upon the floods; the tempest sweeps along the deep; the billows break over her on every side.  But Jehovah-Jesus has promised to conduct her in safety to the haven of peace.  She can not be lost unless the Pilot perish.  Why, then, do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?  Hear, O Zion, the word of thy God, and rejoice for the consolation.  “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.”

Mere preservation, however, tho a most comfortable, is not the only hope of the Church; she has the prospect of increase.

Increase—­from an effectual blessing upon the means of grace in places where they are already enjoyed; the Lord saith, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground:  I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offering; and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the watercourses.”

Increase—­from the diffusion of evangelical truth through pagan lands.  “For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.  And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.  Lift up thine eyes round about, and see:  all they gather themselves together, they come to thee:  thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.  Then thou shalt see and flow together, and thy heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.”

Increase—­from the recovery of the rejected Jews to the faith and privileges of God’s dear children.  Blindness in part has happened unto Israel; they have been cut off, for their unbelief, from the olive-tree.  Age has followed age, and they remain to this hour spread over the face of the earth, a fearful and affecting testimony to the truth of God’s word.  They are without their sanctuary, without their Messiah, without the hope of their believing ancestors.  But it shall not be always thus.  They are still “beloved for the father’s sake.”  When the “fulness of the Gentiles shall come in,” they too shall be gathered.  They shall discover, in our Jesus, the marks of the promised Messiah; and with from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God; it must make you meet for the inheritance of the saints, or it shall fearfully aggravate your condemnation at last.  You pray, “Thy kingdom come.”  But is the “kingdom of God within you?” Is the Lord Jesus “in you the hope of glory?” Be not deceived.  The name of Christian will not save you.  Better had it been for you not to have known the way of righteousness; better to have been the most idolatrous pagan; better, infinitely better,