When we make a profession of our faith in Christ, we are not to drape our faces in gloom, but rather to light our hearts with a purer joy than we ever knew before; and yet we must put away all unseemly levity. "I said of laughter, it is mad." I said it, too, in the day of the gladness of my heart. The madman's frolics, the drunkard's boisterous mirth--these compare not with the serene pleasure of our princely expectations. Walk as those who are looking for the coming of the Son of Man, hearing this voice in your ears, "What manner or person ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?" _Short-Sightedness._ What short-sighted creatures we often are! We think we see the end when we are only viewing the beginning. We get our telescope out sometimes to look to the future, and we breathe on the glass with the hot breath of our anxiety, and then we think we see clouds and darkness before us. If we are in trouble, we see "Every day new straits attend, And wonder where the scene will end." Nay; we conclude that it must end in our destruction. We imagine "God hath forgotten to be gracious." We think "He hath in anger shut up the bowels of compassion." Oh, this short-sightedness! When you and I ought to believe in God; when we ought to look at the heaven which awaiteth us, and the glory for which these light afflictions are preparing us; when we ought to be looking through the cloud to the eternal sun which never knows an eclipse; when we should be resting on the invisible arm of the immortal God, and triumphing in His love, we are mourning and distrusting. God forgive us for this, and enable _us_ henceforth to look not _at_ our troubles, but _above_ them, even to Him who, with infinite wisdom and love, is guiding us, and has promised to bring us safely through. _Steadfastness._