have a striking instance in the scriptures. Paul preached at
Thessalonica, but they heeded not his words. He preached also at
Berea, and the inspired penman says, "These were more noble than those
in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of
mind, and searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so."
It is our duty to search the scriptures prayerfully and "labor to
enter into that rest that remains to the people of God, lest any of us
through unbelief should seem to come short of it." It is our duty to
search for evidence of the fact, at least on all subjects relating to
our present happiness, and particularly those that appertain to the
future world. They are too momentous to be treated with indifference.

There is nothing more important than that we should exercise a living
_faith_ in a future and happy existence beyond the grave. This alone
can afford the mind "joy unspeakable and full of glory." There is in
every human bosom an unceasing uneasiness, an aching void that nothing
on earth can satisfy or fill. Old and young, ignorant and learned,
heathen and christian feel the same dissatisfaction with the objects
of momentary duration. The heathen, in the midst of all his
self-denials and self-tortures to appease his gods, and in the
conscientious discharge of all his devotional duties, is still a
dissatisfied and miserable being. God has so constituted the human
mind that it cannot repose in error, however sincere may be the faith
it exercises. There is still a growing vacuum within that nothing but
the powers of truth can fill. Philosophy has endeavoured to search out
that system of moral duties, in the rigid performance of which, that
happiness, peace and joy might be found, for which all mortal beings
pant with the same aspirations of strong desire, but has sought in
vain. From the earliest ages, one system after another has been
invented, and in succession abandoned, but all have come short of