Every science and art is attended with difficulties; and nothing that is useful and ornamental in the business of life can be acquired without study, and toil, by which the value and pleasure of the acquisition are proportionably increased. Can any persons, then, reasonably expect, that in a world lying in the wicked one, they should meet with no opposition? in a body of sin and death, they should feel no conflicts? that their peace should remain undisturbed by any annoyance from Satan? that no thorns should perplex their path in a wilderness, in which nothing naturally grows but sorrow, sin, and care? and that their head should be hereafter adorned with an immortal crown, without sustaining one previous cross, or making one sacrifice in their way to it? They cannot suppose this. The great Author of religion says, “Except a man deny himself, take up his cross and follow me, he cannot be my disciple. Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” Yet, to encourage the diffident, and fix the resolution of the hesitating and the timid, an apostle assures us, that God “hath given everlasting consolation and good hope through grace” to all believers in Christ. The Lord himself says, “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. In the world you shall have tribulation; but in me, you shall have peace.” The unhappiness of mankind arises in general from five principal causes; from guilt in the conscience, tyranny in the passions, want of real enjoyment in what they possess, want of spiritual resource under affliction, and an inordinate love of life, which makes death terrible, and even the thought of it the most imbittering intruder into the human breast. But against all this mass of wretchedness, religion provides an antidote. If we know and follow Christ, he will bring the peace which he purchased on the cross, into our conscience; he will sanctify and govern our passions, and make our heart the seat of his peaceful dominion; the enjoyment of his “favor, which is better than life,” will give a sacred zest to ordinary comforts, and fill up in our soul, a void, which the whole world cannot satisfy; he will keep us resigned amidst the cares of life, and tranquil in the prospect of its awful close. Life shall have no real bitterness; sin, no dominion; the smiling world, no real charms; and death, no real sting, when we can say, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” Under crosses and adversity, we shall never want a spring of comfort in the salvation of Jesus, nor want a friend, when interested in the love of Him, who drank up the dregs of inexpressible sorrow, that we might partake of the richest ingredients in the cup of gospel consolation. However chequered our scene of life may be in the dispensations of Providence, being made up of joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, crosses and comforts, his grace will enable us to adopt the language of primitive Christianity, and say, “We are troubled on