Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/22

18 sinners. Faith lies at the foundation, and sustains hope. It is the property of faith to lay hold of the precious declarations and promises of God as contained in his written word, and to apply and appropriate them. Hope, desires and expects to realize all what God has thus promised. In the exercise of faith in the promises, joy and peace spring up in the soul: and as hope follows upon faith, so faith, as it increases, causes hope to abound more and more. Hence the prayer of the Apostle in behalf of his Christian brethren at Rome:—that, "the God of hope would fill" them "with all joy and peace in believing that" they "may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." They, therefore, who live in the enjoyment of this hope are the sincere and humble followers of Christ, who are born again of the Spirit, and exalted to the high dignity of "the sons of God." They