MOREOVER, faith secures our victory over the evil influences which beset us, by causing the world to appear as it really is. Oftentimes it appears otherwise. It assumes an undue attractiveness and importance; and then we are tempted to love it, and grasp it. But faith strips it of its tinsel and glitter, and exposes its deceitfulness and absolute nothingness. When the eye of faith is undimmed, and the Christian, from his proper elevation, looks down upon the honors, riches and pleasures of earth, how fade they into insignificance! "To him who has ascended a mountain, the inequalities of the valley are all reduced to a plain; the men who are seen here and there hurrying through the rounds of business and pleasure, appear like so many children, and their thousand cares, their joys and sorrows, seem like so many childish vanities. So the Christian, in the exercise of faith, looks upon those things which formerly engaged his attention with comparative indifference. Riches, honors, pleasures, all appear unworthy of supreme regard; the elevations which men toil to reach, look petty and insignificant; the anxieties and fears with which they distress themselves, seem unworthy of one in whose behalf God himself is enlisted, and who has in sure reversion an eternal weight of glory."
So also does it effect this by bringing into close proximity the world to come. Heaven is near when we have strong faith. This telescope of the soul presents our blessed inheritance with wonderful distinctness. We seem verily to hear the "echoes of its rapturous songs;" and are ravished at beholding the glories of the King Immortal,—the majesty of his person, and the magnificence of his retinue, the myriads of joyful, shining ones that bask in eternal light, and the unfading crowns, and harps of gold, and surpassing glory, that shall be ours when we join the blessed company.
What becomes of earth when we have such a view of heaven? Does it longer fill the mind, and draw upon the affections? Glow-worms are bright in the absence of the sun; but when the great luminary lifts himself into view, glow-worms, and moon, and stars disappear! So does our future glorious abode, as seen by the eye of faith, shine into darkness all the brightest objects of sense. Living in the world, by faith we live above the world. We trample it beneath our feet. We are neither elated by its prosperity, nor crushed by its adversity. Smiles, caresses, pleasures,—perils, persecutions, sword, nakedness,—none of these things move us, trusting in the Lord, and dwelling in perpetual light:
"As some tall cliff, that rears its awful form,
Swells from the vale and midway leaves the storm—
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head."