THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. l51 



vest Home been safely reached ! When the blade was 

 vet green, how oft did the farmer tremble while he 

 beheld it exposed to the biting frost, or the cutting 

 winds ; and when it was advancing to maturity, how 

 anxious did he feel lest the rust, or the mildew, or the 

 worm should blight it, or lest it should at length be 

 beaten to the earth by the hail or tempest. But if 

 through all these dangers, and many more, it is now 

 " saved," then how sublime the assurance, that this pro- 

 cess of God's preserving power in the natural world 

 will be no less assuredly displayed in the spiritual and 

 heavenly world to which he looks forward ! In all the 

 stages of his earthly pilgrimage, the believer is " kept 

 by the power of God through faith unto salvation, 

 ready to be revealed in the last time;" and he may 

 therefore indulge the firmest hope, that when that time 

 arrives, he shall look back with gratitude and exulta- 

 tion upon all the dangers he has escaped, upon all the 

 storms, the persecutions, the temptations, the afflic- 

 tions, and the changes of this mortal life, and, like his 

 Redeemer, " see of the travail cf his soul, and be 

 satisfied ;" " Knowing that he who hath begun a good 

 work in him will perform it until the day of Jesus 

 Christ," he rejoices in the prospect of that day, when 



