me.'

Just in proportion as he recollects that, will he utter from his
heart the prayer which follows, 'Try me, O God, and seek the ground
of my heart; prove me, and examine my thoughts. Look well if there
be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.'



SERMON VII. THE VICTORY OF FAITH



(First Sunday after Easter.)

1 John v. 4, 5. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world:
and this is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith.
Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that
Jesus is the Son of God?

What is the meaning of 'overcoming the world?' What is there about
the world which we have to overcome? lest it should overcome us, and
make worse men of us than we ought to be. Let us think awhile.

1. In the world all seems full of chance and change. One man
rises, and another falls, one hardly knows why: they hardly know
themselves. A very slight accident may turn the future of a man's
whole life, perhaps of a whole nation. Chance and change--there
seems to us, at times, to be little else than chance and change. Is
not the world full of chance? Are not people daily crushed in