SPIRITUAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 281 



anxious, and will work his longitude over and 

 over again, though sure there is no mistake, so 

 hard is it practically to live on faith on that 

 which is unseen, and for which we have no evi- 

 dence of the senses, until a habit is formed : so 

 strange is it to be steering one's way straight over 

 the trackless ocean, without any way-marks, or 

 sign-posts, or mile- stones, or anything by which 

 we can see that we are right or wrong. It is 

 not until a captain has made three or four good 

 land-falls, at wide intervals, and just according 

 to his calculations, that the living by faith in 

 his chronometer and observations, and the re- 

 sults upon his slate begin to come easy. 



Even so, I have thought, in the very nature 

 of things, it is the experienced Christian only 

 that can live perfectly the life of faith. Use 

 must have practically convinced him of the re- 

 liability of things unseen and eternal, before it 

 can become the habit of his mind to navigate 

 confidently the ocean of life, independent of 

 sense. 



While thinking much, lately, of life as a voy- 

 age, and every Christian the voyager that will 



