a truth into death and unreality.  I have been striving to show that absolution is not a Church figment, invented by priestcraft, but a living, blessed, human power.  It is a power delegated to you and to me, and just so far as we exercise it lovingly and wisely, in our lives, and with our lips, we help men away from sin:  just so far as we do not exercise it, or exercise it falsely, we drive men to Rome.  For if the heart cannot have a truth it will take a counterfeit of truth.  By every magnanimous act, by every free forgiveness with which a pure man forgives, or pleads for mercy, or assures the penitent, he proclaims this truth, that “the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins”—­he exhibits the priestly power of humanity—­he does absolve; let theology say what it will of absolution, he gives peace to the conscience—­he is a type and assurance of what God is—­he breaks the chains and lets the captive go free.

 VI.

 Preached June 9, 1850.

 THE ILLUSIVENESS OF LIFE.

“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.  By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:  for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”—­Hebrews xi. 8-10.

Last Sunday we touched upon a thought which deserves further development.  God promised Canaan to Abraham, and yet Abraham never inherited Canaan:  to the last he was a wanderer there; he had no possession of his own in its territory:  if he wanted even a tomb to bury his dead, he could only obtain it by purchase.  This difficulty is expressly admitted in the text, “In the land of promise he sojourned as in a strange country;” he dwelt there in tents—­in changeful, moveable tabernacles—­not permanent habitations; he had no home there.

It is stated in all its startling force, in terms still more explicit, in the 7th chapter of the Acts, 5th verse, “And He gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on:  yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.”

Now the surprising point is that Abraham, deceived, as you might almost say, did not complain of it as a deception; he was even grateful for the non-fulfilment of the promise:  he does not seem to have expected its fulfilment; he did not look for Canaan, but for “a city which had foundations;” his faith appears to have consisted in disbelieving the letter, almost as much as in believing the spirit of the promise.

And herein lies a principle, which, rightly expounded, can help us to interpret this life of ours.  God’s promises never are fulfilled