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ruptible in their loyalty to truth; men who have a due sense of the immense import ance, in relation to the higher life of the human race, of the questions at issue: How is it that the faith in Christ of such men is unshaken? ‘ The substance of the answer that I make here to the question, why it is that those who believe in Christ continue to believe, may be given in a single sentence: What ever may have been the original grounds of their faith, their- faith has been verified in their own' personal experience. They have trusted in Christ for certain great and wonderful things, and they have received great and wonderful things. They have not perhaps received precisely what they expected 'when their Christian life began, for the kingdom of heaven cannot be really known until a man has entered into it; but what they have received assures them that Christ is alive, that He is within reach, and that He is the Saviour and Lord of men. That they have received these blessings in answer to their faith in Christ is a matter of personal consciousness. They know it, as they know that fire bums. EXCEPTIONAL DELIVERANCES Their experience varies. Some of them would say they can recall acts of Christ in which His personal volition and His super natural power were as definitely manifested as in any of the miracles recorded in the four Gospels. They were struggling unsuc cessfully with some evil temper—with envy, jealousy, personal ambition—and could not subdue it. They hated it ; they hated themselves for being under its tyranny ; but expel it they could not. If it seemed suppressed for a time, it returned; and returned with its malignant power increased rather than diminished. They scourged themselves with scorpions for yielding to it; still they yielded. In their despair they appealed to Christ; and in a moment the evil fires were quenched, and they were never rekindled. These instan taneous deliverances are perhaps excep tional ; but to those who can recall them
they carry an irresistible conviction that the living Christ has heard their cry and answered them. The more ordinary experiences of the Christian life, the less 'striking, are not less conclusive. The proof that Christ has heard prayer is not always concentrated into a moment, but is more commonly spread over large tracts of time. Prayer is offered for an increase of moral strength in resisting temptation, or for the disappear ance of reluctance in the ■discharge of duties which are distasteful, or for a more gracious and kindly temper, or for patience and courage in bearing trouble, or for self- cOntrol, or for relief from exhausting and fruitless anxiety; and the answer comes. It comes gradually, but still it comes. We had lost hope. It seemed as if all our moral vigor was dying down, and as if nothing could restore it. The tide was slowly ebbing, and we were powerless to recall the retreating waters; but after we prayed it ceased to ebb; for a time it seemed stationary; then it began to flow, the wholesome waters have renewed the energy and the joy of life. LOOSENING CHAINS Or we prayed to Christ to liberate us from some evil habit. The chains did not fall away at His touch, like the chains of Peter at the touch o f the angel; but in some mysterious way they were loosened, and at the same time we received accessions of strength. The old habit continued to trouble us; it still impeded our movements: but we could move; we recovered some measure of freedom, and were conscious that we were slaves no longer. There still remained a mechanical and automatic tendency to the evil ways of thinking, speaking, or acting; but we had become vigilant and alert, and were prompt to resist the tendency as soon as it began to work; and. we were strong" enough to master it. In the course of time the ten dency became weaker and weaker, and at last, in some cases, it almost disappeared. Some men have appealed to .Christ when they have been seized with a great horror
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