A day was coming, and it was the day of reality for which he lived, ever present and ever certain, when this sad world was to put off for ever its changefulness and its misery, and the grave was to be robbed of its victory, and the bodies were to come forth purified by their long sleep.  He called all this a victory, because he felt that it was a real battle that has to be fought and won before that can be secured.  One battle has been fought by Christ, and another battle, most real and difficult, but yet a conquering one, is to be fought by us.  He hath imparted to us the virtue of His wrestlings, and the strength of His victory.  So that, when the body shall rise again, the power of the law to condemn is gone, because we have learned to love the law.

And now to conclude all this, there are but two things which remain to say.  In the first place, brethren, if we would be conquerors, we must realize God’s love in Christ.  Take care not to be under the law.  Constraint never yet made a conqueror:  the utmost it can do is to make either a rebel or a slave.  Believe that God loves you.  He gave a triumphant demonstration of it in the Cross.  Never shall we conquer self till we have learned to love.  My Christian brethren, let us remember our high privilege.  Christian life, so far as it deserves the name, is victory.  We are not going forth to mere battle—­we are going forth to conquer.  To gain mastery over self, and sin, and doubt, and fear:  till the last coldness, coming across the brow, tells us that all is over, and our warfare accomplished—­that we are safe, the everlasting arms beneath us—­that is our calling.  Brethren beloved, do not be content with a slothful, dreamy, uncertain struggle.  You are to conquer, and the banner under which we are to win is not Fear, but Love.  “The strength of sin is the law;” the victory is by keeping before us God in Christ.

Lastly, there is need of encouragement for those of us whose faith is not of the conquering, but the timid kind.  There are some whose hearts will reply to all this, Surely victory is not always a Christian’s portion.  Is there no cold dark watching in Christian life—­no struggle when victory seems a mockery to speak of—­no times when light and life seem feeble, and Christ is to us but a name, and death a reality?  “Perfect love casteth out fear,” but who has it?  Victory is by faith, but, oh God, who will tell us what this faith is that men speak of as a thing so easy; and how we are to get it!  You tell us to pray for faith, but how shall we pray in earnest unless we first have the very faith we pray for?

My Christian brethren, it is just to this deepest cry of the human heart that it is impossible to return a full answer.  All that is true.  To feel Faith is the grand difficulty of life.  Faith is a deep impression of God and God’s love, and personal trust in it.  It is easy to say “Believe and thou shalt be saved,”