead of following their 
 ancient guide, the command and word of God, and 
 lending their aid to strengthen His government, as it 
 had long been established among them. They were 
 harassed and distressed by various menaces and 
 assaults of enemies, by invasions and calamities, now 
 on this side and now on that; and so their minds 
 were thrown off their balance ; they were shaken out 
 of that position of trust in God, submission to his 
 will, and determination to abide, through all events, 
 in the way in which he had placed them, which was 
 their true course of conduct as the especial people 
 of God, favoured, directed, and protected by him. 
 They wanted to call in the aid of that ancient foe 
 from which God had so signally delivered and sepa- 
 rated them. They wished to be sustained by arms 
 and by combatants of a different kind from those 
 which God had appointed for them, and through which 
 he had so often given them the victory. The old 
 polity, the old spirit, the old mode of warfare, they
 
 6 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 
 
 thought were no longer to be depended on. They 
 were eager for new modes and new helps. On this 
 disposition the prophet pronounces God's condem- 
 nation, (chap. xxxi. 1) "Woe to them that go down 
 to Egypt for help ; and stay on horses, and trust in 
 chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, 
 because they are very strong ; but they look not unto 
 the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord." And 
 in like manner in this chapter, ver. 1. "Woe to the 
 rebellious children, saith the Lord ; that take counsel, 
 but not of me ; that cover with a covering, but not 
 of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin : that walk 
 to go down to Egypt, and have not asked at my 
 mouth : to strengthen themselves in the strength of 
 Pharaoh, and trust in the shadow of Egypt." It is 
 supposed by Commentators that some of the Jews, 
 in their consternation at the impending invasion of 
 the Assyrians, even proposed that the nation should 
 renounce its national religion and assimilate itself to 
 the religion of Egypt, in order to obtain the protection 
 of that kingdom. But even if this were not so, the 
 prevalence of a disposition to disregard the ancient 
 commands and ordinances of God, through which the 
 nation had hitherto prospered, to let slip the trust 
 in God by which they had hitherto been strengthened 
 and supported, and to look out for some new mode 
 of dealing with the national affairs, some new prin- 
 ciples of polity and religion to remedy the defects 
 now supposed to be felt in the old, was an offence 
 grave enough to call forth the sternest prophetical 
 rebukes, and to bring down upon their heads re-
 
 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 7 
 
 doubled denunciations of " woe," if they persisted in 
 such a course of conduct. And along with these 
 rebukes and denunciations, the prophet points out to 
 them what is their true and genuine course. He 
 declares that the Lord shall utterly frustrate and ex- 
 tinguish the new policy thus suggested : he shall break 
 it like the breaking of a potter's vessel, so that there 
 shall not remain a potsherd to take fire from the 
 hearth or water from the well : and then he adds : 
 " For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel : 
 In returning and rest shall ye be saved ; in quietness 
 and confidence shall be your strength." 
 
 Though these words were thus, on their first de- 
 livery, applied to a national policy, and uttered with 
 reference to a nation bound to God by a special cove- 
 nant of service, obedience, and promise ; they do not 
 on that account lack adaptation to us, with reference 
 both to private and to public matters. For God's 
 dealings with his chosen people are, we know, full of 
 instruction for us; contain, in every page of the record, 
 things which were written for our ensample, and 
 warnings and exhortations which have a scope beyond 
 temporal interests and past times. And if, in such 
 exhortations and warnings, the Jews could be re- 
 minded, at every step, of a special covenant by which 
 they were bound to God; which they violated by 
 disobedience and mistrust, and which was for the 
 faithful, full of promises of hope and joy; are not 
 we too bound to God by a covenant of far better 
 promises, and under it vowed to a deeper and more 
 healthful obedience? If under the old law those
 
 8 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 
 
 were addressed who had made a covenant with God 
 with sacrifice, are not we too included in the appeal, 
 for whom a covenant has been made by a far better 
 and more precious sacrifice, of which that former rite 
 was merely the type and prophecy? If they had 
 been marked as the especial servants of God, have 
 not we also been signed and sealed as the soldiers 
 and servants of Christ ? received into His fold, placed 
 under His protection, admitted as inheritors of His 
 eternal promises ? Well then may we apply to our- 
 selves what is said to the subjects of that older dis- 
 pensation, and seek comfort and protection, support 
 and hope, from the mighty Lord under whom we are 
 placed by the dispensation in which we live : well 
 may we too expect to find, as they were taught to 
 believe, that under such guardianship, in quietness 
 and confidence shall be our strength. Let us then 
 consider some of the ways in which we may apply 
 to ourselves this exhortation, and make it a means of 
 guidance and encouragement in the various trials and 
 dangers to which we may be exposed. 
 
 In the first place, the exhortation which the text 
 contains may be regarded as enjoining, to every ser- 
 vant of God, a resignation to God's will, a trust in 
 God's goodness, and a dependence on him alone for 
 relief, in all that may happen in the course of his 
 earthly career. When great dangers or great sorrows 
 menace men, it is difficult for them to sit quietly 
 waiting the impending blow. When the heaven 
 grows black with clouds and the coming tempest 
 strikes men's hearts with fear, they rush this way and
 
 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 9 
 
 that for shelter ; often, as if there must be some gain 
 in mere movement, some advantage in being other- 
 where than where they are. But yet when a man is 
 once accustomed to feel himself under the care of 
 God's providence, he learns to subdue this feeling 
 of agitated consternation. He knows that his life has 
 been full of blessings. Most likely he can perceive 
 that many things, which at first seemed to him as 
 great calamities, have been among his greatest bless- 
 ings. He has sought to be at peace with God through 
 Christ. If he have attained to this, what real calamity 
 can reach him? If he have not yet attained, what 
 calamity can be so great as his not obtaining this 
 blessing? He has sought intercourse with God by 
 prayer. He doubts not that God hears him and 
 answers his prayers, in the manner which is best for 
 him. He knows how much better is earthly and tem- 
 poral adversity, joined with heartfelt prayer to God, 
 than the greatest worldly prosperity of those who do 
 not pray to God, and who live in the world with no 
 feeling of his presence and no intercourse with him. 
 He knows that any adversity which may happen to his 
 body or to his fortunes, is but for a time, and that if 
 he can gain acceptance with God, all such sparks of 
 trouble will be extinguished by the great and exceeding 
 weight of glory which shall be his lot hereafter. All 
 that happens to him, good or bad, here, is but a prepa- 
 ration for that ; a preparation, as bringing him into 
 nearer intercourse with God, here, for a perpetual life 
 in his presence hereafter. In so far as he is already 
 in communication with God through Christ, he is 
 
 B
 
 10 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 
 
 already at home : whither then shall he flee, however 
 tempests rise and storms rage ? His strength is to sit 
 still. To hope for safety or satisfaction elsewhere is 
 mere illusion. It is the result of the well-known 
 deceptive tendency of the human faculties, by which 
 those places which are distant seem smoother and 
 fairer than those which are near. It is the result of 
 forgetfulness of him who alone can save and can 
 destroy. It is wandering and mistrust, instead of 
 quietness and confidence, and therefore it is weakness 
 instead of strength. Our true strength is in the feel- 
 ing which our Lord's disciples expressed : " Lord, to 
 whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal 
 life." Happy are they who have in their inmost heart 
 this source of strength ; happy they who rest in such 
 a quietness growing out of such a confidence. They 
 remain still, though the world be moved, for they 
 hang upon heaven. Their daily prayer is, Thy will 
 be done on earth, through all commotions, as they 
 know it is done in heaven, through endless ages of 
 serene joy. Their belief, which they are taught to 
 entertain more and more confidently as they grow to 
 the fulness of Christian life, is, We know that all 
 things work together for good to them that love God ; 
 and this belief keeps them, though always active in 
 obedience, and abounding in the work of the Lord, 
 still, in their reliance, stedfast, unmoveable, inasmuch 
 as they know that their labour is not vain in the 
 Lord. 
 
 But as there may be sorrows and afflictions arising 
 from outward causes, which may drive men to search
 
 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 11 
 
 where their strength really is, and may lead them to 
 the happiness of finding that it is in quietness and 
 confidence, if they have really put themselves in God's 
 hand ; so may there be internal trials, troubles of the 
 soul, hazards of faith, perplexities of mind with regard 
 to the truth of God, which may, in like manner, make 
 them seek for the best dependence which they can 
 find. As there may be, in the outer world, storms 
 and earthquakes, wars and rumours of wars, so that 
 the frame of the world may seem to be shaken and 
 the foundations of the earth and of man's material life 
 to reel to and fro ; so may there come times when the 
 foundations of man's spiritual life seem to be shaken; 
 when opinions rush this way and that, like armies in 
 fierce and wild warfare ; when the doctrines which 
 have long been received as most certainly taught in 
 scripture, are called in question, or have a new aspect 
 given to them by men of busy and eager minds; when 
 men ask for more certainty, more light, more authori- 
 tative teaching, more manifest completeness and sys- 
 tem in the doctrines taught : and when, by the pre- 
 valence of such commotion in the atmosphere of 
 religious life, even the calmest and least presumptuous 
 Christian is called upon to consider the grounds and 
 foundation points of his faith; is hardly allowed to 
 abstain from doing so. For it is a peculiar feature of 
 such times of shaking and confusion in the minds of 
 men, that they who have themselves fallen into per- 
 plexity and wavering, as to matters of Christian Faith, 
 are vehemently bent upon drawing others into the 
 state of mind in which they themselves are. Though
 
 12 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 
 
 they own themselves to be astray, and to be unable to 
 find the way to the truth, they are most importunate 
 and imperious that others should come away from the 
 ancient paths, and try to join them, or at least, wander 
 as they are wandering. They are altogether impatient 
 and reproachful with regard to those who do not 
 move either forward or backward, either to the right 
 hand or to the left. And so contagious is this kind of 
 vehement commotion of the thoughts, that it may 
 sometimes shake for a time the most stable of Chris- 
 tians ; till they are by some experience accustomed to 
 this tumultuous zeal about knowledge without know- 
 ledge, this movement without aim. But when this first 
 agitation of the mind, arising from the impetuosity 
 of such appeals, has somewhat subsided, we reflect 
 that all those vehement cries which we hear around us 
 cannot make the truth cease to be the truth. They 
 cannot deprive us of the belief which is founded on 
 habitual intercourse with God in prayer. They cannot 
 take from us that Saviour who has delivered us from 
 the load of our sins, and opened to our spirits the gate 
 of everlasting life, and shed his Spirit on our hearts in 
 many an hour of private devotion. They cannot blot 
 from our recollection all those servants of God who 
 have gone before us in his faith and fear, holding 
 intercourse with him through the forms of worship 
 which we use ; reading in his Scriptures the truths 
 which we from our childhood have been taught to 
 read there ; departing this life in the assurance of 
 Christ's second coming, which they have transmitted 
 to us. The truths on which they rested their minds
 
 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 13 
 
 and hearts and souls, cannot have melted away by the 
 mere lapse of time. That which was true then must 
 be true still. That which was the means of commu- 
 nion with God then must be the means of such com- 
 munion still. That which was the meaning of man's 
 birth and life and death then, must be its meaning 
 still. God cannot change because man is ever chang- 
 ing his notions and his mode of expressing them. God 
 cannot become farther from us because man is un- 
 quiet and mistrustful : or rather, from those who are 
 presumptuously unquiet and carelessly mistrustful, he 
 will withdraw himself; but if we continue quiet and 
 trustful, we shall still keep hold of the consolation of 
 his presence ; we shall still feel that he does not leave 
 us nor forsake us ; we shall find he has not forgotten 
 his goodness so long bestowed : we shall receive the 
 sure mercies of David, and in quietness and confi- 
 dence shall be our strength. 
 
 There is one form, in particular, which may be 
 taken by these struggles of opinion, these impulses 
 towards religious change without settled religious 
 conviction, these attempts of the unquiet to drag into 
 their mazes those who are quiet in the land. There 
 is one especial form which such attempts may take, in 
 our time, and amongst ourselves, which bears a close 
 analogy to the state of things under which the warn- 
 ing contained in the text was uttered. The prophet 
 condemns those who, alarmed and disturbed from their 
 self-possession by the troubles and dangers of their 
 nation, turned their eyes towards Egypt, and had a 
 tendency to seek safety and strength in friendship
 
 14 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 
 
 with her, and in the use of her arms; that Egypt 
 from which God had so wonderfully led the nation 
 forth by signs and wonders and a stretch ed-out arm 
 that Egypt whose abominations were hateful to God ; 
 that Egypt, their deliverance from which had been 
 the beginning of their national freedom, the founda- 
 tion of their national greatness. Nevertheless, as in 
 the desert, when any hardship or obstacle came in the 
 way of their progress, there had been among the 
 Israelites those whose hearts turned back to the flesh- 
 pots of Egypt ; so now, when they were menaced by 
 foreign enemies, there were, among the variety of 
 opinions called up by fear and mistrust, those who 
 looked to Egypt as a refuge and support, a source 
 of strength and safety. Such a tendency vce also 
 have sometimes seen among some of our own nation. 
 For we too, as a nation, have, as you well know, had a 
 deliverance from captivity and darkness ; from spiritual 
 captivity and spiritual darkness. We have had our 
 Exodus, and have been led by zealous and favoured 
 servants of God into a land flowing with the milk and 
 honey of religious blessings ; with the free grace of 
 God, and the free use of his word and ordinances. We 
 have come out of the land of Egypt and out of the 
 house of bondage ; out of the land of idolatry and 
 the house of intellectual thraldom into a region of 
 pure worship and reasonable service. We have been 
 enabled to cast off the unrighteous tyranny of those 
 who make themselves lords over God's household, 
 and to secure for ourselves, we and our forefathers, 
 religious freedom, as we have secured also civil free-
 
 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 15 
 
 dom, in a measure of blessedness beyond almost all 
 other nations. We have thus come forth out of the 
 land of Egypt, by God's blessing, once and for ever. 
 Who would return thither ? Who would tread back 
 the steps of our Exodus ? Even if at times we are 
 vexed with contentions and struggles, with doubters 
 and gainsayers, with obstinate questionings, it may 
 be, beyond our power to answer ; with the weakness 
 of authority which naturally grows up among those 
 who are, above all things, jealous for freedom ; even 
 if such evils at times assail us, who would seek to 
 escape them by returning back to slavery ? by again 
 submitting ourselves to a human authority which 
 silences all questioning and decides all controversy 
 by its own absolute sentence ? Yet such a disposition 
 may sometimes be discerned among us, amid the whirl 
 of opinions on matters of religious concern. Men, im- 
 patient to know more than God has taught in his 
 Scripture, would rush back to the teaching of men 
 who assume the place of God. Men, offended at the 
 conflict of opinions which they see going on around 
 them, would fain have among them an infallible judge 
 of controversies. Men, dissatisfied with the simplicity 
 of the means by which in our common worship we 
 endeavour to raise our hearts to God, desire to behold 
 again Egyptian pomp and splendour. Men disturbed 
 at some of the circumstances of the Exodus by which 
 we were brought to our present condition, are ready 
 to speak evil of that great and blessed event in our 
 history. Men, framing to themselves in their minds 
 an ideal church of God upon earth, and seeing that 
 the visible church in which they live falls short of
 
 16 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 
 
 their idea ; as every visible church from the times of 
 the Apostles downwards has fallen short of the pattern 
 which Christ's commands imply, and which would be 
 worthy of what Christ did for us ; men, I say, thus 
 dissatisfied with that which is near them and which 
 they see, imagine that their idea must be realized in 
 that which as yet they have not truly seen. In all 
 these, and in many other ways, there is called up in 
 some men's minds, in times of impatience and vehe- 
 mence and levity and presumption, such as these in 
 which we live, a disposition to tread back the steps 
 of our national religious history ; to reject all that we 
 have with so much labour gained; to move back- 
 wards, since they see so many perplexities and diffi- 
 culties in moving forwards. But surely we shall be 
 too wise, too grateful to God for the mercies which we 
 have received, too happy in the spiritual blessings 
 which we at present enjoy, or may enjoy if we will 
 take them ; to feel any sympathy, to look in any 
 way except with pity and sorrow, upon such a dispo- 
 sition and tendency. We shall see that for us now, 
 as for the Israelites when they were solicited again to 
 put themselves under subjection to Egypt because 
 something at least must be done ; we shall see that 
 in spite of all these impulses of fear and trouble and 
 discontent to which some yield, our strength is in 
 quietness and confidence ; in quietly standing on the 
 ground on which we have stood ever since that de- 
 liverance; in firmly confiding in the doctrines in 
 which so many generations of pious and religious men 
 have found their consolation and support; and in 
 holding fast those religious ordinances which have
 
 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 17 
 
 brought to our nation so many and so great blessings, 
 and would have brought far more and greater if they 
 had been duly and consistently maintained, and ex- 
 tended, as the nation itself grew and spread. The 
 more we calmly examine our foundation and our con- 
 dition, the more we shall find that we are justified in 
 this quietness and confidence. The very cries that we 
 hear from dissatisfied and vehement voices, persuade 
 us more and more that this is so ; for they cry at one 
 season this thing, and at another that : at one period 
 the loud murmur rises that we have, in our Exodus, 
 gone too far ; at another, a murmur no less loud that 
 we have not gone far enough. And when, for a 
 moment, these passionate outcries subside, and we 
 can listen to the voice of Scripture, to the counsel 
 given us by the universal history of Christian lands, 
 and to the reasonings which have already been held 
 respecting such matters, by the thoughtful and pious 
 teachers who chose for us the ground on which we 
 should stand, and drew for us the lines of our plat- 
 form ; we then perceive that all that there is of co- 
 herent significance and argument, in these various and 
 discordant complaints and reproaches, had already 
 been fully weighed and answered ; and that they con- 
 tain really nothing which ought to disturb or diminish 
 our quietness and confidence, or make us doubt that 
 in them is our strength. 
 
 But it is not with regard to religious matters 
 only that we are importuned to deviate from the 
 courses which we have hitherto held, and seek, in 
 some new appliances, remedies for the evils of our 
 condition. There are many persons who seem to be
 
 18 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 
 
 overwhelmed and bewildered and affrighted at the 
 many and various forms of evil which they see pre- 
 vailing among various classes of our countrymen. 
 They see poverty and want, hunger and nakedness, 
 vice and crime, profaneness and blasphemy, dissolute- 
 ness and foulness, ignorance and degradation, on every 
 side, filling the atmosphere with gloom, blotting out 
 the light of day, and making, as it were, a darkness 
 that may be felt. Even worse than this, they see, 
 they think, prevailing between one class and another, 
 hatred and envy, malice and revenge, tyranny and 
 servility, a thirst of wealth and a thirst for a destruc- 
 tion of wealth, impulses which seem to them like 
 wild and tempestuous blasts, howling in every quarter 
 of the blackened sky. And so deeming of our con- 
 dition, they are loud and vehement in urging that 
 something, at any rate, should be done ; some new 
 movement made ; some new thing tried ; some new 
 source of strength and healing sought, before we 
 perish in the ruin which thus hangs over us. They 
 do not themselves propose any remedies for our dis- 
 eases which will bear a moment's examination; 
 not any in which they themselves have any settled 
 belief. But they have an impulse to rush this way 
 and that, as the mere animals do when the storm 
 rages above them ; flying from every place because it 
 is full of fear, and finding a new fear wherever they 
 go. They would rather that we should move any 
 whither than that we should stand still ; that we 
 should seek relief by any new appliance than that 
 we should go on hoping in those which are already 
 at work. And yet a moment's consideration will
 
 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 19 
 
 shew us how unwise and weak we should be, if we 
 were to yield to such impulses as these. Even in 
 such a case as that which we have made our image, 
 if a man were assailed by the bufferings of the tempest 
 in the darkness of night so deep that he could not 
 see his path, it might be wiser to stand still than to 
 stumble onwards into chasms and pitfalls. This 
 would be so, even if we could believe our condition 
 to be such as we have said it appears to those who 
 thus exclaim against our quietness and our confidence 
 in the influences which have hitherto prevailed among 
 us, to work on the side of the good and against the 
 evil. But with heartfelt gratitude to God, we say 
 that this is not so. That there is around us much of 
 misery and want and ignorance and vice, we too well 
 know; and let us by all means avoid the disposition 
 to extenuate these inflictions in any way which may 
 relax the zeal with which we endeavour to apply to 
 them the remedies which Providence has placed in 
 our power. But we have good ground for a stedfast 
 confidence that Providence has provided, not indeed 
 instruments which can extinguish such evils, so long 
 as man is what he is, but means and institutions 
 and principles by which they may be perpetually 
 resisted and repelled and made to recede, if only we 
 use these means with energy and faith and hope. 
 As powers that may be our strength in resisting the 
 vice and misery and ignorance which are in the world, 
 we have the blessed Gospel, the teaching of Christ, 
 the message of good tidings and the commands of 
 mutual love and mutual help, which he gave to men, 
 and which, however feebly obeyed, have still not been
 
 20 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 
 
 without their force, and are not now, we trust, without 
 a mighty efficacy. We have, we say, among us, as 
 an aid and support, the Spirit of Christianity; we 
 have, too, the institutions of Christianity, our Chris- 
 tian sabbaths, our Christian teaching, the Christian 
 superintendence of each local flock, the united wor- 
 ship of the company of Christ's disciples in every 
 spot and region throughout our land; and in every 
 spot and region also, a provision for the bodily wants 
 of the needy and destitute, such as is given to the 
 poor of scarcely any other land. We have growing 
 provisions for combating the ignorance of the growing 
 generations, by Christian instruction, bestowed under 
 the care and with the aid of the ministers of the 
 Gospel. With all these helps and supports, it would 
 indeed be weak and unthankful to despair. It would 
 indeed be unwise to lament and quail as if we had 
 no strength ; as if all that we have around us sup- 
 plied no powers of good to enable us to resist the 
 evil. No ! while we thus fear and despond, we are 
 like the servant of the prophet, who, when he saw 
 the place, where they were, surrounded by hostile 
 armies and hostile chariots, exclaimed that he and 
 his master were lost ; but when God had opened his 
 eyes, he saw that, on their side also, were chariots 
 of fire and horses of fire, and was ready to receive 
 the teaching which told him " they that are with us 
 are more than they that are against us." 
 
 But while we thus open our eyes to the views 
 which shew us that our strength is in quietness and 
 confidence, it behoves us above all things to consider 
 that this is not to be understood, of the quietness
 
 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 21 
 
 of inaction, of the confidence of carelessness. It may 
 indeed be true, that our strength is in quietly and 
 steadily adhering to the good influences and good 
 institutions that we have, rather than in unquiet and 
 hasty attempts to discover some new remedies for 
 our diseases, some new way of salvation : It may be 
 that our strength is, in our confidence in these in- 
 fluences and institutions : but then, it must be a 
 confidence in them which shews itself in the constancy 
 and energy with which we labour to make them 
 effective. When Isaiah exhorted his countrymen to 
 quietness and confidence in their own national position 
 and divinely appointed ordinances, he did not intend, 
 nor could intend, that they were to be inert in the 
 service of God, or slack in using the means of defence 
 and prosperity and success, which He had of old 
 wrought into their constitution. To shew what 
 strength there really is in our religion, and in the 
 powers and characteristics which God has given to us 
 as a nation, and in the institutions which have been 
 transmitted to us from the earliest Christian Churches, 
 or have grown up among us in the course of our 
 history ; This is the great task for all of us, so far as 
 we take any share in the fortunes of this land. If we 
 would really do our part, in order to resist and repel 
 the flow of evil which sometimes so appals and terri- 
 fies even brave hearts among us, it must be ours to 
 persevere, to elevate, to purify the spirit of Christianity 
 in our land; to extend, to all, Christian ministrations, 
 Christian education, the influence of Christian Sab- 
 baths and Christian ordinances. We can all do some- 
 thing in this way ; some of you may perhaps be so far
 
 22 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 
 
 favoured by God as to be able to do much. Indeed 
 there is none of us who, if he keep such objects con- 
 stantly in view, keep his heart constantly and deeply 
 impressed with the importance of these objects; take 
 every occasion of forwarding them, beginning from 
 this time if he has not already begun, and going on 
 till God shall call him away from this struggle of good 
 and evil, to answer for what he has done and what he 
 has left undone; there is no one who, if he thus 
 pursues this great object of the promotion of a Chris- 
 tian spirit and Christian education and Christian 
 ordinances, during the day that is given him to work, 
 may not do what may well be considered as much, if 
 it be compared with that which men in general, lan- 
 guid, and careless, and without faith and without hope 
 and without charity as they are, commonly are content 
 to do. And 0, my friends ! if you who now hear me, 
 and those who, race after race, occupy the place which 
 you now occupy, would really go from this scene, 
 which you will most of you soon leave, into the world, 
 with this resolution, to use your powers and to spend 
 your lives in thus resisting the long growing evils of 
 the land by means of the antagonist influences which 
 have ever prevailed and still prevail amongst us; 
 if you would carry into life such a plan of action ; 
 (inconsistent with no scheme of life, and with some 
 callings, the only plan of action which is at all con- 
 sistent:) if you would do this, what a blessing to our 
 beloved land would this place of preparation be ; and 
 how, in a single generation, would the evil spirits 
 tremble for the duration of the reign of evil among 
 us, and how would the angels which surround the
 
 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 23 
 
 throne, raise a song of joy when they should learn the 
 progress of God's kingdom upon earth ! 
 
 But there is one thing which we must not omit 
 to say, although on the present occasion it must be 
 said very briefly. In order that we may hope to 
 promote a Christian spirit and Christian training 
 and the influence of Christian institutions in others, 
 we must first feel the operation of these things upon 
 ourselves. This must be our first aim ; this is a ne- 
 cessary preparation for those larger plans of life of 
 which I have spoken ; as such plans, supervening on 
 such a preparation, best support and foster the Chris- 
 tian spirit caught in youth, and supply the fuel by 
 which the early spark of religious earnestness may 
 be fed into a vigorous and enduring flame. While 
 you are here, then, let us exhort you to preserve and 
 confirm in yourselves all Christian habits, and to 
 seek to infuse into these a spirit of true and heartfelt 
 religion. Keep up a lively intercourse with God 
 through Christ by private prayer, and by a reverent 
 and devout disposition whenever we meet here to 
 join in the common worship of God. Let your Sab- 
 baths be to you seasons on which religious thoughts, 
 religious studies, religious exercises recur, and aid in 
 raising your souls above the turmoil and the trifling 
 which so readily creep into every-day life. Let such 
 days especially remind you of the Christian duty of 
 avoiding, not only all sin and impurity, all temptation 
 to evil, but also, all scenes of unseemly levity and 
 unhallowed mirth. Consider how great is the weight 
 which these years of your lives have to bear : how 
 much depends upon your forming here a manly and
 
 ^^^^^ A 000126364 9 
 
 24 STRENGTH IN TROUBLE. 
 
 worthy view of the value of your own purity and 
 sobriety of mind ; how much to yourselves, how much 
 to your country, how much to your destiny in time 
 and in eternity. Seek to make your weeks roll round 
 like the wheels of a chariot which is to carry you 
 along the road of God's commands and purposes ; 
 which is to bring you continually nearer to the gate 
 of heaven. And so doing, may the Spirit of God 
 descend upon you, week by week, and day by day ! 
 May the satisfaction of Jesus Christ our only Saviour 
 wash out your sins week by week, and day by day. 
 As one day telleth another and one night certifieth 
 another, of God's glory shewn in the visible world, 
 so may they tell and certify of your daily approach 
 to God. As the sun, in his goings forth and return- 
 ings, marks and numbers the seasons of your sojourn 
 here, and rejoices to run his course, so may y- Univ 
 spirits rejoice, month by month, and year by y$g 
 to tell what God has done for them, and how m4| 
 greater his doings are in the spiritual than in the 
 natural world. And especially whenever, as now, you 
 come to that Table at which our Lord himself once 
 sat, and to which he still invites you, may you indeed 
 be ready to offer up yourselves, your souls and bodies, 
 to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice to him ! 
 may you find relief from your sins, rest from your 
 troubles, strengthening for your weakness, the feeling 
 of God's friendship here, and the hope of an ever- 
 lasting life of blessedness, when we and our troubles, 
 our wants and our labours shall have passed away !