Let not, therefore, the penitent suppose the dangers and difficulties which await him to be so great as almost to be insuperable; nor yet that they are so small as to be easily overcome: it is sufficient for him to know, that that Master whom he serves, and who appoints his lot, will, if he commit himself to Him as a faithful Creator, supply him with strength equal to his trials, and make those trials help him forward on his heaven-ward journey. Upon setting out, however, let him be admonished, that there are three things which he ought to bear in mind. First: let him not mistake transient feelings for settled principles, nor partial amendment for complete reformation: the sanguine sometimes, through natural temperament, are unduly elated; the desponding, through the same cause, unduly depressed; and thus both form false estimates as to the degree of their advancement in spiritual life. Whilst it also sometimes unfortunately happens, that after the first terrors of awakened conscience pass away, the fervours of devotional feeling subside, and there ensue listlessness, negligence, and a return to former evil courses: “he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while.” {84} Let him, in the second place, be especially on his guard against partial or perverted views of the doctrines and duties of our holy faith: some, because we are saved through faith in the merits of the Saviour, have abused the grace of God, by an unholy profession, or have under-rated the value of Christian graces and virtues; and others, because of the obligations to personal holiness, and of the rewards held out to faithful servants, in the Gospel, have depreciated the value of faith, and have reduced the great scheme of salvation to little more than a moral obedience. And lastly, let him take care, that when, through divine grace, he has surmounted the difficulties which attend his first entrance upon the “narrow way which leadeth unto life;” and his ardent and confident spirit is full of eager anticipation of the eternal rest and peace which await him on his arrival at the “city of the Living God,” {85} whose fair bulwarks the eye of faith may already have descried at an immense distance; let him “be not high-minded, but fear:” enemies, though invisible, still surround him; dangers, though hidden, still lurk in his path. Should, on the other hand, the journey prove toilsome, and his spirit be often perplexed with doubts, and alarmed with fears; should no distant prospect of the mansions of eternal rest break upon his enraptured view, solace his weary soul, and brighten his cheerless path: let him not be dismayed, but hope: a “friend that sticketh closer than a brother,” {86a} though unseen, is near; the city of refuge, though undiscoverable by his anxious eye, is nigh at hand. If, in the first case, he “persevere unto the end;” if, in