Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/469

 idea. Their prevailing  idea,  I  repeat,  for  patience and consolation  are  the  underlying  thoughts  that  run through them  all  from  cover  to  cover. Daniel in  the den of  lions;  Jonas  in  his  novel  prison-house;  Susanna between  infamy  and  death;  the  three  youths in the  fiery  furnace;  and  Job,  destitute,  friendless,  and afflicted — these are  but  a  few  of  the  cases  wherein  we find  God's  promise  fulfilled:  "  I  am  with  him  in  his affliction;  I  will  deliver  him  and  I  will  glorify  him."

Brethren, if  what  things  soever  are  written  in  the Sacred Scriptures  are  written  for  our  instruction, there must  be  a  corresponding  obligation  on  our  part to read  and  study  them. From these  sacred  pages we learn  what  we  must  do  to  possess  life  eternal. From them  we  learn,  too,  how  to  make  our  temporal life endurable. Be our  specialty  history,  science, art, or  literature,  we  will  find  in  the  Bible  ample  matter for  our  study  and  entertainment. In it,  also,  we will  find  the  key  to  the  solution  of  the  principal  problems that  confront  the  Christian  world  to-day. And travelling, as  we  are,  through  this  world,  falling  often among its  thieves  and  suffering  at  their  hands,  we will  learn  from  the  Scriptures  the  comforting  presence of  Him  who  enables  us  to  bear  wrongs  patiently; or if  the  more  fortunate,  we  learn  how  to  be  the Good Samaritan  to  some  less  fortunate  brother. Thus profiting  by  the  things  written  for  our  instruction, through  patience  and  the  comfort  of  the  Scriptures, we  will  have  reason,  indeed,  to  have  "hope unto  life  everlasting."