even in their happiest moments, had. Ah, what a treasure you have,
every one of you, in those Bibles of yours, which too many of you
read so little! From the first chapter of Genesis to the last of
Revelations, it is all written for our example, all profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished for all good works. Ah! friends, friends, is not this the
reason why so many of you do not read your Bibles, that you do not
wish to be furnished for good works?--do not wish to be men of God,
godly and godlike men, but only to be men of the world, caring only
for money and pleasure?--some of you, alas! not wishing to be men and
women at all, but only a sort of brute beasts with clothes on, given
up to filth and folly, like the animals that perish, or rather worse
than the animals, for they could be no better if they tried, but you
might be. Oh! what might you not be, what are you not already, if
you but knew it! Members of Christ, children of God, heirs of the
kingdom of heaven, heirs of a hope undying, pure, that will never
fade away, having a right given you by the promise and oath of
Almighty God himself, to hope for yourselves, for your neighbours,
for this poor distracted world, for ever and ever; a right to believe
that there is an everlasting day of justice, and peace, and happiness
in store for the whole world, and that you, if you will, may have
your share in that glorious sunrise which shall never set again. You
may have your share in it, each and every one of you; and if you ask
why, go to the Scriptures, and there read the promises of God, the
grounds of your just hope, for all heaven and earth.

First, of hope for yourselves.--I say first for yourselves, not
because a man is right in being selfish, and caring only for his own
soul, but because a man must care for his own soul first, if he ever