To be without religion is to be curtailed of the dimensions of man's character. Every state of mind and heart which religion commands is just so far a return to spiritual health. No human soul can be truly great while ignorant of God, alienated from God, opposed to God, slavishly in dread of God, and out of communion with God. Each grace of the Holy Spirit tends to lift man up towards the ideal of humanity. The trials of life bring all men into a certain conflict with adverse circumstances, producing pain. In this conflict many are conquered. But the Christian combatant finds every trial an occasion for bringing out latent reserves of a strength derived from Christ his Head. When he suffers therefore sharply and long, he is only like a soldier going from one battle to another, and waxing hardier and more courageous after each success. Hear how Paul, long tried in this athletic effort, expresses this Christian magnanimity, (1 Cor. ix. 25,) "I therefore run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air." And "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life." There is reason to believe, that no great Christian character can be developed without some severe discipline, that is, without patience, in its large and scriptural sense. 4. _Confirmed patience tends to usefulness in the Church._ The very reverse is often thought by the sufferer himself, especially if his trial throws him into solitude, poverty, contempt of brethren, weakness of body, pains of old age, or separation from friends. In the chamber of melancholy seclusion how many a soul has mourned that all opportunity of doing any thing for Christ was cut off. But this is a short-sighted and defective conclusion. When God's infinitely wise and holy will is done, then the great end of our creation, and our redemption, and our sanctification is accomplished, so far as we are concerned; whether it be by doing or by suffering. If it were possible for a perfectly sinless angel to be perpetually bathed in sorrow by the will of God, the pure spirit would accept the coming trial with a yielding bliss. And when the perfectly sinless Jesus, who was "very man," sank in griefs which surpass comprehension, he was accomplishing the purposes of the Godhead, and said, "Not my will, but thine be done." Now by sending trials and educing the grace of patience in repeated acts, God fits the soul for labours incalculably beyond every thing it could have effected without this education. And these very pains, and the conduct of a believer under them, becoming visible to bystanders and fellow-servants, as well as to the ungodly themselves, go up as a costly odour, to magnify the grace of the gospel. So that no sermons ever preached so loudly as the transient view of a suffering saint has sometimes done, when in the fiery heart of the hot furnace, he has been seen unhurt, with one like unto the Son of God. (Dan. iii. 25.) In both ways, therefore, by