The Glory of the Redeemer

by Octavius Winslow (1841)

Table of Contents

The Redeemer, the Revelation of the Father's Glory

The Typical Glory of the Redeemer

The Prophetical Glory of the Redeemer

The Glory of the Redeemer in His Humiliation

The Glory of the Redeemer in His Resurrection

The Glory of the Redeemer in His Ascension and Exaltation

The Glory of the Redeemer in His People

The Holy Spirit Glorifying the Redeemer

The Glory of the Redeemer in His Second Coming

The Redeemer, the Revelation of the Father's Glory

"The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Cor. 4:6

That God was under any obligation or necessity to reveal Himself to man, is an idea that cannot for a moment be seriously entertained. It will follow, then, that such a revelation of Himself, of His mind and will, to fallen creatures having been made, it must be regarded as astounding act of His sovereign mercy, irrespective of any claim whatever arising from the creature man. The source where it originates must be entirely within God Himself. The great point which now lies before us bears upon the mode of the Divine revelation; and resolves itself into the single and important inquiry- What forms the most perfect revelation of the glory of God to man? It is the design of this chapter, in humbly attempting an answer to this question, to show that the only full and perfect revelation of the glory of God is seen in the Lord Jesus; that apart from a spiritual and experimental knowledge of the Son there can be no true, adequate, and saving knowledge of the Father. To clear up this momentous matter the more thoroughly, it will be proper that we first demonstrate THE UTTER IMPOSSIBILITY OF A CORRECT KNOWLEDGE OF GOD OUTSIDE OF CHRIST; this will have prepared us for a more full consideration of our main subject.

The most palpable evidence and fearful result of man's fall from original holiness is the deep and awful ignorance of God, of His character, perfections, and moral government, in which that apostasy has involved him. It was the glory and the happiness of Adam that, before his revolt, not a cloud rested upon his mind tending to obscure the most clear and perfect views of the Divine character which it was possible for a finite creature to possess. He knew God sufficiently for all the purposes of a life wholly conformed to His will, and supremely devoted to His glory. There was no intellectual darkness in his understanding, no moral corruption of his will, nor of his affections. The whole soul constituted as it were an orb of the most beauteous light, kindled by God Himself, and reflecting its beams of beauty on every object in nature. It is true that, regarding his knowledge of God, nature was his teacher, or rather the medium through which he was taught; that impressions and perceptions of the Divine existence and glory were received mainly through the imagery of sensible objects; that the "invisible things of God were clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." Yet this

affords no solid argument in favor of a perfect knowledge of God in nature; for let it be remembered that nature, as a mirror of the Divine glory, was framed for man as innocent, and not for man as guilty; that when by his own act this mirror was defaced and destroyed, with it was destroyed all true natural knowledge of Jehovah. Had the creature continued in his state of perfect rectitude, then no other revelation of God would have been needed; but throwing around him the pall of guilt, he necessarily threw around him the pall of ignorance. And before there can be clear and perfect light in the soul of the character and perfections of God, there must be a removal of that sin which else must eternally separate God and man. Hence the absolute necessity of just such a revelation of the Father as Jesus, the "true Light, which enlightens every man that comes into the world."

The most difficult, perhaps, because the most humbling lesson which the world has ever had to learn, has been the nothingness of its own wisdom, and the folly of its unaided endeavors to find out God to perfection. Earnest as have been its desires, ardent as have been its aspirations, and laborious as have been its endeavors, the "unknown God" is the only inscription written upon its altars. The ancient philosophers prided themselves on their superior attainments in this study; but to what did their knowledge of God, underived from revelation, amount? What was the actual result of their profound researches, patient inquiries, acute reasonings, and subtle disputations? Let the apostle reply: "Professing themselves to be wise men, they became fools." Even worse than this. Not only "by wisdom the world knew not God," but the imperfect knowledge it did gather of Him in nature, so far from expanding their mental conceptions of the Divine character, and elevating their lives to a conformity to the Divine will, seemed but to lead them into the deepest and grossest idolatry! "Professing themselves to be wise men, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things." What an affecting picture! Oh that the proud eulogist of the dignity of human nature would study it! What an instructive lesson! Oh that the vain seeker of God outside of Christ would learn it! Here was the world, at an age when civilization and philosophy, poetry and the arts, flourished in a pre-eminent degree, and were exerting a softening and ameliorating influence upon society, yet utterly abandoned to superstition and idolatry. Idolatry in its darkest clouds was settling upon its moral landscape; idolatry in its gloomiest attributes was entwined with its history; idolatry in its grossest features was blended with its literature; idolatry in its most insinuating forms was advanced with the creations of its poetic genius; idolatry of the most degrading and sensual kind, was enthroned in the seats of its philosophers, was dignified by their approval, inculcated in their lectures, and sanctioned by their example. The histories of Egypt, of Greece, and of Rome, testify that "the world by its wisdom knew not God,"- that after every expedient had been adopted, and every experiment had been tried- after the triumphs of war, and the arts of peace, and the wisdom of legislation, and the lessons of philosophy, and the inculcations of religion, had done their utmost, man was still left ignorant of God, and consequently steeped in guilt, and bowed in grief, the slave of every vice, and the sport of every sorrow. Thus did God "destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to no thing the understanding of the prudent." And thus, too, will He ever confound the wisdom and abase the pride of that man, who, towering on the Babel of his own unassisted research, would find Him out to perfection who is the "blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man has seen, nor can see."

But we proceed to the main subject or this chapter, which is to set forth the Lord Jesus in His person and work as constituting the only true and perfect revelation of God to man. The great and precious truth we are now to contemplate is introduced to us in these words of the inspired Evangelist: "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared him." Of the vast importance of a correct knowledge of God, need we speak at length? It is a truth which finds an assent in well-near every judgment. Every awakened conscience desires it; every believing mind admits it; every tried soul feels it. It lies at the basis of salvation; it forms the material of happiness; it supplies the true motive to holiness; it is the groundwork and the prelude of future and eternal glory. May the eye of faith be now so anointed by the Spirit as to behold with a clear and unclouded vision the "light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ!"

There are THREE DIFFERENT MEDIUMS THROUGH WHICH GOD IS SEEN. The first, to which we have already in general terms referred, is creation. Now, while we are far from underrating any sources of evidence which the wisdom and goodness of God had given to guide our research, we must yet maintain in strong language that the knowledge of God gleaned from this source is imperfect, and meets not the cravings of our nature. It is true, that it demonstrates the fact of God's existence, but here it stops. It tells us that God is, but it tells us not perfectly what God is. It proves to us clearly, undeniably, God's being; but it unfolds not the relation in which that Being stands to us. It gives, so to speak, a glimpse into the essential properties of God, but it reveals nothing of His moral perfections. Creation, even in its fallen state, is a beautiful piece of workmanship, in which we see, not only that there is a God, but that He is infinite in wisdom, omnipotent in power, great in goodness; but as a fallen creature, I need more than this. And what, as a guilty creature, I pant to know of God I find not, though I go in search of it through the length and breadth, the height and depth, of this beautiful territory of God's handy-work. Let me simply illustrate the thought. I take in my hands an exquisite piece of mechanism; I examine its various parts, ponder its exact movements, and, laying it down, admire the wisdom and applaud the skill displayed in its construction; and this is all that I can discover of the maker. For anything that I know, the moral elements which compose his character may be of the lowest order. Yes, the very individual whose workmanship has awakened my wonder and called forth my praise, may be my sworn, my deadly foe, cherishing in his bosom the elements of hatred, and ruminating in his mind the plan of my destruction! Now that we have a partial discovery of God, of His wisdom, and power, and goodness, in creation, is not enough to satisfy the mind convinced that God is holy, to quiet the conscience convicted of sin, and to soothe a heart bowed down with godly grief. The grand inquiries with such a soul are, "How can I be just with God? How can I satisfy His justice, appease His wrath, and propitiate His regard? How may I know that He is my God, my reconciled Father? How may I be assured that He loves, has pardoned and accepted me, and that I shall be with Him forever?" Traverse in imagination the extent of creation, wander over the most beautiful landscape, pluck the most fragrant flower, select the most costly gem, glide upon the surface of the fairest lake, scale the highest mountain, soar to the farthermost star, still the momentous question rushes back upon the mind, "How may I stand with acceptance before this holy Lord God?" Poor anxious searcher for peace, all nature unites in testifying, "It is not in me! It is not in me!"

The second medium through which God has seen fit to discover Himself to man is His Law. But here again are we compelled to acknowledge the defectiveness of the revelation, as far as its degree extends. The knowledge of God derived from this source must necessarily be partial and shadowy. It is true, the holiness of God is discovered in its precepts, and the justice of God is inferred from its threatenings; but the law can never be more nor less than what the Holy Spirit has declared it to be, the "ministration of condemnation." As a fallen creature, revolving the great matter of the soul's salvation, it can afford no satisfactory reply to the great question, "What must I do to be saved?" It breathes not a sound of mercy to a poor sinner; not one kind, soothing, saving accent falls from its lips. It speaks of death, but not of life; of condemnation, but not of salvation. It asserts the authority, reflects the holiness, and denounces the vengeance of God: but not one beam of hope springing from His mercy, His grace, or His love, does it throw upon the gloomy path of the soul passing on to judgment, bowed down beneath the "terrors of the Lord." Reader! are you seeking salvation by the law? Alas for you! How can that save which only condemns? How can that give life which in its nature and design is but the minister of death? Mount Sinai is no refuge for your soul, poor, guilty, condemned, heart-broken sinner. All is thunder and lightning, tempest and darkness. Come down from the mount before you are consumed. Abandon as utterly futile and deceptive all your legal expectations of acceptance, and betake yourself to the one only refuge of your guilty soul- the cross of the incarnate God.

We are now conducted to the consideration of the great point. We have seen that upon an extensive scale a great and fatal experiment had been made by man to know God and happiness. That God existed, he had every demonstrative proof. The same evidence which authenticated His being, proved Him to possess great and glorious attributes; and the manner in which these attributes were displayed gave some insight into His character, "so that they are without excuse." Wearied as the creature was with a laborious, and dispirited with a fruitless, research, God, in the depths of infinite mercy and wisdom, takes the work of salvation into His own hands. He sends His only begotten and well-beloved Son into the world, and declares Him to be the perfect revelation of Himself to man. On this important truth Jesus Himself laid great stress. Let the following declaration suffice. To a question of difficulty raised by Thomas– Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves." John 14:6-11.

Let us, in a few particulars, unfold the glorious and all-important truth contained in these words. And in the first place, we find, on examination of the sacred word, that the Lord JESUS EMBODIES THE GLORY OF THE GODHEAD. In other words, we behold the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Having devoted an entire chapter of this work to a scriptural exposition of the Deity of Christ, it will not be deemed necessary that we enlarge upon the doctrine in the present connection. And yet we are here presented with a further confirmation of this cardinal truth, demanding more than a mere cursory glance. Of the spirituality of the Divine nature, we can form no just nor definite conception. All our ideas of it must necessarily be unintelligible, vague, and shadowy. Referring to this impossibility, and, in language of condescending adaptation to our sensible view of objects, Jesus says of His Father, "You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape." Ignorant of this inspired truth, and yet with a quenchless thirst ever desiring such a conception of the Infinite Spirit as would afford a resting-place for the mind, an object on which faith could repose, and round which the affections could entwine, man has been beguiled into atheism and idolatry of the most debasing and fearful character. Framing his conceptions of spirit after his own low and depraved idea of matter, he has "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things."

But God has revealed Himself. He has stooped to our nature, and, in the person of His incarnate Son, has embodied the spirituality of His being with all its Divine and glorious attributes. Behold with what clearness and power this truth is set forth. "Christ, who is the image of God." "Who, being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person." "Who is the image of the invisible God." Could any single point be more distinctly stated and more conclusively proved than this, that our Divine and adorable Redeemer constitutes, in His person, a perfect revelation of the essential glory of the Godhead? All that we clearly, savingly know of God, is just the measure of our acquaintance with this truth. Jesus brings God near. "You are near, O Lord." Oh, how near! "They shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." The most stupendous, glorious truth which created mind ever grasped is involved in this wondrous declaration, "Emmanuel, God with us." With what glory does it invest the Bible! what a foundation does it lay for faith! what substance does it impart to salvation! and what a good hope does it place before the believing soul! God is with us in Christ, with us in the character of our reconciled Father, with us in every step of our journey to heaven, with us to guide in perplexity, to soothe in sorrow, to comfort in bereavement, to rescue in danger, to shield in temptation, to provide in need, to support in death, and to conduct us safely to glory. My soul! fall prostrate in the dust before the majesty of this amazing, this precious truth; adore the wisdom that has revealed it, and admire the grace that makes it yours!

The great revelation of the Godhead, Jesus, is equally the revelation of all the PERFECTIONS Of the Godhead. Is "God the only wise?" Jesus is the glory of that wisdom- "Christ the wisdom of God." He is the masterpiece of Divine wisdom; its highest manifestation; its most perfect, finished production. We trace the lesser forms of wisdom in nature; we ascend a scale higher in providence; we reach the summit in grace. Here we launch into a boundless immensity, and, overwhelmed with its greatness, can but exclaim, "Oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"

Behold this wisdom, as it shines in the recovery of lost and ruined man, by Christ. Here is a manifestation infinitely transcending in greatness and glory the first creation of man in holiness. In the first creation, God had nothing to undo- no dilapidated temple to take down, no occupant to dispossess, no ruin to repair, no rubbish to remove, no enemy to oppose. "He spoke, and it was done." The materials which composed the first human temple were ready to His hands, unfallen and pure. The very dust that He took to frame it with was holy. The life He breathed into it was holy. The air with which He surrounded it was holy. The paradise in which He placed it was holy. The breezes that played upon it, the sunbeam that gilded it, the fountains that watered it, all, all were in harmony with the spotless purity of God, and His glorious creature, man.

But in the re-creation of man, how vastly different! This beautiful temple is a ruin- dilapidated and fallen. God is ejected; another and an antagonist occupant dwells in it, and enmity to its Creator is written in letters of darkness upon every part, and over every inlet. In rebuilding this structure, all things were to be created anew. "Behold," says God, "I create a new thing in the earth." It was a new and profounder thought of infinite wisdom, unheard, unseen before. Fallen man was to be raised- lost man was to be recovered- sin was to be pardoned- the sinner saved, and God eternally glorified. Now were the treasures of wisdom, which for ages had been hidden in Christ, brought forth. Resources that had never been drawn upon were now revealed. Infinite wisdom had never developed such vast wealth, had never appeared clothed in such glory, had never shone forth so majestic, so peerless, and Divine. Oh, how must angels and archangels have wondered, admired, and loved, as this brighter discovery of God burst in glory upon their astonished vision- as this new temple of man rose in loveliness before their view!

The first and greatest display of infinite wisdom was in the construction of the model upon which the new temple regenerated man was to be formed. This model was nothing less than the mysteriously constituted person of the Son of God. In this, its highest sense, is "Christ the wisdom of God." "A body have You prepared me." This was the great "tabernacle of God which was with men." The inhabitation of Deity in that prepared temple of clay formed the masterpiece of Divine wisdom. Here it shone forth in full-orbed majesty. Gaze upon the living picture! Look at Emmanuel, God with us- God in our nature, God in our accursed nature- God in our tried nature- God in our sorrowful nature- God in our suffering nature- God in our tempted nature- yet untouched, untainted by sin. Is not this a fathomless depth of Divine wisdom? To have transcended it, would seem to have transcended Deity itself.

The next step in the unfolding of this Divine wisdom, is the spiritual restoration of man to a state corresponding in its moral lineaments to this Divine and perfect model. This is accomplished solely by "Christ crucified, the wisdom of God." And here, again, does the glory of God's wisdom shine in the person and work of Jesus. Every step in the development of this grand expedient establishes His character as the "only wise God," whose "understanding is infinite;" while it augments our knowledge, and exalts our views of the Lord Jesus, as making known the Father. Here was a way of salvation for perishing sinners, harmonizing with every perfection of Jehovah, sustaining the highest honor of His government, bringing to Him the richest glory, and securing to its subjects, as the rich bequest of grace, happiness eternal and inconceivably great. It was a thought, oh how like God- a scheme, oh how worthy of Him! We can scarcely imagine Him to have gone further- that in thus fathoming the depth of infinite wisdom, a lower deep could be found. Redemption, by the obedience and death of the incarnate God, was so honoring to the Divine law, and satisfactory to Divine justice, was so harmonizing to the attributes, and so illustrative of every glorious perfection of the Divine nature, and in its results so suited to the highest ends of human happiness, that it was the interest of the Divine government without demur to accept it. Oh, how truly did God here "work all things after the counsel of His own will!" How has He "abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence!" In Jesus' sacrificial obedience and death, we see sin fully punished, and the sinner fully saved; we see the law perfectly honored, and the transgressor completely justified; we see justice entirely satisfied, and mercy glorified to its highest extent- we see death inflicted according to the extreme tenor of the curse, and so vindicating to the utmost the truth and holiness of God, and yet life- present and eternal life- given to all whom it is the purpose and grace of the Father to save. Tell us, is not Jesus the great glory of the Divine wisdom?

Were we to survey the effects of this manifold wisdom on individual character, it would still further exalt our views of Christ as the wisdom of God. To see a man "becoming a fool that he may be wise," -his reason bowing to revelation, his knowledge and attainments laid beneath the cross- his own righteousness surrendered- "counting all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord;" and as a little child receiving the kingdom of God, oh, how glorious does appear in this the wisdom of God, the light of which shines in Jesus' face! Behold how determined is the Father, in every step of His grace, to humble the creature, and to exalt, magnify, and crown His co-equal Son, Lord of all!

One step more. We see Jesus the mediatorial Head of all wisdom and counsel to the Church. "It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell." "In whom," says the same apostle, "are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." He is the "Wonderful Counselor," of whom it was thus prophesied: "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord." Oh Divine and precious truth! unutterably precious to the soul having no resources adequate to the great purposes of knowing self, Christ, and God; of salvation, sanctification, and guidance.

Reader, are you earnestly desiring the "wisdom that is profitable to direct" you at this moment? Acquaint now yourself with Jesus, in whom all the treasures of this wisdom are hidden. What is His language to you? The same which Moses, the great legislator, spoke to the people of Israel: "The cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it." What a cheering invitation is this! A greater than Moses speaks it; and speaks it to you. You find your case baffling to human wisdom, too difficult for the acutest skill of man- take it, then, to Jesus. How sweetly He speaks- "bring it unto me!" One simple exercise of faith upon His word, will remove all that is difficult, make simple all that is complex, and lucid all that is dark in your case. With Him nothing is impossible. To Him all is transparent. Knowing the end from the beginning, there can be nothing unforeseen in it to His mind, by His prescience all is known, and by His wisdom all is provided for. His precious promise is, "I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not: I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them." Thus is Jesus "made of God unto us wisdom," that all our perplexities may be guided, and all our doubts may be solved, and all our steps may be directed, by one on whom the anointing of the "spirit of wisdom and understanding" rests "without measure;" and who, from experience, is able to lead, having trodden every step before us. "And when He puts forth His own sheep, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him." "If any man lack wisdom let him ask it from God, who gives liberally:" let him repair to Christ, whom God has set up from everlasting, "to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God."

In the person and work of Christ, the HOLINESS Of God is revealed with equal power and luster. It is only through this medium that we possess the most clear and perfect demonstration of this Divine and awful perfection. From nature and from providence the evidence of its existence, and the illustration of its nature, come to us more in the form of inference than of positive declaration. Sin has obliterated all traces of holiness which once existed; not a foot of this vast domain, not a shrub, nor flower, nor creature remains, to tell what the "beauties of holiness" once were. Not a link binds the present with the world's primeval history. Sin has severed the chain, has created a vast and fearful chasm, engulfing all that was ever holy and beautiful in this now fallen and defaced creation. And yet, even from its present condition, we form some faint idea of what it once was. The near approximation to a perfect state which we find in some departments of nature, the constant ascending towards that state which we find in others, together with the retributions of Divine justice which sometimes appal the mind in the providential dealings of God with men, afford sufficient data from which to infer that God is holy.

In the study of the Divine law, we ascend a step higher in a more clear discovery of this great truth. Here we have God's own solemn asseveration that He is holy. The evidence is not inferential, but positive; nothing is left to conjecture, nothing to foster doubt. Jehovah declares that He is of "purer eyes than to behold iniquity." The law which was given to man as the rule of his obedience, which, after his fall, was more permanently renewed upon tables of stone, superadded to the ceremonial law, to which were appended numerous sacrifices importing God's holy indignation against sin, and the necessity of a more perfect sacrifice for its expiation, must have produced upon the mind deep and solemn convictions of God's spotless purity.

But the truth of His essential holiness needed a more clear and impressive discovery and illustration; and God has given it. Where was there ever such a demonstration of God's infinite hatred of sin, and His fixed and solemn determination to punish it, as is seen in the cross of Christ? Put your shoes from off your feet; draw near and contemplate this "great sight." Who was the sufferer? God's only begotten and well-beloved Son! His own Son! In addition to the infinitely tender love of the Father, there was the clear knowledge of the truth, that He who was enduring the severest inflictions of His wrath was innocent, guiltless, righteous- that He, Himself, had never broken His law, had never opposed His authority, had never run counter to His will; but had always done those things which pleased Him. At whose hands did He suffer? From demons, from men? They were but the agents; the moving cause was God Himself. "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him: He has put Him to grief." His own Father unsheathed the sword: He inflicted the blow: He kindled the fierce flame: He prepared the bitter cup. "Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, says the Lord of hosts: smite the Shepherd." "The cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it?" "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" And what were the nature and degree of His sufferings? Imagine, if we can, what must have been the outpouring of God's wrath upon the whole Church for all the sins of that Church through eternity! Can you compute the amount of her transgressions? Can you conceive the degree of her punishment? Can you measure the duration of her woe? Impossible! Then, who can tell what Jesus endured, when standing in the place and as the Surety of His Church, in the solemn hour of atonement, and in the day of God's fierce anger? Never had God so manifested before, and never will He so manifest again, His essential holiness- His spotless purity- the inconceivable heinousness of sin- His utter hatred of it, and His solemn purpose to punish it with the severest inflictions of His wrath. Never did this glorious perfection of His being blaze out in such overwhelming glory, as on that dark day, and in the cross of the incarnate God. Had He emptied the full vials of His wrath upon the world, sweeping it before the fury of His anger, and consigning it to woeful and eternal punishment, it would not have presented to the universe so vivid, so impressive, and so awful a demonstration of the nature and glory of His holiness, of His infinite abhorrence of sin, and the necessity why He should punish it, as He has presented in the humiliation, sufferings, and death of His beloved Son. What new and ineffably transcendent views of infinite purity must have sprung up in the pure minds even of the spirits in glory, as bending from their thrones they fixed their astonished gaze upon the cross of the suffering Son of God!

In Jesus shines the awful glory of Divine JUSTICE. Justice is but another term for holiness. It is holiness in strict and awful exercise; and yet it is a distinct perfection of Jehovah, in the revelation and acknowledgment of which He will be glorified. The basis of the atonement is righteousness, or justice. So the apostle argues: "Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins." Previous to the apostasy of man, the only revelation of God's justice was the threatening annexed to the law: "In the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die." Subsequently to the fall, the appointment of a bloody ritual- the institution of expiatory sacrifices, not only recognized the existence, but illustrated the nature of this awful attribute. There are those who madly dream of acceptance with the holy God, at the expense of this perfection of His nature. In vain do they acknowledge Him in some of His perfections if they deny Him in others, trampling them with indifference beneath their feet. Such was Cain in the offering which he presented to the Lord; there was an acknowledgment of His dominion and goodness, but no distinct recognition of His holiness, no solemn apprehension of His justice, no acknowledgment of guilt, no confession of sin. The claims of God's moral government were entirely set aside, and by consequence, the necessity of a mediator totally denied. Not so Abel; his offering honored God in that in which He most delights to be honored, that is, in His spotless purity, His inflexible justice, and His infinite grace in the appointment of the Savior for the pardon of iniquity, transgression, and sin. Therefore it is recorded, and we do well deeply to ponder it, that "he offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." But this was only the pre-figurement of God's justice -the mere type and shadow. The great antitype and embodiment are seen in Jesus offering Himself up a whole burned-offering to God amid the fearful blaze which was beheld ascending from the summit of Mount Calvary. Then did this perfection appear in its most fearful form- Jesus bearing sin- Jesus enduring the curse of the law- Jesus sustaining the wrath of His Father- Jesus surrendering His holy soul a sacrifice for man's transgressions. Oh, never, never did Divine justice so imperatively assert its claims and so loudly demand its rights- never did it so strictly exact its penalty, and so fearfully grapple with its victim, as now; and never before nor since had such a sacrifice been bound to its altar- never did Jehovah appear so just, as at the moment the fire descended and consumed His only-begotten and well-beloved Son!

The glory of God's TRUTH is reflected with equal luster in the person and work of Christ. It is the perfection of a perfect being that He does not, yes, that He cannot change. God is the perfect being. It is His perfection that He is true, essentially and immutably true. He can as soon cease to be, as cease to be true. His truth is the golden thread which unites all His perfections; it is the glory and perfection of all, that all are based upon and held together in perfect and eternal harmony by truth. "It is impossible for God to lie;" "He cannot deny Himself," are among the strongest assertions which the Holy Spirit has made of His veracity. To deviate the shadow of a shade from His word- from His oath- from His promise- from His covenant- would be to undeify Himself. Now as God cannot cease to be- that being an impossibility- it is equally impossible that He should deny Himself. Consider, too, what the converse of this proposition would be in its consequences to the child of God. How disastrous to all the blessed and glorious hopes of the believer! For, what repose could the soul find in His love, what confidence in His power, if truth, the basis and the security of all, were lacking? What a cloud would overshadow every perfection of His being, and how soon would He cease to be what He is so beautifully declared to be, "a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He!"

Of the glory of this Divine perfection, the Lord Jesus is the grand revelation. Nowhere does it shine forth with such unveiled majesty as in Jesus. Nowhere does God appear so true, so gloriously true, as in Christ. "I am," says He, "the truth;" not merely true, but the truth. "The law was given by Moses, but grace acid truth came by Jesus Christ." The same inspired evangelist represents Him as dwelling among us in the flesh, "full of grace and truth."

It pleased the gracious and sin-pardoning God to meet our guilty and conscience-stricken parents, immediately after the fall, with the comforting and gracious promise that "the seed of the woman" -His eternal Son, the everlasting Mediator- should "bruise the serpent's head." On this Divine assurance of recovering and saving mercy they rested. Believing in this, as they doubtless did, they were saved, "the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb." They rested, let it be emphatically spoken, not upon the bare letter of the promise, but upon its substance; not merely upon the grace promised, but upon the truth of God in the promise. The bare letter of a promise is no resting-place for a believing soul; it can convey no solid consolation and support. Thus far, and no farther, did the Jews get, to whom pertained the promises. This is all that they saw in the types and promises, which set forth "God's unspeakable gift." They rested in the mere letter. They saw not Christ in them; and seeing not Christ to be their substance and glory, to them "the promises of God were made of none effect." Now God has fulfilled His ancient promise. The word He spoke to Adam, He has made good to the letter to us his posterity. It is true, the vision of grace and glory seemed for a while to tarry, but it tarried only for its appointed time. It is true, the vista was long and dreary, through which patriarchs, seers, and prophets beheld it. The star of hope was often scarcely seen in the dim distance, and frequently seemed for a moment entirely quenched in darkness. Time rolled heavily along- a period of four thousand years elapsed- but true to His word, faithful to His promise, "when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Oh how gloriously did the truth of Jehovah shine in the person of the babe of Bethlehem! How did it gather brightness as the holy child Jesus increased in stature and in favor with God and man! And to what meridian splendor did it blaze forth, when on Calvary it united with holiness and justice, in finishing the great work of the Church's redemption! Then was it that "mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace kissed each other."

Jesus is the grand evidence that God is true. Faith needs, faith asks no more. Here as on a stable foundation it rests. Its eye ever "looking unto Jesus," it can thread its way- often sunless and starless- through a dreary and an intricate wilderness. It can travel through trials, endure temptations, bow meekly to disappointments, bear up under cross providences, and sustain the shock of fearful conflicts, trusting in the God of the covenant, resting on His promise and oath, and implicitly believing His word, because it sees in Jesus the ever-living witness that God is true.

O you of doubting and fearful heart! looking at the waves rolling at your feet, and well-near sinking beneath their swellings, exclaiming, "Will the Lord cast off forever? and will He be favorable no more? Is His mercy clean gone forever? does His promise fail for evermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious? has He in anger shut up His tender mercies?" behold the glory of God's truth beaming in the face of Jesus Christ, and doubt no more! So long as Jesus lives- lives as your Advocate, as your High Priest, as your Representative in the court of heaven, all is yours which the covenant promises, and which His mediation secures. The "promises of God are all yes and amen in Christ Jesus." Never will He break His oath, nor falsify His word, nor alter the thing that has gone out of His mouth. "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away." God says it, and let faith believe it, because He says it. So essential is it to your comfort, that I would repeat the caution- in all your dealings with the Divine promises, avoid a Jewish faith. Do not so much look at the grace of the promise, or at the thing promised- precious as both are, -as at God in the promise. The promise is the heart of your Father speaking; it is the faithfulness of your Father performing. Rest, then, not in the blessing promised, but in the veracity of Him who promises it, and then shall your faith have confidence towards God.

But we must not close this imperfect glance at some of the more prominent perfections of God as revealed in Christ, without for a moment including in the classification that glorious one of LOVE. It is a self-evident truth, that as God only knows, so He only can reveal His own love. It is a hidden love, veiled deep within the recesses of His infinite heart, yes, it seems to compose His very essence, for "God is love," -not more lovely and loving, but love itself, essential love. Who, then, can reveal it but Himself? How dim are the brightest views, and how low the loftiest conceptions of the love of God, as possessed by men of mere natural and speculative knowledge of Divine things! They read God's goodness, even in nature, with a half-closed eye, and spell it in providence with a stammering tongue. Of His essential love- His redeeming love, of His great and glorious manifestation of His love in Jesus, they know nothing. The eyes of their understanding have not been opened; and "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness," has not yet "shined into their hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

But God has declared His own love. Jesus is its glorious revelation. "God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins." Oh what an infinite sea of love now broke upon our guilty and rebellious world, wafting in upon its rolling tide God's only begotten Son! That must have been great love, love infinite, love unsearchable, love surpassing all thought- which could constrain the Father to give Jesus to die for us, "while we were yet sinners." It is the great loss of the believer, that faith eyes with so dim a vision this amazing love of God in the gift of Jesus. I marvel not that, dealing so little with the Father's love in the greater gift, faith should stagger at His promise of the less. We have transactions so seldom and so unbelievingly with the cross, that we have need perpetually to recur to the apostle's cheering words, written as it kindly and condescendingly to meet this infirmity of our faith, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"

But, behold God's love! See how He has inscribed this glorious perfection of His nature in letters of blood drawn from the heart of Jesus. His love was so great, that nothing short of the surrender to the death of His beloved Son could give an adequate expression of its immensity. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." Here was the greatest miracle of love. Here was its most stupendous achievement- here its most brilliant victory- and here its most costly and precious offering. Seeing us fallen, obnoxious to the curse of the law, exposed to its dreadful penalty, guilty of innumerable sins, and deserving of as many deaths, yet how did it yearn to save us! How did it heave, and pant, and strive, and pause not, until it revealed a way infinitely safe for God and man; securing glory to every Divine attribute in the highest degree, and happiness to the creature, immense, unspeakable, and eternal. "Herein is love!" as though John would say, "and nowhere else but here." That God should punish the innocent for the guilty- that He should exact the blood of His Son to cancel the guilt of His rebels- that He should lay an infinite weight of wrath on His soul, in order to lay an infinite weight of love on ours- that He should sacrifice His life of priceless value for ours, worthless, forfeited, and doomed- that He should not only give His Son, but should bruise Him, put Him to grief, afflict Him, should make His soul an offering for sin- that the Lord of glory should become a man of sorrows- the Lord of life should die- and the Heir of all things should be as he that serves." Oh depth of love unfathomable! Oh height of love unsearchable! Oh length and breadth of love unmeasurable! Oh love of God which surpasses knowledge!

And how shall we set forth the love of the Redeemer- the deep and precious love of Christ? We can only say, it is equal in its eternity, its immensity, its freeness, and its unchangeableness, with the Father's love. Persuasion did not induce Him to undertake redemption. Compulsion did not bring Him to the cross. His own love constrained Him. Love for His Church, His bride, bore Him on its soft wings, from the highest throne in glory to the deepest abasement on earth. How forcibly and touchingly was His love depicted in His attitude, when on the eve of suffering- "Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth." He not only knew that death awaited Him, but with equal prescience He knew all the circumstances of ignominy with which that death would be attended. The storm, the outskirts of which had already touched Him, was now thickening and darkening, each moment concentrating its elements of destruction, and preparing for the tremendous outburst. Yet He went forth, as if eager to meet it's woeful horrors, not with the fame-panting spirit of Achilles, when he hastened to the Trojan war, knowing that he should fall there, but with the irresistible power and constraint of His own love, which would have nerved Him for a thousand deaths, had His Father's law demanded, and the salvation of His Church required it. "Christ also has loved us, and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savor."

And now, beloved, with this ocean of mercy rolling its swelling waves at your feet, each billow as it breaks murmuring in the sweetest cadence, "God is love," can you for a moment question the wise, gracious, tender conduct towards you, of that Father from whose heart this ocean flows? Look at the cross; behold His precious Gift transfixed to it, and that by His own hand, and for your sins; then look at your present circumstances, survey your needs, your trials, your chastisements, your bereavements, your heart-sickening, heart-breaking tribulations, and know that God still is love. If He had love strong enough, deep enough, to give you Jesus, to release Him from His bosom, and to permit Him to be affixed to yonder accursed tree for your iniquities, has He not love enough to bow His ear to your cry, and His heart to your sorrow? Will He not rescue you from this difficulty, deliver you out of this trouble, shield you in this temptation, supply this need, and support and comfort you in this grief? O yes, He will! doubt it not! The cross of Calvary is a standing pledge- standing until sin and guilt, need and woe, shall be known no more- that God, who "spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, will with Him freely give us all things " necessary to our good, and promotive of His glory.

In conducting the chapter to a close, we remark, first, how defective and fallacious is all knowledge of God outside of Christ. Examine closely, and in the light of the revealed word, the source and character of your professed acquaintance with the nature, character, and perfections of God. Ponder seriously this solemn declaration of Christ Himself, "No man knows the Son, but the Father; nor knows any man the Father, but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Has your knowledge of God overwhelmed you with a sense of your sinfulness? Have you caught such a view of the spotless purity, the immaculate holiness of His nature, as to compel you to exclaim, "Woe is me! for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Has your study of his law forced upon your mind the deep and solemn conviction that you are a fallen, ruined, lost, guilty, condemned sinner, at this moment lying under the wrath of God, and exposed to future and everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of His power? Has it laid you beneath the cross of Christ? Has it brought you to His blood and righteousness for pardon and acceptance? Has it led you utterly to renounce all self-trust, self-confidence, self-boasting, and to accept of Jesus as "made of God unto you wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption?" If it has not wrought this for you, your knowledge of God is but as "sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." "This," says Christ, "is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." If you know not the Son, you know not the Father. "No man knows the Father, but he to whom the Son shall reveal Him," Jesus, Himself, has declared.

Consider well the mercy of having transactions with such a God in such a Christ. A God so holy and just, so good and wise, in a Christ so truly human, so spotless, so near, so dear, and precious! God in Christ! Oh the immensity of the truth! Oh the glory of the revelation! That God reconciled, one with the believer; all His feelings love, all His thoughts peace, and all His dealings parental; each perfection harmonizing in the most perfect agreement with all the others, to secure the highest amount of good here, and of happiness unspeakable and eternal hereafter.

"To know the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, is both a fruitful and a comfortable knowledge. We know the pattern we must walk by; we know the life we must live by; we know the treasure we must be supplied by; we know whom we have believed; we know whom we may be bold with, in all straits and distresses; we know God in Christ, full of love, full of compassion, full of ears to hear us, full of eyes to watch over us, full of hands to fight for us, full of tongues to commune with us, full of power to preserve us, full of grace to transform us, full of fidelity to keep covenant with us, full of wisdom to conduct us, full of redemption to save us, and full of glory to reward us."

How precious to us should the Gospel be which reveals this great truth! These are days in which it behooves the true saints to set a high value on the Gospel. More precious should it be to them than their dearest earthly interest; nothing can compensate for its loss. And that there is a danger of its waning glory, if not of its being entirely lost to this country, who does not see? The prediction of John Owen seems fast hastening to its fulfilment. "The time will come," says that holy and eminent divine of a former century, "when a faithful minister of the Gospel will be more scarce and precious than a bar of gold." Already has this famine of the true word of God commenced! How few there are who preach the undiluted Gospel, who set forth the full Christ- who proclaim the finished and free salvation! How few, forming their ministry upon the apostolic model, can affirm with Paul, "My speech and my preaching are not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power!" How few, disdaining artificial embellishment, and scorning the applause of men won by a vain show of intellect and eloquence, preach that simple truth of which Jesus is the Author, the Substance, the Glory, the Power, and the End- purely, boldly, faithfully, affectionately, uncompromisingly! How sadly, how painfully, is the Lord Jesus Christ kept in the background! How is His glory obscured, His beauty veiled, His honor withheld! And yet there are those- (honored men! would that your number were greater!) -who honestly and heartily desire to lift up their Lord and Master, themselves lost behind the glory of His person and the splendors of His cross. Do we rejoice in this? Can we with the apostle say, "Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yes, and will rejoice?" By whomsoever He is exalted- in whatever sanctuary His Gospel is proclaimed, however feeble the talent, and limited the attainment, and defective the announcement, and humble the manner in which Jesus is set forth, do our hearts rejoice that glory is thus brought to Him?

Dear reader, if the image of Christ is admired by you, you will recognize it when you see it. If His name is fragrant to you, you will rejoice wherever it is poured forth. If His Gospel is prized by you, you will be glad by whomsoever it is preached. If His person is precious to you, you will love Him most who most fully exhibits Christ's glory, and who most successfully draws souls to adore and worship at His feet. Oh, let us, as before God, search and try our hearts, touching this matter!

But the Gospel is greatly assailed. Never, perhaps, was it more resolutely opposed on every hand; never did there seem to be a stronger combination formed to neutralize its power, and sap its very foundation, than at the present moment. Infidelity, popery, and semi-popery, in close and powerful alliance, are confederate against the Divine word of God. Low views of inspiration; the exalting of tradition above Scripture, of reason above revelation, of human talent above the teaching of the Spirit, of forms and ceremonies above the vital power of godliness; are significant and fearful signs of our times. We need, then, every view of the Gospel, tending to illustrate its value and endear its preciousness. Here is truth calculated to produce this holy effect. Nature does not teach it; the law does not reveal it; philosophy does not inculcate it; tradition does not contain it; the Gospel only makes it known. How God is revealed in Jesus Christ; how that "two should become one, and yet remain two still, as God and man do in Christ; that He who makes should be one with the thing which Himself has made; that He who is above all should humble Himself; that He who fills all should empty Himself; that He who blesses all should be Himself a curse; that He who rules all should be Himself a servant; that He who was the Prince of Life, and by whom all things in the world do consist, should Himself be dissolved and die; that mercy and justice should meet together, and kiss each other; that the debt should be paid, and yet pardoned; that the fault should be punished, and yet remitted; that death, like Samson's lion, should have life and sweetness in it, and be used as an instrument to destroy itself, -are evangelical truths and mysteries revealed alone in the "glorious Gospel of the blessed God." "In nature we see Him the God of power, in providence the God of wisdom, in the law the God of vengeance, but in the Gospel the God full of compassion, of overflowing love, ready to pardon; humbling Himself that He might be merciful unto His enemies- that He might Himself bear the punishment of those injuries which had been done unto Himself; that He might beseech His own prisoners to be pardoned and reconciled again. In the creature He is the God above us; in the law He is the God against us; but in the Gospel He is Immanuel, the God with us, the God like us, the God for us."

What strong encouragement does this subject afford to every truly humbled, sin-burdened, Christ-seeking soul! God in Christ is no longer a "consuming fire," but a God of love, of peace; a reconciled God.

God in Christ holds out His hand all the day long to poor sinners. He receives all, He welcomes all; He rejects, He refuses, He casts out none. It is His glory to pardon a sinner. It is the glory of His power, it is the glory of His love, it is the glory of His wisdom, it is the glory of His grace, to take the prey from the mighty, to deliver the lawful captive, to pluck the brand from the burning, to lower the golden chain of His mercy to the greatest depth of human wretchedness and guilt, and lift the needy and place him among the princes. Behold Christ upon the cross! Every pang that He endures, every stroke that He receives, every groan that He utters, every drop of blood that He sheds, proclaims that God is love, and that He stands pledged and is ready to pardon the vilest of the vile. JUSTICE, sheathing its sword, and retiring satisfied from the scene, leaves MERCY gloriously triumphant. And "God delights in mercy." Having at such an infinite cost opened a channel- even through the smitten heart of His beloved Son- through which His mercy may flow boundless and free, venture near, nothing doubting. No feature of your case is discouraging, nor can possibly arrest the pardon. Your age, your protracted rebellion against God, your long life of indifference to the concerns of your soul, the turpitude and number of your sins, your need of deep convictions or of stronger faith, or of worth or worthiness to recommend you to His favor, are no true impediments to your approach, are no pleas wherefore you should not draw near and touch the outstretched scepter, bathe in the opened fountain, put on the spotless robe, welcome the gracious pardon, and press it with gratitude and transport to your adoring heart!

In the light of this truth cultivate loving and kindly views of God. Ever view Him, ever approach Him, and ever transact your soul's affairs with Him, in and through Jesus. He is the one Mediator between God and your soul. God your Father may now be leading you through deep and dark waters. His voice may sound roughly to you. His dim outline is, perhaps, all that you can see of Him. His face seems veiled and averted; yet deal with Him now in Christ, and all your hard thoughts, and trembling fears, and unbelieving doubts shall vanish. In Jesus every perfection dissolves into grace and love. With your eye upon the cross, and looking at God through that cross, all the dark letters of His providence will in a moment become radiant with light and glory. That God who has so revealed Himself in Jesus must be love, all love, and nothing but love, even in the most dark, painful, and afflictive dealings with His beloved people.

Especially in the matter of prayer, cultivate and cherish this kindly, soothing view of God in Christ. Without it, in this most solemn and holy of all transactions, your mental conceptions of His nature will be vague, your attempts to concentrate your thoughts on this one object will be baffled, and the spiritual character of the engagement will lessen in tone and vigor. But meeting God in Christ, with every perfection of His nature revealed and blended, you may venture near, and in this posture, and through this medium; may negotiate with Him the most momentous matters. You may reason, may adduce your strong arguments, and throwing wide open the door of the most hidden chamber of your heart, may confess its deepest iniquity; you may place your "secret sins in the light of His countenance;" God still can meet you in the mildest luster of His love. Drawing near, placing your tremulous hand of faith on the head of the atoning sacrifice, there is no sin that you may not confess, no need that you may not make known, no mercy that you may not ask, no blessing that you may not crave, for yourself, for others, for the whole Church. See! the atoning Lord is upon your mercy-seat, the golden censer waves, the fragrant cloud of the much incense ascends, and with it are "offered the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne." Jesus is in the midst, "Looks like a lamb that has been slain, And wears His priesthood still."

"Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near." Open all your heart to God through Christ, who has opened all His heart to you in Christ. Remember that to bring Himself in a position to converse with you, as no angel could, in the matter that now burdens and depresses you, He assumed your nature on earth, with that very sorrow and infirmity affixed to it; took it back to glory, and at this moment appears in it before the throne, your Advocate with the Father. Then hesitate not, whatever be the nature of your petition, whatever the character of your need, to make known your requests unto God. Coming by simple faith in the name of Jesus, it cannot be that He should refuse you. With His eye of justice ever on the blood, and His eye of complacency ever on His Son, Himself loving you, too, with a love ineffably great, it would seem impossible that you should meet with a denial. Yield your ear to the sweet harmony of the Redeemer's voice, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatever you shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you. Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name: ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full." "Whatever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

The subject is in the highest degree soothing, comforting, and encouraging. It seems to introduce us into the very pavilion of God's heart. There, curtained and shut in, we may repose in perfect peace. Not a single perfection can a believing mind view in Christ but it smiles upon him. Oh! to see holiness and justice, truth and love, bending their glance of sweetest and softest benignity upon a poor, trembling soul, approaching to hide itself beneath the shadow of the cross! What a truth is this! All is sunshine here. The clouds are scattered, the darkness is gone, the tempest is hushed, the sea is calm. Justice has lost its sting, the law its terror, and sin its power, the heart of God is open, the bosom of Jesus bleeds, the Holy Spirit draws, the Gospel invites, and now the "weary and the heavily laden" may draw near and rush into the bosom of God reconciled in Christ. Oh, were ever words sweeter than these- "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." "Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood." "He is able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him"?

God in Christ is the covenant God of His people. He is their God; their tender, loving, condescending Father. They may lose for a while the sight and the enjoyment of this truth, but this does not negate it; it still remains the same, unchangeable, precious, and glorious. Nothing can rob them of it. In the tempest, let it be the anchorage of your faith; in darkness, the pole-star of your hope. Let every circumstance- the prosperity that ensnares and the adversity that depresses, the temptation that assails and the slight that wounds, endear to your believing soul this precious thought- God reconciled, God at peace, God our Father in Christ, is my God forever and ever, and He will be my guide even unto death."

If to view God in Christ is a comforting truth, it is also a sanctifying truth. Why has God revealed Himself in Jesus? To evince the exceeding hatefulness of sin, and to show that nothing short of such a stupendous sacrifice could remove it consistently with the glory of the Divine nature, and the honor of the Divine government. Each sin, then, is a blow struck at this transcendent truth. The eye averted from it, sin appears a trifle; it can be looked at without indignation, tampered with without fear, committed without hesitation, persisted in without remorse, gloried in without shame, confessed without sorrow. But when Divine justice is seen drinking the very heart's blood of God's only Son in order to quench its infinite thirst for satisfaction; when God in Christ is seen in His humiliation, suffering, and death, all with the design of pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin, how fearful a thing does it seem to sin against this holy Lord God! How base, how ungrateful, appears our sin in view of love so amazing, of grace so rich, and of glory so great! Cultivate a constant, an ardent thirst for holiness. Do not be discouraged, if the more intensely the desire for sanctification rises, the deeper and darker the revelation of the heart's hidden evil. The one is often a consequent of the other; but persevere. The struggle may be painful, the battle may be strong, but the result is certain, and will be a glorious victory, VICTORY, through the blood of the Lamb!

The Typical Glory of the Redeemer

"The Burning Bush"

And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. Exodus 3:2

There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. Exodus 3:2

Suddenly, the angel of the Lord appeared to him as a blazing fire in a bush. Moses was amazed because the bush was engulfed in flames, but it didn't burn up. Exodus 3:2

The entire theocracy of the Israelites was interwoven with a system of symbols and types of the most significant and instructive character. It was thus the wisdom and the will of God that the revelation of Jesus to the Church should assume a consecutive and progressive form. Not a sudden but a gradual descent to the world, marked the advent of our adorable Redeemer. The same principle of progressiveness is frequently seen in a saving discovery of Christ to the soul. Not by an immediate and instantaneous revelation, not by a single glance of the mind, is Jesus always made known and seen. Long and slow is often the process. "Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise." Observe, it is a gradation of light. The Sun rises- beam follows beam, light expands, Christ is more known; more known, He is more admired; more admired, He is more loved; and more loved, He is more implicitly obeyed and devotedly served. Thus, the "path of the just is as the shining light, which shines more and more unto the perfect day."

Thus has been the revelation of Christ's glory to the Church of God. In her infancy- her nonage- she was placed "under tutors and governors, until the time appointed by the Father." Not prepared to sustain the sudden and full revelation, God disciplined and trained her by various types and ceremonies; thus, wisely, and, it must be admitted, graciously, shadowing forth His dear Son by gradual but increasingly clear and luminous discoveries, until the "fulness of time was come," when He appeared the great Antitype of all the types, the glowing substance of all the shadows, the full signification of all the symbols, the "brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of His person."

With the glory of Jesus, the typical part of the old dispensation is replete. And although this economy was composed principally of mere types, they nevertheless were God's appointed means of transmitting a gradual revelation of His mind and purpose to His Church and the world, and of developing, by a series of the most expressive symbols, His stupendous plan of redemption; nor can they be passed by in the study of revealed truth, without rendering unintelligible and obscure a very extensive portion of the sacred word.

In considering the typical glory of Christ, it would be impossible in the compass of a single chapter to present an adequate view of all the types of the Old Testament which set forth the Lord Jesus in His person and work. We have, therefore, selected from the many a single one- the burning bush- as embodying a mass of truth relating to our adorable Immanuel. On the history with which it stands connected, it is not necessary to enlarge. It will be sufficient to our purpose to remark, that Moses, to whom the wondrous spectacle appeared, was now preparing for a post of signal labor, responsibility, and honor. Brought up in the palace and educated in the court of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, he was but imperfectly qualified to take his place in the front of a suffering and tried people, delivering them from their oppression, sympathizing with their sufferings, establishing their economy, framing their laws, and conducting them through a rough, intricate, and dangerous desert, to a land of promised rest. From this school of luxury and repose, God transferred him to one more calculated to train him for the toils, the hardships, and the perils of the wilderness; and to qualify him for the office of legislating for a Church, whose God was Jehovah, and whose history was at that moment written in "letters of mourning, lamentation, and woe." He sent him into the land of Midian, and for forty years was he employed in pastoral servitude for Jethro, his father-in-law. Engaged in this lowly calling, by the side of Mount Horeb, "the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and be looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And He said, Draw not near here: put off your shoes from your feet, for the place whereon you stands is holy ground. Moreover He said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God."

Now this type- a type it doubtless is- is radiant with the glory of Christ. Who but the Holy Spirit, the Glorifier of Jesus, can unfold it? It shadows forth Christ in the mysterious constitution of His complex person, and in the great work for the accomplishment of which He became so constituted. In these two points of view, in connection with the import of the solemn admonition annexed to it, let us proceed to consider this expressive symbol.

The first point demanding our attention is, THE DIVINE MANIFESTATION. That Jehovah was here revealed, the evidence is most conclusive. When Moses turned aside to see the great sight, "God called unto him out of the midst of the bush." It was not a mere vision that he saw, no hallucination of the mind had come over him; he could not be deceived as to the Divine Being in whose immediate and solemn presence he then stood. How awe-struck must have been his mind! how solemn his impressions, and how sacred his thoughts! But if further proof were needed, the declaration of God Himself sets the question of the Divine appearance at rest; "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." No truth could be more clearly established.

But in which person of the sacred and adorable Three, it may be asked, did God thus appear? We have every scriptural reason to believe that it was Jehovah Jesus; that it was a manifestation, anticipative of His future appearance in the flesh, of the Godhead of Christ. Thus, then, the type sets forth the glory of the Divine person of our dear Lord. How solemn, and yet how delightful to the mind, and establishing to our faith, is the truth, that the same God who under the old dispensation, on so many occasions, in so many gracious and glorious ways, and in so many remarkable and undoubted instances, appeared to the ancient believers, is He who was born in Bethlehem, who lived a life of obedience to the law, and died an atoning death upon the cross; the Savior, the Surety, of His people! What reality does it give to the salvation of the saints! Beloved, remember as you hang over this page, the same Jehovah who spoke from the midst of the flaming bush, and said, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," speaks to you from the cross, and in the Gospel, and says, "Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest." O "glorious Gospel of the blessed God!"

The second point of consideration in this remarkable type, as setting forth the glory of Immanuel, is THE SYMBOL in which He appeared. It is full of instruction. And what symbol did our Lord select in which to embody His Deity? Did He choose some tall cedar of Lebanon, or some majestic oak of the forest? No; but a bush- the most ordinary and insignificant, the most lowly and unsightly, of all trees- was to enshrine the Godhead of Him whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain. And what is the truth it conveys? Oh, most glorious and precious! It points to the incarnate glory of the Son of God- the lowliness of His nature. Referring again to the type, it will instantly appear that the unveiled, unclouded, and unembodied glory of Jehovah would have appalled and overwhelmed with its ineffable brightness the awe-stricken and astonished man of God. He could not have looked upon God and lived. "There shall no man see me, and live," says the Lord. It was therefore proper, yes, it was merciful, that all the manifestations of God to His people in the old dispensation, should be through the medium of objects on which the eye could look without pain, and on which the mind could repose without fear. Veiled in a cloud, or embodied in a bush, God could approach the creature with condescending grace, and reveal His mind, the creature could approach God with humble confidence, and open his heart. How kind and condescending in Jehovah to subdue and soften the splendor of His majesty, thus tempering it to the weak vision of mortal and sinful man!

But this was typical of that more wondrous and stupendous stoop of God in the new dispensation. All the subdued and obscure manifestations of the Godhead in the former economy, were but the forecasting shadows of the great mystery of godliness then approaching; and possessed no glory by reason of the glory that excels. But mark the condescending grace, the deep abasement, the infinite lowliness of the Son of God. When He purposed to appear in an inferior nature, what form of manifestation did He assume? Did He embody His Godhead in some tall archangel? Did He enshrine it in some glowing seraph? No! "For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham." He lowered Himself to our lowly and degraded nature- He selected our fallen, suffering, sorrowing, tempted humanity- He takes into union with Deity a creature, not of the highest rank and beauty, but a spirit dwelling in a temple of flesh; yes, not merely the inhabitant of the temple, but He unites Himself with the temple Himself, for "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us;" and even this flesh not connected with its state of primeval glory, but associated with all the humbling though sinless infirmities of its fallen condition.

Behold, too, the lowliness of Christ in the world's eye. In Him it sees no glory and traces no beauty; His outward form of humiliation veils it from their view. He is to them but as a "root out of the dry ground, having no form nor loveliness." On this point we shall more fully enlarge when we come to consider the humiliation of the Son of God.

There is yet another part of this significant type to be considered, equally important and rich in the view it conveys of the glory of Jesus in His work. "The angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a fame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed." The symbol of fire was expressive of the holiness and justice of God. It is thus frequently employed: "The Lord your God is a consuming fire." "And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire." "Our God is a consuming fire." But that which formed the greatest wonder- which riveted the eye, and attracted and enchained the feet of Moses to the spot, was the bush unconsumed. "And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned."

But a more marvellous and stupendous spectacle meets us in the cross of Christ– Jesus enduring the fire of His Father's wrath: wrapped in the flame of His justice, and yet unconsumed! Let us turn aside from all inferior objects, and for a while contemplate this "great sight." It is indeed a great sight! The Son of God is laid upon the altar as a "burned offering," -a sacrifice for sin. The fire of Divine justice descends to consume Him- holiness in fearful exercise heaps on its fuel, and the flame and the smoke ascend in one vast column before the throne of the Eternal, "an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor." But behold the astonishment! Jesus suffering, and yet rejoicing! dying, and yet living! consuming, and yet unconsumed! These prodigies marked the offering up of our great High Priest upon Calvary. The dark billows of sorrow rolled over the human soul of Christ, but the Godhead remained calm and peaceful, its tranquillity unruffled by a wave of grief, its sunshine undimmed by a cloud of dark ness. He thus passed through all these throbs, and throes, and agonies of death, descended into the grave, rose again, lived, and still lives, the fountain of life to the created universe. Behold the God! Do you say He is a mere creature? Preposterous thought! Mad conception! Soul-destructive belief! Had He been less than divine, suffering as He did for sin, the devouring fire would have consumed Him in its unquenchable flame.

To the heart-broken sinner, how attractive and glorious is this spectacle of the Almighty Redeemer sustaining the wrath and suffering the justice of God for transgression! Mourning soul! turn aside, and behold yet again this "great sight." "Put off your shoes from your feet, for the place whereon you stand eat is holy ground." Lay aside your fleshly reasoning, your carnal views of self-justification, self-salvation, and human power- put off all your fleshly ideas of God, of His grace, and of His goodness; divest yourself of all your unbelieving and hard thoughts of His power, willingness, and readiness to save you. Thus prepared, approach- gaze, wonder, and adore! No one can stand on this holy ground, but he who stands in his own nothingness-none are welcome here but the poor, the empty, the bankrupt, and the vile. Are you all this? is this your case? Then draw near! God will speak from amid the flame of the sacrifice, and say to you, "Fear not!"

One feature more in this beautiful and instructive type remains to be considered, that is, the especial design of God in this miraculous appearance. After calming the troubled mind of Moses by revealing to him who He was, verse 6, He then proceeds to explain the gracious intentions of His advent. "And the Lord said, I have surely seen the afflictions of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their task-masters; for I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land into a good and a large land, into a land flowing with milk and honey." -verses 7, 8.

But a greater work, a mightier and more glorious deliverance, did our Almighty Redeemer come down to effect. To this the Spirit of Christ which was in the prophet Isaiah testified. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound." The Lord saw from heaven the affliction of His chosen people who were in Egypt- the land of spiritual darkness, bondage, and oppression: He heard their cry by reason of their hard taskmasters- He knew their sorrows, and He came down to deliver and to bring them out of that land into a good land- a large place- a land truly flowing with milk and honey. Oh, from what a land of gloom, from what an iron furnace, and from what a hard oppressor, has Jesus delivered His people! He has rescued them from a state of nature, and brought them into a state of grace; from ignorance of God, of Christ, and of themselves, in which the fall had involved them- from the guilt of sin, and the condemnation of the law- from the captivity and tyranny of Satan, and from their hard and oppressive servitude. And, oh, into what a land of rest, blessedness, and plenty, has He brought them! Into covenant relationship with God, as His adopted children- into a state of pardon and acceptance- into the enjoyment of His love and presence; to know God as their reconciled Father- to know their oneness with Jesus their exalted Head, and their union with the body as its members- to a state of most holy and blessed liberty, as chosen, called, and adopted saints. Into the experience of all these blessings has a greater than Moses brought us. "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Let us, then, "give thanks unto the Father, who has made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son," "even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come." Truly is Jesus, our Great Deliverer, "counted worthy of more glory than Moses."

This remarkable incident in the history of God's ancient Israel, which we have thus far been considering, as setting forth the typical glory of our Immanuel, is perhaps as equally illustrative of most important truth, bearing upon the experimental and practical experience of each believer in Jesus. It presents a true and beautiful outline of the Church of God. We are reminded of the two opposite natures of the believer- the fallen and the restored, the fleshly and the spiritual. The one low, sinful, unlovely, and of the earth-earthly; the other elevated, holy, glorious, and of heaven-heavenly. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

The conflict between these opposite and antagonist natures in the child of God, is also presented to view. As the bush in which the Divinity dwelt was surrounded by flame, so the regenerated man, in whom the eternal God deigns to dwell by His Spirit, is perpetually encircled by the fire of conflict, trial, and suffering. Nature and grace, sin and holiness, are as contrary the one to the other as any two principles can be. They can no more agree, commingle, nor coalesce, than can the opposite and antagonist elements in the natural world. Nor can there ever be a truce between them. They must necessarily and perpetually be at variance, hostile to, and at war with, each other. The contest is for supremacy. The great question at issue is, "which shall reign in the believer- sin or holiness, nature or grace, Satan or God?" Oh, what a fiery conflict is this! Hear the confession of an inspired apostle, drawn from his own painful experience: "I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. But I can't help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things. I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't." Who cannot trace the conflict here? Sin, he deeply, inveterately abhorred. The prevailing tendency, the habitual and fixed inclination, of his renewed mind, was to holiness- the bent of his desires was towards God. And yet, in consequence of the native depravity of his heart, the influence of sinful propensities, corrupt inclinations and desires, he felt like one chained to a body of death, from which he longed to be delivered. Here was that which defined the two natures, marked the perpetual conflict between both, and which distinguished the holy man from the sinner.

In addition to this spiritual conflict, there are the flames of suffering and trial which often encircle a dear child of God. This is the baptism of fire, connected with, and ever following, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. "He shall baptize you," says John, "with the Holy Spirit, and with fire." God has His "fire in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem." "The Lord tries the righteous.," "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." But it is not the furnace of justice nor the fire of wrath. Jesus, the Surety, has passed through and sustained all this; He has quenched its flame, and extinguished its embers. But it is the discipline of everlasting love and mercy. And though persecution may be permitted to rage, and the confessor of Christ may ascend to glory in a chariot of flame- though trials of various kinds may overtake the child of God, his grace and his graces "tried with fire," yet both the persecution of the Church and the trials of the believer are but the fruit of eternal and unchangeable love, and will prove purifying, sanctifying, and saving. Nothing will be consumed but the tinsel of the world, and the dross of sin, the alloy so much and so frequently found mixed with the pure gold.

But contemplate one more surpassing and precious truth- the Church is unconsumed! And why? Because He who dwelt in the bush dwells in the Church. The believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The High and the Lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, dwells in him. Christ is in him the hope of glory. It is impossible that he can perish. Why has not the poor, feeble bush been consumed? why has not grace declined, and faith failed, and love become totally extinguished? why has not "the fiery dart" of Satan prevailed, and the fierce and hot flame of persecution and of trial utterly consumed? Because greater is He that is in the believer than he that is in the world. Believer in Jesus! tell me not only of the sin that dwells in you, often bringing your soul into bondage and distress; tell me also of the grace that dwells in you, which as often gives you the victory, and sends you rejoicing on your way. Tell not only of the burning fiery furnace seven times heated; tell also of Him whose form is like the Son of God, who is with you in the furnace, and who has brought, and who will yet bring, you through with not a hair of your head singed, nor the smell of fire passed upon your garments. Tell not only of the "trial of your faith," "though it be tried with fire," but that also, through the ceaseless intercession of Jesus within the veil, that faith never yet has failed. Tell not only of the burden that has oppressed; tell also of the grace that has sustained- not only of the sorrow that has wounded, but also of the Divine sympathy, tenderness, and gentleness that have soothed and comforted, bound up and healed that wound. Oh, to hear more frequently the shout of victory and the song of praise breaking in sweet music from the lips of the redeemed! How much more would Jesus be glorified!

Unconverted reader! there is a fire- what if it be already kindled- that will never go out; a flame now burning that will never be quenched. Have you not read of it in God's word? "Behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yes, and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." "Then shall He also say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." "If your hand offend you, cut it off: it is better for you to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched." "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" Flee, then, from the wrath to come! This moment flee! Linger not upon the confines of a world "kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men," but hasten from all below to Christ. "Escape for your life; look not behind you, nor stay in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed." Jesus is your only hiding-place, your refuge, your covert from the tempest. Away from a world doomed to woe; away from all refuge in your own obedience to the law, in works of human merit; away from self, from sin, from all, to Jesus. Until you have reached Him, you are suspended by a hair over the bottomless pit: in one moment, and at any moment, it may break, and you are gone; and once lost, lost forever!

Dear tried and suffering reader, do you resemble this burning bush? are you in the fire, passing through the furnace? does some strong temptation assail you- some sore trial oppress you- some deep sorrows wound you? He who dwelt in the bush dwells in you! and He who kept the bush unconsumed amid the flame, will keep you! Let your greatest care and deepest solicitude be to "glorify God in the fires." Be more prayerful for sustaining and sanctifying grace, than for the removal of your trial. This will bring richer glory to God. Beseech your Father that the flame may not be extinguished until the alloy is consumed, and the tried gold has come forth reflecting more vividly from its surface the image of Jesus- your soul partaking more deeply of the Divine holiness.

"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!"

The Prophetical Glory of the Redeemer

"Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him." John 12:41

"Isaiah was referring to Jesus when he made this prediction, because he was given a vision of the Messiah's glory." John 12:41

How true is it that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy!" "To Him gave all the prophets witness." Of Him, as of one only glorious person, they delighted to testify- of Him, as of one only precious subject, they delighted to speak. Never did the Divine Spirit rest upon them with greater power- never did they strike their prophetic harps to strains so high, so rich, so sweet, as when Emmanuel was their theme. And is it too much to say, that magnificent as is the drapery in which their writings are clothed- gorgeous as is the imagery, and sublime the doctrines, in which these announcements are invested, they would possess no beauty, glory, or sweetness, but for- Jesus?

The confidence and the joy of the Church has ever been the prospective view she has had of the coming Messiah. Through the long vista of ages she saw Him advancing; and though the vision was distant and dim, yet, persuaded of the promise, she embraced it, and rested in it, believing that God was able as He was willing to make good all that He had in covenant mercy pledged to do. The incarnate God was her hope, her joy, her trust; and living or dying, the "Consolation of Israel" was the pole-star on which the eye of her faith was ever and immovably fixed. It pleased God to raise up a school of prophets, whom He endowed with extraordinary powers of inspiration, filling them with the Holy Spirit, whose especial office it was to feed this desire, to animate this hope, and to strengthen this expectation of faith, by keeping the glorious truth of the approaching Savior constantly and prominently before the eye of the Church. "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what person, or what period of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them did signify, when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow."

That we are justified in looking into the prophetical Scriptures for peculiar revelations of the glory of Christ will appear clear from a reference to a few passages bearing upon this subject. Our Lord's conversation with the two disciples journeying to Emmaus is strikingly in point. In the first place, Jesus gently chides them for their lack of faith in the prophetical writings relating to Himself. "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." He then passes to the great subject before Him, "And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." The same day, and on another occasion, appearing in their assembled midst, "He said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures."

In a conversation He held with the Jews, how pointedly did He refer to His glory as beaming from beneath the veil of the Mosaic writings! "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trust. For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me." And well did He exhort them to "search the Scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." Thus invited and encouraged, let us address ourselves to the pleasing task of drawing aside the prophetical veil, thus revealing the hidden glories of our Emmanuel. The unfolding of this subject will be found to present a brief exposition of those striking words of the evangelist: "These things said Elijah, when he saw His glory, and spoke of Him."

We commence with the testimony which the prophetical Scriptures bring to the doctrine of our Lord's Deity. Clearer intimations of the Divinity of Christ are nowhere found than in the Old Testament writings. "In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." What an august revelation of the glory of Christ's Godhead was this which broke upon the view of the lowly prophet! How instructive is each particular of his beatific vision! Mark the profound humility of the seraphim- they veiled with their wings their faces and their feet. They were in the presence of Jesus. They saw the King in His beauty, and covered themselves.

Bat the effect of this view of our Lord's Divine glory upon the mind of the prophet, is still more impressive: "Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips ... for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." What prostrated his soul thus low in the dust? What filled him with this self-abasement? What overwhelmed him with this keen sense of his vileness? Oh, it was the unclouded view he had of the essential glory of the Son of God! And thus will it ever be. The beaming forth of Christ's glory in the soul, reveals its hidden evil; the knowledge of this evil lays the believer low before God with the confession, "I abhor myself. Woe is me, for I am undone!" Beloved, let this truth be ever present to your mind, that as we increasingly see glory in Jesus, we shall increasingly see that there is no glory in ourselves. Jesus is the Sun which reveals the pollutions and defilements that are within. The chambers of abomination are all closed until Christ shines in upon the soul. Oh, then it is these deep-seated and long-veiled deformities are revealed; and we, no longer gazing with a complaisant eye upon self, sink in the dust before God, overwhelmed with shame, and covered with confusion of face. Holy posture! Blessed spectacle! A soul prostrate before the glory of the incarnate God! All high and lofty views of its own false glory annihilated by clear and close views of the true glory of Jesus. As when the sun appears, all the less lights vanish into darkness, so when Jesus rises in noontide glory upon the soul, all other glory retires, and He alone fixes the eye, and fills the mind. "With twain they covered their faces, and with twain they covered their feet." Their own perfections and beauty were not to be seen in the presence of the glory of the Lord. How much more profound should be the humility and self-abasement of man! Have we covered ourselves- not with the pure wings of the holy cherubim- but with sackcloth and ashes, before the Lord? Have we sought to veil- not our beauties, for beauties we have none; but our innumerable and flagrant deformities, even the "spots upon our feasts of love," the sins of our best and holiest things; and, renouncing all self-glory, have we sunk, as into nothing, before God? Oh, we are yet strangers to the vision of Christ's glory, if we have not! If the constellations of human gifts and attainments, distinctions and usefulness, on which unsanctified and unmortified self so delights to gaze, have not retired into oblivion, the Sun of Righteousness has yet to rise upon our souls with healing in His wings.

His glory as the God-man is reflected with equal clearness from the prophetical page. Thus was it predicted that the eternal Son of God should assume an inferior and a human form. "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Emmanuel." "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Could any truth be more emphatically or distinctly stated? Oh, what love in the Father does it unfold, that not only He should have promised His dear Son, but that He should have held out that promise at so distant a period, and in such terms, as would lay an unequivocal foundation for the faith, hope, and joy of the saints, in all ages of the world!

His Divine anointing, constituting an important feature of His official glory, and opening a channel of the most costly blessing to the Church, forms a distinct and sacred theme of the prophetical writings. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me." "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him." This anointing was upon the Redeemer, in infinite richness and fragrance. "God gives not the Spirit by measure unto him." As essentially Jehovah, He needed it not; but as the great High Priest, and the mediatorial Head of His "Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that fills all in all," it was necessary that the anointing oil should be upon Him in its utmost plenitude. As one with Him, all the members alike participate. "It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went to the skirts of his garment;" even to the lowest believer- Ah! and he that lies the lowest, obtains the most of this "precious ointment," as it descends from Jesus: the hand of faith that touches but the hem of His garment, receives from Him who was "anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows." Dear reader, are you professedly one with Jesus and His saints? then seek, oh diligently seek, a large and still larger degree of this holy and fragrant anointing. Rest not short of it. Do not be satisfied to proceed another step without it. Do not be content with a mere profession, having a name to live, yet lacking all the essential evidences of real life, while discovering many of the fearful attributes of actual death.

The possession of this anointing of the Holy Spirit will decide the momentous, and perhaps with you doubtful, question of your union with Christ. Men will take knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus, and learned from Him. Your life will be a reflection, faint at best, yet a reflection of His holy life. You will bear some resemblance to the "altogether lovely" one; your spirit will breathe His meekness; your demeanor will be stamped with His gentleness; your whole conversation will be seasoned with His grace; all your "garments will smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces;" an unction will pervade your prayers, a power irresistible will accompany your labors, and in every place you will be a sweet savor of Christ, blessed and a blessing.

Christ, the foundation of the Church, was a truth, the great glory of which the evangelical prophet also saw and spoke of. "Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation." How identical of the Redeemer is this splendid prophecy! Every word in the passage, and every quality of the figure, is expressive of some essential part of His character and work. Jesus is fitly compared to a "stone" for strength and durability. He is a "Savior, and a great one" "mighty to save." "I have laid help upon one that is mighty." If it were probable that the fact of His Deity should be announced in a voice of thunder from the eternal throne, can we suppose it would be uttered in terms more decided and explicit than those which fell upon the ear of the exiled evangelist from the lips of Christ Himself? "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." And what a needed truth is this! None but an Almighty ransom could have saved from going down to the pit. Jesus is our ransom, and Jesus is the Almighty.

The Redeemer is not only a stone, but a "tried stone." The grand experiment has been made- the great test has been applied, and, to answer all the ends for which the Lord God laid it in Zion, it has proved completely adequate. Never was a foundation tried as this. In the eternal purpose of Redemption, Omnipotence tried it. In the Divine mind there existed no lurking suspicion, no embarrassing uncertainty, as to the result. The Father knew all that this foundation was to sustain, and well He knew, too, that it was capable of sustaining all. Stupendous were the consequences. His own glory and the honor of His government were involved; the salvation of His elect was to be secured; death, with all its horrors, was to be abolished; life, with all its immortal, untold glories, was to be revealed; hell was to be closed, and heaven opened to all believers. With such momentous realities pending- with such mighty and glorious results

at stake, the Eternal mind, in its purpose of grace and glory, would lay for a foundation a "tried stone." Blessed Emmanuel! how effulgently does your glory beam from beneath Your prophetical veil! You are that "tried stone,"- tried by the Father when He laid upon You all His people's sins and transgressions, bruised You and put You to grief. Tried by the law, when it exacted and received from You Your utmost obedience to its precepts. Tried by Divine justice, when it kindled around You its fiercest flame, yet consumed You not. Tried by the Church, built upon You so securely that the gates of hell shall never prevail against her. Tried by poor sinners, who have brought their burdens of guilt to Your blood, and have found pardon and peace. Tried by believers, who have taken their trials to Your sympathy, their sorrows to Your love, their wounds to Your healing, their weakness to your strength, their emptiness to Your fulness, their petitions to Your ear, and have never, never been disappointed. Oh yes, You are that "tried stone," to whom I would come moment by moment.

"A precious corner stone." Of whom does the prophet speak this, but of Jesus, compared with whom nothing is precious? He alone is worthy of the term, who alone can smooth life's rugged path, sweeten life's bitter trials, lighten life's heavy burdens, and this by daily and hourly emanations of His own life, grace, and preciousness. Oh, how precious- what language can express it? Is this precious stone to him who, conscious of his vileness, poverty, and nothingness, or with a spirit oppressed with deep trial, or bleeding from painful bereavement, wades to it through the billows, exclaiming, "When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." Precious in His all-atoning blood; precious in His all-justifying righteousness; precious in His infinite fulness; precious in every office that He fills; in every work that He performs; in every promise that He makes; is Christ to him who, finding all other foundations but as sliding sand, builds his hope of glory upon the incarnate God. "To you, therefore, that believe, He is precious."

A "corner stone," too, is our glorious Redeemer. The important position which this occupies in the spiritual building- its essential relation to the compactness, strength, and durability of the whole fabric, we fear, is not duly considered by many who are professedly "living stones in the spiritual house." And yet how momentous and how holy is the instruction it conveys! The corner stone is that which unites the parts of the edifice: it is to the building what the key stone is to the arch; it imparts unity, symmetry, and strength. The Lord Jesus has been the uniting stone of the Church in all ages. The saints of the Patriarchal, Levitical, and Christian Churches, all meet and form, in Him, one glorious temple of the living God. "No longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God:" they are "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Corner Stone; in whom all the building, fitly framed together, grows unto a holy temple in the Lord," and thus becomes "a habitation of God through the Spirit."

To allude to another figure employed by the Holy Spirit to illustrate and enforce the same blessed truth- the unity of the Church- the Lord Jesus is declared to be the one spiritual HEAD of His "Church, who is His body, the fulness of Him that fills all in all." Thus in itself one by its oneness with Him, it is represented as "growing up into Him in all things, who is the Head, even Christ: from whom the whole body, fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." "There" (in Christ)- "is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus," and "Christ is all and in all." To the consideration of this holy and precious theme- THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH- let us for a few moments turn our attention.

That there are divisions in the Church of God, visible and painful; that the one body is sadly dismembered, the seamless robe rudely torn and disfigured, is a truth too glaring to conceal, and almost too painful and humiliating to acknowledge. Alas that it should be so! Oh, how much is the unity of the Church lost sight of in the din of religious controversy, and in the heat of party zeal! How does brother look coldly upon brother, and minister glance suspiciously at minister, and church stand aloof from church! Ought this so to be?

And to what may it in a great degree be traced? We believe, to a forgetfulness of the truth, that all true believers are "one in Christ Jesus;" that the blood of the Lamb is the bond of union of the saints; that He is the "corner stone," uniting all the parts of the one edifice; and that, if built upon Him, we are one with that Church, and that Church is one with Christ.

The unity of the mystical Church of God consists not in a unity of creed. A higher, a diviner, and a more endearing principle unites her than this. Ardently as it should be desired, and fervently as it should be prayed for, that the promised day of millennial blessedness may speedily come, when the "watchmen shall see eye to eye," when from every battlement in Zion the silver trumpets shall emit one sweet harmonious sound; yet, even then, not more essentially will the Church of God be one than she is now. True, her unity will be more visible, her divisions will be healed, her bleeding wounds will be stanched, her internal conflicts will have ceased; "Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim any more;" and the harsh sounds of strife, now so loud and discordant, be lost in the sweet strains of peace and love floating from every lip; yet is the Church at this moment essentially one and indivisible. Not, then, in a unity of creed, or of ecclesiastical polity, does the real unity of the Church consist, but in the "unity of the Spirit," that unity sustained by the "bond of peace." She has been baptized, not into one form of church government, or into one system of doctrinal truth, but "by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we are Jews or Gentiles, whether we are bond or free; and have all been made to drink into the same Spirit." The "one Spirit" regenerating all the children of God, fashioning their hearts alike, uniting them by a living faith to the Head, equally dwelling in, teaching and guiding, comforting and sanctifying them, demonstrates the perfect oneness of Christ's body. And thus, then, when an individual crosses our path in whom the spirit of Jesus breathes, who manifests a union to the Head, and who speaks the language and bears the image of the Father, and a resemblance to the one family, be his climate and color, be his name and minor points of creed, what they may, it becomes our solemn duty, as it is our great privilege, to extend to him the recognition, and to greet him with the tender and holy affection of the one brotherhood. In the Lord's eye he is a member of His body, and he should be so in ours. And if, refusing to own the relationship, we withdraw the hand of Christian love, we render our own regeneration doubtful, we wound and grieve and deny the Spirit in him. It is written, yes, it is written by the pen of the Holy Spirit, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God; and every one that loves Him that begat, loves Him also that is begotten by Him."

I would recur to what may be considered one of the most fruitful and painful causes of the defective Christian union which so much mars the beauty and impairs the moral power of the Church of God in our day. I allude to the great distance from Christ which characterizes the spiritual walk of so many believers. The effect of this upon the operation of Christian love is obvious. A distance in spirit from the Head, leads to a distance in spirit from the members of the body. As with the beams of the sun, the further they recede from their center, the wider are they separated from each other; so it is with the "children of the light." Each believer is a solar beam- an emanation from the Sun of Righteousness. The more remote he lives from Christ- the center of the soul- the wider will he be alienated in affection and in spirit from the members of Christ. His eye less simply and constantly looking unto Jesus, his sense of union to, and communion with, Him weakened, love waning, faith declining, there will of necessity be a lessening attachment to the Church of Christ. But the converse, oh, how precious! The rays of light reflected back to the sun, meeting and rejoicing in their center, meet and rejoice in themselves. So with the saints. Drawn closer to Jesus- our wandering steps retraced- restored by those sanctifying unfoldings of the cross, which the Spirit delights to impart, the eye of penitence and faith, swimming though it be in tears, once more turned on Christ, love rekindled in the heart, oh, how will the affections, in their fondest and holiest power, go forth towards "all them who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity!" His image will be their passport to our hearts; His name will secure their welcome to our homes.

Have you felt, dear reader, the sanctifying, cementing power of the Redeemer's love in your heart? Then, with all affectionate fidelity is the question proposed- how far do you deem yourself justified in regarding with frigid affection and distance of spirit any believer in Jesus, or in declining communion at the throne of grace, or alliance and confederation in the cause of our common Lord, with any portion of the Church of God, on the plea of a lack of ecclesiastical uniformity, or unity of doctrinal creed as a basis of union? Is this the unity of the Church spoken of in the word of God? Are you prepared for the result to which this plea for separation will lead you? Are you willing to defend it on a dying-bed, and go with it to the judgment-seat of Christ? Examine it in the light of God's word, and see where it springs, what is its nature, and what are its tendencies. Remember the words of our Lord, in His reply to the disciple who frowned upon an expression of zeal for the glory of Christ, because it was not from one of their own party- "And Jesus said, Forbid him not; for there is no man who shall do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of me." And is it not a solemn thought, that in turning our back upon any holy, consistent member of Christ, we turn our back upon Christ Himself; and that in standing aloof from any holy confederation or Christian enterprise for the advancement of His truth and kingdom, because its promoters follow not with us, our very neutrality may be justly interpreted as criminal indifference, and our refusal to lend our cooperation, an act of hostility to Him whose subjects we profess to be! Oh that for the "divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart!" Yes, Jesus is the "corner stone" of the one Church, and the more firmly we build on, and the more closely we adhere to Him, the more tenderly and closely will the hearts of all the saints be "knit together in love." Precious Jesus! draw us nearer to Yourself; then shall we be drawn nearer to Your one family, redeemed by Your most precious blood!

"A sure foundation," is the last quality of excellence specified concerning this precious Stone. As if, in so momentous a matter as the salvation of the soul, to remove all lingering doubt from the mind, to annihilate all imaginary and shadowy conceptions of Jesus, Jehovah, the great Builder of the Church, declares the foundation thus laid to be a real and substantial one. Confidently here may the weary rest, and the sinner build his hope of heaven. All is sure. Sure that the word he credits is true- sure that the invitation that woos him is sincere- sure that the welcome extended to him is cordial. Sure, in coming to Jesus, of free forgiveness, of full justification, of complete and eternal acceptance with the reconciled God. Sure that, in renouncing all self-dependence, and building high his hope of glory on this foundation, he "shall not be ashamed nor confounded, world without end." All, too, is sure to the believer in the covenant of grace, of which Jesus is the Surety and Mediator. Every promise is sure- the full supply of all our needs- the daily efficacy of the atoning blood- the answer to our prayers, though long delayed- the hope of being forever with Jesus- all, all is certain and sure, because based on Jesus, and springing from the heart of the unchangeable God, and confirmed by the oath of Him who has said, "Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David."

There is yet another prophecy of our glorious Redeemer, as remarkable for its literal fulfilment as for its affecting nature and solemn instruction. It is that He should be a "stone of stumbling and a rock of offence," and that Jew and Gentile should be confederated against Him. "And He shall be . . . . for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel." "Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness, have not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law: for they stumbled at that stumbling stone; as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offence." What a literal fulfilment has this prophecy received! To the Jews, once God's favorite people; now a "nation scattered and peeled," wandering over the face of the earth- for where have human footsteps trodden that the Israelite has not penetrated? "without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim," but in whose history promises of mercy and restoration are strangely blended with predictions of their apostasy and dispersion; even to them has the Messiah ever been, as He now is, a "stone of stumbling and a rock of offence."

But not Jews only- Jews and Gentiles confederated together against the Son of God, form a gloomy portion of prophetic announcement, containing a yet more mournful shadow- a large portion of the Gospel record. "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against His anointed." "And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together, for before they were at enmity between themselves." Compare these passages with Acts 4. 8-11. How striking and solemn the instruction conveyed in this incident! Pilate and Herod, standing in the attitude of the deadliest hate to each other, are now made friends!

And what strange, but mighty power has thus suddenly subdued their animosity, and turned their hatred into love? What mystic chain has drawn and bound together these hostile rulers? Their mutual and deep enmity against Jesus! Believers in Christ! are the enemies of our glorious Redeemer, inspired by a natural and kindred feeling of hatred, induced to forget their private quarrels, and merge their differences in one common confederation to crush the Son of God, the object of their mutual hostility- and shall not the friends of the Redeemer, constrained by that Divine principle of love which dwells in the hearts of all who are born of God, quench their heart-burnings, bury their antipathies, and draw more closely together, in one holy, vigorous, and determined alliance to exalt the Son of God, the glorious and precious Object of their mutual affection? Oh, if Jesus is the bond of union to those who hate Him, how much more should He be the bond of union to those who love Him! Beneath His cross how should all unholy jealousy, and bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and uncharitableness, be mourned over, confessed, abhorred, and renounced by the children of the one family; and how should all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, be unhesitatingly and cordially recognized as such, thus "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace!"

What a distinct prophetical view bad Isaiah also of the NATURE AND GLORY OF THE REDEEMER'S WORK! He thus foretells it: "Behold, the Lord has proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." And he thus describes it: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek: He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound." We can with difficulty realize, as the eye traces this evangelical declaration, that we are reading the prophecy, and not its fulfilment; the shadowy writings of the Old, and not the noontide revelation of the New Testament, so luminous with the Gospel, so fragrant with the name, so replete with the work, of Jesus is it. Oh, what tidings of joy and gladness are here to the heart-broken, burdened captive! Could announcements be more suited to his case, more appropriate to his circumstances, more soothing to his heart? Here, from the very heart of the Bible, Jesus Himself speaks. And never, in the days of His flesh, when preaching from the mountain, or in the synagogue, were sweeter sounds uttered from His lips than these. This was the work that was before Him, to seek and to save lost sinners, to save them as sinners, to rend asunder their chains, to deliver them from their captivity, and to introduce them into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

THE QUIET, LOWLY, UNOSTENTATIOUS CHARACTER OF JESUS, blending with the most exquisite tenderness of heart, the pen of the evangelical prophet with equal vividness and beauty portrays. "He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench." Compare this beautiful prophecy with Matt. 12. 15-20. Could the fulfilment be more perfect? Was not the entire life of our Lord in exact harmony with this prophetical portrait? Did not the glory of His lowly life, which Isaiah saw with a prophet's far-reaching eye, illumine, as with a living light, every step and every act of His history! Verily it did! Truly might He say, "Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." The most sublime miracles, the most stupendous exertions of power, and the most brilliant displays of philanthropy, on which a self-aggrandizing man would have established successfully his claims to profound and universal homage, He only referred to as sustaining the glory of His Father in His Divine mission; while all earthly honor and temporal power that might have accrued separately to Himself He utterly rejected, veiling His own person in the deep folds of that humility which clothed Him as a garment. Shrinking from the intense gaze of a delighted multitude, and from the murmuring breath of popular applause, He would vanish as in a moment from the scene of His benevolence, either to lavish His boundless compassion on other and more wretched objects of suffering and woe, or to hide Himself amid the gloom and solitude of the desert. Never was humility like Yours, meek and lowly Lamb of God! Subdue this hated self in us- lay low this pride- suppress these inward risings, and draw, in fairer and deeper lines, Your own image on our souls!

The limits of this chapter will not permit us any further to linger amid these delightful twilight unfoldings of the Redeemer's glory; else it would be easy, and perhaps profitable, to show how distinctly were foretold, and how literally were fulfilled, all the events and circumstances associated with His mysterious humiliation, sufferings, and death. There are, however, two points connected with Isaiah's unfolding of the prophetical glory of the Redeemer, too instructive in the spiritual and important truth which they convey to be entirely overlooked.

It will be observed, that John observes of Isaiah that he saw the glory of Christ. "These things said Elijah, when he saw His glory." The glory of the Redeemer has ever been an object visible to the spiritual eye. What the evangelist here records of the prophet, he also avers of himself and his fellow disciples. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory." Here is a point of vital moment, entering deeply into the very soul of experimental Christianity. May the Spirit of all truth give us a clear and solemn perception of it!

If a man sees not the glory of Christ, we hesitate not to say of him, that with regard to all other spiritual objects he is totally blind- he is yet a stranger to the illuminating grace of the Holy Spirit. To see the Redeemer's glory, the eye must be spiritual; a spiritual object being only discerned by a spiritual organ. Hence the apostle prays in behalf of the Ephesian Christians, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened." So self-evident is this truth, that a lengthened argument to establish it would seem unnecessary. As an intellectual mind alone can grapple with an abstruse problem in science, and as a mechanical genius alone is fitted to comprehend the movements of a complicated piece of mechanism, so, in revealed truth there must be an adaptation of the mind to the nature of the truth investigated. The eyes of the understanding must be enlightened; the soul must be brought into harmony with Divine truth, or rather into harmony with the God of truth.

We are willing to concede, that to a man of intellect and taste, there is much of the Scriptures of truth peculiarly and powerfully attractive. The literature of the Bible, confessedly of the loftiest character, is especially alluring to such a mind. The beauty of its diction- the boldness of its conception- the richness of its imagery- the profoundness of its philosophy- the sublimity of its poetry- the antiquity of its history, conspire to throw around it an interest and a charm peculiarly fascinating to a man of profound thought, to the philosopher, the poet, and the historian. It is just possible enough for an individual to study the Bible as he would study any branch of human science, or investigate the authenticity of any historical document: he may perceive the beauty of its evidence, and feel the power of its demonstration, and this shall be the utmost limit of his knowledge of the word of God! The "sword of the Spirit" maybe so sheathed in the intellect, or wreathed with the flowers of a poetic fancy, that the heart may never have felt the keenness of its double edge, piercing and separating it from its sinful and idolatrous self. "For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart." We will venture a step further. As a natural man, I may, on certain indisputable evidence, admit the Bible to be a record from God. I may give to its sublime revelations my firm credence, to its Divine character my profound reverence, to its pure ethics my warmest admiration, and to its holy doctrines my strongest adherence and most zealous advocacy. I may believe Jesus to be no impostor, and His religion no cunningly devised fable, and His name the only name given under heaven whereby we may be saved, and yet remain totally blind to the true glory of the Redeemer! All the while that I am thus examining the outworks of Christianity, or traversing the outer courts of the great sanctuary of truth, I have not yet taken a single step within the sanctuary of my own bosom, exploring its hidden plague, and searching out that direst of all evils that ever tainted and ruined a finite creature- the heart's natural, deep, and deadly enmity against God! Blind to my own guilt, wretchedness, and woe, is it a thing incredible that I should be blind to the true glory of the Savior; and that to me His obedience, sufferings, and death- facts of transcendent magnitude and importance, interwoven with my dearest interests, and kindling an undying light around my every step to eternity- should be to me but as the dreams of my boyhood? So true is it, "the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

But, enlightened by the Spirit of God, the believer beholds the glory of Jesus. Brought to see no glory in himself, yes, nothing but deformity in that on which the eye once so complacently rested; the glory of the Redeemer, as it is reflected in His person, in His atoning blood and justifying righteousness, His infinite fulness of grace to pardon and to sanctify, fills now the entire scope of his moral vision, and lifts his soul in admiring and adoring thoughts of the holiness and love of God!

More than this, such is its transforming influence, he comes to be a partaker, in a degree, of that very glory which has arrested his eye and ravished his heart. On him the glory of the Lord has shined, the Sun of Righteousness has risen, he rises from the dust, and shines arrayed in garments of light from Christ's reflecting light. A sight of Jesus assimilates the soul to His Spirit: a contemplation of His beauty transforms the believer more and more into the "child of the light;" and thus perpetually "looking unto Jesus," the path he treads kindles and glows with an increasing effulgence, until its luster expands into perfect, cloudless day. "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

The medium through which the spiritual eye beholds the glory of Christ, is faith. It is a hidden glory until the Eternal Spirit imparts this mighty principle to the soul. The eye of reason cannot discern it, the eye of intellect and of sense cannot behold it- it remains a veiled thing, 'dark with excessive brightness,' until God the Holy Spirit utters His voice, "Let there be light." "Abraham," says Christ, "rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad." At that remote period, how did he see it? -by faith. Through the long and dreary vista of advancing ages he saw the day dawning, the sun rising. By faith he beheld Jesus approaching. He saw His blood, His righteousness, and his own interest there, "and he was glad." The beamy prospect dilated the patriarch's heart with joy. Oh yes, a sight of Jesus by faith, be it distant and dim, be it shadowy and imperfect, fills the soul with ineffable gladness, lights up its onward way, sweetens its solitude; enlivens its loneliness, and soothes it amid its deepest sorrows.

Isaiah not only beheld the glory of Christ, but he also "spoke of it." While he mused upon the wondrous sight, "the fire burned, then spoke he with his tongue." He could not but speak of that which he saw and felt. And who can behold the glory of the Redeemer, and not speak of it? Who can see His beauty and not extol it- who can taste His love and not laud it? "Come," will be the invitation, "see a man who told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" The Church of old, as her eye wandered over the beauties of her Lord, broke forth in expressions of wonder and praise; and, after particularizing and extolling these beauties, she then exclaims, as if all language were exhausted, "Yes, He is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend." "In His temple does every one speak of His glory." So did the sweet singer of Israel. "I will speak of the glorious honor of Your majesty, and of Your wondrous works. And men shall speak of the might of Your terrible acts: and I will declare Your greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of Your great goodness, and shall sing of Your righteousness. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk of Your power; to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom." "We beheld His glory," is the testimony of John. And in his preface to his First Epistle he could testify, "That which we have seen and heard (of the Word of life) declare we unto you." Yes, the saints of the Most High must speak of the King in His beauty. They are constrained to show forth His praise, and tell of His love and loveliness, who is to them more precious than the gold of Ophir; yes, dearer than life itself. The Pharisee may murmur, the worldling may scorn, and the cold-hearted professor may rebuke; yet, "if these should hold their peace," who have been redeemed by His most precious blood, and who are looking forward to His second appearing, as an event which will fully introduce them to His glory, and conform them to His likeness, "the stones would immediately cry out."

Some important CONCLUSIONS flow from the subject which it has been the attempt of this chapter to unfold. The first that it suggests to the mind is, the perfect harmony of the Old and the New Testaments, thus confirming our faith in the Divine authenticity of the Scriptures of truth. Upon what other ground can we account for this singular agreement of the Word with itself, and for this exact and literal fulfilment of its predictions, but on that of its divinity? "Your word is truth," is the glorious and triumphant inference fairly deducible from a fact so striking and self-evident as this. And in what particular is this beautiful harmony especially seen? -in exalting the Lamb of God. The Old and the New Testament Scriptures of truth do for Christ, what Pilate and Herod did against Him- they confederate together. They unite in a holy alliance, in a sublime unity of purpose, to show forth the glory of the incarnate God. Divine book! Precious volume! Behold an illustration of what the Church of the living God should be, a transparent body, illumined with the glory of Immanuel, and scattering its beams of light and beauty over the surface of a lost and benighted world. How much does a perfect representation of the glory of the Redeemer by the Church depend upon her visible union! A mirror broken into a thousand fragments, cannot reflect the glory of the sun with the same brilliancy, power, and effect, as if a perfect whole. Nor can the Church of God, dismembered, divided, and broken, present to the world the same harmonious, convincing, and effective testimony to the glory of Jesus, as when, in her unimpaired oneness, she is seen "looking forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." Oh then, by all that is fragrant in the name of Jesus, by all that is sanctifying in His glory and attractive in Isis cross, by all that is sweet and persuasive in Christian love, by all that is solemn in the near approach of death and eternity, and by all that is blissful in the hope of eternal life, springing from the one atonement, reader, seek to promote the visible unity of Christ's Church. Resolve, beneath the cross, and by the grace of God, that you will not be a hindrance to the accomplishment of so blessed, so holy an end. Hold the faith with a firm hand, but hold it in righteousness. Speak the truth with all boldness, but speak it in love. Concede to others what you claim for yourself- the right of private judgment, and the free exercise of an enlightened conscience. And where you see the image of Jesus reflected, the love of Jesus influencing, and the glory of Jesus simply and solely sought, there extend your hand, offer your heart, breathe your blessing and your prayer. Oh, this were to be like Christ; and to be like Christ is grace below, and glory above!

This subject, of momentous importance, admits of an individual application. Reader, what do you think of Christ? What are your apprehensions of His glory, as it has thus far been placed before you? Do you see beauty, surpassing beauty, in Emmanuel? Has His glory broken upon your view? Has it beamed in upon your mind? Has a sight of Jesus, seen by faith, cast you in the dust, exclaiming, "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees You. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes"? Your honest reply to these searching questions will decide the nature and the ground of your present hope for eternity. On the confines of that eternity you are now standing. Solemn consideration! It is of infinite moment, then, that your views of the Son of God should be thoroughly examined, sifted, and compared with the inspired word. A crown now lowered on your brow, a kingdom stretched at your feet, a world gained and grasped, were as infants' baubles, compared with the tremendous interest involved in the question, "What do you think of Christ?" And what do you think of Him? Is He all your salvation and all your desire? Have you laid sinful self and righteous self beneath His cross? and in all your poverty, nakedness, and vileness, have you received Him as made of God unto you, "wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption"? Does His glory dim all other glory; and does His beauty eclipse all other beauty in your eye? Can you point to Him and say, in the humble confidence of faith and joy of love, "This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend"? Eternal God! but for the righteousness of Your Son, I sink in all my pollution! but for the atoning blood of Emmanuel, I perish in all my guilt! Holy Father, look not on me, but behold my Shield, and look upon the face of your Anointed! And when Your glory passes by- the glory of Your majesty, Your holiness, and Your justice- then put me in the cleft of the rock, and cover me with Your hand while You pass by.

Cultivate frequent and devout contemplations of the glory of Christ. Immense will be the benefit accruing to your soul. The mind thus preoccupied, filled, and expanded, will be enabled to present a stronger resistance to the ever advancing and insidious encroachments of the world without. No place will be found for vain thoughts, and no desire or time for carnal enjoyments. Oh, how crucifying and sanctifying are clear views of the glory of Emmanuel! How emptying, humbling, and abasing! With the patriarch, we then exclaim, "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." And with the prophet, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips . . . My eyes have seen the King." And with the apostle, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Oh, then, aim to get your mind filled with enlarged and yet expanding views of the glory of the Redeemer. Let it, in all the discoveries it affords of the Divine mind and majesty, be the one subject of your thoughts, the one theme of your conversation. Place no limit to your knowledge of Christ. Ever consider that you have but read the preface to the volume, you have but touched the margin of the sea. Stretching far away beyond you, are undiscovered beauties, and precious views, and sparkling glories, each encouraging your advance, inviting your research, and asking the homage of your faith, the tribute of your love, and the dedication of your life. Go forward, then! The glories that yet must be revealed to you in a growing knowledge of Jesus, what imagination can conceive, what pen can describe them? "You shall see greater things than these," is the promise that bids you advance. Jesus stands ready to unveil all the beauties of His person- and to admit you into the very arcade of His love. There is not a chamber of His heart that He will not throw open to you; not a blessing that He will not bestow upon you; not a glory that He will not show to you. You shall see greater things than you have yet seen: greater depths of sin in your fallen nature shall be revealed; deeper sense of the cleansing efficacy of the atoning blood shall be felt; clearer views of your acceptance in the Beloved; greater discoveries of God's love; and greater depths of grace and glory in Jesus shall be enjoyed. Your communion with God shall be closer, and more the fruit of adopting love in your heart; your feet shall be as hinds' feet, and you shall walk on your high places. Your "peace shall flow as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea." Sorrow shall wound you less deeply; affliction shall press you less heavily; tribulation shall affect you less keenly; all this, and infinitely more, will result from your deeper knowledge of Jesus. Ah, wonder not that the heaving, panting, thirsting soul of the apostle exclaimed, "Doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord."

Let your life be a clear reflection of the glory of the Redeemer. The saints of God are the only witnesses to this glory- the only reflectors the Lord has in this dark and Christ-denying world. HOLINESS, springing from the fount of the Spirit's indwelling grace, cherished and matured by close views of the cross, and imparting a character of sanctity and beauty to every act of your life, will be the highest testimony you can bear to the Redeemer's glory. That glory is intrusted to your hands. It is committed to your guardianship. Seeing, then, that it is so, "what manner of people ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness"! How exact in principles, and upright in conduct- how watchful over temper, and how vigilant where most assailed, how broad awake to the wiles of the devil, and how watchful against the encroachments of sin- how strict in all transactions with the world; and how tender, and charitable, and meek, and forgiving, in all our conduct with the saints! Alas! we are at best but dim reflectors of this great glory of our Lord. We are unworthy and unfaithful depositories of so rich a treasure! How much of clinging infirmity, of unmortified sin, of carelessness of spirit, of unsanctified temper, of tampering with temptation, of a lack of strict integrity and uprightness, dims our light, neutralizes our testimony for God, and weakens, if not entirely destroys, our spiritual influence! We are not more eminently useful, because we are not more eminently holy. We bring so little glory to Christ, because we seek so much our own. We reflect so faint and flickering a beam, because our posture is so seldom that of the apocalyptic angel, "standing in the sun." We realize so imperfectly our oneness with, and standing in, Christ; and this will ever foster a feeble, fruitless, and drooping profession of Christianity. "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can you, except you abide in me." Oh to know more of this abiding in Christ! See how Jesus invites His saints to it. Are they fallen? He bids them take hold of His strength. Are they burdened? He bids them cast that burden on His arm. Are they wearied? He bids them recline on Him for rest. Does the world persecute them, do the "daughters of Jerusalem" smite them, does the watchman treat them unkindly? He bids them take refuge within the hallowed sanctuary of His own pierced and loving heart. Do they need grace? He bids them sink their empty vessel beneath the depths of His ocean fulness, and draw freely "more grace." Whatever corruptions distress them, whatever temptations assail them, whatever adversity grieves them, whatever cloud darkens them, whatever necessity presses upon them; as the watchful Shepherd, as the tender Brother, as the faithful Friend, as the great High Priest, He bids His saints draw near, and repose in His love. Oh, He has a capacious bosom: there is room, there is a chamber in that heart for you, my Christian reader! Do not think your lot is desolate, and lonely, and friendless. Do not think that all have forsaken you, and that in sadness and in solitude you are threading your way through an intricate desert. There is One that loves you, that thinks of you, that has His eye upon you, and is at this moment guiding, upholding, and caring for you: that one is Jesus! Oh that you could but look into His heart, and see how He loves you; oh that you could but hear Him say, so gently, so earnestly, "Abide in my love!" Cheer up; you are in Christ's heart, and Christ is in your heart. You are not alone: your God, even your Father, is with you. Your Shepherd guides you; the Comforter spreads around you His wings, and heaven is bright before you. Soon you will be there. The pilgrim will repose his weary limbs; the voyager will be moored in his harbor of rest; the warrior will put off his armor, and shout his song of triumph. Then look up! Christ is yours, God is yours, heaven is yours. If God is for you, who can be against you? And if you find disappointment in created good, it will but endear Jesus; and if you know more of the inward plague, it will but drive you to the atoning blood; and if you have storms and tempests, they will but shorten the voyage, and waft you the quicker to glory.

"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift!"

The Glory of the Redeemer in His Humiliation

"He humbled Himself." Phil. 2:8

We have now, in the prosecution of our subject, arrived at a great and solemn truth. It may be regarded as sustaining the same relation to our theme that the dark background does to the picture- the shading, so essential to the richness, grandeur, and perfection of the piece. We have seen the elevation from which the Son of God descended- the stupendous height from which He stooped. The glory which belonged to that elevation has passed before us, faintly shadowed forth in the type, embodied in the symbol, uttered by the voice of the seer, but more authoritatively and distinctly affirmed by the testimony of Jesus Himself. That same glory is now presented for our contemplation, as assuming another and a different aspect- an aspect so opposite and strange that, but for express revelation, human imagination would never have conceived it, reason's unillumined eye could never have discerned it- the glory of the incarnate God, beaming forth with subdued yet burning luster from beneath His profound and mysterious humiliation! Oh may the Spirit of glory and of Christ, of grace and truth, rest upon us while endeavoring to explore and elucidate this vast and holy subject! We shall in the present chapter trace the glory of the Redeemer in the fact of His humiliation- in the blessings which flow from it to the Church- and in the lessons of practical holiness which it inculcates.

THE GLORY OF THE REDEEMER IN THE FACT OF HIS HUMILIATION.

There are an inconceivable magnitude and grandeur of meaning in the passage placed at the head of this chapter, which could not belong to it as applied to the circumstances of any finite creature, man or angel. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself." Predicated, we say, of any other than a Divine Person, these words would be perfectly incoherent and unintelligible; but regarded in their obvious and received import, they become luminous with one of the most glorious emanations found in the page of revelation. "Who being in the form of God," affirms His preexistent and Divine nature; "made Himself of no reputation," marks His voluntary descent from that elevation; "took upon Him the form of a servant; was made in the likeness of men," describes tho inferior condition to which He stooped; "and being found in fashion as a man, He Humbled Himself," broadly and distinctly asserts the fact of His profound abasement.

The bare idea of humiliation on the part of Jehovah, divested of all that invests it with a palpable and tangible form, presents to the mind a conception so inscrutable and so vast; that but for the revelation of the fact by God Himself, imagination must have let fall her wing in her efforts to soar to it, and the mind must have exhausted its powers in its attempts to grasp it. And yet thus is it plainly declared: "Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth?" The visible form which this Divine condescension assumed, in its profoundest stoop, is the point that now invites our attention.

The primary step in the humiliation of the Son of God undoubtedly was His mysterious incarnation. This was the first shading of the picture- the commencement of a series of humiliations, which followed in rapid succession, thickening and darkening around His path until He reached the utmost limits of human abasement, suffering, and woe. We need not recapitulate the scriptural evidence already adduced in support of this fundamental article of our faith. We have shown that the Eternal Word was made flesh, that the Deity stooped to our nature, and took it up in mysterious and indissoluble union.

Now, the great glory which gilds this dark part of the Redeemer's humiliation consists in the lowering of the infinite to the scale of the finite- the bringing down of the Godhead to a level with the manhood. In this lay His real humiliation, and from this springs His true glory. Had our Lord assumed our nature, descending from the highest order of angelic being, He would but have exchanged one form of created existence for another; and although made a "little lower than the angels," there would have been no such relinquishment of previous dignity, as could justify the term thus applied to Him by the Holy Spirit, "He humbled Himself." If, as a finite creature, it were possible for me to assume the incarnation of an insect, there would be in the act but the mere semblance of humility- the appearance, and not the true virtue itself: because, there being some proportion between the form relinquished and the form assumed, the step would be but a lower one in the same scale of finite being. But how vastly different in the case of our adorable Redeemer! As we have just remarked, between two finite things there is always some relative proportion; thus a grain of sand bears some proportion to the Alps, and a drop of water bears some proportion to the ocean; but between the finite and the infinite there can be no possible proportion whatever. Now, in the person of the Son of God, the two extremes of being- the infinite and the finite- meet in Strange and mysterious, but close and eternal, union. The Divine came down to the human- Deity humbled itself to humanity. This was humiliation indeed! It was not the creature descending in the scale of creation, but it was the Creator stooping to the creature. "God was manifest in the flesh," "He humbled Himself." Oh, it is an amazing truth! So infinitely great was He, He could thus stoop without compromising His dignity, or lessening His glory.

But, if possible, a step still lower did He seem to descend. Thus, in prophetic language, did He announce it: "I am a worm, and no man." What astounding words are these! Here was the God-man sinking, as it were, in the depths of abasement and humiliation below the human. "I am a worm, and no man"! In the lowliness which marked His external appearance; in the estimation in which He was held by men; in the contemptuous treatment which He received from His enemies; the trampling of His glory in the dust, and the crushing of His person on the cross, would seem in His own view to have robbed Him not only of His glory as God, but even to have divested Him of His dignity as man! "I am a worm, and no man"! Oh, here is glory- glory surpassing all imagination, all thought, all power of utterance! He who bent His footsteps along this flinty path, He who sank thus low, was Jehovah, the "mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace." Wonder, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth! Lowliness and majesty, humiliation and glory, how strangely were they blended in You, incarnate God!

The assumption of our nature, in its depressed and bruised condition, constituted no small feature in the abasement of the Son of God. That, in the strong language of the Holy Spirit, He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners," is a truth we cannot too distinctly affirm, or too earnestly maintain. The least misgiving concerning the perfect sinlessness of the human nature of our Lord, tends to weaken the confidence of faith in the atonement, and so to enshroud in darkness the hope of the soul. As a single leak must have sunk the ark beneath the waves, so the existence of the slightest taint of sin in Jesus would have opened an inlet through which the dark billows of Divine wrath would have rolled, plunging both Himself and the Church He sustained in eternal woe. But that "holy one" who was begotten of the Holy Spirit, knew not the least moral taint. He "knew no sin," He was the sacrificial "Lamb without spot." And because He presented to the Divine requirement a holy, unblemished, and perfect obedience and satisfaction, we who believe are "made the righteousness of God in Him." Hold fast this essential and blessed truth, and guard against its fatal opposite, as you value your own salvation, and the glory of God.

But His taking up into subsistence with His own, our nature in its fallen condition, comprehends the sinless infirmities and weaknesses with which it was identified and encompassed. "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Elijah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." And when I see Him weeping, bowed down with grief, and enduring privation, when I behold Him making the needs, and sorrows, and sufferings of others His own, what do I learn, but that my Lord and Master was truly a "Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief"? Is there any spectacle more affecting, than thus to behold the incarnate God, entering personally and sympathetically into all the humiliations of my poor, bruised, vile nature, and yet remaining untouched, untainted, by its sin? Taking my weaknesses, bearing my sicknesses, sorrowing when I sorrow, sighing when I sigh, weeping when I weep, touched with the feeling of my infirmities, in all points tempted like as I am!

The attending circumstances of His birth, and the subsequent events of His life, entered deeply into the fact of His abasement. In each step that He took, He seemed to say, "I was born to humiliation and suffering, therefore came I into the world." His parents were poor, of lowly extraction, and humble occupation. Until the age of thirty He lived a life of entire seclusion from the world; and, as He was "subject unto His parents," doubtless His early years were employed in assisting His father in His lowly calling; thus, with His own hands, ministering to His temporal necessities. For, be it remembered, it was a material part of the original curse pronounced by God on man, "In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread." Jesus was made under the law, that He might endure the curse; that curse He fully sustained. There was not a part, the bitterness of which He did not taste, and the tremendousness of which He did not endure; and that for His elect's sake. It were no fanciful idea, therefore, to suppose, that in this feature of the curse, our Lord personally entered; that this part of the penalty of human transgression He fully paid; and that in early life, by the sweat of His brow, he did literally provide for His own temporal sustenance. Oh, touching view of the humiliation of the Son of God! How does it dignify the most lowly occupation, sweeten the heaviest trial, and lighten the deepest care, to reflect, "thus lived, and labored, and toiled, the incarnate God!"

His riper years were marked by corresponding lowliness. The curse tracked His every step, pressing its claims, and exacting its penalties, to the last moment of existence. What were all His excessive privations, but parts of the same? No home sheltered Him- no domestic comforts cheered Him- no smile of fondness greeted Him- no hand of affection welcomed Him. "The Son of man has nowhere to lay His head," was the heart-rending acknowledgment extracted from His lips. And when a day of exhausting toil had closed upon Him, a day spent in journeying from village to village, and from house to house, preaching the kingdom, healing all manner of disease, supplying the needs, alleviating the sufferings, and soothing the cares of others, He would retire, lonely and unrefreshed, to the bleak mountain, and spend His long, sleepless night in unremitting prayer for His Church! Oh you adorable and adored Jehovah-Jesus! Was ever humiliation and love like Yours?

His temptation in the wilderness was a yet darker shadow thrown upon His path, a still more bitter ingredient mingled in His cup. Imagine yourself, my Christian reader, shut in for a single day with one of the vilest and most degraded of our species. During that period, his whole conversation shall be an attempt to tamper with your allegiance to Christ, to undermine your principles, to pollute your mind, to infuse blasphemous thoughts, to wound your conscience, and destroy your peace. What mental suffering, what grief, what torture would your soul endure in that period of time! Yet all this, and infinitely more, did Jesus pass through. For forty days and nights was He enclosed in the wilderness with Satan. Never were the assaults of the prince of darkness more fearful, never were his fiery darts more surely aimed and powerfully winged, and never had so shining a mark presented itself as the object of his attack than now. There is much in this part of our Lord's humiliation in the flesh on which we should delight to expatiate, did it come within the scope of our present design. A rapid glance at some of its more prominent and instructive points, is all that we can now venture upon.

Our Lord's exposure to temptation, and His consequent capability of yielding to its solicitations, has its foundation in His perfect humanity. It surely requires not an argument to show that, as God, He could not be tempted, but that, as man, He could. His inferior nature was finite and created; it was not angelic, it was human. It was completely identical with our own- its entire exemption from all taint of sin, only excepted. A human body and a human mind were His, with all their essential and peculiar properties. He was "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh." He traveled up through the stages of infancy, boyhood, and manhood; He was encompassed with all the weaknesses, surrounded by all the circumstances, exposed to all the inconveniences, that belong to our nature. He breathed our air, trod our earth, ate our food. The higher attributes of our being were His also. Reason, conscience, memory, will, affections, were essential appendages of that human soul which the Son of God took into union with His Divine. As such, then, our Lord was tempted. As such, too, He was capable of yielding. His finite nature, though pure and sinless, was yet necessarily limited in its resources, and weak in its own powers. Concerning His inferior nature, He was but man. The Godhead, as I have before remarked, was not humanized- nor was the humanity deified, by the blending together of the two natures. Each retained its essential character, properties, and attributes, distinct, unchanged, and unchangeable.

But let no one suppose that a liability in Jesus to yield to Satan's temptation, necessarily implies the existence of the same sinful and corrupt nature which we possess. Far from it. To deny His capability of succumbing to temptation, were to neutralize the force, beauty, and instruction of this eventful part of His history altogether. It were to reduce a splendid fact to an empty fable, a blessed reality to a vague supposition; it were to rob Jesus of the great glory which covered Him when left alone, the victor on this battle-field. And yet, that He must necessarily be sinful in order to be thus capable of yielding, does not follow; it is an error in judgment to suppose that the force of a temptation always depends upon the inherent sinfulness of the person who is tempted. The case of the first Adam disproves this supposition, and in some of its essential features strikingly illustrates the case of the second Adam. In what consisted the strength of the assault before whose fearful onset Adam

yielded? Surely not in any indwelling sin, for he was pure and upright. There was no appeal to the existence of any corrupt principles or propensities; no working upon any fallen desires and tendencies in his nature; for, until the moment that the blast swept him to the earth, no angel in heaven stood before the throne purer or more faultless than he. But God left him to the necessary weakness and poverty of his own nature, and thus withdrawing His Divine support and restraint, that instant he fell! That our adorable Lord did not fall, and was not overcome in His fearful conflict with the same foe, was owing solely to the upholding of the Deity, and the indwelling and restraining power of the Holy Spirit, which He possessed without measure.

But we approach the consideration of those parts of this temptation which constitute it an essential element of the humiliation of our Lord. And do you think, my reader, was it no humiliation for the Son of God to be thus assailed by the prince of darkness? Was it no degradation, that His dignity should be questioned, His authority disputed, His reverence for, and allegiance to, His Father assailed, and His very purity tampered with, by a fallen and corrupt spirit whom He had ejected from heaven? Ah! how deeply and keenly He must have felt it to be so, the first moment He was brought into contact with this arch-fiend, and subtle foe of God and man!

But oh, what glory beams from beneath this dark veil of Christ's humiliation! How lovely and precious an Object does He appear to saints and angels in this wondrous transaction! What holy sympathies and fond affections are kindled in the heart, and rise towards Him, as the eye surveys each particular, the appalling nature of the onset- the shock which His humanity sustained- the mighty power by which He was upheld- the signal victory which He achieved- the Divine consolation and comfort which flowed into His soul as His vanquished enemy retired from the conflict, leaving Him more than conqueror- and above all, the close and tender sympathy into which He was now brought with the tempted Church! These are features replete with thrilling interest and rich instruction, on which the renewed mind delights to dwell.

But our Lord's humiliation went deeper still than this! The clouds now gathering around Him grew darker and more portentous as He advanced towards the final conflict. We must consider the fact of His bearing sin, the painful consciousness of which increased as the hour of its atonement drew on, as forming one of the most overwhelming demonstrations of that voluntary abasement to which He had stooped, and through which He was now passing. In the following passages, this great truth of the Gospel is explicitly and emphatically stated. And let it be borne in mind, that when the Holy Spirit represents our Lord as bearing sin, the statement is not to receive a figurative but a perfectly literal interpretation, as asserting a solemn and momentous fact. He bore not the appearance of sin, or the punishment merely of sin, but the sin itself.

The type, which is truly significant, thus shadows forth the truth: "And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited." Here is the truth we are now contending for, clearly stated. Not the punishment of the sin merely, but the sin itself, did Aaron lay upon the expiatory victim, "putting them upon the head of the goat."

And thus does the Holy Spirit declare it: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;" "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all;" "He shall bear their iniquities;" "He bore the sin of many;""Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree;" "He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." There stood the eternal God, in the closest proximity to the evil one. Never did two extremes, so opposite to each other, meet in such near contiguity and collision. Essential sin, essential holiness; essential darkness, essential light; essential hatred, essential love; man's deadliest foe, man's dearest friend. What an hour of seeming power and triumph was this to the grand adversary of God and man; what an hour of deepening gloom and humiliation and defeat to God's beloved Son! How would this Lucifer of the morning exult as with the swellings of pride he placed his foot upon incarnate Deity! And how keenly and powerfully conscious would Jesus be at that moment, of the deep abasement and degradation to which He had now sunk!

But behold how this great transaction contributed to the deep humiliation of the Son of God. What must have been the revulsion of moral feeling, what the shrinking of His holy soul, the first instant it came in personal contact with sin! What a mighty convulsion must have rocked His human nature, pure and sinless as it was! Saint of God, what composes your bitterest cup, and what constitutes your keenest, deepest sorrow? Has a tender Father blown upon your blessings, removed your mercies, lessened your comforts, darkened your bright landscape, dried up your sweet spring? Is this the cause of your shaded brow, your anxious look, your tearful eye, your troubled and disconsolate spirit?

"Ah, no!" you perhaps exclaim; "rid me of this body of sin, and you chase the cloud from my brow, and the tear from my eye, and the sorrow from my heart. It is the sin that dwells in me." Do you think, then, what the spotless Lamb of God must have felt, and how deeply must it have entered into His humiliation- the existence of an all-absorbing, ever present and, ever painful, and humiliating consciousness of bearing upon His holy soul iniquity, transgression, and sin!

But behold the glory! My reader, it is your highest honor, as it was His deepest shame- your richest glory, as it was His deepest humiliation- that He literally did bear all the sins of all His Church. As truly as we are "made the righteousness of God in Him," He was "made sin," or a sin-offering, for us. Behold how beautifully has the Holy Spirit brought out the doctrines of substitution and union. Of substitution thus: "He has made Him (who knew no sin) to be sin for us." And of union thus: "That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Oh amazing truth! Sinking Himself to our deepest dishonor, He raises us to His highest glory. Sinking Himself with our fallen humanity, He raises us to a union with God. Substituting Himself for us, He makes us one with Himself. Ah, affecting thought! Were all our iniquities, and all our "transgressions in all our sins," laid on Jesus? Yes, all! Before His infinite mind, to whom the past and the future are one eternal now, the sins of all His chosen ones, to the remotest period of time, passed in review, and were made to meet on the head of the atoning Lamb.

Here is opened the high source of all real blessedness to the believing soul. Sweet is the spring, and sweet are the streams that flow from it. Reconciliation with God- His free forgiveness- union with His nature- adoption into His family- acceptance in the Beloved- oneness with the risen Head- access within the veil- filial and perpetual communion, and the "peace of God which passes all understanding," are among the costly results of Christ bearing sin. And see how completely He has borne the mighty load. The moment our iniquities touched Him, it would seem as though He flung them to an infinite distance, or sunk them to an infinite depth. Never, in point of law and justice, can they appear against the pardoned soul. Laid upon our Surety, condemned, and punished, and pardoned in Him, "there is now no condemnation" of or for sin "to those who are in Christ Jesus." How strong is the language which declares this truth! "I have blotted out as a thick cloud your transgressions, and as a cloud your sins;" "You have cast all my sins behind Your back;" "Thus says the Lord, The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found." And why? "Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world!" And may we not account as among the most precious and costly blessings resulting from this truth, its sanctifying tendency? My beloved, the deepest view you can ever have of God's hatred of sin, is in the cross of Calvary; and the deepest sense of the "exceeding sinfulness of sin" you can ever feel, is its entire pardon, imprinted on your heart with the atoning blood of Jesus, and witnessed by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. You hate it because it is forgiven; you abhor it because it is pardoned. And with your eye upon the wounds of Jesus, and His blood daily sprinkled on your conscience, you wrap your white garments close about you, lest your passage through a sinful and seductive world should sully and pollute them. Oh powerful and precious motive to holiness! My soul, yield yourself to its sweet influence, draw your constraints to a life of deeper sanctification, from the cross; thirst and pant with more intense desire after Divine conformity, as one all whose iniquities, transgressions, and sins, are forever cancelled by the heart's blood of God's dear Son. Oh hateful and hated sin, atoned for so richly, pardoned so freely, blotted out so entirely, how can I admire you? how can I love you? how can I cherish you? and how can I yield to you now? You burdened and bow down to the earth the soul of my blessed Lord. You marred the beauty, and veil the glory, and humbled the spirit of my Beloved. You crimsoned His body with the bloody sweat- you wreathed His brow with thorns-you troubled His soul even unto death; and yet you, my transgression, are forgiven; you, my sin, are covered, you, my iniquity, are not imputed, and that because Jesus, my surety, was wounded, and bruised, and stricken for me!

"Thus beneath the cross adoring,

Sin does like itself appear;

When the wounds of Christ exploring

I can read my pardon there.

"Truly blessed is this station,

Low before His cross to lie;

While I see Divine compassion

Floating in His languid eye.

"May I still enjoy this feeling,

In all need to Jesus go;

Prove His blood each day more healing,

And Himself more fully know."

We are now conducted to a consideration of the SUFFERING of the Redeemer, as imparting the last and deepest shade to this picture of humiliation; but from which there yet spring some of the brightest beams of His glory. Our adorable Lord was a sufferer- the Prince of sufferers- the Martyr of martyrs. None had ever suffered as He; no sorrow was ever like His sorrow. Scarcely had He touched the surface of our sin-accursed earth, before the cup of suffering was placed to His lips. The deep fountain of human woe, stirred to its very center, poured in upon His soul its turbid streams from every source and through every channel. Human malignity seized upon Him as its victim, and mingled the first draught that He tasted. Linked though He was by the strongest sympathies to our nature, descending though He had, to elevate, sanctify, and save him- man yet ranked himself among his first and deadliest foes. Oh, that condescension and love to our race so profound, should have met with a requital so base!

The necessity of Christ's sufferings is the first point that arrests the mind in contemplating this subject. In His way-side conversation with the two disciples journeying to Emmaus, our Lord clearly and emphatically pronounced this characteristic of His passion "Ought not Christ to have suffered?" The following considerations would seem to justify this plea of necessity.

The sufferings of Christ were necessary in order to accomplish the eternal purpose and counsel of God. To suppose that His sufferings were contingent, originating in the circumstances by which He was surrounded, is to take a very low and defective view of the truth. But the light in which the Scripture presents the doctrine of a suffering Redeemer, is that which gives the most exalted view of redemption, and reflects in the richest manner the glory of the Triune God. The truth we have now advanced, the Apostle Peter embodies in his awakening discourse on the day of Pentecost, and which truth the Holy Spirit employed in the conversion of three thousand souls: "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." The same doctrine is reiterated in Acts 4: "For of a truth against Your holy child Jesus, whom You have anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatever Your hand and Your counsel determined before to be done." Our Lord Himself confirms it when He says, "The Son of man goes, as it was determined." Dear reader, behold the fountain-head, where arise all those precious streams of covenant mercy which flow into your soul- the electing love of God, which constrained Him to present His beloved Son as an atoning Lamb for the slaughter, from before the foundation of the world! Oh! that must be infinite love- vast love- costly love- unchangeable love- which had its existence in the heart of God towards you from all eternity. Oh! run with humility and gladness to this holy and blessed truth! Welcome it joyfully to your heart as God's truth, from which you may not, you dare not turn, without robbing your souls of immense blessing, and incurring fearful responsibilities. And when by faith you stand beneath the cross, and gaze upon its glorious Sufferer, remember that in His death were fulfilled the eternal purpose and counsel of the Triune Jehovah; and that to predestination- rejected and hated as this truth is by some- you owe all that is dear and precious to you as a ransomed expectant of glory.

To fulfill the types, and to make good the prophecies concerning Him, it was necessary that Jesus should suffer. The Levitical dispensation, and the prophetical Scriptures, as we have already shown, point steadily to Jesus; they are replete with Christ crucified. He who reads and investigates them with his eye turned from Jesus, will find himself borne along upon a rapid stream of prophetic annunciation he knows not where, and involved in a mass of ceremonial usages, to him perfectly chaotic and unintelligible, "without form and void." But with the Spirit of God opening the spiritual eye, and moving upon the word, a flood of light is poured upon every page, and every page is seen to be rich with the history, and effulgent with the glory, of the suffering Messiah. Thus does our Lord assert this truth: "Do you think that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He will presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" Again, "But all this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." It was necessary, therefore, that Christ should humble Himself- should be a man of sorrows- should drink deeply the cup of suffering, and should be lifted upon the cross, in order to authenticate the Divine mission of Moses, to establish the consistency of the Jewish dispensation, to vindicate the truth of the prophets, to fulfil the counsel of the Lord, and thus to verify His own most blessed word.

But that argument, enforcing the necessity of Christ's sufferings, which the most closely touches our own hearts, grows out of the relation He sustained to His people as their Surety; pledged to accomplish their full salvation in a way consistent with the justice of God and the honor of His law. Here it is we see why one so holy as Jesus was should suffer- why God should lay all His wrath upon the head of His dear Son. Now we learn why the innocent should suffer for the guilty, "the Just for the unjust." He came to reinstate the holiness of the Divine law- to uphold the rectitude of the Divine government- to satisfy the claims of Divine justice- to vindicate the glory of God- to make an end of transgression, and bring in an everlasting righteousness for His people. Ought not Christ, then, to have suffered? Had He not, there would have been no atonement for sin- no fountain opened for uncleanness- no avenue of return to God- no reconciliation- no way of access within the holy of holies- no pardon- no acceptance- no peace- no hope- no heaven! Oh, how wretched must have been our condition, and how fearful our doom, had not Jesus suffered! The pall of dark despair would have covered us, and our eternal destiny had been written in letters of "mourning, lamentation, and woe." "This," exclaims the awakened soul, "is just the Redeemer that I need, just the Savior that I need. One who can stoop to my deep necessity, lift me from my dunghill, place me among the princes, and yet sustain, and more than sustain, magnify, by this very act of redeeming rescue, the majesty, purity, and honor of Jehovah."

The completeness of His character as a compassionate and sympathizing Sigh Priest, pleaded for His sufferings. "It became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." "Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest;" "For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to support those who are tempted;" "We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." What deduction are we to draw from this rich cluster of precious declarations but, that in order to the perfection of His character as the High Priest of His people, as the Brother born for adversity, in order to be "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," He must Himself suffer? He must know from painful experience what sorrow meant- what a wounded spirit and a broken, bleeding heart, and a burdened and a beclouded mind, were. In this school He must be taught, and disciplined, and trained: He must "learn obedience by the things which He suffered." He must be made "perfect through sufferings." And oh, how deeply has He been taught, and how thoroughly has He been trained, and how well has He learned, thus to sympathize with a suffering Church! You have gone, it may be, with your trouble to your earthly friend, you have unfolded your tale of woe, have unveiled every feeling and emotion. But ah! how have the vacant countenance, the wandering eye, the listless air, the cold response, told you that your friend, with all his love, could not enter into your case! The care that darkened your brow, had never shaded his- the sorrow that lacerated your heart, had never touched his- the cup you were drinking, he had never tasted. What was lacking? Sympathy, growing out of an identity of circumstance. You have gone to another; he has trod that path before you, be has passed through that very trouble, his spirit has been inured to grief, his heart schooled in trial, sorrow in some of its acutest forms has been his companion; and now he is prepared to bend upon you a melting eye, to lend an attentive ear and a feeling heart, and to say, "Brother, I have known all, I have felt all, I have passed through all- I can sympathize with all." That Friend of friends, that Brother of brothers, is Jesus. He has gone before you; He has left a fragrance on the brim of that very cup you are now drinking; He has bedewed with tears, and left the traces of His blood, on that very path along which you are now walking; He has been taught in that very school in which you are now learning. Then, what encouragement to take your case, in the sweet simplicity of faith, and lay it before the Lord! To go and tell Jesus, confessing to Him, and over Him, the sin which has called forth the chastisement, and then the grief which that chastisement has occasioned. What a wonderful High Priest is Jesus! As the bleeding Sacrifice, you may lay your hand of faith upon His head, and acknowledge your deepest guilt; and as the merciful Priest, you may lay your head on His bosom, and disclose your deepest sorrow. Oh my precious Savior! must You sink to this deep humiliation, and endure this bitter suffering, in order to enter into my lone sorrow!

And yet, in this view of the necessity, we must not lose sight of the VOLUNTARY character of the Redeemer's sufferings. God was not impelled, by a necessity which He could not resist, to redeem, nor Jesus to be the Redeemer. Our Lord was not so circumstanced antecedently to His acceptance of the office of Mediator, that He could not have avoided the humiliation, suffering, and death which He endured. Had He so willed it, He might have resigned the human race to the dire consequences of their apostasy, remaining Himself everlastingly happy and glorious. But, after His most free consent had been given, after having voluntarily entered into an engagement with His Father, to secure the salvation of His covenant people, then, by the most solemn and irrevocable bonds, it was necessary for Him to go forward and finish the work He had undertaken, or leave the Church to perish eternally. "For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator." Coupling this passage with His own God-like declaration, how harmonious appear these apparently conflicting truths: "I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."

And yet He suffered most voluntarily. In this consisted greatly the perfection of His sacrifice. His penal death had proved of no atoning efficacy but for this willing obedience and the Divine merit that were in it. It would have been unjust in justice to have inflicted punishment upon an innocent and unwilling person. The injury thus inflicted must have recoiled with tremendous force upon itself; for while on the one hand, seeking satisfaction justly- on the other, it would have exacted that satisfaction most unjustly.

The full and free concurrence of His own will was essential to the perfection of His sacrifice. Yes, had it not been most free, and acting in perfect harmony with His Father's consent, our sins could not have been imputed to, nor the punishment inflicted upon, Him. Entering, then, most freely into a bond to cancel the mighty debt, it was righteous in God, it was just in justice, and it invested the throne of the eternal Jehovah with surpassing glory, to arrest, in default of the debtor, the Surety, and to exact from Him the uttermost payment.

And here, my reader, is the great point to which we are aiming to bring you- the wonderful love of Jesus in so willingly suffering, the "Just for the unjust." Oh, how readily did He humble Himself, and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross! "Lo, I come; I delight to do Your will, O my God yes, Your law is within my heart;" "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished!" "Who gave Himself for us;" "Christ also has loved us, and has given Himself for us." This is the spring of all that He has done, for "Christ has loved us." Constrained by this, He gave Himself as the Son of God, and as the Son of man- His soul and body, His life and death: yes, all that He possessed in heaven and on earth, He freely gave for us. What was there above or below- in His previous state of glory, or subsequent state of humiliation, that He retained? What part of the price did He withhold? When He could give no less- for all angels and all men would not have sufficed- and when He could give no more, He gave Himself. Ah! this made His "offering and sacrifice to God a sweet-smelling savor." And still it perfumes the oblation, and sends it up each moment fragrant and acceptable before the throne of the Holy One. Oh, surpassing love of Jesus! With the burden of sin- the fire of justice- the wrath of God- the ridicule of man- the malignity of demons- the sorrows of Gethsemane- the pains of Calvary, and the sea of His own blood, all, all in vivid prospect before Him, He yet went forward, loving not His own life unto the death, because He loved ours more. Oh let your heart bend low before this amazing love! Yield to its sweet and attractive influence: let it draw you from yourself, from the creature, from all, to Him. Are you wounded? Does your heart bleed? Is your soul cast down within you? Is your spirit within you desolate? Still Jesus is love, is loving, and loves you. He has suffered and died for you; and, were it necessary, He would suffer and die for you yet again. Whatever blessing He sees good to take from you, He will never take Himself away. Whatever stream of creature love He sees fit to dry, His own love will never fail. Oh can that love fail- can it cease to yearn, and sympathize, and soothe, and support, which brought Jesus from heaven to earth to endure and suffer all this for us? Be still, then- lie passive and low, drink the cup, and let the surrender of your sin, your obedience, and yourself to Him, be as willing and as entire as was the surrender of Himself for you. Then shall you, in a blessed degree, be "able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, filled with all the fulness of God."

But the NATURE of His suffering! This is yet to be considered as forming the most essential part of His deep and unheard of humiliation. Exile from His Father was no small element in the abasement of our adorable Redeemer- it was no slight ingredient of the bitter cup He was now drinking! What a change of circumstances for the Son of the Highest! To leave the bosom of the Father, where, in all the confidence and endearment of the closest and holiest love, He had from eternity reposed, to be embosomed in a world of sin, of anarchy, and of woe! Oh, what a descending was this! That He was banished from all communion with God we do not assert. His whole life, which would seem to have formed one continuous act of devotion, so entirely did He live in the element of prayer, so closely was He enfolded by the atmosphere of communion, would contradict this. But the communion which Jesus held with His Father on earth was far different from that which He had been wont to hold in heaven. There it was from His bosom, not a cloud shading His mind, nor a sorrow wounding His spirit, nor a tear dimming His eye. Here it was from His footstool, amid infirmities, sufferings, "strong crying, and, tears." Invested with a robe of flesh, His communion with God must have received a character from the medium through which it passed. And although not earthly were His conceptions of the Divine essence, or carnal His frame of spirit in its approach to God yet, as man, and in all points tempted like as we are, we may easily suppose He could sympathize with the depth of meaning involved in that sweet portion of His own word, "The Spirit also helps our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Comparison must utterly fail when instituted between the degree and tone of communion with God on earth, and the same hallowed employment in heaven. Take the loftiest flight of the spirit toward God, still caged and cabined by this body of sin, and measure its height with the soarings of that same spirit when disembodied and glorified, freed from all encumbrance of mortal clay, and how low in comparison are its most elevated communings! This deprivation Jesus endured, this limited communion Jesus felt, and deeply did it enter into His humiliation.

But the climax of His humiliation, the consummation of His bitter sorrow, was in the garden, and on the cross. We go with Him to Gethsemane, and we hear Him exclaim, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death;" "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will;" "And being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." We follow Him to Calvary, and amid the darkness and throes of nature, and the still deeper darkness and throes of His soul, a cry more plaintive and more bitter breaks upon the ear: "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" "Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the spirit. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose. When the centurion, and those who were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God."

Here we rest. We have descended with Him from the sunny heights of His glory to the dark depths of His abasement: further than this we cannot pass. We have traveled with Him to the utmost limit of ignominy; beyond it, it would seem, He Himself could not go. Now did the storm, which for ages had been gathering strength, break upon Him in its overwhelming fury. Now did He endure the wrath of God to its uttermost. No shield was around Him, no refuge was over Him, no advocate pleaded for Him. His head was uncovered to the tempest, His person was bowed to the stroke, and He met both in their fiercest onset. Oh, was it no humiliation now to the Son of God? Hear His bitter complaints: "Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying; my throat is dried; mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; those who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away." Thus sank the eternal Son! Thus bowed to the dust the Redeemer of men! Here let us pause, and adore Him who, though "equal with God, humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

Briefly tracing some of the vast BLESSINGS which this subject secures to the Church of God, the glory which belongs to the Redeemer in His humiliation and sufferings will thus more fully appear.

The first that presents itself to the mind is the deep and broad foundation which it lays for the salvation of the Church. There could have been no restoration of man, and no satisfaction to law and justice, but in the humiliation of the Son of God. The very necessity of the case demanded it. The Divine government had been dishonored- that dishonor could only be removed by the humiliation of one equal in dignity, holiness, and glory, even an infinite Being. The humiliation of every angel in heaven would not have effaced a single stain of its reproach, nor have restored a single beam of its glory. The law of God had been humbled, justice demanded, as the price of its reparation, the humiliation of the Lawgiver Himself. The incarnate God did humble Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Thus it was Jesus restored that which He took not away. He restored holiness to the law- satisfaction to justice- dignity to the Divine government- honor to God, and happiness and immortality to man. "Then I restored that which I took not away." Oh, what a stable foundation is thus laid for the fall salvation of every believer!

The humiliation of the Redeemer opens a fountain of infinitely great and ever-glorious grace. Nothing could we have known of the glory of His person, nothing of the character of God; and all the things of His hidden love must have remained forever sealed, had He not so humbled Himself. His coming forth, invested not with the dazzling robes of His infinite majesty, but wearing our degraded nature, descending to our state of deep abasement, yes, sinking infinitely deeper than we, throws open a treasury of grace as rich in its glory, and ample in its supply, as were the dark humiliation and deep poverty which made it ours.

Here is glory springing from His abasement- it is the "glory of His grace;" "We beheld His glory, full of grace." This fulness of grace in Jesus includes all that a poor sinner needs, all that a necessitous believer requires, all that the glory of God demanded. Here is the grace of pardon in all its fulness- the grace of justification in all its fulness- the grace of sanctification in all its fulness- the grace of consolation in all its fulness- the grace of strength in all its fulness. "It pleased the Father, that in Him should all fulness dwell." Grace is poured into His lips, and gracious words proceed from His lips. Hearken! "Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Hearken again! "Him that comes unto me, I will in no wise cast out." Does He not bind up the broken heart? Does He not preach glad tidings to the meek? Does He not "satisfy the hungry soul, and satiate the weary soul with goodness?" Has He ever sent the poor empty away? Was He ever known to turn His back upon one humble comer drawing near, bowed with guilt, disconsolate with sorrow, oppressed with trial? Never! never! Oh, it is with infinite delight- delight of the depth of which we can form no conception- that He welcomes poor sinners. He thinks of His own humiliation for sin; He remembers His own sorrows and tears, agonies and death; and throwing Himself, as it were, into the very center of a bosom storm-tossed with godly grief, He seeks to soothe and hush it to a calm. And how does He allay the tempest? He pours the oil of His own love upon the waves: He sprinkles the conscience with that blood which cleanses from all sin, and bids the soul go in peace. Dear reader, where least we should have expected it, Jesus is set before us, the "Door of hope," even in the deep valley of His humiliation. "I will give the valley of Achor for a door of hope." The Gospel of this precious promise is found in the wondrous theme we are now contemplating- the humiliation of the incarnate God. To that humiliation we must sink, into that valley we must descend. Convinced of sin, separated from all self-reliance and creature-trust, emptied, humbled, laid low in the dust before God, we shall then find Jesus to be the "Door of hope" set open before us in the deep and dark valley of our poverty, hopelessness, vileness, and abasement. Just the Door we need, is Jesus. A Door to a Father's forgiving heart; a Door to God's reconciled love; a Door to the sweetest, closest, holiest fellowship and communion; a Door into heaven itself; a Door so wide, that the greatest sinner may enter- so free, that the penniless may come.

"Here the hopeless may draw near;

Jesus bids them stay no more,

And receives them graciously.

"Door of mercy open wide,

He that will may enter here;

Find in Jesus' pierced side

Shelter from each rising fear.

"Door of pardon for the vile,

Here the vilest enter in,

Find the fruit of Jesus' toil

Full atonement for their sin.

"Door of peace, yes, peace with God,

Sinners may adore and bless

Peace, the fruit of Jesus' blood,

Peace, the fruit of righteousness.

"Door of heaven, there saints shall raise

Loud hosannas swelling high,

And in gratitude and praise

Spend a long eternity."

The humiliation of Christ is also the believer's path to the enjoyment of the richest blessings here, and the highest glory hereafter. How little do we associate our most costly mercies, and even those which we are accustomed to esteem of a more ordinary character (although every mercy is infinitely great), with the abasement of our Lord! How seldom do we trace our happy moments, and hallowed joys, and high delights, and sacred scenes, and precious privileges, to this dark part of His eventful history! And yet all flow to us through this very channel, and but for this, never, never had been ours. When the ocean of His goodness rolls in upon me, wave on wave- when I feel the cheering warmth of creature smiles beaming sweetly and fondly- when I review, one by one, my personal, domestic, and relative mercies- when even the cup of cold water, offered by the hand of Christian kindness, moistens my lips- what is the thought that forces itself upon my mind? "All this springs from the deepest humiliation of my adorable Christ!" And when I ascend into the higher region of grace, and survey the blessings so richly and so freely bestowed- a rebel subdued- a criminal pardoned- a child adopted- a royal priest anointed- union with Christ- covenant relationship with God- access within the holy of holies- conformity to the Divine image- still more deeply am I overwhelmed with the thought, "All this proceeds from the infinite abasement of the incarnate God!" And when yet higher still I ascend, and passing from grace to glory, contemplate the heaven of bliss that awaits me- in one moment absent from the body of sin, and present with the Lord, away from the world, beautiful though it is, because God has made it, yet the throne of Satan, the empire of sin, the scene of sorrow, pollution, suffering, and death; and eternally shut in with God, where all is joy, and all is holiness- made perfectly holy, and consequently perfectly happy, to sin no more, to sorrow no more, to weep no more, to wander no more, to fall no more, oh, how full of glory then becomes the humiliation of my incarnate Lord! Beloved, when God exalts you, remember it is because your Savior was abased. When your cup is sweet, remember it is because His cup was bitter. When you do press your mercy fondly and closely to your heart, remember it is because He pressed His heart to the spear. And when the eye of faith and hope looks forward to the coming glory, oh, forget not that because He endured your hell, you shall enjoy His heaven!

How gloriously does the love of the Father towards us shine in the humiliation and sufferings of Jesus! How deep, how immense, how real that love must be, thus to have dealt with His beloved Son, in order to waft all the blessings of heaven and immortality into our souls! If I want to know in some degree the height of the Father's love, I must in a proportionate degree know the depth of the Son's humiliation. Beloved, ponder this amazing truth. Sink down into it until you find it too deep for mortal thought to fathom; grasp it until its infinite dimensions expand beyond your powers of conception. God is love, and loving His Son, God loves you; and the strong and costly proof of it is, that He resigned Jesus to the shame and the spitting, gave up His darling One to the power of the dogs, and abandoned Him to darkness and woe upon the cross, withdrawing every beam of light from His mind, and every drop of consolation from His heart. Love prompted the gift, love constrained to the surrender, love sank Him low, and love stands pledged to give you every blessing that you need; and this is its security- "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with him also freely give us all things?" Oh ascend from your narrow, straitened views of the Father's love! They dishonor that Father, they undervalue His gift, they grieve the Spirit, and they bring leanness into your own soul. In the humiliation and sufferings of Jesus, God has unlocked every chamber of His heart, and invites you to enter and revel amid their untold riches. In view of this stupendous truth, He asks you to surrender yourself simply and unreservedly to His government and service- to walk obediently- to trust implicitly- to bow resignedly- to imitate closely- and to be ever ascending in faith, and hope, and love, towards your heavenly home.

A spiritual and continued contemplation of the Redeemer's humiliation supplies a powerful check to sin. What is every sin committed, but opening afresh the wounds, and re-acting anew the humiliation of Jesus? Oh, how hateful must that sin appear in our serious moments, which shut out the sun of God's countenance from the soul of Christ, and sunk Him to such inconceivable depths of humiliation! We need every view of Divine truth calculated to sanctify. At present, the deepest sanctification of the believer is imperfect: his loftiest soarings towards holiness never reaching the goal. And yet to be ever thirsting, panting, wrestling, and aiming after it, should be classed among our highest mercies. Oh, we too much forget this truth, that the thirsting for holiness is as much the Holy Spirit's creation, as it is His work to quench that thirst. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness;" or, Blessed are they who have the desire for Divine conformity, who long to know Christ, and to resemble Christ more perfectly. They may never reach the mark, yet ever pressing towards it- they may never attain to their standard, yet, ever aiming for it, they are truly blessed. Here, then, is one powerful means of attaining to holiness- the spiritual eye brought in close and frequent contact with the lowly life of God's dear Son. But for our sins, His mind had never been shaded with clouds, His heart had never been wrung with sorrow, His eye had never been bedewed with tears, He had never suffered and died, had never known the wrath of the offended God.

How fraught with soothing and consolation is this subject to the bereaved and tried believer! It tells you, weeping mourner, that having drained all His wrath, and poured it on the head of your Surety, nothing is reserved for you in the heart of God but the deep fountain of tender mercy and loving-kindness. Then where springs your present trial, but from the loving heart of your Father? In the life of Jesus all was humiliation, in the life of the believer all is glory; and all this glory springs from the headship of Christ. In every step that He trod, He is one with him- the only difference being that Jesus changes positions with the believer, and thus what was bitter to Him becomes sweet to us; and what was dark to Him, becomes light to us; and what was His ignominy and shame, becomes our highest honor and glory.

Humbling as may be the way God is now leading you, do not forget that the great end is to bring you into fellowship with Christ's humiliation- into a more realizing oneness with your tried Head. How contracted were the believer's views of, and how limited his sympathy with, the abasement of God's dear Son, but for the humiliation of His life, but for the way the Lord leads him about in order to humble him! Deut. viii. To be brought into sympathy with you in all the gloomy stages of your journey, "He humbled Himself;" and that this feeling might be reciprocal, bringing you into a sympathy with the dark stages of His life, He humbles you. But deep as your present humiliation may be, you cannot sink so low, but you will find He sunk yet lower, and is therefore able to sustain and bear you up. "I was brought low, and He helped me." Never can Christians sink beneath the everlasting arms; they will always be underneath you. You may be sorely tried- deeply bereaved- fearfully tempted- painfully wounded. Saints and sinners, the Church and the world, may each contribute some bitter ingredient to your cup; nevertheless, the heart of Jesus is a pavilion within whose sacred enclosure you may repose until these calamities be overpast. Your greatest extremity can never exceed His power or sympathy, because He has gone before His people, and has endured what they never shall endure. In the shadow now deepening around you, there is no frown; in the bosom of the cloud now gathering over you, there lurks no thunderbolt. On the path along which you tread, no lightning gleams, for Jesus has borne it all, and borne it all away. Do not be tempted, then, to believe that your case, extreme as it may be, can exceed the limit of His compassion, power, and sympathy. Behold what glory thus springs from the humiliation and sufferings of our adorable Redeemer!

This subject is of an eminently practical tendency. It especially points to Christ as an example. In view of the Redeemer's humiliation, how appropriate and forcible is the exhortation: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus!" The great and holy lesson the Lord the Spirit would inculcate as the foundation of this truth, is profound self-abasement, increasing, habitual lowliness of mind. Never was so holy a precept based upon such a doctrine, illustrated by such an example, and enforced by such a motive as this. It would seem, while descending into the dark valley of Divine abasement, as though all human self-exaltation must wither, and all self-glory must die. The atmosphere would seem too pure for affections so vile to exist even for a moment. It must be acknowledged as a truth of great moment, that only beneath the cross is this holy and precious grace truly cultivated and nurtured. There can be no evangelical humility until sin is felt and deplored, and Christ is seen and loved. The Lord, by various processes, may seek to "hide pride from men." Beneath the hand that has smitten, the haughty spirit, if it does not cherish secret and determined rebellion against the dispensation, may for a while be subdued, and the lofty look be laid low; but the pressure once removed- the sorrow vanishing, with it often vanishes all semblance of real humility and submission; and the spirit is more haughty and the eye more lofty than before.

But a spiritual, inward perception of this stupendous truth-God humbling Himself for man's transgression -the eternal Spirit laying it upon the heart with sanctifying power, begets a spirit of deep self-abasement, and promotes that lowliness and humbleness of mind with which Jehovah deigns and delights to dwell. Oh, how leveling is a sight of the cross of the incarnate God to human pride! Bereavements may empty- afflictions may humble- trials may subdue, and in the hand of the sanctifying Spirit they often work wonders for a child of God, and are not to be despised, or in any degree lightly esteemed; but the cross in the heart, this, this it is which truly and effectually lays the soul prostrate in the dust before the holy God, with deep abhorrence of self, and of sin's exceeding sinfulness.

But what is it to have "the mind that was in Christ?" We answer, it is to be ever aiming after the highest perfection of holiness. It is, to have the eye of faith perpetually on Jesus as our model, studying Him closely as our great example, seeking conformity to Him in all things. It is, to be regulated in all our conduct by His lowly spirit. First, with regard to others- to choose the low place, to acknowledge God in and to glorify Him for the grace, gifts, and the usefulness bestowed on other saints, and to exemplify in our social communion the self-denying, expansive benevolence of the Gospel, which enjoins the duty of not seeking paramountly our own interests, but to sacrifice all self-gratification, and even honor and advantage, if, by so doing, we may promote the happiness and welfare of others- thus it is to live, not for ourselves, but for God and our fellow-men; for "no man lives to himself, and no man dies to himself;" in the spirit of Him who, on the eve of returning to His glory, took a towel and girded Himself, and washed His disciples' feet, it is to serve the saints in the most lowly acts and offices. Second, it is to exemplify, with regard to ourselves, the same lowly spirit which He breathed. It is to be little in our own eyes- to cherish a humble estimate of our gifts, attainments, usefulness, and station- to be meek, gentle, and submissive under rebuke and correction- to "seek not great things for ourselves," -to court not human praise, watching our hearts with perpetual vigilance and jealousy, lest we thirst for the "honor which comes from man, and not the honor which comes from God only." It is to contribute to the necessities of saints without begrudging, to give to Christ's cause without ostentation, to do good by stealth- to seek, in all our works of zeal, and benevolence, and charity, to hide ourselves, that self may be perpetually mortified- in a word, it is to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to be poor in spirit, lowly in mind, to walk humbly with God, and to live to, and labor for, and aim after, the glory of God in all things. This is to have the "mind that was also in Christ Jesus."

There cannot, perhaps, be a position, however peculiar and difficult, in which the believer may be placed, but he will find that Jesus, either by precept or example, has defined the path in which he should walk. Let me illustrate this, by citing a few individual cases. The subject of this chapter pointedly and solemnly addresses itself to the rich. Circumstanced as you are by the providence of God, you have need closely and prayerfully to ascertain how, in your situation, Jesus walked. One of the peculiar snares to which your station exposes you is high-mindedness, and consequent self-trust and complacency. But here the Lord Jesus presents Himself as your example. He, too, was rich; creating all things, He possessed all things. The Creator of all worlds, all worlds were at His command. Yet, amazing truth! in the days of His humiliation, He was as though He possessed nothing, "Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor." In view of such an illustrious Pattern, what is your duty? Simple and obvious. You are in a degree to become poor, by devoting your substance to the glory of God. To amass wealth, for the purpose of hoarding it, is contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, and is opposed to the teaching and example of Christ. It is a sin- an awful, a soul-periling sin. It exposes you to a vortex, which has already drawn and engulfed within its fearful abyss thousands of rich professors. Unless you are strictly following the steps of Christ, as one to whom immense responsibilities attach in connection with worldly prosperity, increasing wealth, or already acquired affluence, you are encircled by imminent danger. Your property is a talent, for which, as a steward, you are as certainly and as solemnly accountable to God as for any other. It is perhaps the one talent that He has given you. What if you bury it in covetousness, or in prodigal expenditure and self-indulgence, refusing to relax your grasp of it to promote His cause and truth, who became poor to enrich us; how will you meet His scrutiny and His glance when the judgment is set, and He demands an account of your stewardship? Nor is it a small, though, perhaps, a solitary talent. Bestowed upon but few, the obligation becomes the greater to consecrate it unreservedly to the Lord. And how can you withhold it, in view of the claims which crowd upon you on either hand? What! are you at a loss for a channel through which your benevolence might flow? Are you inquiring, "How shall I devote my property to God? To what especial object shall I contribute of my substance? In what way may this my one talent best answer the end for which it is bestowed?" Cast your eye around you- surely you cannot long hesitate. Survey the map of Christian missions, is there no part of Christ's kingdom languishing through an inadequacy of pecuniary support? Is there no mission embarrassed, if not abandoned, no laborious missionary disheartened, perhaps recalled, for the lack of that very substance which you are either hoarding up in the spirit of avarice, or lavishing in unnecessary and extravagant selfishness, or else, in the anticipation of a posthumous benevolence, have locked up in a piece of dry parchment, in the shape of a testamentary bequest, to be disposed of after your death? Is there no important enterprise impeded in its course of benevolence by the lack of funds? -no useful society discouraged and crippled through the narrowness and insufficiency of its resources? Is there no important sphere of labor in your vicinity neglected, no spot in the moral wilderness entirely untilled, because the means to supply and sustain an effective agency have been lacking? Is there no sanctuary of God burdened with debt, the existence of which presses like an incubus upon the spiritual prosperity and zealous exertion of the Christian community worshiping within its walls, and which your outstretched hand could remove and cast away? Is there no faithful, hard working minister of Christ within your knowledge and your reach, combating with straitened circumstances, oppressed by poverty, and toiling amid lonely care, embarrassment, and anxiety, studiously and delicately screened from human eye, which it is in your power to alleviate and remove? Is there no widow's heart you could make to sing for joy? no orphan, whose tears you could dry? no saint of God tried by sickness, or need, or imprisonment, from whose spirit you could lift the burden, and from whose heart you could chase the sorrow, and from whose feet you could strike the fetter? Surely a world of need, and woe, and suffering is before you, nor need you yield to a moment's hesitation in selecting the object around which your charity should entwine.

Here, then, is your example. Jesus became poor, lived poor, and died poor. Dare you die a rich man, an affluent professor? I beseech you, ponder this question. If your Lord has left you an example that you should follow His steps, then you are called upon to become poor, to live poor, yes, even to die poor for Him.

But especially are you exhorted to rejoice in that, by the grace of God, you are made low. That in the midst of so much calculated to nourish the pride and lofty independence of the natural heart, you have been made to know your deep spiritual poverty, and as a sinner have been brought to the feet of Jesus. By that grace only can you be kept low. Here is your only security. Mere wealth invests its possessor with no real power or greatness. It confers no moral nor intellectual glory. It insures not against the inroad of evil. It throws around no shield. It may impart a measure of artificial importance, authority, and influence in the world's estimation; beyond this, what is it? Unsanctified by Divine grace, it entails upon its unhappy possessor an innumerable train of evils. As a Christian man, then, exposed to the snares of even a moderate degree of worldly prosperity, your only security is in drawing largely from the "exceeding riches of Christ's grace;" your true wealth is in the fear of God ruling in your heart, in the love of Christ constraining you to "lie low in a low place;" to bear the cross daily; to walk closely, obediently, and humbly with God; employing the property with which He has intrusted you as a faithful steward; your eye ever "looking unto Jesus" as your Pattern.

Equally full and pointed in its instruction is this dark page in the Redeemer's history, to those of His saints who, by the providence of God, are placed in elevated walks in life, and upon whom are conferred the distinctions of human rank, power, and greatness. To assert, as some have done, that the word of God refuses to recognize human distinctions in society, and that when Divine grace takes possession of the heart, it becomes the duty of its subject to relinquish the rank, forego the influence, descend from the position, and go out of the sphere of life in the possession of which grace found him, would seem, not only to transcend the wisdom, but even to arraign the providence of God.

He who despises a rich man because he is rich, as much reproaches God, as he who oppresses a poor man because he is poor. The same providence which ordained the one, created the other. In the one case, we reproach God for creating the rich, and in the other, we reproach Him for creating the poor. In both we impeach His sovereignty, wisdom, and goodness. There is much in the leveling and equalizing spirit of the age to awaken strong suspicion and alarm. Let us be clearly understood. With the holy desire and fervent prayer of those who long for a clearer and wider line of demarcation between the Church and the world- for a more visible separation of the one from the other- for more spirituality among the Lord's people- more heavenly-mindedness, less sinful conformity to, and unnecessary mingling with, the world, we truly and deeply sympathize. But with the spirit to which we have alluded- a spirit which seeks to sap the foundation of human governments, to upheave human society, to loosen its bonds, annihilate its orders, and equalize its distinctions, we can have no sympathy whatever, believing it opposed to the spirit of true Christianity, which inculcates upon all men reverence for the civil power; which enjoins homage to kings, obedience to magistrates, prayer for all that are in authority, "honor to whom honor, and tribute to whom tribute is due;" remembering that "the powers that be are ordained by God."

Would it not also appear on examination, that, even among many saints of God, views are found to exist, the tendency of which is to foster a similar principle to that we have just reprehended? There would seem to be an impression- though the idea would probably meet with instant rejection- that providence and grace are opposed to each other- that, when the purpose of grace is accomplished, the arrangements of providence must be broken up; in other words, that the grace of God disqualifies for the previous sphere of elevated life which the providential arrangements of God had assigned to its subject. We think such an idea, practically acted upon, as some have done, fraught with many and serious evils. God will be glorified in everything that He has created, from the mote in the sunbeam to the highest product of His power. Especially is He glorified in maintaining His saints in the different spheres and relations of life in which His grace has called them. Thus He makes use of one believer's rank, of another's wealth, of another's influence, of another's attainments. On all is inscribed, "Holiness to the Lord;" and all, sanctified and set apart to a holy purpose and end, are pressed into His service, and are made to contribute to His glory. Imagine, then, how antagonistical the one to the other would providence and grace be made to appear, were a man of rank to relinquish his rank, a man of wealth to part with his wealth, a man of influence to come out of the sphere of his influence, the moment the great transition from death to life, from darkness to light, had taken place. The change from nature into grace is not an immediate translation from grace to glory. He is called spiritually out of the world, but yet left in the world, and left in it, too, that for awhile be may glorify Him who has called him. "These are in the world," says Christ to His Father. And again; "As You have sent me into the world, even so also have I sent them into the world." And although it is most true that "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called;" yet it is equally true that to those who are so called the inspired exhortation is addressed, "Brothers, each man, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation God called him to."

But if, my reader, God has called you by His sovereign grace in the circumstances to which I have alluded, the grand point that we would press upon you, is the importance of placing prominently and constantly before you the Lord Jesus as your Pattern. Have you rank? have you distinction? have you wealth? have you influence? So had Christ. But how did He wear that rank, and sustain that distinction, and dispose of that wealth, and employ that influence? In the spirit of the profoundest humility, and with a view to the holiest and most sublime end! On what occasion will you detect in Him the parade of lofty title, or the pride of elevated distinction, or the haughty reserve of superior birth, or the tyrannical exercise of sovereign power, or the selfish indulgence of unbounded influence? Never! The "Ancient of days" did seem to be the infant of days, the eternal God as the lowliest man- with so meek, so humble, and so condescending a carriage, did He deport Himself in the days of His flesh. Of Him, and from Him, you have need to learn how best to glorify your heavenly Father in your present position. Looking narrowly into His word, examining closely His precept and example, you will avoid all worldly aggrandizement in your profession of Christian discipleship- you will be reminded that His "kingdom is not of this world;" that in the Church the "rich and the poor meet together;" that on common ground they there stand; that there all human distinction is lost, and all embrace each other as fellow-heirs of the same eternal inheritance. But if forbidden to carry your worldly distinctions into your Christianity, you are not forbidden to carry your Christianity into the elevated circle in which you move, showing how the grace of the Lord Jesus can make you poor, though rich; humble, though elevated; and child-like, though gifted. Oh, be constrained in the spirit of the profoundest humility to lay your title, your wealth, your honor, and your intellectual attainments at the foot of the cross, an unreserved, consecrated, and willing offering to His glory, who though the "King of kings, and Lord of lords," once hung upon it in ignominy and suffering and death. You "know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," -the rich, the amazing, the sovereign, the free grace of Jesus, to which you owe all that is precious and glorious in the prospect of eternity; you know from personal and blessed experience this fathomless, boundless grace, which has made you what you are, and will make you what you shall yet be- let this grace, then, accomplish its perfect work in you, by leading you to glory only of Jesus, to yield yourself supremely to His service, and to regard the worldly distinction God has conferred upon you as valuable only as it promotes His kingdom, truth, and glory, who "though rich, for your sakes became poor, that you, through His poverty, might be made rich."

Permit me to reiterate the exhortation- cultivate, above all spiritual conditions, most assiduously, prayerfully, earnestly, and fervently, poverty of spirit. Rest not short of it. This is the legitimate fruit, and the only safe evidence, of our union to Christ, and the indwelling of the Spirit in our hearts. Nothing can suffice for it. Splendid talent, versatile gifts, profound erudition, gorgeous eloquence, and even extensive usefulness, are wretched substitutes for poverty of spirit. They may dazzle the eye, and please the ear, and delight the taste, and awaken the applause of man, but, dissociated from profound humiliation of mind, God sees no glory in them. What does He say? "To this man" (to him only, to him exclusively) "will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word." We may think highly of gifts, but let us learn their comparative value and true place from the words of our Lord, spoken in reference to John: "Verily I say unto you, Among those who are born of women there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." Behold the true position which Christ assigns to distinction of office, of place, and of gifts-subordinate to lowliness of spirit. This is their proper rank; and he who elevates them above profound self-abasement, deep lowliness of spirit, sins against God, impeaches His wisdom, and denies the truth of His word.

But how shall we adequately describe this blessed state? how draw the portrait of the man that is "poor, and of a contrite spirit?" Look at him as he appears in his own apprehension and judgment- "the chief of sinners," "less than the least of all saints," "though I be nothing." Prostrate, where others exalt him; condemning, where others approve him; censuring, where others applaud him; humbling himself, where others have put upon him the greatest honor. Confessing in secret and in the dust before God, the flaws, the imperfections, and the sins of those things which have dazzled the eyes, and awakened to trembling ecstasy the souls of the multitude. Look at him in the place he assumes among others- taking the low position; in honor preferring others; washing the disciples' feet; willing to serve rather than be served; rejoicing in the distinction, the promotion, the gifts, the usefulness, and the honor put upon his fellow-saints; and ready himself to go up higher at his Master's bidding. Look at him under the hand of God- meek, patient, resigned, humbled, drinking the bitter cup, blessing the hand that has smitten, justifying the wisdom, the love, and the gentleness which mark the discipline, and eager to learn the holy lessons it is sent to teach. Look at him before the cross- reposing all his gifts, and attainments, and honors at his foot, and glorying only in the exhibition it presents of the holy God pardoning sin through the death of His Son, and as the hallowed instrument by which he becomes crucified to the world, and the world to him.

And how shall we array, in the strongest light, before you, the motives which urge the cultivation of this poverty of spirit? Is it not enough that this is the spiritual state on which Jehovah looks with an eye of exclusive, holy, and ineffable delight? "To this man will I look." "Splendid gifts, brilliant attainments, costly sacrifices, are nothing to me. To this man will I look, that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembles at my word."

To this would add, if you value your safe, happy, and holy walk- if you prize the manifestations of God's presence- "the kisses of His mouth, whose love is better than wine," the teaching, guiding, and comforting influence of the Holy Spirit, seek it. If you would be a "savor of Christ in every place," -if you would pray with more fervor, unction, and power- if you would labor with more zeal, devotedness, and success, seek poverty of spirit. By all that is dear, and precious, and holy- by your own happiness, by the honor of Christ, by the glory of God, by the hope of heaven, seek to be found among those who are "poor, and of a contrite spirit," who, with filial, holy love, tremble at God's word, whom Jesus has pronounced blessed here, and fit for glory hereafter. And though, in approaching the Great High Priest, you have no splendid and costly intellectual offerings to present, yet with the royal penitent you can say, "You would not be pleased with sacrifices, or I would bring them. If I brought you a burnt offering, you would not accept it. The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise." "This, Lord, is all that I have to bring You."

Avoid a spurious humility. True humility consists not in denying the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, in underrating the grace of God in our souls, in standing afar off from our heavenly Father, and in walking at a distance from Christ, always doubting the efficacy of His blood, the freeness of His salvation, the willingness of His heart, and the greatness of His power to save. Oh no! this is not the humility that God delights to look at, but is a false, a counterfeit humility, obnoxious in His sight. But, to "draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith," in lowly dependence upon His blood and righteousness; to accept of salvation as the gift of His grace; to believe the promise, because He has spoken it; gratefully and humbly to acknowledge our calling, our adoption, and our acceptance, and to live in the holy, transforming influence of this exalted state, giving to the Triune God all the praise and glory; this is the humility which is most pleasing to God, and is the true product of the Holy Spirit.

This subject addresses itself especially and soothingly to those who, like their Lord, are the subjects of deep humiliation and suffering. But imperfectly, perhaps, beloved reader, are you aware of the high privilege to which you are admitted, and of the great glory conferred upon you in being identified with Jesus in His life of humiliation. This is one of the numerous evidences by which your adoption into the family of God is authenticated, and by which your union with Christ is confirmed. It may be you are the subject of deep poverty, your circumstances are straitened, your resources are limited, your necessities are many and pressing. Perhaps you are the "man that has known affliction;" sorrow has been your constant and intimate companion; you have become "acquainted with grief." The Lord has been leading you along a path of painful humiliation. You have been "emptied from vessel to vessel." He has brought you down, and laid you low; step by step- and yet, oh how wisely and how gently He has been leading you deeper and yet deeper into the valley! But why all this leading about? why this emptying? why this descending? Even to bring you into a union and communion with Jesus in His life of humiliation! Is there a step in your abasement that Jesus has not trodden with you- ah, and trodden before you? Is there a sin that He has not carried, a cross that He has not borne, a sorrow that has not affected Him, an infirmity that has not touched Him? Even so will He cause you to reciprocate this sympathy, and have fellowship with Him in His sufferings. As the Head did sympathize with the body, so must the body sympathize with the Head. Yes, the very same humiliation which you are now enduring, the Son of God has before endured. And that you might learn something what that love, and grace, and power were which enabled Him to pass through it all, He pours a little drop into your cup, places a small part of the cross upon your shoulder, and throws a slight shadow on your soul! Yes, the very sufferings you are now enduring are, in a faint and limited degree, the sufferings of Christ. "Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you," says the apostle, "and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for His body's sake, which is the Church."

There is a twofold sense in which Jesus may be viewed as a sufferer. He suffered in His own person as the Mediator of His Church; those sufferings were vicarious and complete, and in that sense He can suffer no more; "for by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified." The other now presents Him as suffering in His members- in this sense Christ is still a sufferer; and although not suffering to the same degree, or for the same end, as He once did, nevertheless He who said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" is identified with the Church in all its sufferings; in all her afflictions, He being afflicted. The apostle therefore terms the believer's present sufferings, the "afflictions of Christ." Behold, then, your exalted privilege, you suffering sons of God! See how the glory beams around you, you humble and afflicted ones! You are one with the Prince of sufferers, and the Prince of sufferers is one with you! Oh! to be one with Christ- what tongue can speak, what pen can describe the sweetness of the blessing, and the greatness of the grace? To sink with Him in His humiliation here, is to rise with Him in His exaltation hereafter. To share with Him in His abasement on earth, is to blend with Him in His glory in heaven. To suffer shame and ridicule, persecution and distress, poverty and loss, for Him now, is to wear the crown, and wave the palm, and swell the triumph, and shout the song, when He shall descend the second time in glory and majesty, to raise His bride from the scene of her humiliation, robe her for the marriage, and make her manifestly and eternally His own.

Oh! laud His great name for all the present conduct of His providence and grace. Praise Him for all the wise, though affecting, discoveries He gives you of yourself, of the creature, of the world. Blessed, ah! truly blessed and holy is the discipline that prostrates your spirit in the dust. There it is that He reveals the secret of His own love, and draws apart the veil of His own loveliness. There it is that He brings the soul deeper into the experience of His sanctifying truth; and with new forms of beauty, and expressions of endearment, allures the heart, and takes a fresh possession of it for Himself. And there, too, it is that the love, tenderness, and grace of the Holy Spirit are better known. As the Comforter, as the Revealer of Jesus, we are, perhaps, more fully led into an acquaintance with the work of the Spirit in seasons of self-abasement, than at any other time. The mode and time of His Divine manifestation are thus beautifully predicted: "He shall come down like rain on the mown grass; as showers that water the earth." Observe the gentleness, the silence, end the sovereignty of His operation- "He shall come down like rain." How characteristic of the blessed Spirit's grace! Then mark the occasion on which it descends- it is at the time of the soul's deep prostration. The waving grass is mown, the lovely flower is laid low, the fruitful stem is broken; that which was beautiful, and fragrant, and precious, is cut down- the fairest first to fade, the loveliest first to die, the fondest first to depart; then, when the mercy is gone, and the spirit is bowed, and the heart is broken, and the mind is dejected, and the world seems clad in wintry desolateness and gloom, the Holy Spirit, in all the softening, reviving, comforting, and refreshing tendency of His grace, descends, speaks of the beauty of Jesus, leads to the grace of Jesus, lifts the bowed soul, and reposes it on the bosom of Jesus, and wakes its heart to the sweetest strains of music.

"I live, His power to show, who once did bring

My joys to weep, and now my griefs to sing."

Precious and priceless, then, beloved, are the seasons of the believer's humiliation. They tell of the soul's emptiness, of Christ's fulness; of the creature's insufficiency, of Christ's all-sufficiency; of the world's poverty, of Christ's affluence: they create a necessity which Jesus supplies, a void which Jesus fills, a sorrow which Jesus soothes, a desire which Jesus satisfies. They endear the cross of the incarnate God, they reveal the hidden glory of Christ's humiliation, they sweeten prayer, lift the soul to God; and then, "truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ." Are you as a bruised flower? Are you as a broken stem? Does some heavy trial now bow you in the dust? Oh, never, perhaps, were you so truly beautiful; never did your grace send forth such fragrance, nor your prayers ascend with so sweet an odor; never did faith, and hope, and love develop their hidden glories so richly, so fully as now! In the eye of the wounded, bruised, and humbled Christ, you were never more lovely, and to His heart never more precious than now- pierced by His hand, smitten by His rod, humbled by His chastisement, laid low at His feet, condemning yourself, justifying Him, taking to yourself all the shame, and ascribing to Him all the glory.

"Thanks Be unto God For His Unspeakable Gift!"

The Glory of the Redeemer in His Resurrection

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Rev. 1:17-18

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Rev. 1:17-18

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, "Don't be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one who died. Look, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave. Rev. 1:17-18

We now stand upon the threshold of a subject second to none, yet considered in the grandeur of its character, in the immensity of its results, and in the glory with which it encircles the person and the work of our adorable Redeemer. It is that single doctrine of the Bible, the existence of which authenticates the truth, and develops the beauty of all the others. Indeed, it is to Christianity what the soul is to the body, what the foundation is to the building, what the key-stone is to the arch- it would seem necessary to the very existence of revelation, imparting vitality, substance, and security to every doctrine of the inspired word. The life of Jesus is the life of the Bible- the life of the believer- the life of glory. The one fact- the resurrection of Christ- would appear to be the fountain of life to the Church of God in all ages of the world. It throws back a quickening influence, felt by prophets and by patriarchs; it is the life of the Church now, and it will, to the remotest period of time, transmit an influence which shall be felt by the last vessel of mercy. Impressed thus with its vast importance, its essential relation to the truth of the Bible, and to the existence of the Church of God, we humbly enter upon its discussion. And oh may the Eternal Spirit of truth so anoint both the writer and the reader, that this glorious and precious doctrine may come to our minds with all the power, freshness, and sweetness of a newly-discovered, heaven-descending doctrine!

We have placed at the head of this chapter a sublime portion of the inspired word, which, while it embodies the doctrine before us, places it in a lucid and convincing point of view. At the first glance, it may seem to direct the eye rather to the glorified humanity of our Lord, than specifically to the single fact of His resurrection. But a little reflection will convince the mind that the two doctrines are closely interwoven the one with the other; and the appearance of Jesus in a state of ascension-glory, necessarily involves His resurrection-glory, and so places the master-fact of the Bible beyond the region of doubt. The passages are affirmative, from His own lips, of the risen life of Jesus; and as this is the point now demanding our consideration, a brief exposition of the words may greatly assist our investigation.

The occasion on which they were spoken is deeply instructive. Our adorable Emmanuel frequently reveals the most brilliant beams of His glory in seasons of the most painful trial and deepest gloom. The dark providential dispensations of God often bring out in richer radiance the glories of His beloved Son, as the darkness of night reveals more distinctly and brightly the existence and beauty of the heavenly bodies. For the manifestation of this remarkable revelation of His risen glory to His servant, our Lord selects precisely such an occasion- an occasion which, to the eye of reason, would appear the most unpropitious and improbable; but to faith's eye, ranging beyond second causes, the most appropriate for such a revelation of Jesus. Domitian, though not released from his fearful responsibility for the act, was but the instrument of executing the eternal purpose of grace and love. God's hand was moving, and moving, too, as it often does, in the "thick darkness." Exiled as John was by this Roman emperor to a desolate island of the Aegean Sea, "for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ," the Redeemer was but preparing the way for the revelation of those visions of glory, than which none more sublime or more precious ever broke upon the eye of mortal man. God was not only placing His beloved servant in a right posture to behold them, but was also most wisely and graciously training and disciplining His mind spiritually and humbly to receive them. There are two features in the Lord's manifestation of His glory to His saints worthy of our serious notice. As in the case of the Apostle John, there is often a preparation for the manifestation. The believer is placed in a position suited to a proper view of the object. A holy disciplining is employed. There is a bringing down, a laying low, a soul-emptying and humbling process, often most trying and painful, but most needed in preparing the Lord's way into the soul. Other objects of love and beauty are removed, other glory is dimmed, the palace is "swept and garnished," the eye is "anointed with fresh eye-salve," then the Lord of glory enters– then Jesus draws near- reveals His beauty, manifests His glory, and unfolds His love.

The second feature is illustrated by the case of the Apostle Paul, and marks the subsequent process through which the soul often passes. Through the abundance of the revelations of the Redeemer's glory that are sometimes made, the Lord has now to fortify the soul against the risings of self; and lest, through the clinging infirmities of our unsanctified nature, we should be "exalted above measure," a "messenger of Satan" is sent to bring and keep us low in the dust before God.

But mark how this dark and trying incident was making for the good of this holy exile. Banished though he was from the saints, from society, and from all the means of grace, man could not banish him from the presence of God, nor persecution separate him from the love of Christ. Patmos, to his view, became resplendent with the glory of the risen Savior- the reconciled God and Father was his sanctuary- the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, overshadowed him- and the Lord's day, already so hallowed and precious to him in its association with the resurrection of the Lord, broke upon him with unknown effulgence, sanctity, and joy. Oh, how richly favored was this beloved disciple! Great as had been his previous privileges- journeying with Christ, beholding His miracles, hanging on His lips, reposing on His bosom- yet never had he been so privileged- never had he learned so much of Jesus, nor had seen so much of His glory, nor had drunk so deeply of His love, nor had experienced so richly His unutterable tenderness, gentleness, and sympathy, and never had he spent such a Lord's day as now, the solitary inhabitant of a lonely isle though he was. Oh, where is there a spot which Jesus cannot irradiate with His glory- where is there solitude which He cannot sweeten with His presence- where is there suffering, privation, and loss, which He cannot more than recompense by His sustaining grace and soothing love- and where is there a trembling and prostrate soul, which His "right hand" cannot lift up and soothe? This, then, was the occasion on which the Lord appeared in so glorious a form, with such soothing words and sublime revelations, to His beloved servant. We now proceed to the subject before us.

The resurrection-life of Jesus, as we have remarked, is the life of the child of God. Before more fully going into the consideration of this great truth, it may be profitable briefly to trace the close relation which this one fact sustains to the veracity of the Bible itself; for if this doctrine be false, it falsifies the sacred word, neutralizes the faith, and annihilates the hope of the Church. "If Christ has not been risen," argues the apostle, "then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain; yes, and we are found false witnesses for God. And if Christ has not been raised, you are yet in your sins. Then they also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished." Now, as on this one fact the truth of the Gospel hinged, and the life of the Church was suspended, and the whole glory of the Redeemer hung, and events the most stupendous and solemn were poised, we wonder not that the apostles placed this doctrine in the very foreground of their ministry; everywhere, and on all occasions, proclaiming it with marvellous boldness, power, and success, the testimony of their own conscience, and the descending evidence of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness that it was true. "And with great power the apostles gave witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all." How necessary, then, would it appear that, in their preaching, they should lay great stress upon this doctrine, proclaiming it as men who knew it to be no lie, and who, in the face of the rack, and the boiling cauldron, and the cross, and the scourge, and the prison, and the banishment, undaunted and unmoved, should press it to their hearts, and hold it high- the glorious truth of God!

If the tomb still enclosed the lifeless body of their Master, then were made good the assertions, and then were realized the predictions, of His enemies, that He was an impostor, and His religion an imposition. If the apostles could prove, as eye-witnesses of what they asserted, that the tomb of their Lord was empty, and that nothing of Him remained in it but the shroud that had wrapped His form, and the "napkin that was about His head;" then would they confound their enemies, strike the death-blow to Judaism, and triumphantly establish the truth of Christianity. As it was everything to the success of their cause, to prove that Christ was alive, so it was everything to the Sanhedrin, in their plot to defeat their cause, to disprove that Christ was alive. Both saw that the verification or the falsification of this single fact was of the first moment. Everything hung upon it. The chief priests and rulers, driven to desperation, affirmed that the body was stolen; the apostles, strong, but calm, in the belief of the truth of what they asserted, affirmed that the body was quickened. Vain and weak attempt of the Jewish council to defeat the evidence of a fact, the truth of which they could not gainsay! The body stolen! The grave robbed! By whom? By His enemies? It was their interest to have allowed the body of our Lord to remain undisturbed in the grave, that the proof of His imposture might be the more palpable and overwhelming. Surely they would not have taken a step tending to impart even the semblance of truth to the predictions of Christ, and the declarations of His friends. But supposing that they had secreted the body, why did they not, if in their power, produce it? This would have decided the question of His resurrection in their favor, and have stifled in its birth, at once and for ever, the infant and rising religion. By His disciples? But who can prove that they stole the body? Is it probable that, if confederated to deceive, they would witness against themselves? And if the soldiers were awake, would they have allowed themselves to be over come by a handful of unarmed and timid men? And is it likely that the disciples, thus unarmed and timid, would have opposed their weakness to the strength of a Roman guard, strongly armed, and awed by the fear of certain death, to the most sleepless vigilance? Or would they have thus periled their lives for a man who had so shamefully deceived, and so cruelly abandoned them? Or if, as the rulers would have made it appear, the soldiers were asleep, how came they to know that the disciples secretly, and by night, took the body away?

But we turn to the testimony of the apostles themselves. How unlikely were they to impose upon the credulity of the world and the Church! They were unlearned and unsophisticated men, incapable of a plot. They were poor and uninfluential men, possessing neither the means nor the power of executing, even had they the skill to conceive it. And yet how clearly and triumphantly do they establish the great fact for which they contended! The Apostle Paul thus condenses their personal and unanimous testimony. "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures; and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve: after that He was seen by above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James; then by all the apostles. And last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time." What further testimony need we than this?

But what are SOME OF THE GREAT TRUTHS CONFIRMED BY THE RESURRECTION of Jesus, and in the belief of which the believer is built up, by this glorious and life-inspiring doctrine? They are many and vast. Indeed, it would not be too much to affirm of the entire system of Divine truth, that it depended mainly for its evidence upon the single fact of Christ's resurrection from the dead. In the first place, it establishes the Bible to be the revelation of God. If the types which shadowed forth, and the prophecies which predicted, the resurrection of the Lord, received not their substance and their fulfilment in the accomplishment of that fact, then the Scriptures were not true, the types were meaningless, and the predictions were false. For thus do they unite in setting forth this glorious and precious truth. First, as it regards the types. What was the receiving back of Isaac after he had been laid upon the altar, and the knife raised to slay him, but the shadowing forth of Christ's resurrection? As the binding of him upon the wood prefigured the sacrificial death of Christ, so the unbinding of him from the altar, and his surrender to his father the third day from the time that he had received the command to sacrifice him, prefigured the risen life of Christ. Significant type! radiant with the glory of the risen Jesus! In the one part we see Him dying, in the other part we see Him rising. The one shadows forth His atoning sacrifice, the other His risen glory. And here did the mind of Abraham rest. His towering faith rose above the type; he looked beyond the shadow. His soul embraced the crucified and the risen Lord. Strong in the exercise of a prospective faith, he beheld before him as vividly, and he reposed in as firmly, the dying and the living Redeemer, as did John when the sweet voice broke upon his ear, "I am He that lives, and was dead." "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. . . . Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from where also he received him in a figure."

A part of the ceremony observed in the purification of the leper, points to the same glorious truth. "Two birds alive and clean," were to be brought to the priest. One was to be "killed in an earthen vessel over running water." The priest was then to "dip the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed," and to "let it go out of the city into the open fields." The bird killed in an earthen vessel was a type of the human nature of our Lord crucified for the leprosy of sin, the atoning virtue of whose precious blood is of continual efficacy, typified by the running water; for the "blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin." The living bird dipped in the blood of the bird slain, and then let free, was the type of the resurrection life of Jesus, who, as the great High Priest, "ever lives to make intercession for us," by pleading within the veil the merits of His atoning blood.

The type of the slain and the living goat embodies in vivid outline the same essential doctrine. Aaron was commanded to kill the goat of the sin-offering, and bring his blood within the veil. But upon the head of the live goat he was to place both his hands, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and then to send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. "And he shall let go the goat in the wilderness." Our adorable Lord was the glorious substance of this expressive type. Both parts met, and were realized in Him. "He was delivered for our offences, and rose again for our justification."

The prophetic Scriptures are equally as explicit in setting forth the resurrection of Christ. It will not be necessary that we quote them accompanied with any lengthened comment, as in a former part of this work allusion has already been made to the Scripture prophecies concerning the Redeemer. "You are my Son, this day have I begotten You." "My flesh shall also rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in hands, nor will You suffer Your Holy One to see corruption." "I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." Now mark how exactly these portions of the prophetic Scriptures are quoted by the Apostle Paul, and strictly applied by him to the resurrection of Christ. "But God raised Him from the dead; and He was seen many days by them who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God has fulfilled the same unto us, their children, in that He raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second Psalm, You are my Son; this day have I begotten You. And as concerning that He raised Him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, He said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he says also in another Psalm, You shall not suffer Your Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation, by the will of God, fell asleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: but He whom God raised again, saw no corruption." How brightly does the doctrine of the risen Savior shine throughout this remarkable portion of God's holy word! Truly the life of Jesus is the life of the Scriptures. Again, "Your dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise." "I know that my Redeemer lives." Thus does the resurrection of Christ from the dead confirm the truth of God's holy word. The types find their substance, and the prophecies their fulfilment, in Him who was emphatically the "plague of death, and the destruction of the grave."

The resurrection of the Redeemer established the truth of His Godhead. Thus the Holy Spirit speaks by the apostle- "And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." His miracles had already proved the truth of His Divine Sonship. Yet there wanted one other evidence, the crowning one of all- the resurrection. This one evidence would put the final seal to the truth of His Deity. If not, then all that He had previously said, predicted, and done, would prove but to have been, as His enemies have asserted, the stratagem of a designing man, attempting to impose upon the credulity of a few devoted but deluded followers. But this return to life on the exact day which He had predicted, breaking, by the exercise of His Divine power, from the cold embrace of death and the imprisonment of the grave, put at rest forever the question of His Deity, and declared Him to be the Son of God. Oh, how truly and properly Divine did He now appear! August and convincing as had been all the previous attestations of His Godhead, His life one succession of the most astonishing and brilliant achievements of Divine power and goodness, diseases healed, sight restored, demons ejected, the dead raised, tempests hushed, and winds stilled, His death marked by prodigies of terrible and surpassing wonder and sublimity- the earth heaving beneath His feet, the sun darkening above Him, the graves opening around Him; yet never had His Godhead shone forth with such demonstrative power and resplendent glory, as when He broke from the tomb and rose triumphant over hell, death, and the grave. Then did He fulfil this prediction, and redeem this pledge- "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again." Receding for awhile from Communion with life- as if to create a pause in nature, which would awaken the interest and fix the gaze of the intelligent universe upon one stupendous event- He disappeared within the very domain of the "king of terrors," wrapped around Him its shroud of darkness, and laid Himself down- Essential Life locked in the embrace of death, immortality slumbering in the tomb! But He rose again! bursting from the cold embrace, and awaking from the mysterious slumber, He came back to life, all radiant, immortal, and Divine!

Saint of God! need you a further and stronger evidence that your faith has credited no cunningly devised fable? that He to whose guardianship you have committed your precious soul, is able to keep it until the morning of your own resurrection glory? Behold it in the risen life of the incarnate God! He has come up from the grave, to make good all His previous claims to Deity, thus to encourage and confirm your belief in the truth, dignity, and glory of His person, and to assure you that He that "believes in Him shall not be ashamed." Now may you take up the triumphant strain, as it falls from the lips of the departing apostle, prolonging it until another shall catch it from your expiring tongue: "I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day."

The resurrection of Christ was the Father's great seal to the truth of His Son's mission, and the public expression of His entire satisfaction with, and full acceptance of, His atoning work. The quickening of Christ's body is, therefore, frequently ascribed to the Father, "Whom God has raised up," "But God raised Him from the dead," "The working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead," "Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father." Participating as the Son Himself and the Holy Spirit did in this work- for it was a work employing equally the power, and involving equally the glory, of the triune God- it is yet particularly spoken of as the act of the Father. And why? Because at His hands His Son had received the great commission- by Him He had been invested with the mediatorial office- and by Him sent to discharge the claims of law and justice in behalf of His covenant people. Who, therefore, but the Father, could authenticate the truth of His mission, receive back His office, release Him from the obligation, and accept the work at His hands? This He did "when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand." Here was the grand evidence of the perfection and acceptance of His sacrifice. The atoning work of Jesus was in itself perfect and complete. It was all that God demanded, all that the Church required, and all that law and justice asked. Yet there was needed one proof that this work was accepted by God, and was Satisfactory to Divine justice. On the cross He had uttered that wondrous cry, which sent gladness through all heaven, and dismay through all hell- "It is finished!" But, lo, He dies! The Captain of our salvation is conquered! The promised Victor is vanquished! He is laid in the grave! The stone covers Him! The earth imprisons Him! What proof have we now that He was more than mortal? what evidence that He was God? What Divine seal is affixed to the great charter of redemption? What pledge have we that it is complete? What security against the law's loud thunder, and the consuming flames of justice- against the wrath of the offended God, and the condemnation that is to come? In a word, how may we know that all the Divine perfections are harmonized in our salvation, and that "whoever believes in Jesus shall not perish, but have everlasting life?" Behold, the Father raises Him from the dead! This is the evidence- this is the seal- this is the pledge- and this the security. We need even ask no more. It satisfied God, it satisfies us. Then did God "rest in His love;" and then, if ever, did He rejoice over His Church with singing. It was a sublime, a momentous event. It was bringing forth the top-stone amid the shouts of angels, and placing it upon that finished work of which His death had been the foundation. At that moment all created intelligences were summoned to witness the great and final Seal affixed to redemption's perfect work. And while every eye was thus intently bent upon the yielding grave, the Father, in that stupendous act of His power and love, utters His solemn voice, "This is my beloved Son, in whose person I delight, and with whose work I am well satisfied." Oh what majesty now encircled the rising form of the incarnate God! Never had He appeared so truly the Savior, never so illustriously the Redeemer, and never so perfectly the Mediator and Advocate as now- sealed by God the Father, quickened by God the Spirit, and radiant with the beams of His own Divine glory.

But not only was it His personal release from all the obligations He had assumed as the sin-bearer of His people, but His resurrection also involved the complete justification of His Church. Obeying, suffering, and rising as the Representative, the Surety, the Head of His Church, may we not say, that what He did was not so much His own act, as that of the Church in Him? He obeyed not for Himself, nor for Himself did He die and rise again, but for His "body, the Church." His resurrection, therefore, was as much His Church's entire release, discharge, and justification, as it was His own. Then was the glorious sentence of acquittal passed- then transpired the great act of justification. The emerging of the Redeemer from the grave, was the emerging of the redeemed from all condemnation. His release from the cold grasp of the destroyer was their release from the iron hand of the law. "He was taken from prison and from judgment;" and as He passed out of the court of God's justice, and from the prison-house of death, the Church, purchased with His blood, passed out with Him, legally and fully discharged, exclaiming as the last barrier yielded, and the last fetter broke, "Who is He that condemns? it is Christ that died, yes rather, that is RISEN AGAIN!" On this ground, therefore, the apostle argues that righteousness is imputed to us, "if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;, who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our (declared) justification." Precious Redeemer! What surpassing glory beams forth from Your emptied sepulcher!

It was also the consummation of His glorious victory. Until this moment, the Redeemer had all the appearance of one vanquished in the great fight. He was left slain upon the battle-field. Indeed, it would appear that He had really endured a momentary defeat. He was now under the dominion of death; and as death was the consequence and penalty of sin, so long as He was subject to its power, He still lay beneath the sins of His people. Cancelled although they were by the blood He had just shed, the great evidence of their remission did not, and could not, transpire until the resurrection had passed. What gloom now enshrouded the Church of God! The Sun of Righteousness was setting in darkness and in blood; and with it were descending into the tomb, the hopes of patriarchs and prophets, of seers and apostles. The "king of terrors " had laid low his illustrious victim; and the cold earth had closed upon His sacred body, mangled and lifeless. Oh, what a victory did hell and sin, death and the grave, now seem to have achieved! But the "triumphing of the wicked is short." In three days the tomb, at the mighty fiat of Jehovah, unveiled its bosom, and yielded back its Creator and Lord. The Sun of Righteousness ascended again in cloudless glory and peerless majesty, to set no more forever. The Church of God, now "begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," arose from the dust and put on her beautiful garments. Now was the scene changed. His enemies, no longer wearing even the semblance of victory, were overthrown and vanquished. Hell was disappointed, and its gates forever closed against the redeemed. Sin was thrown to an infinite distance, and "death had no more dominion over Him, God having loosed its pains, because it was not possible that He should be holden by it. He rose the mighty and the illustrious Conqueror. And all this conquest, let it not be forgotten, was achieved in behalf of the chosen and the beloved people. It was our battle that He fought, it was our victory that He won. Therefore, called though we are to "wrestle against the principalities and against the powers," and exhorted though we are to "take unto us the whole armor of God," we yet are confronted with enemies already vanquished. It would seem as though we were summoned, not so much to go out upon the field of battle, as upon the field of conquest; not so much to combat with the foe, as to gather up the spoils of victory. For what is every successful conflict with our spiritual adversaries- what is every corruption mortified- what is every temptation resisted- what is every sin overcome- but a showing forth the great victory already won by the Captain of our salvation? Every triumph of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a regenerate man, is a display of the triumph of Him who, in hanging on the cross, and in rising from the grave, "spoiled the principalities and the powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it."

But there is a most important and blessed view of the glory of the Redeemer's resurrection still to be considered; a view which will be found to bring this essential doctrine of our faith with living power to the soul, causing each believer in Jesus to feel a personal interest in, and identity with, it. The resurrection of Christ from the grave is the spiritual, assured, and eternal life of the Church. In this light, the risen life of Jesus is everything to the believer's salvation, as it is everything to the entire system of Christianity. Death seemed to rest upon all that related to the kingdom of Christ, during the short period that He Himself continued under its dominion. It was a three days of fearful, agonizing suspense. If there ever was silence in heaven, may we not suppose it was during that period? The salvation of millions yet unborn, as of millions who had died in the faith of Jesus, and the everlasting honor and glory of the triune Jehovah, were suspended upon that single event. But He rose again, the death of death, the life of the Church. The quickening of His natural body was the quickening of His spiritual body. Here we are again brought back to that elevating and sanctifying truth- the federal relation of Christ to His Church- the responsible headship of Jesus- His perfect oneness (implying more than mere union) with His Church. We have seen that in dying, His death was the death of the Church in Him- its death to the claims of the law, to the penalty of justice, to the imputation of sin, and to the power of death itself. Therefore says the apostle, "I am crucified with Christ," "Dead with Christ," "Reckon yourselves to be dead to sin." "You also are become dead to the law." Now, as all the death of the believer comes through the sacrificial death of Christ, so also does all the life of the believer come through the risen life of Christ. And in language equally as clear and explicit is this corresponding truth set forth. A few passages will be sufficient proof. "God has quickened us together with Christ," "risen With Christ," "Christ lives in me," "Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also (emblematically) you are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised Him from the dead. And you has He quickened together with Him." Here, then, are two grand truths placed before us, written as with a sunbeam- the believer's oneness with Christ, and Christ the new and spiritual life of the believer.

Now let us attempt to unfold the great and glorious truth- THE MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST'S RISEN LIFE IN THE SOUL OF A CHILD OF GOD. The apostle, in the following passage, places in beautiful and striking contrast the two opposite elements of the Christian character- the death and the life. "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." That there is a literal signification which we are to attach to the "dying of the Lord Jesus," as it applied to the case of the apostle, there cannot be a doubt. We have shown that the great fact which everywhere, and on all occasions, they asserted, was the resurrection of their Master. If this fact were proved- as proved it was beyond all possibility of doubt- then their argument was a triumphant one, that the religion of Jesus was no fable, and that He Himself was no impostor. But when, in place of confuting this doctrine by argument, and disproving this fact by evidence, the Sanhedrin strove by violence, persecution, and cruelty, to silence the propagators of this statement, was it not naturally to be inferred that they knew the falsehood of their own account, though unwilling to admit the truth of the apostles? In vain did they endeavor, by stripes, and imprisonments, and torture, to compel the apostles to "speak no more in His name;" in vain did they substitute power for proof, and cruelty for argument; undaunted and undismayed they girded themselves to their work, "and with great power gave they witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus."

Now the "bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus," in its literal acceptation of the words, consisted of the persecutions to which the apostles submitted in defense of the doctrine which they so firmly believed and so zealously preached. And was this, we ask, no evidence of the truth of the fact which they affirmed? Would they have submitted to the scorn and the ridicule, to the persecution and the suffering, which they endured, had they been conscious that they were propagating a falsehood, and were palming a deceit upon the world? There is a limit to enthusiasm. There is a line, beyond which an impostor dares not pass. But the apostles, in "taking joyfully the spoiling of their goods," in cheerfully exposing themselves to peril and to death for the sake of the doctrine which they affirmed, demonstrated their own belief that Jesus was alive; and their believing that He was alive, was no small proof that He actually lived.

But the "bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus" has a deeper meaning than this. We are not to restrict its experience to the early and suffering days of Christianity, nor its meaning to that scathed and scarred appearance of the earthly tabernacle, to which Paul, in another place, thus touchingly alludes: "From henceforth let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Every truly regenerate individual bears about with him the "marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus." "You are dead," says the apostle; and again, "Our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed." And when thus the flesh is crucified, with its affections and lusts, and the redeemed body is presented to God a living sacrifice upon the altar of a holy and filial obedience, then most spiritually, most emphatically is it true of us, "always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus."

But turn we now to the contemplation of the glorious truth which the Holy Spirit has placed in soothing contrast with this: "That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." The one great fact of which the believing soul needs to be assured, is that Jesus lives. Convince him that Christ is risen, that He is alive at the right hand of God, and you have supplied a mighty lever, which raises him above the deepest agitations, changes, trials, and conflicts of this mortal life. But oh, who can assure him of this, but the living Savior Himself? and who can enable him to press it to his heart as a personal truth, but the Holy Spirit, the great testifier of Christ, and the witness of the soul?

NOW IN WHAT POINTS OF VIEW IS THE LIFE OF JESUS MANIFEST IN THE SAINTS?

In the first place, their conversion to God is a convincing and precious evidence that Jesus is alive. In the regeneration wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit, the life of Jesus is imparted. He breathes into the soul morally dead the breath of life, and it becomes a living soul. Until, in the exercise of His distinct office, this Divine Person of the adorable Trinity convinces of sin, quickens and brings the soul to Christ for acceptance, risen with Christ although that soul mystically is, it yet remains totally dead to, and insensible of, its great privilege, an utter stranger to that new life which springs from oneness with the "second Adam." The new nature which the eternal Spirit now imparts is nothing less than the creation of the life of Christ in the soul; yes, even more than this, it is the bringing of Christ Himself into the soul to dwell there the "hope of glory" through time, and glory itself through eternity.

Here, then, is an evidence that Jesus is alive, to the renewed mind the most convincing and precious. Thus quickened by the Eternal Spirit of God, believers become temples of Christ. Jesus lives in them. "I in them." "If Christ be in you, the body is dead," "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him." "Know you not that Christ is in you?" "Christ lives in me." "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." "Christ in you the hope of glory." Thus every believer is a living witness that Jesus is alive, because He bears about with Him the very life of Jesus. By the indwelling of the Spirit, and realized by faith, Christ abides in the believer, and the believer abides in Christ. "I in them, and You in me, that they may be made perfect in one; that they also may be one in us."

We have already stated that this glorious entrance of Christ within the soul transpires at the period of the new birth. What, then, is every new conversion, every fresh trophy of redeeming grace, but a new manifestation to the universe of the life of Jesus? Contemplate the spectacle! I see the sinner pursuing his mad career of folly, rebellion, and guilt. He is, perhaps, a blasphemer- a sceptic- a sensualist- a lover of pleasure- a hater of God, and a despiser of the Lord Jesus. Suddenly he is arrested. I see him bowed to the earth, his heart broken with sorrow, his spirit crushed beneath the burden of sin. He smites upon his breast; he acknowledges his transgression, confesses his iniquity, deplores it in the dust. Presently I see him lift his eye and rest it upon the bleeding Savior- he gazes, wonders, believes, adores- is saved! By whom is this miracle of grace wrought? The Spirit has descended to testify that Jesus is alive. That newly-converted soul, so lately dead in sins, but now quickened with Christ; that sinner but recently dwelling among the tombs, whom no human power could tame, now sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind- demonstrates that Christ is in heaven, and is alive for evermore. Oh, it is the heaven-descending life of Jesus! It is, so to speak, a second incarnation of the Son of God, assuming, as it were, another tabernacle of flesh, investing Himself with another veil of mortality. Show me, then, a soul just passed from death unto life, and I will show you an evidence that Jesus is alive at the right-hand of God.

But not only is Jesus the actual, but He is also the relative, life of the believer- the life of his pardon and acceptance. See it in reference to the blood of Emmanuel. It is the blood of Him who was essential life. And, although springing from His pure humanity, essential life gave it all its virtue and its power. The resurrection of Jesus confirmed forever the infinite value and sovereign efficacy of His atoning blood. Oh what virtue has it now, flowing from the life of Jesus! It has removed transgression to the distance of infinity, and to the duration of eternity, from the Church. Washed whiter than snow, all iniquity forgiven, all sin blotted out, the believer stands before God a pardoned soul. And oh! what life does he find in the constant application to his conscience of the atoning blood! One drop, what peace does it give! what confidence does it inspire! what vigor does it impart to faith, and power to prayer, and cheerfulness to obedience! Oh, it is living blood. He who spilt it, lives to plead it- lives to apply it- lives to sustain its virtue, until there shall be no more sins to cancel, and no more sinners to save. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin," and "speaks better things than the blood of Abel," because it possesses undying life. Behold, then, beloved, how manifestly is Jesus the life of your pardon. Oh! as fresh, as efficacious, as precious is that blood at this moment, as when it sprang warm and gushing from the pierced side of the glorious Redeemer. It is life-giving and life-sustaining blood. Here we see the antitype of the "living bird dipped in the blood of the bird slain," and then allowed to go free, suspended mid-heaven upon the wing of unrestricted and joyous life. As the living bird bore upon its plumage the crimson symbol of atonement- death and life thus strangely blended- what was the glorious gospel truth it shadowed forth, but the close and indissoluble union of the pardoning blood with the resurrection life of our incarnate God? And, O believer! lose not sight of the deep significance of the "running water" over which the bird was slain. That flowing stream was the image of the perpetual life of the blood of Jesus. And it bids you, in language too expressive to misunderstand, and too persuasive to resist, to draw near and wash. Glorious truth that it teaches! Precious privilege that it enforces! the repeated, the perpetual going to Emmanuel's atoning, life-giving, life-sustaining blood, thus keeping the conscience clean and at peace with God. My beloved reader, no experimental and practical truth does this work enforce of greater moment, of more precious nature, and more closely interwoven with your happy, holy walk, than this. Your peace of mind- your confidence in God- your thirsting for holiness- your filial access- your support in the deepest trial- spring from your soul's constant repose beneath the cross. What is your present case? what is the sin that wounds your spirit? what the guilt that burdens your conscience? what the grief that bows your heart? what the fearfulness and trembling that agitate and rock your mind? what gives you anxious days and sleepless nights? See yonder stream! It is crimson, It is flowing, It is vivifying with the life-blood of Jesus. Repair to it by faith. Go now- go at this moment.

Have you gone before? go yet again. Have you bathed in it once? bathe in it yet again. See I it is a "running stream." Cast your sin, your guilt, your burden, your sorrow upon its bosom; it shall bear them away, never, never more to be found. Oh deal closely with the atoning, life-giving blood! Were I here to end my task, penning not another sentence, this should be its closing one- deal closely, constantly, believingly with Emmanuel's blood. When you do rise in the morning, and when you do lie down at night- wash in the blood. When you go to duties, and when you come from duties- wash in the blood. When your deepest sigh has been heaved, when your holiest tear bas been shed, when your most humbling confession has been made, when your sincerest resolution has been formed, when your holiest covenant has been renewed, when body, soul, and spirit have again been fully, freely, unreservedly dedicated- wash in the blood. When you draw near to the holy Lord God, and spread out your case before Him- plead the blood. When Satan accuses, and conscience condemns, and death terrifies, and judgment alarms- flee to the blood. Oh! nothing but the atoning blood of the spotless Lamb, gives you acceptance at any moment with God. And this, at any moment, will conduct you into the secret chamber of His presence, and bow His ear and heart to your faintest whisper, and to your deepest need.

Christ is equally the life of the righteousness that justifies. He was "raised again," or restored to life, for our justification." The believer stands before God in the righteousness of the living Head. The resurrection from the dead was God's acknowledgment of the perfection, and His full acceptance of the obedience of His dear Son, as the basis of His people's justification. By this stupendous act of His power and glory, He proclaimed the eternal acquittal of His Church. Never did the work of our great Surety appear so complete; never did the robe of righteousness, wrought by His life of obedience, and steeped in His own blood upon the cross, appear so truly Divine, so glistening with beauty, as when He broke the scepter of death, and rose, resplendent with living glory, from the tomb- "the Lord our righteousness."

Here is a truth, the vastness of which is only equaled by its unspeakable preciousness. The Lord Jesus is the life of our acceptance with God. We stand as believers in the righteousness of the living Head. Within the veil He has entered, "now to appear in the presence of God for us," presenting all His people each moment complete in Himself. It is a present justification. "You are complete in Him."

"Accepted in the Beloved." "Justified from all things." Perfection in himself, the enlightened soul utterly repudiates. Completeness in anything that he is, or has done, he totally rejects. Incomplete his deepest repentance- incomplete his strongest faith- incomplete his best obedience- incomplete his most costly sacrifice- low in the lowest dust does he lay himself. Too low he cannot think of himself- too little he cannot be in his own eyes. Language fails to express the deep self-loathing and sin-abhorrence of his soul. But, lo! a voice is heard- oh, it falls upon his ear like the music of the spheres: "you are complete in Him." In one moment all is peace! The believing soul ceases from his works- the weary spirit enters into rest, because, believing, it enters into Jesus. In Christ he now stands complete. His pardon complete- his justification complete- his adoption complete- his whole person complete before the holy God! Is not this a great truth? And is it not a glorious one? Where is the doctrine that exceeds it? Where is the declaration that has in it such life as this? Dear reader, it may be you have long been looking at yourself for some one thing complete. Something- in your judgment you may reject the thought, yet in your heart there is that principle which has been looking for something in yourself to commend you to God- something to make you more acceptable to, more welcome by, Him. But behold where your completeness is found- in, and solely in, Christ. Oh precious truth! A poor, vile sinner, standing before the holy God, complete in righteousness, the object of His infinite love and delight, over whom He rejoices with singing! Oh, how Divine, how finished, and how glorious must that righteousness be which so covers your soul as to present you before the God of immaculate purity, "without a spot, or a wrinkle, or any such thing!"

Behold, too, as a result of this blessed truth, THE ETERNAL SECURITY OF THE WEAKEST BELIEVER IN JESUS. The act of justification once passed under the great seal of the resurrection of Christ, God can never revoke without denying Himself. Here is our safety. Here is the ground of our dauntless challenge- "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? it is God that justifies." What can I need more? What more can I ask? If God, the God of spotless purity, the God of inflexible righteousness, justifies me, who is he that condemns? Sin may condemn, but "it is God that justifies!" The law may alarm, but "it is God that justifies!" Satan may accuse, but "it is God that justifies!" Death may terrify, but "it is God that justifies!" Then, "if

God be for us, who can be against us?" Who will dare to condemn the soul whom He justifies? How gloriously will this truth shine forth in the great day of judgment! Every accuser will then be dumb. Every tongue will then be silent. Nothing tending eternally to condemn, shall be laid to the charge of God's elect. God Himself shall pronounce them fully justified and forever saved: "For whom He justifies, them He also glorifies." All this is confirmed to us by the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

And what is the life of faith which the believer lives, but a manifestation of the life of the Lord Jesus? The highest, the holiest, the happiest life lived below, is the life of faith. But nature contributes nothing to this life. It comes from a higher source. It is supernatural- it is opposed to nature. It springs from the life "hidden with Christ in God." "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." Here is a glorious manifestation of the life of Jesus. It is not he that lives- "not I," but Christ in him- "Christ lives in me." If we desire any evidence that Jesus is risen, that He is alive again, and that He is the life of the soul, here it is! See the faith of the child of God sifted as wheat, yet not one grain falling to the ground. Tried as gold, yet not one particle lost. Severely tempted, but never failing. Though in the flame, yet never consumed. And why? Because Christ lives in the soul. The living Christ is there, guarding his wheat, watching his gold, strengthening, feeding, nourishing, sustaining that faith, but for which it must fail, be consumed, and die. Dear believer! your faith may be sharply tempted, severely tried- tried by Satan- tried by strong corruption- tried by adversity- tried by straitened circumstances, but never, never shall it quite fail, for Jesus lives in you, and lives in you forever! Oh blessed trial of faith, that manifests in, and endears to you, the life of Jesus! It is the precious trial of "precious faith," -a faith which, the more deeply it is tried, the more deeply it manifests the risen life of its Divine "Author and Finisher."

And what, too, are all the supports of the believer in seasons of trial, suffering, and bereavement, but so many manifestations of the life of the Lord Jesus? Thus was it exemplified in the case of the apostles. "We are troubled on every side," says Paul, "yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." In another place, alluding to their sufferings, the apostle says, "I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed unto death: for we are made a spectacle (margin, we are made a theater) unto the world, and to angels, and to men." Theirs was no smooth and flowery, but a rugged and a thorny, way to God. They passed through the baptism of fire to glory. They fought their way to their thrones through the martyr's tribulations. But what to them were ignominy and suffering? What to them were the malice and the fury of their persecutors, hemming them in on every side, and confronting them at every step? What to them were the torture, which stretched the limb and tore the nerve- the famine, which wasted the body's strength, and dimmed the eye's luster- the imprisonment, which wore away the elasticity of the spirit- and the death of long and lingering agony, which wrenched the soul from its framework of flesh? They shrunk not, they murmured not, they fled not, for Christ was living in them. Why should they be depressed, or why yield to despair? They knew their Lord was risen, that He was alive, and was at the right hand of God, upon the throne. They knew that their life was bound up with His. They felt that Jesus was pouring forth each moment from the ocean-fulness of His own risen life, perpetual streams of existence into theirs; and that if, on the one hand, they were troubled, yet, on the other, they were not in distress; if perplexed, they yielded not to despair; if persecuted, they felt they were not forsaken; if cast down, they knew they were not destroyed; because they were conscious that, while bearing about in their bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus, the life also of Jesus was manifest in those bodies.

From the apostles we turn to the Church of God. What is our path to glory, but the path of trial, of tribulation, of suffering, and of death? Our Lord and Master, in the expression of His wisdom and love, forewarns us of this. "In the world you shall have tribulation." And His apostles but echo the same sentiment when they affirm that it is "through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom." But the life of our risen Lord is daily manifested in us. This it is, and this only, that keeps the soul buoyant amid the billows, strong in faith, joyful in hope, soaring in love. Thus is Jesus the life of every grace, the life of every promise, the life of every ordinance, the life of every blessing: yes, of all that is really costly and precious to the child of God. Jesus is the substance, the glory, the sweetness, the fragrance, yes, the very life itself. Oh! dark and lonely, desolate and painful, indeed, would our present pilgrimage be, but for Jesus. If in the world we have tribulation, in whom have we peace? In Jesus! If in the creature we meet with fickleness and change, in whom find we the Friend that loves at all times? In Jesus! If in the wilderness the well is exhausted, and the stream is dried, and the gourd withers, in whom find we an ever-flowing fountain, and an ever-grateful and out-spreading shade? In Jesus! When adversity comes as a wintry blast and lays low our comforts, when the cloud is upon our tabernacle, when health, and wealth, and distinction, and influence, and friends are gone, in whom do we find the covert from the wind, the faithful, tender Brother born for adversity? In Jesus! When temptation assails, when care darkens, when trial oppresses, when bereavement wounds, when heart and flesh are failing, who throws around us the protecting shield, who applies the precious promise, who speaks the soothing word, who sustains the sinking spirit, who heals the sorrow and dries the tear? Jesus! When sin struggles in the heart, and guilt burdens the conscience, and unbelief beclouds the mind, whose grace subdues our iniquities, whose blood gives us peace, and whose light dispels our darkness? Jesus'! And when the spark of life wanes, and the eye grows dim, and the pulse grows feeble, and the heart's-blood congeals, and the mind wanders, and the soul, severing its last fetter, mounts and soars away- who, in that awful moment, draws near in unseen form, and whispers in words unheard by all but the departing one, now in close communion with the realities of the invisible world- "Fear not, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whoever loves and believes in me shall never die?" Still, it is Jesus!

From this subject MANY SANCTIFYING, PRACTICAL, AND CONSOLATORY LESSONS are deducible. Is Jesus alive? then the saints of God are a risen people. What a glorious character is theirs! Mystically they are risen with Christ from the tomb, and spiritually they are risen from the grave of death and sin to newness of life. One of the most fruitful causes of a feeble Christianity is the low estimate the believer forms of his spiritual character. Were this higher, were it more proportioned to our real standing, our responsibility would appear in a more solemn light, our sense of obligation would be deeper, and practical holiness of a high order would be our more constant aim. Ours is a glorious and exalted life. Our standing is higher, infinitely higher than the highest angel- our glory infinitely greater than the most glorious seraph. "Christ is our life." "We are risen with Christ." By this we are declared to be a chosen, an adopted, a pardoned, a justified, and a quickened people. This is our present state- this our present character. We bear about with us the life of God in our souls. As Jesus bore about in His lowly, suffering, tempted, and tried humanity, the hidden, essential life, so we, in these frail, sinful, bruised, dying bodies, enshrine the life derived from the risen Head, the hidden life concealed with Christ in God. What an exalted character, what a holy one, then, is the believer in Jesus! Herein lie his true dignity and his real wealth- it is that he is a partaker of a Divine nature, that he is one with his risen Lord. All other distinctions in comparison vanish into insignificance, and all other glory fades and melts away. Poor he maybe in this world, yet is he rich in faith, and an heir of the kingdom, for he has Christ. Rich he may be in this world, titled and exalted, yet if Christ is in his heart, that heart is deeply sensible of its native poverty, is lowly, child-like, Christ-like.

If this is our exalted character, then how great our responsibilities, and how solemn our obligations! The life we now live in the flesh is to be an elevated, a risen, a heavenly life. "If you are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." What is the holy state here enjoined? Heavenly-mindedness. On what ground is it enforced? Our resurrection with Christ. As a risen people, how heavenly-minded, then, ought we to be! How sickly does any other state comport with our new and hidden life! How incompatible and incongruous do groveling pursuits, and carnal joys, and earthly ambitions appear, with a life professedly one and risen with the incarnate God! But even here much heavenly wisdom is needed to guide in the narrow and difficult way. To go out of the world- to become as a detached cipher of the human family- to assume the character, even in approximation, of the religious recluse- the Gospel nowhere enjoins. To relinquish our secular calling, unless summoned by God to a higher and more spiritual service in the Church, to relax our diligence in our lawful business, to be indifferent to our personal interests and responsibilities, to neglect our temporal concerns, and to be regardless of the relative claims which are binding upon us, are sacrifices which a loyal attachment to our heavenly King does not necessarily demand; and if assumed, are self-inflicted; and if made, must prove injurious to ourselves, and displeasing to God.

But to be heavenly-minded, in the true and scriptural sense, is to carry our holy Christianity into every department of life, and with it to elevate and hallow every relation and engagement. There is no position in which the providence of God places His saints, for which the grace of Jesus is not all-sufficient, if sincerely and earnestly sought. The statesman in the cabinet, the legislator in the senate house, the professor in the chair, the magistrate upon the bench, the warrior in the camp, the seaman upon the deck, may maintain, even amid circumstances the most unfavorable and hostile, a high degree of heavenly-mindedness, and may bear a holy and uncompromising testimony for God and for Christ. Nor is there any sphere, however humble, nor calling, however lowly, to which the life of Jesus in the soul may not impart dignity, luster, and sacredness. Christianity through all grades, and classes, and occupations, is capable of diffusing a Divine, hallowing, and ennobling influence, transforming and sanctifying all that it touches. Blessed and holy are they who know it from personal and heartfelt experience!

But "if we are risen with Christ," what is it to seek those things which are above, and to set our affections not on things on the earth? In other words, what is true heavenly-mindedness? It involves, in the first place, habitual and close converse with God. Upon no other terms can this spiritual state be maintained. The life of the soul can only be sustained by constant and ceaseless emanations from the life of God. There must be a perpetual stream of existence flowing into it from the "Fountain of life." And how can this be experienced but by dwelling near that Fountain? Of no practical truth am I more deeply and solemnly convinced than this, that elevated spirituality, (and oh, what a blank is life apart from it!), can only be cultivated and maintained by elevated communion. The most holy, heavenly minded, devoted, and useful saints have ever been men and women of much prayer. They wrestled with God secretly, and God wrought by them openly; and this was the source which fed their deep godliness, which supplied their rich anointing, and which contributed to their extensive and successful labors for Christ. Thus only can the life of God in the soul of man be sustained. Such is the mighty evil by which this indwelling principle is begirt, and such the hostile influences by which its every development is assailed, it is quite impossible that a plant so heavenly and divine, embedded in a soul so earthly and uncongenial, can thrive but as it dwells in its own atmosphere- the atmosphere of close communion with God. How stands your soul, concerning this holy and practical truth, my reader? Perhaps you are at the head of a family whose claims draw largely upon your time, your sympathies, and your thoughts. Perhaps you are a man of business, deeply immersed in this world's lawful, yet low and deadening cares. Perhaps you are placed upon 'a pinnacle of the temple,' occupying some post of distinction and honor in the Church of God! one of its builders, zealously laboring upon the external parts of the structure; or the man of societies and committees, living in the meridian of a controversial, exciting, and bustling Christianity. Has the thought ever crossed your mind, that you may all the while be living in sad and awful neglect of secret, close, and real fellowship with your Father? that you may be almost a stranger to closet prayer, closet wrestling, closet transaction with God? It is quite possible that this may be so. Your family, your business, your profession, even what you would term your religious engagements, may crowd the religion of your soul into the smallest compass of time. Oh do not think that spirituality of mind, even in an ordinary degree, can thus be sustained or promoted! Do not marvel at the difficulty you find in maintaining even the holy spark alive. Do not wonder at the little real delight you take in drawing near to God- at the growing distaste you find for spiritual duties- at the little life that breathes in your prayers- at the lack of power and sweetness in the ministry of the word- at the greater preponderance of your mind and affections to the things that are earthly and sensual. But return to prayer- return with earnestness, with real desire for more heavenly-mindedness, for more true and close walking with God, and God will return to you. Return to ejaculatory prayer- to closet prayer- to family prayer- to social prayer- return but to PRAYER! The way of your return is open- it is a "new and a living way," sprinkled with the reconciling blood of the great High Priest, now alive upon His throne, and leading into the holiest. And the moment you turn your face towards God, you shall find His face turned towards you. Let nothing then rob you of this precious means of advancing your heavenly-mindedness- nothing can be its substitute. Other duties- however spiritual- other enjoyments- however holy- other means of grace- however important and necessary- never can supply the place of prayer. And why? because prayer brings the soul into immediate contact with Christ, who is our life, and with God, the Fountain of life. Exclude all air from the body, and it would soon cease to exist. Shut out all prayer from your soul, and how can you expect to maintain its Divine life, vigorous and healthy? As the total absence of the breath of prayer marks the soul "dead in trespasses and in sin;" so the waning of the spirit of prayer in the quickened soul as surely defines a state in which all that is spiritual within seems "ready to die."

Another means of increasing and promoting eminent spirituality of mind, is a diligent and prayerful reading of God's holy word. This, we fear, is not an element in the Christianity of the many. It defines a duty sadly, and to a great extent, neglected. The tendency of the age is to substitute the writings of man for the book of God. Let them come but with the robe of religion gracefully thrown around them, and whether they assume the form of history, or story, or song, they are devoured by the professing multitude, who would deem their true spirituality unquestionable! But the Divine life of the soul is not to be fed and nourished by the profound discoveries of science, or the recondite axioms of philosophy, or the brilliant flowers of genius, or the dreams of a poetical imagination. It ascends to a higher and a diviner Source; it aspires towards the nourishment of its native climate. The bread that comes down from heaven, and the water that flows, pure as crystal, from beneath the throne of God and the Lamb, can alone feed, and nourish, and refresh this hidden principle. Jesus is its sustenance; and the Gospel, as it unfolds Him in His glory and grace, is the spiritual granary from where its daily food is drawn. To this it repairs, oftentimes pressed with hunger, or panting with thirst, weary and exhausted, drooping and faint, and it finds its doctrines and its precepts, its promises and its admonitions, its exhortations and revelations, a "feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees: of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined." And thus refreshed and satisfied, the grateful soul adoringly exclaims, "Your words were found, and I did eat them; and Your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." Truly did Jesus testify, "Verily, verily I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you;" evidently and solemnly implying that if there exists no appetite for spiritual food, there is lacking the great evidence of the life of God in the soul. A mere semblance of life, an informed judgment, a "fair show" of religion in the flesh," can content itself with anything short of the spiritual nourishment contained in God's word. A ministry without Christ, without unction, without power, and without profit; the duty and the day rigidly observed without spirit and without sweetness; the monthly periodical, the religious story, the drawing room exposition, may seem to feed the lamp of mere profession, can keep alive the "form of godliness," and satisfy a soul utterly destitute of its "power." But the Divine life of a quickened soul, while it disdains no auxiliary to its spiritual advance, can yet feed on nothing but Divine food. The "flesh and the blood" of Emmanuel can alone meet and satiate its hungering and thirsting. It is from heaven, and its supply must be heavenly; it is from God, and its nourishment must be Divine. Jesus, and Jesus alone, received into the heart, rested in, and lived upon by faith, is the food of a believing man. Nothing but Christ- "Christ all" in Himself, and Christ 'in all' means, 'in all' ordinances, I 'in all' channels, 'in all' seasons- sustains a soul whose "life is hidden with Christ in God." Dear reader, do you see the importance and feel the solemnity of this truth? Oh, it is a great and solemn one! Except by faith you "eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man, you have no life in you!" Your mind content with anything as a substitute for this- your faith standing in the wisdom of men- your sacramental observances- your religion of "foods, and drinks, and diverse washings, and carnal ordinances"- your "keeping of days, and months, and times, and years;" or, to use great plainness of speech in a subject so momentous, your past submission to the rite of baptism- your present habitual observance of the Lord's supper- your visible union with the Church of God- all will avail you nothing in the great matter of your soul's salvation without Christ! Does this startle you? Are you alarmed at the discovery? It is, I trust, with the affection and tenderness which the spirit of the Gospel inspires, that I thus address you. Nothing short of Christ- Christ's righteousness, Christ's atonement, Christ's flesh and blood, Christ in us, Christ outside us, Christ risen, Christ alive at the right hand of God, yes, "Christ all and in all," can meet the deep immortal necessities of your soul. You need all that Christ is in the matter of pardon, and justification, and sanctification, and wisdom, and redemption. If anything less than Jesus had sufficed, if an expedient less magnificent, or if an expenditure less costly, had answered for God and man, then less would save you. But since the incarnate God alone is the Savior of a poor, lost sinner, see that you detract not from, or add to, this salvation by any works of human merit. To return to our first observation: be exhorted to an intimate acquaintance with God's holy word, as supplying a powerful help to the progress of the soul in deep spirituality. And if your time for reading is limited, limit it to one book, and let that one book be the bible. Let it be the companion of your hours of solitude; the solace in your seasons of sorrow; the store-house in all your necessities; the man of your counsel in all your doubts and perplexities. Then will your blessed experience resemble that of the Psalmist, "Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You. This is my, comfort in my affliction: for Your word has quickened me. Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. I rejoice in Your word, as one that finds great spoil."

But observe the exhortation, in connection with the precept, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." How solemn and full of meaning are these words! To set the affections on heavenly things, is to realize the ardent desire of the apostle, that he might "know Christ and the power of His resurrection." Oh, there is a mighty, elevating power in the resurrection of Christ! It is the great lever to a child of God, lifting him above earth, heavenward. To know that he is closely and inseparably one with the risen Head of the Church, is to be the subject of a continuous quickening influence, which in spirit raises him from the dust, and the darkness, and the pollutions by which he is surrounded; fixing the affections with greater ardency of devotion and supreme attachment on things above. Oh, nothing will more sanctify and elevate our hearts, than to have them brought under the "power of Christ's resurrection." Following Him by faith, from the dust of earth to the glory of heaven, the affections will ascend with their Beloved. Where He is, the heart's most precious treasure- there it will be also. And oh, to have the heart with Christ in heaven, what an unspeakable mercy! And why should it not be? Has earth more that is attractive, and lovely, and holy, and worthy of its affection, than heaven? Here, we are encircled by, and combat with, spirits of darkness and pollution, principalities and powers- there, is "an innumerable company of angels." Here, we are much separated from the Church of God- there, is the "general assembly and Church of the first-born," from whom nothing shall divide us. Here, the Divine presence is often withdrawn, and we are taunted and accused by our foes- there, is "God the judge of all," whose presence will be our eternal glory, and who will "bring forth our righteousness as the light, and our judgment as the noon-day." Here, we often hang our heads in sorrow, at the imperfections we mark in the saints, there, are the "spirits of just men made perfect," "without fault before the throne." Here, we often lose sight of our beloved Lord- there, is "Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant," never more to be veiled from our view. Oh, then, how much richer and more attractive is heaven than earth, to a renewed and holy mind, each moment growing richer and more attractive, by the accession to its numbers of those, the holy and loved ones of the earth, who have for a little while preceded us to that world of perfect bliss! Our treasure in glory, how rapidly it accumulates! Death, which impoverishes us here by snatching from our embrace the objects of our love, by that same act augments our riches in heaven, into the full possession and enjoyment of which it will, in its appointed time, beneficently translate us. But the sweetest, the most powerful attraction of heaven, let us never forget, is, that Jesus is there. Ah! what would heaven be, were He absent? Could we, at this moment, rush into the fond embrace of the dearest of the glorified ones, and meet not the "Chief among ten thousands, the altogether lovely One," who on earth was more precious to our hearts than life itself, oh, how soon would its glory fade from our eye; and its music pall upon our ear! It would cease to be heaven without Christ. Even on earth His presence and His smile constitute the first dawnings of that better world. And he who lives most in the enjoyment of this- and oh, bow much more may be enjoyed than we have the faintest conception of- has most of the element of heaven in his soul. Aim, then, to cultivate heavenly affections, by a life of high communion with God.

But there is also a prohibition. "Set your affection not on things on the earth." It is not the design or tendency of the Gospel, to destroy or impair any single class of those human affections which God has created. On the contrary, it recognizes, encourages, and strengthens them all. He is the fondest parent, the most dutiful child, the most faithful servant, the sincerest friend, the best citizen, whose affections are sanctified and regulated by the hallowing influence of the Gospel of Christ. It is the Gospel, experienced in the heart, that alone gives tone, elevation, and security to the conjugal, the parental, and the filial relation, defining and enforcing the duties of each. It is worthy of remark, that in the identical chapter which declares the believer risen with Christ, and which exhorts him to consequent heavenly-mindedness, some of the precepts to which we have referred are thus strikingly portrayed, and earnestly enforced- "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things; for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that you also have a Master in heaven." Thus the weighty precepts of God are closely interwoven with the most sublime doctrines of His word.

And yet there is much solemn meaning in the prohibition, "Set not your affection on things on the earth," worthy of our deepest consideration. The circle it embraces is a wide one. It includes every earthly object tending to injure and impair the heavenly-mindedness of him who is mystically and spiritually risen with Christ. That was a solemn charge which, with tears, the holy apostle alleged against some of the primitive professors- "who mind earthly things." Against the sin with which they were chargeable, and which rendered their Christianity of so doubtful a character, he warns the Colossians, in the passage before us, "Set not your affection on things on the earth." The prohibition includes creatures, riches, honors, pleasures, yes, every earthly object that would be a substitute for Christ- everything that would render Him less glorious to the eye, less precious to the soul, less an object of the heart's holiest, fondest, and supreme affection. Oh, many a mother has taken the little flower God has intrusted to her, and placing it in her bosom, has been so elated with its beauty and its fragrance, as to forget the "Rose of Sharon," the "Lily of the valley." Her affections have been inordinately set upon an earthly object- her love to Jesus has, in consequence, waned. Her zeal for His glory has cooled; her walk with God has been less intimate. She has followed her Lord afar off; the means of grace have been neglected- her child has come between her soul and Christ, and presently He has transferred it from her bosom to His own. He has blighted the mercy that tended to supplant in her holy affections the God of the mercy.

Delicate as is the subject, and needing as it does to be treated with a tender and skillful hand, we nevertheless must allude to that undue, idolatrous, if not superstitious, attachment to, and reverence for, Christian ministers by churches and by individuals, which, we think, comes within the scope of this prohibition, the existence and growing extent of which demand a prompt and effectual check. The office of the Christian ministry is strangely misunderstood at the present time. By one part of the professing Church, the Christian minister is all but deified; and by another part, he is all but crucified. By the one he is exalted into the place of God; so that multitudes, in the blindness of their superstitious attachment, worship him as God; by the other, his office is altogether denied, and his dignity, authority, and instructions are cast out of the Church, to be trodden under foot by men. Fearful extremes are these! And yet, both at this moment to an alarming extent exist. Who will be found tenderly, yet earnestly and faithfully, to lift up his voice against them, for the Lord's sake? May not a slight investigation of God's holy word bearing upon this subject, clearly point out the middle and the better path between these opposite and dangerous points of opinion, which at the present time threaten, and even already are working, the greatest evil to the Church of God?

In turning, then, "to the law and to the testimony," we find that there exists in the Church of Christ the office of the Christian ministry, having its appointment from Christ Himself, the great Head of the Church: "And Jesus spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go you, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you aways, even unto the end of the world." Again: "And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry." This high commission, which no man, nor body of men, can confer, every minister of the Gospel bears, whom the Holy Spirit has called to the work, and who "goes forth, preaching everywhere, the Lord working with him." Let no man, at his peril, deny his office, or despise his work. The ministerial character is described: "A bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." They are to be thus recognized by the saints: "Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God." They are to be respected, honored, and loved: "Receive him (Epaphroditus) therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such (margin, honor such) in reputation." "And we beseech you, brethren, to know them who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake." "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine." They are to be especially prayed for, "Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." "Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ." "Brethren, pray for us." Their authority is to be acknowledged, and their word obeyed: "I beseech you, brethren, ... that you submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helps with us, and labors." "For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether you be obedient in all things." "Remember them who have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God." Their temporal necessities are to be amply and cheerfully ministered to by the churches whom they serve- "If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?" (see the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the ninth chapter). "Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teaches in all good things." "The laborer is worthy of his hire." These are some of the statutes of the New Testament, bearing upon the Christian ministry: from them it will appear- that the office is of Divine institution, that it is essential to the existence of a Gospel Church, that it is connected with the discharge of certain functions, and that it is clothed with dignity and authority, which are to be recognized and exercised, not for its own self-aggrandizement, but for the welfare of the saints, and for Christ's honor and glory. On the other hand, equally clear is it, that the Christian ministry possesses essentially no Divine rights of its own, that it confers no spiritual gifts, conveys no spiritual grace, and that it disclaims all superstitious reverence, and rejects all idolatrous attachment and worship from the creature.

With all earnestness and solemnity of feeling we urge the reader to avoid the two extremes of error which we have pointed out, and to which we have thus opposed the word of God. Let him, on the one hand, be careful how he takes a step in sapping the foundation, or in impairing the influence, of an institution which Christ has so distinctly appointed, and so signally blessed. Second to none, but superior to all, as an instrumentality of promulgating truth and of promoting Christ's kingdom in the world, is the Christian Ministry, composed of Divinely called, spiritually taught, and holy men. Dark will be that day, when this holy bulwark of our country, this mighty engine of the truth, this powerful safeguard of virtue, and this distinguished glory of the Church, ceases to occupy that elevated and commanding position assigned to it by the "chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls." In placing yourself in opposition to it, you are not, perhaps, aware that you are allying yourself with the enemies of God and of truth, who reject Christ as a deceiver, who oppose Christianity as a fiction, and who deride the Christian ministry as a system of priestcraft. From such turn away. Have no fellowship with them in these doctrines, not even in appearance. Countenance them not in their attempts to uproot the Divine and hallowed institutions of the New Testament, by holding views inimical to, and destructive of, any one of these institutions. The Church of God has never existed without a holy and a Divinely taught ministry. He who first gave to His Church "apostles and prophets, pastors and teachers," "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ," has never ceased, in all the scenes of persecution and darkness through which she has passed, to replenish, glorify, and comfort her with men after His own heart; thus guarding the high office with a jealous, sleepless, and loving eye, from all the evil that has ever threatened its overthrow. And so will He ever guard it. In the fierce conflict of mind with mind, of principle with principle, of truth with error, which is fast approaching, no, which even has already begun, the pulpits of our land cannot be dispensed with. This is the field upon which the great battle is to be fought. While a godly press will be found an invaluable and an indispensable barrier against the advancing foe, it is from the pulpit those silver trumpets are to be blown, at whose shrill sound the host of Israel are to gather themselves to "the help of the Lord against the mighty;" and at whose overpowering blast the wall of Antichrist shall fall before Him. Rather than be found, then, in opposition to Christ's ministry, seek, by all scriptural and holy means, to impart to it greater efficiency and strength, praying continually to the "Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth more laborers into His harvest."

On the other hand, seek to divest your mind of all unscriptural, superstitious, and idolatrous views and feelings in reference to the nature and powers of this office. Remember it is but a human instrumentality, possessing no essential, inalienable grace or holiness of its own; that it is an agency, powerful and efficacious only as God the Eternal Spirit makes it so; that the treasure of the everlasting Gospel is in "earthen vessels;" and that "Paul may plant, and Apollos may water," -and this is the utmost limit of their agency- but that God only can give the increase. See, too, that you dishonor not God, nor grieve the Holy Spirit, nor cast reflection upon this sacred office, by refusing the message of God's word from the lips of any of His servants by whom He may send it. Oh! what numbers rob their own souls of vast blessing, and Christ of much glory, by not taking heed to this! They will attend upon sanctuaries where, confessedly, no healing waters flow, and upon ministrations barren of Gospel truth, clothed with no unction, and conveying no blessing, rather than break from fetters which education, or prejudice, or superstition, or habit, have forged, and woven around them, and humbly and earnestly inquire from the Lord, in the spirit and language of the Church of old, "Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, where you feed; where you make your flock to rest at noon?" Were this petition more sincerely and frequently urged, the answer would not long tarry. "O you fairest among women, go your way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed your kids beside the shepherds' tents." Receive it as a word sent from God to your soul, dear reader. It is the Lord's message to you. Go where His Spirit draws you- go where the name of Jesus draws you- go where His glory attracts you- go where His truth invites you- go where His blessing awaits you. It should be to you of but little consideration through what channel, or by what instrument, the Lord feeds your soul, so that He does feed it. The nourishment of God's life within you is of the first and greatest moment. A scrupulous conscience, a prejudiced mind, a contracted heart, may be productive of the greatest injury to your spiritual interest. Of what value will it be, if God gives you your request, by giving you a ministry according to your prescribed order, but sends leanness into your soul? And this He will do- perhaps is now doing- if His word is in any way, directly or indirectly, undervalued, slighted, or refused. Oh, that God may fill your heart with His love- love to Himself- love to His people- love to His truth- and love to His ministers, by whom His truth is proclaimed, by whatever name they may be known among men.

But the evil against which many of the Lord's people need to be tenderly cautioned, and which we think is deprecated by the broad precept, "Set not your affection upon things on the earth," is, that undue exalting of the instrument which we sometimes mark in Christian communities. A Church may so vaunt itself of the talents, the gifts, the attainments, the popularity, and even the success of its pastor, as greatly to detract from the glory of God, grieve the Spirit, and seriously injure both itself and the object of its adulation. How keenly is the spiritual mind pained by the humiliating spectacle of man-worship which sometimes meets the eye! What applauding of human eloquence- what burning of incense at the shrine of human intellect and genius- what vain boasting of profound learning, and brilliant talent, and popular gifts- the mere mint, and anise, and cummin- while the infinitely weightier attributes of a holy, powerful, and useful ministry, are lightly esteemed, if not totally dispensed with! The evils which arise from this vain- glorying in men, and this undue admiration of, and exclusive attachment to, a particular order of ministerial character and fitness, are many and various. We have only space to allude to a solitary one- the painfully depressing effect it produces upon the feelings of other ministers and pastors- men self-taught, of irregular mental training, and lacking, it may be, that intellectual furniture, polish of address, and those graces of elocution, which a university may be supposed to confer; yet, men profound in the Scriptures, mighty in prayer, rich in Christian experience, deeply taught and anointed by the Spirit, partaking largely of the grace of Jesus- the true polish and refinement of a man of God- humble-minded, and eminently successful in winning souls to Christ. That the Church of God is honored and blessed by many such men, is a fact demanding a prompt and most grateful acknowledgment. They are, in some particular departments of labor, the most effective workmen. The Church could ill spare them. Is there not, then, danger of impairing influence that should be jealously guarded, and of wounding feelings that should be tenderly shielded, and of undervaluing an office that should be highly esteemed, by attaching an undue importance to a certain class of gifts and accomplishments, the possession of which has, perhaps, more frequently proved a greater snare than a blessing?

But, even where there exists not this vain boasting in man, may there not be, even in more spiritual communities, a setting of the affections upon the instrument, tending to its undue exaltation, thus entrenching upon the power of the Spirit and the grace and glory of Christ? Oh, it is a lovely and a holy sight, the strong attachment of a pastor and a Church! Earth presents no spectacle of moral beauty surpassing it; and angels, bending from their thrones in heaven, must gaze upon it with new ecstasy and delight. We would not breathe a word, or pen a sentence; tending to mar the symmetry, or shade the beauty, or impair the strength, of such a union. This only would we say- receive him reverently and gratefully, as the Lord's messenger, esteem him very highly in love for his work's sake; yet hold him infinitely subordinate to Christ, and with a loose and gentle grasp. If heavenly-minded, and the channel of blessing to your souls, he is the Lord's gift, and as such only is he to be regarded. All that he possesses, really valuable, is from Jesus- his gifts, his acquirements, his grace, his usefulness, his moral loveliness, and even those minor attractions of person and address- which, if possessed, may, without much holy caution, but strengthen the heart's idolatry, and shade the infinite loveliness of Christ- came from God, are the bestowments of His undeserved mercy, and were intended but to lead you up to Himself, the source from where they proceed. Then lend your ear and yield your heart to the needed exhortation, as it bears upon this point- "Set not your affection on things on the earth." Cherish a devout and grateful spirit for the precious and invaluable gift of a holy, affectionate, and useful minister; but rest not in him short of Jesus. Give to him his proper place in your affections and thoughts- a place infinitely beneath the adorable Son of God, God's "unspeakable gift." He is not his own, nor yours, but the Lord's. And He, whose he is and whom he serves, may, in the exercise of His infinite wisdom, and sovereign will, and, I may add, tender love, suspend for a while his labors, or transfer him to another section of the vineyard, or, which would be most painful, crumble the earthen, though beautiful, vessel to dust, and take the precious treasure it contained to Himself. Still, Christ is all; He is your all; and, as the chief Shepherd and Bishop of His Church, He will never take Himself from her. The happy secret of retaining our mercies is to receive and enjoy Christ in them; to turn every blessing bestowed into an occasion of knowing, and loving, and enjoying more of Jesus, apart from whom, poor indeed were the most costly blessing. Blessed indeed would our blessings then be! Leading our affections up to God; giving us a deeper insight into a Father's love; laying us lower in the dust at His feet; filling the spirit with secret contrition and tender brokenness, the heart with adoring love, the mouth with grateful praise; endearing the channel through which it descends, and the mercy-seat at which it was sought and given; encouraged and stimulated by the gift, to devote person, time, influence, and property, more simply and unreservedly, to the glory of God; then should we keep a longer possession of our sanctified blessing, nor fear the thought, nor shrink from the prospect of its removal; or, if removed, we should be quite satisfied to have God alone as our portion and our all.

Against the love of the world, this holy and stringent precept as solemnly warns the believer. As those who are professedly risen with Christ, but who yet, for a while, dwell in a world of perpetual seduction, how needed, how kind the exhortation! How necessary to be constantly reminded of our risen life! Behold how we are cautioned- "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, io not of the Father, but is of the world." Are you walking in filial obedience to this precept? Oh, as a risen man, love not the world! Let it be to you as a dead thing. Receive them with gratitude, and use them for God's glory, but oh, set not your affections inordinately, exclusively, sinfully, on "things on the earth" -husband, wife, children, wealth, honor, estate, dress, recreation, or whatever is of "the earth, earthly." "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world." You are dead; you are alive. Your death is a death to things below; your life is a life to things above. You are crucified, you are risen. You are professedly crucified to the world; you are mystically risen with Christ; then live as one whose treasure, whose conversation, and whose all is on high, even " where Christ sits at the right hand of God."

The resurrection of Christ is the pledge and earnest of the glorious resurrection of the believer. This great event- the crowning bliss of the Church- has long been as a star of hope, on which the eye of faith has loved to gaze. Patriarchs, and prophets, and apostles, sang, and spoke, and wrote of it. Who does not recognize the doctrine of the resurrection, and trace the yearning of his soul for this glorious event, in the expressive and touching words of Job, "There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant." How strikingly and beautifully significant is this figure of the resurrection! His faith grafted upon the doctrine, see how his heart longed for the arrival of the event- "Oh that You would hide me in the grave, that You would keep me secret until Your wrath be past; that You would appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time (not the appointed time of his death, as some interpret it, but of his resurrection, for this is the event he is now anticipating) will I wait until my change come. You shall call, (oh! how sweetly will fall the sound of the archangel's trump upon the ear of those who sleep in Jesus!) and I will answer: You will have a desire to the work of Your hands." But if possible, in terms yet more distinct and glowing, the holy patriarch announces his faith in this doctrine, and expresses his ardent longing for this event, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me," (marg. my reins within me are consumed with earnest desire for that day). How clearly does the prophet Isaiah enunciate the doctrine- "Your dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise!" or, as it has been more properly rendered, "Your dead men shall live," alluding to the Church's dead- "my dead body shall rise," Christ here being the speaker, and referring to His mystical body, whom He has promised to raise at the last day. "Awake and sing, you that dwell in dust; for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." But our limits forbid any lengthened quotation from God's word, establishing this doctrine. We must rather assume than prove its existence. The hope to which the resurrection of the Lord has begotten the believer, is termed by the apostle a "lively," or, as it may be rendered, a "living hope." Its life springs from the resurrection-life of Christ, just as the same glorious event imparts quickening to the whole Christian economy. "Blessed be the God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Thus the believer, and he alone, can adopt the language of his Lord, as he resigns his body to the dust- and oh! let it be the epitaph of all who sleep in Jesus- "my flesh also shall rest in hope." A living hope, based upon the resurrection of Jesus, smooths his suffering pathway to the tomb; hope dissipates its gloom, and kindles within its somber recesses an immortal radiance; and hope- the Pharos of the sepulcher- throws its bright beams across the dark waters of eternity, revealing in all its glory an "inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away." "Oh yes!" may every slumbering believer exclaim, "my flesh shall rest in hope of a glorious resurrection to eternal life." Observe how closely the two events- the resurrection of Jesus, and that of the believer- are interwoven the one with the other. "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of those who slept." "Every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward those who are Christ's at His coming." What was the meaning of the first sheaf, which, under the law, was commanded to be presented before the Lord in His temple? Was it not to be considered as an earnest, a pledge, and a pattern of the future harvest, ripening for the sickle? So was the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead! In like manner He burst from the grave, the "first-fruits," the earnest, the pledge, and the pattern of a future and a glorious harvest. As surely as He rose, so surely shall all His people rise. As certainly as the first golden sheaf has been presented in the temple, and waved before the throne of God, as certainly shall the "blade, the ear, and the full corn in the ear," be sickled in, and gathered home, "and not the least grain fall upon the earth."

"But how are the dead raised up?" That there is much of sublime mystery associated with this event, we readily admit. But its very mystery endears Him to the soul "who has abolished death (or, rendered it of none effect) and has brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel." Thus is this mystery explained: "It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep; but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised in corruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." Yes, this very body, as much redeemed by the precious blood of the incarnate God as the deathless principle it enshrines, shall rise again! And by what power? The power of Omnipotence! "He that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you." Every entombed saint of God is an entombed temple of the Holy Spirit. Think of this, and tread lightly, as you carry it to the grave. You bear a temple of the Holy Spirit! Precious is the dust, and hallowed the urn that contains it. And shall that temple lie in ruins forever? God forbid! Oh, it is a mighty and a glorious work, to resuscitate, remold, and re-occupy this dilapidated structure! To gather from the four winds of heaven every particle of the scattered dust- to bring bone to its bone, and sinew to its sinew- to invest the reformed skeleton with a covering more soft and delicate than an infant's- to summon back its former occupant- and then to lift it to glory, outliving in its deathlessness the stars of heaven, and outshining in its brilliancy the brightest angel before the throne. Oh, it is a stupendous work! But stupendous as it is, it transcends not in its mightiness the power of God. Oh, we deal too faintly with the almightiness of Jehovah! We limit the power of the Holy One of Israel. Bring but this power to bear upon the doctrine of the resurrection, and all its mystery is explained, and all its difficulty vanishes. On this Divine perfection rested the faith of Abraham, who, in obedience to God's command, bound his son upon the altar, and took the knife to slay him, "believing that God was able to raise him up again, even from the dead." Shall it, then, be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead? The difficulties of summoning together every atom of dust, borne though it may have been by the winds to the furthermost parts of the earth, or strewn upon the waves of the sea- of distinguishing what element belonged to each individual, and appropriating to each his own- of clothing the framework with a new and a deathless nature, and animating it with the same human soul which it contained in the long years of its humiliation, oh, how do they vanish before one touch of Omnipotence! What! shall He who at first formed man out of the dust, and breathed into him the breath of life- shall He at whose fiat world on world started into being, each one, for anything that we know, teeming with a population partaking of His likeness, and sharing in His immortality, shall He who "upholds all things by the word of His power," who "takes up the isles as a very little thing," who "holds the winds in His fist, and the waters in the hollow of His hand," who "has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet," -shall He be perplexed and baffled when He comes to unlock the world's charnel-house, quickening, and summoning to His bar, each slumbering occupant? Oh, it will be a stupendous and a glorious work! but reason and revelation unite in ascribing it to Him as worthy of His infinite greatness, majesty, and glory.

But "with what body do they come?" The identical body that was sown, yet so changed, so spiritualized, so glorified, so immortalized, as to rival in beauty the highest form of spirit, while it shall resemble, in its fashion, the glorious body of Christ Himself. We can form but a faint conception, even from the glowing representation of the apostle, of the glory of the raised body of the just. But this we know, it will be in every respect a structure worthy of the perfected soul that will inhabit it. Now it is the antagonist, and not the auxiliary of the soul- its clog, its prison, its foe. The moment that Jesus condescends to 'grace this mean abode' with His indwelling presence, there commences that fierce and harassing conflict between holiness and sin, which so often wrings the bitter cry from the believer, "Oh wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Oh, what a cumbrance is this body of sin! Its corruptions, its infirmities, its weaknesses, its ailments, its diseases, all conspire to render it the tyrant of the soul, if grace does not keep it under and bring it into subjection as its slave. How often, when the mind would pursue its favorite study, the wearied and overtasked body enfeebles it! How often, when the spirit would expatiate and soar in its contemplations of and in its communings with God, the inferior nature detains it by its weight, or occupies it with its needs! How often, when the soul thirsts for Divine knowledge, and the heart pants for holiness, its highest aspirations and its strongest efforts are discouraged and thwarted by the clinging infirmities of a corrupt and suffering humanity! Not so will it be in the morning of the resurrection. "Then shall this corruptible put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality." Mysterious and glorious change! "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, "the dead in Christ shall awake from their long sleep, and spring from their tombs into a blissful immortality. Oh, how altered! oh, how transformed! oh, how changed! "Sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." "A spiritual body!" Who can imagine, who describe it? What anatomy can explain its mysteries, what pencil can paint its beauties? "A spiritual body!" All the remains, all the vestiges of corrupt matter passed away. "A spiritual body!" So regenerated, so sanctified, so etherealized, so invested with the high and glorious attributes of spirit, yet retaining the 'form and pressure' of matter; that now, sympathizing and blending with the soul in its high employment of obeying the will and chanting the praises of God, it shall rise with it in its lofty soarings, and accompany and aid it in its deep researches in the hidden and sublime mysteries of eternity. "Our conversation is in heaven," -oh that it were always there!- "from where also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who will change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." Then, oh then, shall we be perfectly like Christ. Like Him in the spotless purity of the mind, like Him in the perfect beauty of the body. Transporting thought!

There is yet another view of our subject peculiarly soothing. Have you lately committed to the dust some beloved object of your affection, now sleeping in Jesus? Are you wont to "go unto the grave to weep there?" Oh listen to the voice of Jesus, which proclaims, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Let this declaration chasten your grief, and moderate your sorrow, and dry your tears. The Lord, in the faith of whose finished work His people fall asleep, is their resurrection and their life: and soon the heavens will part, the archangel's trumpet will sound, and He will come again, that He may awake them out of sleep, and then, 'your brother shall arise again.' "And I heard a voice saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord." Ah! blessed and holy indeed are they! for they shall have a "part in the first resurrection, and on them the second death shall have no power, but they shall be kings and priests unto God, and shall reign with Him forever." "I am the resurrection and the life." Precious words! Then, death, where is your sting? and grave, where is your victory? You have none, both are gone, for Jesus has abolished both. "I am the resurrection and the life." Divine and glorious title, Captain of my salvation! Then why, since "through death You have destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil," should I be in bondage through its fear? And why, since You have "died, and risen, and revived," and have declared that he that believes in You, though "he die, yet shall he live," should I shrink from descending into the grave, narrow, and dark, and lonely though it be? Precious Son of God! You are "the resurrection and the life," and because You live, I shall live also!

But there is another resurrection! UNCONVERTED READER, it is yours. Have you ever seriously thought of it? "Those who have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." Poor thoughtless, careless, prayerless, Christless soul! dying in your sins, ah! long before your body rises, your soul will have been a prey to the "worm that dies not," and to the "fire that is never quenched." It will have been years in torment before the body becomes its companion in misery. And when the archangel's trumpet shall exclaim, "Awake, you dead, and come to judgment," then will your body "rise to shame and everlasting contempt," and be reunited to the soul, fearfully increasing the torment that shall endure forever. Yes, the same body, now the servant of Satan, and the instrument of sin; now pampered by luxury and indulgence, the prey of every vile affection, that identical body shall rise again, with all its appetites, and lusts, and cravings immortalized. It is "sown a natural body," it rises a natural body. "It is sown in corruption,"it rises in corruption. "It is sown in dishonor," it rises in dishonor. The resurrection takes it up as death laid it down. Can you conceive a picture of future torment, surpassing this in its fearfulness and intensity? With every sensual affection perpetuated, the strength of every lawless desire still remaining, unbridled appetites and passions yet existing, with no corresponding objects to meet their cravings, will not this constitute an element of hell, an ingredient in your cup of trembling of an appalling character? Oh! the "resurrection of damnation!" To rise but to sink! To awake but to "shame and everlasting contempt!" To meet the angry God, the frowning Judge- the God you have hated, and the Christ you have rejected! The resurrection of your body will be the resurrection of your sins. All then will come to light. Every transgression will rise to memory and to judgment, and all your secret sins will be placed in the light of God's countenance. Scoffing infidel! polluted sensualist! sordid miser! groveling worldling! proud pharisee! deceived professor! you are to stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. What will your scepticism, what will your carnal joys, what will your money, what will your fame, what will your own works, and what will your empty lamp do for you then? Oh, how are you bartering your birthright of immortality, and selling your soul of priceless worth and deathless existence, and choosing death rather than life, and hell rather than heaven! Your present existence has its limit, and will soon be over. For the remote and tremendous consequence you are unprepared. You have no Savior to trust in, no righteousness to stand in, no refuge to hide in, no atonement to build on, no plea wherefore you should not be eternally condemned. Is not your state awful? is not your position perilous? "What will you say when He shall punish you?"

Oh! by all that is solemn in death, and awful in the resurrection, and terrific in judgment, I beseech you, I implore you, repent- this moment- repent! "God now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness." Not a moment is to be lost- eternity is near at hand. Lay yourself low before God. Humble yourself in the dust at His feet. Confess your sin, acknowledge your iniquity. Flee to the Lord Jesus Christ, your only refuge from the wrath to come. Seek God's forgiveness alone through Him. Renounce all dependence on your own works of righteousness, and implore the Holy Spirit of all grace and love, to invest you with the righteousness "which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." Then, living or dying, you will be the Lord's. And when the morning of the 'first resurrection' dawns in glory upon the tomb, a voice, soft as angels' music, shall dissolve your long slumber "Awake and sing, you that dwell in dust: for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Then, planting your feet upon the crumbling tombstone and the heaving earth, you shall spring into life and immortality, swelling as you rise the chorus of the noble anthem, which will be chanted by every lip, and which will float from every harp- "thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift!"

The Glory of the Redeemer in His Ascension and Exaltation

"Received up into Glory." 1 Timothy 3:16

It is not surprising that the deeper we go into the consideration of the Redeemer's glory, the greater it should appear. It is the glory of the incarnate Jehovah; infinite therefore in its nature it must be, fathomless in its depth, and illimitable in its degree- leaving in the far distance the mightiest powers of man to reach it. Who that is not himself infinite, can understand infinity? "No man," is the emphatic declaration of Christ, "knows the Son but the Father." It is recorded of Epictetus, that, when his hearers said to him, "You have uttered many excellent things of God, but we cannot as yet understand what He is," he truly and nobly replied, "Were I able fully to set forth God, I should either be a god myself, or God Himself would cease to be what He is." What a demonstrative testimony does the declaration of the Son of God, just quoted, bear to His infinite greatness and glory! How fatal is this simple passage to the doctrine which denies the absolute Godhead of Christ! Honestly and prayerfully considered, it must lead to the overwhelming conviction, that he who can only be understood by God, must be God Himself. "No man" (no one- man or angel) "knows the Son but the Father." The mightiest created intellect cannot grasp Him, the loftiest imagination cannot conceive of Him, the most eloquent tongue cannot describe Him. The principalities and the powers, overwhelmed with the greatness of the theme, and the vastness of the idea, sink down before the incarnate God, happy if permitted but to gaze upon His face, and blessed if but irradiated with His smile, or sheltered beneath the skirtings of His glory. And yet, infinitely great and glorious as He is, He graciously invites us to sit at His feet and learn from Him. Precious privilege! May the Holy Spirit, now that we are about to retire from the scene of His dark humiliation, and to follow Him to the height of His glorious exaltation, strengthen the wing of love, and anoint the eye of faith, that to us speeding our flight and clearing our vision, we may be enabled to approach in spirit very near the King, drinking in deep views of His beauty!

As in His sufferings, so in His exaltation, there was a solemn NECESSITY why He should be advanced to a state of supreme glory. In the one case, He could not have become the Redeemer but as He became the Sacrifice; in the other, He could not have applied His redemption, but as He assumed the sovereignty of a king. "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." The reasons which plead for the exaltation of Christ are many and powerful. The consideration of a few of the more commanding ones will serve to present, in some important points of view, the glory and preciousness of this great subject. And, in the first place,

The truth and glory of the Father were pledged to the exaltation of His Son from the scene, and as the reward, of His suffering and humiliation. And here it is delightful to trace the faithfulness of God to His promises. For all that the Father was to His Son, He is to them whom His Son represented. Jesus, in every step of His life, acted as a public person, as a representative. He lived, He labored, He thought, He suffered, He died, He rose from the dead, and was received up into glory, not in His individual capacity, but as the covenant head of His covenant people. So that all that the Father was to Jesus, He is now to the body of Jesus- the Church. Christ revealed the Father to His people, and in return He represented His people to the Father. "He that has seen me, has seen the Father." "No man knows the Father but the Son, and He to whom the Son shall reveal Him." And on the other hand, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One." Thus gloriously does our adorable Emmanuel stand between God and the believer- revealing the glory of the one, and hiding the deformity of the other. Oh, how should this truth heighten our views of His glory, and deepen our sense of His love!

The promise of the Father stood pledged to the exaltation of His Son. It was a part and condition of the covenant of redemption, that if He obeyed the law and endured its penalty on behalf of His people, He should "see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied;" that if He went down, He should return again; that if He sunk, He should rise again; that if He restored honor to the Divine government, reconciling the conflicting attributes of God, in the way of mercy and grace to man, the throne, the crown, and the scepter of mediatorial glory and sovereignty should be His reward. Thus speak the Divine promises. "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief- when you shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand." The seed He was to see, and the days that were to be prolonged, were the result of His humiliation, and were to follow His exaltation to glory. "My servant shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high." Not less explicit and beautiful is that promise recorded by the prophet Ezekiel, "Thus says the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of its young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon a high mountain and eminent: in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar." To whom can this prediction properly refer, and to whom can this promise be fully accomplished, but in Jesus? He was the "BRANCH," the 'high Branch;' He was the "Plant of renown," the plant of the Father's setting: in His humiliation He was the 'young twig, the tender one;' in His exaltation He was the 'goodly cedar, planted upon a high mountain and eminent, spreading forth His boughs;' His unveiled and infinite perfections overshadowing His Israel, while supplying them with all manner of precious fruits. With this corresponds the happy experience of the Church: "As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste." But the exaltation of Jesus by the Father was as much the fruit of His love, as the fulfilment of His promise. The Father's heart yearned over His Son with a love which, through all His toil, through all His humiliation, faltered not, cooled not, and knew "no variableness, nor shadow of turning." Now, if He loved His Son in His abasement, He wanted also to love Him in His exaltation. If He loved Him in His humiliation, He wanted also to love Him in His glory. His paternal heart yearned to embrace Him once more, who, from eternity, had dwelt in His bosom in all the infinite strength of filial confidence and affection. Thus were the perfections of God pledged to the exaltation of the Redeemer to glory. Justice, truth, goodness, love, all were concerned in effecting the accomplishment of this glorious event.

But the plea for His exaltation found its existence as much in the circumstances in which Christ was placed as in the purpose and love of the Father. As the faithful Servant of the everlasting covenant, it was just, it was the reward of His finished work, that His deepest humiliation on earth should be succeeded by the highest glory in heaven. "For the joy that was set before Him," -the joy of His exaltation, with its glorious fruits, "He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." On this plea for the exaltation of our adorable Lord, we would lay great stress, as one deeply unfolding His glory in this stupendous event. How proper, how righteous does it appear, that the crown of His glory should follow the cross of His humiliation! Toilsome and faithful had been His life; ignominious and painful had been His death. From both there had accrued to God, is now, and will yet be accruing through the countless ages of eternity, a revenue of glory, such as never had been His before. He had revealed the Father gloriously. Drawing aside the veil as no other hand could do, He caused such Divine glory to beam forth, as compelled every spotless spirit in heaven to cover himself with his wings, and fall prostrate in the profoundest humility and homage.

The glorious perfections of God! -never had they appeared so glorious as now. The mediatorial work of Jesus had laid a deep foundation on which they were exhibited to angels and to men in their most illustrious character. Never before had wisdom appeared so truly glorious, nor justice so awfully severe, nor love so intensely bright, nor truth so eternally stable. Had all the angels in heaven, and all the creatures of all worlds, become so many orbs of Divine light, and all been merged into one, so that one should embody and reflect the luster of all, it would have been darkness itself compared with a solitary beam of God's glory, majesty, and power, as revealed in the person and work of Emmanuel. Now it was fit, it was congruous, that, after this faithful servitude, this boundless honor and praise brought to God, His Father should, in return, release Him from all further obligation, lift Him from His humiliation, and place Him high in glory. Therefore it was that Jesus poured out the fervent breathings of His soul on the eve of His passion- "I have glorified You on the earth: I have finished the work which You gave me to do: I have manifested Your name. And now, O Father, glorify me."

His work being finished, the great atonement made, and salvation eternally secured to all the covenant seed, it was fit that the Son of God should return to glory. Heaven was His original and proper place. He was but a stranger and a sojourner here. His mission accomplished, earth, which had once attracted Him to its bosom, attracted Him no longer. As the field of His labors, and the scene of His humiliation, and the theater of His conflict, He had willingly bent His steps towards it. His labors now finished, His humiliation now passed, His battle now fought, and His victory won, He as readily hastened from all below. What stronger ties, what more powerful allurements, had earth than heaven for Jesus? All to Him had been toil and suffering, trial and sorrow. Wearisome had been His pilgrimage, laborious His life, humiliating its every scene, and painful its every incident. Creatures, the best and the fondest, had disappointed Him- sources of created good the most promising had failed Him, and the hour of His deepest necessity and woe found Him treading the wine-press alone, forsaken by man, deserted by God! An atmosphere of sin had enveloped Him on every side; forms of suffering and pollution each moment flitted before His eyes, and sounds of blasphemy and woe fell at each step upon His ear. At whatever point He turned, He saw His Father's name dishonored, His Spirit grieved, His own dignity outraged, His teaching despised, His Gospel rejected, and His authority trampled under foot, by men swearing allegiance to another and a rival sovereign. What greater, fonder, and holier attractions, then, had earth than heaven for Jesus? His resurrection from the dead was His preparative for glory. Leaving the garments of mortality in the forsaken tomb, He wrapped around Him the robe of immortality, and, poised upon the wing, awaited but the signal for His heavenly flight. All that now remained for Him to accomplish was to authenticate the fact of His risen life, place His Church in a position to receive the promised Spirit, breathe His parting blessing, and then ascend to glory. Heaven was His home- loved and longed for! How sweet to Him were its recollections! how hallowed its associations, heightened by their contrast with the scene from which He was now retiring! There, no curse; there, no sorrow; there, no suffering; there, no tears; there, no indignity awaited Him. All was one expanse of glory, all one haven of happiness! But far above all, rose in spiritual and surpassing grandeur, the seat, the altar, and the throne, which, as our Prophet, Priest, and King, He sighed to occupy. A more perfect investiture of Him in these offices, a more complete establishment of His mediatorial dominion, awaited Him. All power in heaven and on earth was to be placed in His hands: all things were to be put in subjection under His feet: and all beings, from the loftiest angel in heaven to the lowest creature on earth, were to acknowledge His government, submit to His sovereignty, worship and 'crown Him Lord of all.'

One more plea for the exaltation of the Redeemer. We find its existence in the relation which the Church sustained to this great event. The ascension of Jesus to glory involved the greatest blessing to His saints. Apart from His own glorification, the glory of His Church was incomplete, so entirely; so identically were they one. We have already seen that the resurrection of Christ from the dead, was the Father's public seal to the acceptance of His work; but the exaltation of Christ to glory was an evidence of the Father's infinite delight in that work. Had our Lord continued on earth, His return from the grave, though settling the fact of the completeness of His atonement, could have afforded no clear evidence, and would have conveyed no adequate idea, of God's full pleasure and delight in the person and work of His beloved Son. But in advancing a step further- in taking His Son out of the world, and placing Him at His own right hand, far above principalities and powers, He demonstrated His ineffable delight in Jesus, and His perfect satisfaction with His great atonement. Now, it is no small mercy for the saints of God to receive and to be well established in this truth, namely, the Father's perfect satisfaction with, and His infinite pleasure in, His Son. For all that which He is to His Son, He is to the people accepted in His Son; so that this view of the glorification of Jesus becomes exceedingly valuable to all who are "accepted in the Beloved." So precious was Jesus to His heart, and so infinitely did His soul delight in Him, He could not allow of His absence from glory a moment longer than was necessary for the accomplishment of His own purpose and the perfecting of His Son's mission. That done, He showed His Beloved the "path of life," and raised Him to His "presence, where is fulness of joy," and to "His right hand, where there are pleasures forevermore."

The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Church in His most enlarged degree, and for the highest and most gracious ends, rendered the glorification of the Head necessary and expedient. Holding in His hands, not only the keys of hades and of death, but of all the fulness of God, all the riches of the covenant, all the treasures of His Father, He could only dispense these blessings in His exalted state. As it was necessary in the case of Joseph- a personal type of our glorious Redeemer- that he should be exalted to the office of prime minister in Egypt, in order to possess dignity, authority, and power to dispense the riches of Pharaoh, so was it expedient that the great Antitype should assume a mediatorial exaltation, with the view of scattering down mediatorial blessings upon His people. The delay of this event was the only barrier to the outpouring of the Spirit upon the Church. "The Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." His own words confirm this statement of the evangelist: "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." Now here, second to Himself, was the gift of gifts- the donation of the Holy Spirit, the greatest God could give, the richest man could receive- suspended upon the single fact of the Redeemer's ascension to glory. It would seem as if the baptism of the Church by the Spirit was an event especially reserved to signalize the enthronement of the Son of God in His mediatorial kingdom. God would demonstrate how great was the glory of Jesus in heaven, how perfect was the reconciliation which He had effected between Himself and man, how spiritual was that kingdom which He was about to establish in the earth- the foundation of which His own hand had laid- and how full, and immense, and free, were the blessings ready to be bestowed upon all who, in poverty of spirit, and sincerity of heart, and fervency of soul, should seek them, by opening the windows of heaven, and pouring down the Holy Spirit in all His converting, life-giving, sanctifying, and comforting grace. And oh, how must this Divine and Eternal Spirit, occupying as He did a personal existence in the glorious Trinity, possessing equal glory, honor, and love with the Father and the Son, as equally engaged in securing the salvation of the chosen people- how must He have rejoiced at the consummation of an event which permitted Him to give full vent to the overflowing fountain of His heart's grace and love over the Church which He was about to renew, sanctify, and dwell in through eternity! "The love of the Spirit" pleaded eloquently for the exaltation of Jesus.

To take possession of heaven in behalf of His people, and to perpetuate His office as their intercessory High Priest, it was necessary that He should, at the termination of His sufferings, enter into His glory. "I go," says He, "to prepare a place for you." "Which hope," says the apostle, "we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil; where the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus." Thus is the kingdom of heaven secured to all believers. Thus is a mansion in our Father's house made ready for every adopted son. Jesus has gone before to make ready for the glorification of His Church. "I go to prepare a place for you." Oh, sweet words! A place prepared- a mansion set apart for each individual believer! "In my Father's house are many mansions." A mansion in His heart, a mansion in His kingdom, a mansion in His house, for the weakest babe in Christ. The Forerunner has for us entered, even Jesus! How sure is heaven! How certain the eternal happiness of every pardoned and justified soul!

But Jesus took not merely a passive, but also an active, possession of glory for His people. He is there, not only as the Forerunner, but also as the Intercessor. "For Christ has not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." And with what did He enter? "By His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." "Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them." These points will recur to our notice, in the further unfolding of the subject.

Thus much for the necessity of the Redeemer's exaltation to glory. It behooves now to consider THE ASCENSION ITSELF, and the nature of that glory into which He entered.

The circumstance of the Lord's ascension and exaltation meets with frequent and marked allusion in the word of God. The Holy Spirit has attached to the fact the greatest weight. The writings of the Old Testament frequently and distinctly speak of it. "God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet." It is impossible to misunderstand the obvious allusion of these words. He came down as God, He went up as "God manifest in the flesh." The ascension was worthy of His Deity. It was royal and triumphant. He went up as the "great King," and as the mighty Conqueror, "leading captivity captive." Attended by a celestial escort, and amid the shouts and acclamations of all the heavenly hierarchy, He passed within the portals of glory. The demand was made, the challenge was given, the answer was returned: "Lift up your heads, O you gates; and be lifted up, you everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates; even lift them up, you everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory." Yes, our Emmanuel, God with us, is "gone up with a shout;" the Lord, Jehovah Jesus, "with the sound of a trumpet." And although no echo of the heavenly minstrelsy was heard on earth, and the cloud which received Him veiled His receding form from the gaze of His disciples, hiding from the view the deepening glory which encircled His ascending flight, yet all heaven reverberated with the song, and grew resplendent with the majesty of His entrance within its gates.

If possible, a still more direct reference to this glorious event is found: "You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive: You have received gifts for men; yes, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them." All question as to the reference of this prophecy to the Lord Jesus is set at rest by the apostle, who, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, quotes and applies it to Him. How perfectly does each particular harmonize with the ascension of the Redeemer! "He ascended up on high," "far above all heavens," where no mere creature has ever entered, or can enter- even within the hallowed pavilion of the Divine Majesty itself. "He led captivity captive," chaining to His triumphal car the principalities and the powers- Satan conquered, hell defeated, sin condemned, death vanquished, and the grave dismantled. "He received gifts for men," and to men He gave them; "to some apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;" "yes, for the rebellious also," for those who, with no plea of worthiness springing from themselves, received the "gifts" as the gratuitous expressions of God's love, the free and sovereign bestowments of His grace. "That the Lord God might dwell among them," even in the midst of His saints, formed into distinct Gospel Churches, "built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit."

The scene and the circumstances of His ascension were of thrilling interest, and deeply spiritual in their meaning. The period, which it is important distinctly to specify, was just forty days after His resurrection; thus affording ample time to establish, by the most irrefragable proof and tangible evidence, this master-fact of His history. Not only did He take this occasion to answer all the reasonings and resolve all the doubts of His still incredulous disciples, but He crowded into this brief space of time, instructions the most needed, precious, and momentous to the well being of His Church. Drawing closer around Him, as if by the new and more powerful attraction of His risen body, His devoted apostles- the future builders of His spiritual temple- He proceeds to renew their Divine commission to preach the Gospel, widening it to the exigences of the world that Gospel was in tended to bless. Opening their understandings more perfectly to understand the Scriptures, He cleared and enlarged their view of His Divine nature, the spiritual character of His kingdom, and the offices, ordinances, and discipline which were to be observed in each Gospel-constituted section of His Church. Thus, even after His atoning work was finished, and the great seal of heaven was affixed to it, our adorable Lord was still engaged in His Father's business, still intent upon promoting His glory, and the eternal welfare of His people. Oh, what love was the love of our Emmanuel! It was no selfish, indolent, inoperative principle; but a love of the purest benevolence, deepest tenderness, and ceaseless action. It was a love ever thinking, ever planning, ever acting, ever seeing, ever speaking, and ever yearning, in behalf of the Church which He carried each moment in the very center of His heart.

And now let us approach the spot where the Redeemer ascended. It was from the Mount Olivet, near to Bethany; so that the two accounts of Christ's ascension recorded by Luke, the one in his Gospel, and the other in his Acts of the Apostles, perfectly agree. How full of great, and holy, and solemn, yes, awful associations would be that spot to Jesus! It was no strange, unfamiliar, untrodden ground to Him. At the foot of that mount, from whose summit He entered into glory, He had been wont to resort with His disciples for holy meditation and prayer. There, too, His sufferings commenced. There He endured the fearful conflict, when His soul was "exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death." It was there, prostrate in the dust, the cup of trembling in His hand, the sweat of blood falling to the ground, He thrice poured out His soul in that touching prayer- "O my Father! if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." Yes, it was from the Mount Olivet, the scene of His deep mental agony, and near to Bethany (which signifies the house of affliction), our blessed Lord took His flight to His Father and His God, to enjoy His presence forever, and to drink deeply and eternally of the pleasures which are at His right hand.

And so must it be with all His members. As if to heighten, by contrast with the sufferings of earth, the glories of heaven; as if to give a deeper melody to their song, and a richer sweetness to their joy, and a higher character to their ecstasy, and a profounder sense of the grace that brought them there, it often pleases the Lord that affliction, in various forms, should throw its deepest gloom around the path of the children of God, when just on the eve of translation to glory. And when, in anticipation of a smooth descent, and a cloudless sunset, they have said, with Job, "I shall die in my nest," God, their Father, has seemed to have reserved the bitter dregs of affliction's cup for the dying lips; and, like Jacob, they have been constrained to anticipate, that "with sorrow their grey hairs will be brought down to the grave." Thus "through much tribulation, they enter the kingdom;" out of the house of affliction, and, as it were, from the Mount Olivet, they ascend to the Mount Zion, borne up as in a chariot of fire. Be it so; "He does all things well." Compared with the sufferings of Jesus, it is, in its heaviest form, but a "light affliction;" and, measured with an eternity of bliss, in its longest duration, is "but for a moment."

How touching and instructive was the parting interview! "And He led them out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." Oh, how worthy of Himself was this His final blessing! How harmonious with every previous act of His life, was this, its closing one! Blessing to the last, and while with outstretched hands, that blessing was yet breathing from His lips, "received up into glory." Oh how full of grace and love is our adorable Emmanuel! What a heart of overflowing tenderness and blessing is His. Knowing this, knowing it from observation and from experience, supported by the innumerable proofs which crowd every page of the New Testament, is it not a marvel that we should seek our blessing from any other source than Jesus, or that we should breathe our sighs, or pour our sorrows, or repose our aching head, on any other bosom than His? Ah! our acquaintance with Him- our best, our dearest, our most loving Friend- is so limited, we walk with Him so coldly, we follow Him so distantly, we believe in Him so feebly, the greatest wonder is, that in the midst of all, His patience, forbearance, tender and unchangeable love towards us should still be so unwearied and so great.

But who can describe the parting interview and the last blessing? Clustering around Him a lonely, timid band, saddened as they must have been by the thought that they were about to separate forever on earth from Him whom they loved- as many of them afterwards proved- better than life itself; to whom they had been wont to look for guidance, on whom they had leaned for strength, and to the asylum of whose bosom they had fled in danger and in sorrow, they needed His blessing- they needed that which none but Jesus could give to them. They were "oppressed," and He only could "undertake" for them. They were in sorrow, and He only could comfort them. They were tried and perplexed, and He only could sustain and counsel them. And what, may we suppose, would that blessing contain, which He now breathed over them?- The richer anointing of the Spirit to fit them for their work- a larger measure of grace to shield them in temptation, and to uphold them in trial- increased light in the understanding respecting the spiritual nature of His kingdom, and the meaning of the holy Scriptures of truth; and, what to them at that moment would be of unspeakable preciousness- a deeper discovery of His own pardoning love, a fuller assurance of their personal acceptance in Himself, and a richer bestowment of the "peace of God which surpasses all understanding." Thus blessing, He was "parted from them, and carried up into heaven," to intercede for them there; and thus blessed, "they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy," to spread the fragrance, and to manifest the power of His name through all the world.

Let us now ascend in spirit with Jesus, and contemplate THE GLORY OF HIS EXALTATION. That His ascension into heaven was His introduction to a condition of pre-eminent dignity, power, and glory, the Scriptures of truth clearly affirm. Two quotations will be sufficient in proof of this. Thus the apostle speaks of the working of God's "mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and has put all things, under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that fills all in all." Again, in another place, passing from a most affecting description of the humiliation of Jesus, the same apostle proceeds to draw aside, as it were, the veil of His exalted and glorified state. "Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." How forcible and expressive are these declarations of the high position in heaven to which the Son of God was advanced!

In the first place, He entered fully and manifestly into the glory of His Deity. We may not for a moment suppose that His exaltation added anything to His essential Godhead. This could necessarily undergo no change. His humiliation could not take from, nor His exaltation add to, it. We can suppose the sun pouring light upon a stagnant pool, and yet remain as essentially unsullied as though its beams had but played upon the surface of the most pure and polished lake. Now what was the revelation of Jesus, but the pouring down of the beams of the Sun of Righteousness upon a sin-accursed and sorrow-stricken world? Yet the contact of our Lord with this vast mass of pollution and iniquity, was no detriment to His essential and personal holiness and dignity. His beams of light and glory extracted and absorbed no poison from this stagnant pool, but rather- oh sovereign virtue of His grace! -exerted so Divine, so cleansing, and so purifying an influence, that myriads once sunk beneath its pollutions, have emerged cleansed, sanctified, and saved.

Now the exaltation of Jesus was the full, clear, and manifest revealing of His Deity. He entered into the glory of His Godhead, so long suspended and eclipsed. He was reinstated in His original dignity, and reinvested with His former glory. Oh, how magnificently glorious did the beams of that Sun now shine, which but a little before had set in darkness and in blood! Yes, our Emmanuel entered fully into His Divine glory when He entered into heaven! There it had been from everlasting; there it existed during the period of His humiliation; and there, as a robe of dazzling light, it awaited to invest Him the moment He should pass within the veil of the heavenly sanctuary, and enter the portal of the celestial and eternal palace. Then came the coronation! Then the enthronement! Oh, what hallowed imagination can form an adequate conception of that scene? What tongue describe the splendor of that moment? Attended by a celestial retinue, each angel's harp strung and tuned for a higher strain of melody than that which broke in the stillness of night upon the plains of Bethlehem, He passed within the golden portal, file on file of adoring spirits lining the path that conducted Him to His throne. Then rose the loud acclaim of welcome, as ten thousand times ten thousand struck their golden harps, louder than seven thunders rolling and reverberating along the dome of heaven. Falling prostrate upon their faces, all the celestial host, cherubim and seraphim, and "spirits of just men made perfect," would worship at His feet, while every hand would be extended to place the crown upon His head, and every tongue assist to swell the coronation anthem- "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." Oh, let us catch their thrilling note, and echo back their lofty song:

"All hail the power of Jesus' name!

Let angels prostrate fall,

Bring forth the royal diadem,

And crown Him Lord of all!

"Let every kindred, every tribe,

On this terrestrial ball,

To Him all majesty ascribe,

And crown Him Lord of all!

"Oh that with yonder sacred throng

We at His feet may fall

We'll join the everlasting song,

And crown Him Lord of all!"

This exaltation would also include the full induction of the Redeemer into His mediatorial glory. This had but in a measure developed itself on earth. Our blessed Lord lived in great obscurity as to His personal glory when below. As the Prophet, Priest, and King, haw partially was He recognized; how small a portion of His dignity, majesty, and power, was visible! It was perfectly congruous with the whole economy of His kingdom, that it should be so. That kingdom was purely spiritual; its nature, its laws, its subjects, its progress, and its ultimate and certain triumph, purely and perfectly from heaven, spiritual and Divine. By the early demonstration of this truth, our Lord sought to rebuke the lofty ambition, and earthly hopes, and visionary expectations of the proud and haughty nation, who, pluming themselves upon their national election of God, their miraculous history, their early conquests and former greatness, and sighing for release from the Roman yoke, were dreaming of the pomp, and glory, and conquest of a temporal Messiah. Now it was proper, that even the spiritual glory of our Lord, seen, as it would be, through material objects, and liable thus to be secularized, should be but partially and cautiously developed. Too full a discovery of His glory, and too great a demonstration of His power, might have but strengthened the expectation and fostered the views which He sought so earnestly, and yet so gently, to correct. Even His Church, in consequence of the limited bestowment of the Spirit, was not yet prepared for a full disclosure of His personal and official greatness. Therefore He said to His disciples, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now."

His entrance into heaven was the signal for the full development of His mediatorial power and glory. This was the promise of His Father, and this the reward of His death. "I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion." "Unto the Son He says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever." "I appoint unto you," says Christ, "a kingdom, as my Father has appointed unto me!" "When You shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed. He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." Thus His exaltation at the right hand of the Father was His full induction into the mediatorial kingdom. Now was He exalted "heir of all things" -now were "all things put under His feet," -now "all power in heaven and on earth was given to Him;" and from that moment that He touched the crown and grasped the scepter, and the government was placed upon His shoulder, His truth was to advance, and His kingdom widen, with ever-growing power, until, supplanting all error, and subduing all kingdoms, He was to reign "King of kings and Lord of lords."

But we have yet to consider an essential, and, to the Church of God, a most blessed, part of the Redeemer's exaltation- the glory into which His human nature entered on His ascension into heaven. The Divine and the human nature once united, were united forever. Now there was an honoring, but not a glorifying, of our humanity, when the Son of God assumed it. Its union with the Deity, its fulness of the Spirit- its spotless holiness- its deep knowledge of, and intimate fellowship with, God- conspired to invest it with a dignity and honor such as no creature had ever before or ever shall again attain. But not until its ascension into heaven was it glorified. Oh, through what humiliation did it pass, what indignity did it endure, when below! What sinless weaknesses, imperfections, and frailties, clung to it! It hungered, it thirsted, it labored, it sorrowed, it wept, it suffered, it bled, it died! The poor man's scorn, the rich man's ridicule, what indignities did it endure- it was scourged, it was bruised, it was mocked, it was smitten, it was spitten upon, it was nailed to the tree, it was pierced, it was slain! Oh, what eye but that of faith can, through all this degradation, behold the person of the incarnate God?

But now "we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor." Even after His resurrection, it must be acknowledged that a change, approximating to that state of glory, had already passed over Him. So spiritualized was He, that His disciples, when they saw Him, knew him not. What, then, must be the glory that encircles Him now that He has passed within His kingdom, and is exalted at the right hand of God, "far above all heavens, that He might fill all things!" John, during his banishment in Patmos, was favored with a view of His glorified humanity, and thus describes its dazzling appearance: "When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. And standing in the middle of the lampstands was the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were bright like flames of fire. His feet were as bright as bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was as bright as the sun in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, "Don't be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one who died. Look, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave." Sublime description of the "glory and honor" which now crown the exalted humanity of our adorable Redeemer! Did the awe-stricken and prostrate evangelist entertain any doubt of the glorious Person who thus appeared to him?- that doubt must all have vanished the moment he felt the "right hand" of Jesus laid upon him, and heard His own familiar voice saying unto him, "Fear not." Oh; what a tangible evidence, and what a near view did he now have of the exalted and glorified humanity of his Lord! At that instant, he saw Him to be Divine, and he felt Him to be human!

Yes! the very tabernacle of flesh in which He dwelt, the identical robe of humanity that He wore, He carried up with Him into heaven, and sat down with it upon the throne. There it is, highly exalted! There it is, above angels, and higher than saints, in close affinity and eternal union with Godhead. There it is, bathing itself in the "fulness of joy," and drinking deeply of the satisfying "pleasures" which are at God's "right hand forevermore." Oh, what must be the holy delight which the human soul of Jesus now experiences! Sin presses upon it no more: sorrow beclouds it no more: the hidings of God's face distress it no more: infirmity clings to it no more: it exults in the beams of God's unveiled glory; and it swims in the ocean of His ineffable love. If the vision upon the Mount Tabor was so glorious- if the splendors then encircling that form which yet had not passed through the scenes of the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension, were so overpowering- if the attractions of that spot were so great, and the ecstasy of that moment was so ravishing- what, oh, what must be the glory, the joy, the bliss of heaven, where we shall no longer see Him "through a glass darkly," but "as He is," and "face to face!"

THE BLESSINGS WHICH FLOW TO THE CHURCH of God through the channel of the Redeemer's exaltation, are varied and immense. A brief reference to some of them will conduct us to the close of this chapter.

We place in the forefront the greatest of all, and the parent of all spiritual blessings thus accruing to the believer- the baptism of the Church by the Holy Spirit. Our adorable Lord, as He approached the termination of His sojourn on earth, went more fully into the work of the Spirit, than at any former period of His ministry, laying especial stress on this truth, that His own personal residence on earth in permanent conjunction with the presence of the Spirit, was a union not to be expected by the Church. Why such an arrangement might not have been made, we proceed not to inquire. Sufficient should be the answer to this, as to all questions involving the sovereignty of the Divine will, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight." But the promise to which He directed the eye of His disciples, and with which He sought to soothe their sorrow in the prospect of His personal withdrawment from the Church, was the descent of the Holy Spirit in an enlarged degree, and in continuous outpouring, to the end of the Christian dispensation. This event, dependent upon, and immediately to follow, that of His inauguration in His heavenly kingdom, is thus alluded to: "The Holy Spirit," says the Evangelist John, "was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." "Nevertheless," says Christ, "I tell you the truth: it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." In a former part of this work, we have already alluded to the instantaneous fulfilment of this gracious promise in the glorification of Christ, tracing some of its remarkable results, as seen on the day of Pentecost. That day, with its hallowed scenes, cannot be too frequently brought before the mind. Were there a more simple looking to Christ upon the throne, and a stronger faith in the promise of the outpouring of the Spirit, and in the faithfulness of the Promiser to make it good, that blessed day would find its prototype in many a similar season enjoyed by the Church of God to the end of time. The effects of the descent of the Spirit on that day upon the apostles themselves are worthy of our especial notice. What a change passed over those holy men of God, thus baptized with the promised Spirit! A new flood of Divine light broke in upon their minds. All that Jesus had taught them while yet upon earth, recurred to their memory with all the freshness and glory of a new revelation. The doctrines which He had propounded concerning Himself, His work, and His kingdom, floated before their mental eye like a newly-discovered world full of light and beauty. A newness and a freshness invested the most familiar truths. They saw with new eyes; they heard with new ears; they understood as with re-created minds; and the men who, while He was with them, teaching them in the most simple and illustrative manner, failed fully to comprehend even the elementary doctrines and the most obvious truths of the Gospel, now saw as with the strength of a prophet's vision, and now glowed as with the ardor of a seraph's love. Upon the assembled multitudes who thronged the temple, how marvellous, too, the effects! Three thousand as in one moment were convinced of sin, and led to plunge in the "Fountain opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and uncleanness." And how does the apostle explain the glorious wonder?- "This Jesus," says He, "has God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has shed forth this which you now see and hear."

This, and this only, is the blessing which the Church of God now so greatly needs- even the baptism of the Holy Spirit. She needs to be confirmed in the fact that Jesus is alive and upon the throne, invested with all power, and filled with all blessing. The simple belief of this would engage her heart to desire the bestowment of the Spirit; and the Spirit largely poured down would more clearly demonstrate to her the transcendent truth in which all her prospects of glory and of happiness are involved, that the Head of the Church is triumphant. Oh, let her but place her hand of faith simply, solely, firmly, on the glorious announcement- Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, with all grace and love in His heart, with all authority in His hand, with all power at His disposal, with all blessings in His gift; waiting to open the windows of heaven, and pour down upon her such a blessing as there shall not be room enough to receive it- prepared so deeply to baptize her with the Holy Spirit as shall cause her converts greatly to increase, and her enterprises of Christian benevolence mightily to prosper; as shall heal her divisions, build up her broken walls, and conduct her to certain and triumphant victory over all her enemies; let her, I say, but plant her faith upon the covenant and essential union of these two grand truths- the Exalted Redeemer, and the Descending Spirit- and a day far brighter than that of the Pentecost shall dawn- a day on which, not three thousand only, but a nation shall turn to the Lord, and all flesh shall see His glory!

Oh never did the Church of God more need the baptism of the Spirit than now she needs it! The days in which we live are fearful. The signs that are around us are significant and portentous. The forecasting shadows of approaching events of the greatest magnitude are darkening upon our path. We cannot be blind or indifferent to the fact, that the elements of evil are combining and consolidating their force for a vigorous and determined onset. The 'enemy' has already come in 'like a flood.' Popery is increasing- infidelity is triumphing- formalism is abounding- God-dishonoring, Christ-denying, Bible-rejecting, and soul-destroying doctrines in rank and rampant growth, are springing forth on every side. The demon of heresy has mapped the world, resolved to possess it for himself. His agents, numerous and disguised, subtle and persevering, are in the field, resisting every opposition, employing every instrumentality, and rushing with a promptitude that is marvellous, and a zeal that is appalling, into every new-made opening. What now should be the posture, and wherein lies the true strength of Christ's Church? How is she to rise to the true dignity and responsibility of her position? Shall she look to her marshaled hosts? Shall she repose upon her stores of wealth, her former conquests, her arsenals of learning, and her titled warriors? Alas! trusting in these alone, her ruin is inevitable. Where, then, shall she turn, and on whom shall she fix her eye? Upwards, where sits her Lord upon His throne, exalted, triumphant, and glorified. Tell her that Jesus is at the right hand of God; assure her that He loves her still- that He wears her name on His heart, and has engraven her upon the palms of His hands- that He is ready to pour down upon her the Holy Spirit in all the plenitude of His reviving, teaching, and sanctifying grace- and you have unlocked to her the secret of her salvation. Yes, nothing but the baptism of the Holy Spirit can bring up the Church to her right position, and prepare her for the approaching conflict. And this, this is the blessing the great Head of the Church is exalted and waits to give.

And why have we it not? What hinders the blessing? We live under the dispensation of the Spirit- we hold in our hands the promise of the Spirit- we have seen in the history of God's American Israel- in the dispensations of His grace in some favored parts of Scotland- in the almost miraculous progress of Christianity in the islands of the South Sea, as well as the extraordinary triumphs of the Gospel and the planting of churches in Burmah and among the Sarens, that there are seasons in which the exalted Head of the Church pours down His Spirit in an especial and remarkable way, converting sinners, reviving saints, and more eminently qualifying ministers for their great work of preaching the Gospel. Why, then, should we disbelieve the doctrine, and limit the Holy One of Israel? We have not, because we ask not; we ask not, because we believe not. Oh for the outpouring of the Spirit upon our pastors, upon our churches, upon our congregations, upon our seats of learning, upon our rising ministry! Oh for the powerful descent of the Holy Spirit, lifting up an effectual standard against the enemy now coming in like a flood!

What the Church of God needs as a Church, we equally need as individual Christians- the deeper baptism of the Holy Spirit. Reader, why is it that you are not more settled in the truth- your feet more firm upon the Rock? Why are you not more rejoicing in Christ Jesus, the pardoning blood more sensibly applied to the conscience, the seal of adoption more deeply impressed upon your heart, 'Abba, Father,' more frequently, and with stronger, sweeter accent, on your lips? Why are you, perhaps, so yielding in temptation, so irresolute in purpose, so feeble in action, so vacillating in pursuit, so faint in the day of adversity? Why is the glory of Jesus so dimly seen, His preciousness so little felt, His love so imperfectly experienced? Why is there so little close, secret transaction between God and your soul- so little searching of heart, confession of sin, dealing with the atoning blood? Why does the conscience so much lack tenderness, and the heart brokenness, and the spirit contrition? And why is the throne of grace so seldom resorted to, and prayer itself felt to be so much a duty, and so little a privilege; and when engaged in, so faintly characterized with the humble brokenness of a penitent sinner, the filial boldness of an adopted child, the rich anointing of a royal priest? Ah! let the small measure in which you have received the Holy Spirit's influence supply the answer. "Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?" -have you received Him as the Witness, as the Sealer, as the Teacher, as the Indweller, as the Comforter, as the Spirit of adoption? But, rather, have you not forgotten that your Lord was alive, and upon the throne, exalted to give you the Holy Spirit, and that more readily than a father is to give good gifts to his child? That He is prepared now to throw open the windows of heaven and pour down upon you such a blessing as shall confirm your faith, resolve your doubts, annihilate your fears, arm you for the fight, strengthen you for the trial, give you an unclouded view of your acceptance in the Beloved, and assure you that your "name is written among the living in Jerusalem?" Then, as you value the light of God's countenance, as you desire to grow in the knowledge of Christ, as you long to be more "steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord," Oh seek to enjoy, in a larger degree, the presence, the love, the anointing of the Holy Spirit! Christ has gone up on high to give to you this invaluable blessing; and says for your encouragement, "Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name: ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full."

Another blessing, springing from the exaltation of Jesus, is the view it gives us of His ever-living and unchanging Priesthood. The work of our Lord as Priest was twofold, atonement and intercession. The one He accomplished upon the cross, the other He now transacts upon the throne. "When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." The high priest under the law, after He had slain the sacrifice, took the blood, and, passing within the veil, sprinkled it on the mercy-seat, so making intercession for the people. "The Holy Spirit this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing. " But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; nor by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." And what is He now doing? What is His present and high employment? Presenting His own blood each moment before the mercy-seat on behalf of His redeemed people! "He ever lives to make intercession for us." Oh do not forget this, dear saint of God! "If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." This is spoken for the comfort of the mourners in Zion- for those who, knowing the plague of their own hearts, and deploring its constant tendency to outbreak, are humbled in the dust with deep godly sorrow. Look up! does sin plead loud against you? The blood of Jesus pleads louder for you. Do your backslidings, and rebellions, and iniquities committed against so much light and love, call for vengeance? The blood of Jesus "speaks better things." Does Satan stand at your right hand to accuse you? Your Advocate stands at God's right hand to plead for you. All hail! you mourning souls! You that smite on the breast, you brokenhearted, you contrite ones, "who is he that condemns? it is Christ that died, yes, rather, that is risen again; who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." Jesus is the glorious and the successful Advocate. He has never lost a cause intrusted to His advocacy, and never will.

He pleads powerfully, He pleads eloquently, He pleads prevalently, because He pleads in behalf of a people unspeakably dear to His heart, for whom He "loved not His own life unto the death," and presses His suit, on the ground of His own most precious blood and accepted person, and with His Father and their Father, with His God and their God.

"Jesus, the King of glory, reigns

On Zion's heavenly hill,

Looks like a Lamb that has been slain,

And wears His priesthood still.

"He ever lives to intercede

Before His Father's face;

Give Him, my soul, your cause to plead,

Nor doubt the Father's grace."

In the Redeemer's exaltation we have the strongest pledge of His continued sympathy, support, and deliverance in all our trials and temptations. It is delightful to the believing mind to reflect, that in passing from the scene of His humiliation to that of His glory, and in the spiritual change which His body must have undergone, thus to fit it for the region which flesh and blood cannot inherit, His humanity lost none of the tender sympathies of our nature which so closely clung to Him when upon earth. The same compassionate nature- the same loving heart- the same deep sympathy with all our sorrows, and the same outstretched hand to relieve them, distinguished the glorified state of the precious Son of God! Do you think, that though dwelling in yonder region of light, and holiness, and joy, and glory, He has forgotten the days of His humiliation- the "strong cry and the tears" - "the wormwood and the gall?" No, He has them still in remembrance. And can He forget the Church in the wilderness- His tried and suffering people? Never! Hark how He prays for them- "Now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom You have given me." "I pray not that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil." "As You have sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." Yes, He forgets not that His Church is yet in the world- a polluting, persecuting, harassing world, demanding all the infinite resources of His sympathy, grace, and might. Oh how sweet and holy is the thought, that, having passed within the veil though He has, there is still a chain of the closest sympathy suspended from the glorified Redeemer on the throne, touching the most lowly and tried of the redeemed on earth. How can Jesus forget that He still bears our nature, a part of our very being? The "head so full of bruises," the body so scarred, reminding Him of the suffering state of the Church below, and pleading with a power which Omnipotence itself cannot resist, for the support, comfort, and deliverance of every tried and tempted member of that body. "Seeing, then, that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities."

Thus, through the channel of our glorified Redeemer, what immense and varied blessings may the believer expect and receive! "Exalted a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance unto Israel, and forgiveness of sins," will He not with these costly mercies freely give us all things? What an open door is here for a humble suppliant, bowed with sorrow and pressed with need! Do you think that He can close His heart, or withdraw His hand, or falsify His promise? Ah no! our Jesus, in His exaltation, is more mindful of His people in their low state, than the chief butler, in his advancement, was of Joseph imprisoned in the dungeon. He thinks of us still- He speaks a good word for us to His Father- bends upon us each moment a glance of the most ineffable love, with whose expression infinite compassion sweetly blends. Nor is there a moment in which He is not exerting Himself on our behalf, hedging up the way of one believer, and opening the way of another; strengthening the tried faith of some saints, and soothing the deep sorrows of others. Oh, see what costly blessings are bound up in the exaltation of

Jesus! All sanctification to make us holy- all love to make us happy- all wisdom to guide- all grace to uphold- and all glory to crown. "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of His grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

The exaltation of Jesus is the pledge of the full glorification of every believer. The certain glorification with Jesus of every believer is a truth as much involving the honor of God, as it does the present comfort and future happiness of the Church. The opposite sentiment- the possibility of a child of God falling short of eternal glory (a doctrine, let it be observed, at total variance with the entire Scriptures of truth), by unhinging the soul from God, and throwing it back completely upon itself, must necessarily lead to low and dishonoring views of the Divine character; while it begets in the mind a spirit of bondage, and a sense of the most painful apprehension, both equally inimical to a fruitful Christianity. But the most solemn, I may say awful, light in which the doctrine of the believer's final insecurity presents itself is, that it casts a thick veil over the glory of Emmanuel. It touches every perfection of His being. Oh, could the dear saints of God, thus tossed in the troubled sea of doubt, and thus agitated with a "fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation," but be brought to see how the Jesus whom they love is wounded, dishonored, and shorn of His glory by this unscriptural tenet, would they not unhesitatingly renounce it as leading to a result so fearful? Can that, I earnestly ask, be a doctrine of Divine revelation, which tends in the slightest degree to shade the glory of Christ?

If one of those given to Him by His Father- one whose sins He carried, whose curse He bore, whose soul He has renewed by the grace of His Spirit, were permitted finally and eternally to perish, where would be His glory? where the glory of His truth? where the glory of His power? where the glory of His love? where the glory of His work? Gone! Every perfection of His Divine being would be impeached, and every beam of His Divine glory would be tarnished.

But all shall be brought safely to heaven. Hark how distinctly and authoritatively He pleads for this their crowning blessing, when on the eve of His mysterious passion, and about to spring from His cross to His throne- "Father, I will that they also whom You have given me be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory." Sublime prayer! Comprehensive and tender petition! How did the Head long to have with Him, where He was, each member of His body! Having had fellowship with Him in His humiliation, it was His desire that they should have fellowship with Him in His glory. And this He asks, not as a gift, but claims as a right. In virtue of His covenant engagement with the Father, His full satisfaction to Divine justice, His perfect obedience to the Divine law, His finished redemption of His people, He reverently bows at the mercy-seat, and pours out His full soul, and unburdens His loving heart, in the most sublime petition that ever ascended from mortal lip; "Father, I will that they also whom You have given me be with me where I am."

But mark the reason why- "that they may behold my glory." Consummation of glory! Overflowing cup of bliss! Height of perfect holiness! Was it the parting charge of Joseph to his brethren- "You shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen; and you shall haste and bring down my father here?" Our Joseph, with love infinitely more intense, desires that all His brethren may be brought to heaven, that they may, behold His glory there- the glory of His unveiled Deity- the glory of His glorified humanity- and the glory to which, as Mediator, His Father had advanced Him. Who can fully tell of all the Redeemer's glory in heaven? Or, were it fully revealed, what power to grasp, what faculties to comprehend, what eye to behold, and what tongue to describe, so lofty a theme and so sublime a spectacle as this have we? But we shall behold it! We, too, shall be glorified. The mind shall be adjusted to the mightiness of the theme, and the eye shall be strengthened for the dazzling magnificence of the spectacle. Every physical, and mental, and moral faculty perfectly developed, and sanctified, we shall be a glorified Church, placed in the presence and contemplating through eternity the glory of our glorified Head. We shall behold the Redeemer's glory. "Shall I see the King in His beauty? What! my eye behold His glory?" Yes! if you do see beauty in Jesus now, if your eye beholds glory in Emmanuel, feeble and dim though the view may be, so surely shall you be with Him where He is, and wander over the ceaseless unfoldings of His unclouded glory, and that through all eternity.

But the ungodly, the impenitent, and the unbelieving! Ah! they, too, shall see His glory. But it will be the glory of His justice, in burning wrath, in quenchless flames. Unconverted reader! You do see no glory in Jesus, no beauty that you should desire Him. You see an imaginary glory in the world, a fancied beauty in self; and this blinds your eye to the real glory and true beauty that are in Christ. Oh, in what a dream do you live! What madness do you cherish! What phantoms do you pursue! What a vain show in which you live! You can see beauty in your estate, and loveliness in your family, and attraction in the world, and glory in yourself, and yet see no beauty, no loveliness, no attraction, no glory in Jesus! Oh, what a dark veil is over your mind, and what thick scales are upon your eyes! And thus darkened and blinded, your feet are stumbling over the mountains of death. Soon, the beauty that now delights, and the glory that now attracts you, will have passed away. Fickle and fleeting is it! The ploughshare of ruin will raze its foundation; the flood of desolation will sweep it into nothingness. A fleeting ship- a floating vapor- a passing cloud- a broken cistern- a failing spring- a withering flower- these are its just emblems. Not more unstable the sand of the desert, nor more uncertain the wind of heaven, nor more helpless before the storm, the chaff of the threshing-floor, than the glory with which you have linked your eternal destiny. Death has marked you for its own, and the Judge stands at the door. What will rank, and beauty, and estate, and friends, and money, and this poor world, avail you now? See! how they vanish away, all like a gorgeous day-dream, their glory departing like the setting sun at even, and you are encircled by the dark spirits, and the gloomy scenes, and the appalling solemnities, and the dread realities of Eternity! Eternity! Eternity!

And now you find yourself without God, and without Christ, and without hope. You have pampered the body, but have neglected the soul. You have unheeded warnings, and despised providences, and stifled convictions, and neglected sermons, and have desecrated sabbaths, and have blasphemed God, and have hated the saints, and have despised and rejected Jesus. God, in the plenitude of His patience and patience, has "called, and you have refused: He has stretched out His hand, you have not regarded, but have set at nothing all His counsel, and would none of His reproof: now, He laughs at your calamity, and mocks at your fear; your fear which has come as a desolation, and your destruction as a whirlwind; now that distress and anguish are upon you."

But yet there is hope. The bow of covenant mercy is round about the throne. The cross still stands! The fountain is still open! The ark has not left the shore! The city of refuge is accessible! In a word, Jesus died upon the cross to save the vilest sinners. And now He lives upon the throne, "exalted a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins." Then, haste to Him, haste! From a sinful, polluting, and doomed world, on which the fire of God is so soon to descend, "escape for your life; look not behind you, nor stay in all the plain, lest you be consumed." Beseech the Holy Spirit to discover you your pollution, and Christ's blood; your sinfulness, and His atonement; your deformity, and His righteousness; your poverty and emptiness, and His sufficiency and grace. And let this be your prayer- urged with agonizing and ceaseless wrestling, until, in the personal and happy experience of the blessing, the prayer is answered- "Lord, show me Your glory!" For, oh, be it known unto you, that if you see not the Redeemer's glory by faith on earth, you will never see it in its unveiled effulgence by sight in heaven. But Balaam's mournful prophecy and fearful doom will find its fulfilment in you: "I shall see Him, but not now; I shall behold Him, but not near." Far in the dim distance, curtained within the beams of His own majesty, the Redeemer will be seen upon the throne of His glory, surrounded by His Church- the white-robed and palm-bearing saints, now fully redeemed from all sorrow and sin, beholding the glory and entering into the joy of their Lord. A great and impassable gulf separates you from their companionship; and while you are torn from their view- the gloom and the darkness of hell gathering and deepening around you as you recede- exclaiming, "Lost! lost! eternally lost!" they will be striking their harps, and waving their palms, and casting down their crowns at, Jesus' feet, uttering their ascription in strains of overpowering sweetness, gratitude, and love–

"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift!"

The Glory of the Redeemer in His People

"I am glorified in them." John 17:10

Upborne on the pinion of faith, we have been soaring to the third heaven, contemplating for awhile the glory of our Emmanuel within the veil. Sweet and ravishing sight! Soon, oh! so soon to be seen without a glass; and seen but to be transformed into the same glory! The further consideration of our subject recalls us again to earth, to behold yet another manifestation of the glory of the Redeemer- even His glory in His saints. The unfolding of this truth will be found to confirm and illustrate another equally important one; namely, the perfect oneness of Christ and His Church, and the consequent reciprocity of interest and affection which exists: thus showing, that while Christ represents the Church above, the Church represents Christ below; while she is glorified with Him in heaven, He is glorified in her on earth. Holy, blessed, and indissoluble unity!

The manifested glory of Christ in His Church is clearly and emphatically stated in the sublime prayer of our dear Lord, to which we have already had occasion more than once to allude. Addressing His Father, He claims with Him- what no mere creature could do- a conjunction of interest in the Church, based upon an essential unity of nature. "All mine are Yours, and Your are mine, and I am glorified in them." What angel in heaven could adopt this language, what creature on earth could present this claim- "All Yours are mine!" It would be an act of the most daring presumption; it would be the very inspissation of blasphemy: but when our Lord asserts it- asserts it, too, in a solemn prayer, addressed on the eve of His death to His Father- what does it prove, but that a unity of property in the Church involves a unity of essence in being? There could be no perfect oneness of the Father and the Son in any single object, but as it sprang from a oneness of nature. We think this demonstratively true. Two things equal to a given thing, must be equal to each other. The axiom will apply with equal force to the truth before us. Convincing evidence of His Deity! Oh reject it not! He that lives and dies in the disbelief of the absolute Godhead of Jesus is lost forever. I assume not the office of his judge: I pronounce not the sentence of his condemnation. He who shall judge him in the last day has already foredoomed him- "If you believe not that I AM He, you shall die in your sins."

The mutual interest, then, which Christ thus claims with His Father, refers, in this instance, specifically to the Church of God. And it is delightful here to trace the perfect equality of love towards the Church as of perfect identity of interest in the Church. We are sometimes tempted to doubt the perfect sameness, as to degree, of the Father's love with the Son's love; that, because Jesus died and intercedes, the mind thus wont to familiarize itself with Him more especially, associating Him with all its comforting, soothing, hallowing views and enjoyments, we are liable to be beguiled into the belief that His love must transcend in its strength and intensity the love of the Father. But not so. The Father's love is of perfect equality in degree, as it is in nature, with the Son's love; and this may with equal truth be affirmed of the "love of the Spirit." "He that has seen me," says Jesus, "has seen the Father." Then he that has seen the melting, overpowering expressions of the Redeemer's love- he that has seen Him pouring out His deep compassion over the miseries of a suffering world; he that has seen His affectionate gentleness towards His disciples; he that has seen Him weep at the grave of Lazarus; he that has followed Him to the garden of Gethsemane, to the judgment-hall of Pilate, and from thence to the cross of Calvary, has seen in every step which He trod, and in every act which He performed, a type of the deep, deep love which the Father bears towards His people. He that has thus seen the Son's love has seen the Father's love. Oh, sweet to think, the love that travailed- the love that toiled- the love that wept- the love that bled- the love that died, is the same love, in its nature and intensity, which is deep-welled in the heart of the triune God, and is pledged to secure the everlasting salvation of the Church. "All mine are Yours, and Yours are mine, and I am glorified in them."

We are now to show IN WHAT PARTICULARS THE REDEEMER IS GLORIFIED IN HIS CHURCH.

He is glorified in being the covenant Head of all blessing to His people. How distinctly has the Holy Spirit declared this precious truth- "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places (things) in Christ." Here is our true Joseph with all the treasures which a Father's love can bestow, or which the covenant of grace provides, placed in His hands and at His disposal. It has "pleased the Father" to constitute Him the Head of the Church, and that in Him, as such, "all fulness should dwell." Here, too, is our true spiritual Eliakim, of whom it is sweetly prophesied, "And they shall hang upon Him all the glory of His Father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons." Isa. xxii. 24. Who sustains, as 'a nail fastened in a sure place,' all the glory of the Church, but Jesus? In Christ the Church is chosen. In Christ it is preserved. In Christ it lives. In Christ it is pardoned. In Christ it is justified. In Christ it is sanctified. In Christ it will be glorified. Thus does all the glory of the spiritual house hang on Christ- He is its foundation, He is its corner-stone; in Him; "fitly framed together, it grows up a holy temple in the Lord;" and He will be the top-stone, which shall be brought forth on the day of its completion, amid the shoutings of "Grace, grace unto it!"

On Him, too, hang all the 'vessels' of the house, the 'vessels of cups and the vessels of flagons;' the small and the great, the young and the old, the feeble and the strong, all the saints hang on Jesus, and Jesus supports and supplies all. See, how the 'vessels of cups, the vessels of small quantity,' hang upon Him, and how He supplies them. "And, behold, there came a leper, and worshiped Him, saying, Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed." "And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto You my son, who has a dumb spirit . . . . and ofttimes it has cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if You can do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, You dumb and deaf spirit, I charge you come out of him, and enter no more into him." "And, behold, a woman, who was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind Him, and touched the hem of His garment: for she said within herself, If I may but touch His garment I shall be whole. But Jesus turned Him about; and when He saw her, He said, Daughter, be of good comfort; your faith has made you whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour." "And He said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto you, Today shall you be with me in Paradise." "And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto Him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But He answered her not a word. . . . . Then came she and worshiped Him, saying, Lord, help me. But He answered and said, It is not fit to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is your faith: be it unto you even as you will."

Behold, how these 'vessels of small quantity' hang on Jesus; and behold, how He sustains and fills them. They are but as 'vessels of cups'- their knowledge is defective, their grace is limited, their experience but shallow, their faith but small, and they themselves but little- oh! how little, who can tell?- in their own eyes; yet, coming thus to Jesus' grace, exclaiming-

"Other refuge have I none,

Hangs my helpless soul on You,"

He receives them, He welcomes them, He bears them up, He supplies them, He fills them; He rejoices in their feeble grace, He despises not their little strength, He crowns their weak faith, He grants them the utmost desires of their hearts. Oh, what a Jesus is our Jesus! Were ever such gentleness, tenderness, and skill manifested towards the "bruised reed and the smoking flax? "

Dear reader, are you a 'vessel of small quantity?' It may be that, through the infirmities that encompass you, the trials that oppress you, the temptations that assail you, the clouds that surround you, you can receive Christ's fulness but in a limited degree; truth is understood but partially, there being doctrines, perhaps, hard to be understood, and precepts still harder to be obeyed. Light beams in upon the mind but faintly, the Scripture statement of the heart's deep subtlety and desperate wickedness is but slowly, cautiously, doubtingly received; the daily cross imposed by Christian discipleship, sometimes taken up, as often laid down; the rough way wounding the feet, the strait way causing them to stumble. Christ's grand atonement, His one, perfect obedience, His great and finished work, the sprinkling of His blood upon the conscience, the completeness of a believing soul in His righteousness, and the consequent "peace and joy in the Holy Spirit," but little known. These, it may be, are some of the features that mark your case. Yet, feeling your own vileness, and Christ's sufficiency and preciousness, and constrained to hang on Him solely and exclusively, as all your salvation and all your desire; though you can receive but a 'small quantity' of knowledge, of grace, and of love, you are yet a 'vessel of gold' in His house, and Jesus bears you on His heart, sets you as a seal upon His arm, and presents you each moment before God complete in Himself.

But there are also in this house "vessels of flagons," the larger vessels- saints of a deep grace, of gigantic faith, of profound knowledge. Hear one of them exclaim, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Oh how abundantly did this beloved apostle drink of "the river of God!" How deeply did he sink into the ocean of Christ's fulness! How high did he soar into the beatific presence of God, until sweeping the heavens with his expanded pinions, all the treasures that sparkle there seemed gathered into his soul. Yet, a large vessel though it was, in himself he was poor, vile, and empty; counting himself as the "chief of sinners," esteeming himself "less than the least of all saints," and ascribing all that he was as a renewed man to "the grace of God." In this his poverty, vileness, and emptiness, he hung with the small vessel, solely, entirely on Christ. The thief saved at the last moment, and Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, side by side hung on Jesus. "Of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." Both were pardoned with the same blood, both were justified by the same righteousness, both were filled from the same source, and both are now in glory, chanting the same song, and together casting their crowns before the throne. Thus is Jesus made the "Head over all things to His Church;" and His Church becomes in all its members, be they small or great, "the fulness of Him that fills all in all." Thus is Christ glorified in them. And oh, what infinite mind can compute the revenue of glory thus accruing to the Redeemer through His saints?

In the conversion of His people- their translation from nature to grace, the Redeemer is glorified. This is the first step to a manifest glorifying of Christ in His called saints. Conversion is the commencement of an endless revenue of glory to Christ. To behold a poor sinner living a life of practical enmity to God, hatred to Jesus, rebellion against the Divine government, and wilful and determined hostiliy to the one glorious plan of salvation; perhaps a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious; now changed, now conquered, now sitting at the feet of Jesus, "clothed and in his right mind," oh, is there no glory thus brought to the grace of Christ Jesus? To see him translated out of darkness into God's marvellous light; emancipated from the power of sin and Satan, and made the Lord's free man; the rebellious will conquered, the hard heart subdued, the proud spirit humbled, the hatred turned into love, and the long roving mind now finding its center of rest and fountain of happiness in the reconciled God, oh! is there no crown of glory placed on the head of Jesus in all this? Say, you angelic spirits, bending over the mercy-seat in deep contemplation of its awful mysteries of incarnate grace and dying love- whose eyes glisten and whose bosoms expand with new effulgence and joy over one sinner that repents, do you see no glory deepening around the Son of God, as each vessel of mercy is called in, emptied of self, and filled with Jesus? Yet not to angels, but to saints themselves, we appeal. Hear the testimony of one- "Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ: but they had heard only, that he who persecuted us in times past, now preached the faith which one he destroyed. And they glorified God in me." Oh, how are the power, the wisdom, the grace, the love of the Redeemer glorified, and God through Him, by every new accession thus made to the number of the redeemed! Aim to be instrumental in bringing one soul to receive the Lord Jesus as all its salvation, and you bring more glory to His name than were a thousand worlds like this to start into being at your fiat. "Those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever."

But how is He glorified in God's acceptance of His people through Him! Who can entertain a doubt of this, that has any experimental knowledge of the great work of the Lord Jesus? Look at this for one moment. God's justification of the believing sinner through the righteousness of His Son, is His seal to the perfection, and efficacy, and worth of Christ's obedience and death. What glory, suppose you, would encircle the form of Gabriel, were it possible for Jehovah to accept a poor sinner in his righteousness! How high would this act advance him in dignity, and honor, and praise above all celestial intelligences! But oh! we stand, beloved, in a better and a diviner righteousness than that of angel or archangel; we stand in the righteousness of the incarnate God! and that God, the holy Lord God, should accept a poor sinner in the righteousness of His Son, places that Son in the ascendant of all creatures, "dwelling in light," the full effulgence of which "no man has seen, nor can see." This truth, unfolded to his soul by the Holy Spirit, constrained an eminent saint of God to exclaim, "Had I all the faith of the patriarchs, all the zeal of the prophets, all the good works of the apostles, all the holy suffering of the martyrs, and all the glowing devotion of the seraphs; I would disclaim the whole, in point of dependence, and count all but dross and dung when compared with the infinitely precious death and the infinitely meritorious righteousness of Jesus Christ my Lord." But one yet more eminent for his deep experience of this truth, has thus recorded his testimony: "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yes, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." Who can compute the glory brought to Jesus by God's full justification of the poor believing sinner through the righteousness of His beloved Son?

He is glorified in the progressive holiness of His people. "The kingdom of God is within you," says Christ. The increase of this kingdom is just the measure and extent of the believer's advance in sanctification. This is that internal righteousness, the work of God the Holy Spirit, which consists in the subjugation of the mind, the will, the affections, the desires, yes, the whole soul, to the government and supremacy of Jesus, "bringing into captivity," says the apostle, "every thought to the obedience of Christ." Oh, you who are "striving against sin," longing to be "conformed to the image of God's Son," panting to be more "pure in heart," "hungering and thirsting for righteousness," think that in every step which you take in the path of holiness, in every corruption subdued, in every besetting sin laid aside, in every holy desire begotten, Christ is glorified in you! But you perhaps reply, "the more I strive for the mastery, the more I seem to be conquered. The more strongly I oppose my sins, the stronger my sins seem to be." But what does this prove? it proves that "God is working in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure," -that the kingdom of God is invading the kingdom of Satan- that the Spirit dwelling in the heart is warring with the flesh. It is truly remarked by Owen, that "if a believer lets his sins alone, his sins will let him alone." But let him search them as with candles, let him bring them to the light, oppose, mortify, and crucify them, they will to the last, struggle for the victory. And this inward warfare, so graphically and touchingly described in the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, undeniably marks the inhabitation of God the Holy Spirit in the soul.

But to see one advancing in holiness, thirsting for God, the heart fixed in its solemn purpose of entire surrender; cultivating higher views, and aiming for a loftier standard; to behold him, perhaps, carving his way to the throne through mighty opposition, "fightings without; fears within; "striving for the mastery of some besetting sin, sometimes foiling, and sometimes foiled, sometimes with the shout of victory on the lip, and sometimes with painful consciousness of defeat bowing the heart; yet still onward- the needle of the soul, with slow and tremulous, but true and certain, movement, still pointing to its glorious attraction, God- faith that can never fail, and hope that can never die, and love that can never be quenched; hanging amid their warfare and in all their weakness upon the "nail fastened in a sure place." How is Christ, our sanctification, glorified in such a saint!

Oh to be like Jesus! meek, and lowly, and gentle, and kind, and forgiving; without craftiness, without deceit, without malice, without revenge; without one temper, or thought, or feeling, or look, that is unlike Him! Beloved, mistake not the nature and the evidence of growth in sanctification. In all your self-denial in this great work, be cautious of grace-denial. You will need much holy wisdom here, lest you overlook the work of the Spirit within you. You have thought, it may be, of the glory that Christ receives from brilliant genius, and profound talent, and splendid gifts, and glowing zeal, and costly sacrifices, and even extensive usefulness. But have you ever thought of the glory, the far greater, richer glory, that flows to Him from the contrite spirit, the broken heart, the lowly mind, the humble walk; from the tear of godly repentance that falls when seen by no human eye, and the sigh of godly sorrow that is breathed when heard by no human ear; and the sin abhorrence, and self loathing, and deep sense of vileness, and poverty, and infirmity that takes you to Jesus with the prayer- "Lord, here I am; I have brought to You my rebellious will, my wandering heart, my worldly affections, my peculiar infirmity, my besetting and constantly overpowering sin. Receive ,me graciously, put forth the mighty power of Your grace in my soul, and subdue all, and rule all, and subjugate all to Yourself! Will it not be for Your glory, the glory of Your great name, if this strong corruption were subdued by Your grace, if this powerful sin were nailed to Your cross, if this temper so sensitive, and this heart so impure, and these affections so truant, and this mind so dark, and these desires so earthly, and these pursuits so carnal, and these aims so selfish, were all entirely renewed by Your Spirit, sanctified by Your grace, and made each to reflect Your image? Yes, Lord, it would be for Your glory, through time and through eternity."

Especially is the Lord Jesus glorified in the life of faith which His saints live upon Him. The experience of every believer is, in a limited degree, the experience of the great apostle of the Gentiles, the tip of whose soaring wing, we, who so much skim the earth's surface, can scarcely touch- "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." "Like precious faith" with his, dwells in the hearts of all the regenerate. Along this royal highway it is ordained by God that all His people should travel. It is the way their Lord traveled before them; it is the way they are to follow after Him. The first step they take out of the path of 'sense', is into the path of 'faith'. And what a mighty grace do they

find it, as they journey on! Do they live? it is by faith. Do they stand? it is by faith. Do they walk? it is by faith. Do they fight? it is by faith. Do they overcome? it is by faith. Do they see what is invisible? it is by faith. Do they receive what is incredible? it is by faith. Do they achieve what is impossible? it is by faith. Glorious achievements of faith!

And, oh, how eminently is Jesus thus glorified in His saints! Was it no glory to Joseph that, having the riches of Egypt in His hands, all the people were made, as it were, to live daily and hourly upon Him? Was no fresh accession of dignity brought to His exaltation, by every fresh acknowledgment of His authority, and every renewed application to His wealth? And is not Jesus glorified in His exaltation, and in His fulness, and in His love, and in His grace, by that faith, in the exercise of which, "a poor and an afflicted people," the needy and the tried Church, are made to travel to, and live upon, Him each moment? Ah, yes! every corruption taken to His sanctifying grace; every burden taken to His omnipotent arm; every sorrow taken to His sympathizing heart; every need taken to His overflowing fulness; every wound taken to His healing hand; every sin taken to His cleansing blood; and every deformity taken to His all-covering righteousness, swells the revenue of glory, which each second of time ascends to our adorable Redeemer from His Church.

You may have imagined- for I will now suppose myself as addressing the seeking soul- that Christ has been more glorified by your hanging back from Him- doubting the efficacy of His blood to cancel your guilt, and the power of His grace to mortify your corruption, and the sufficiency of His fulness to supply your need, and the sympathy of His nature to soothe your grief, and the loving willingness of heart to receive and welcome you as you are, empty, vile, and worthless; little thinking, on the contrary, how much He has been grieved, and wounded, and dishonored, and robbed of His glory, by this doubting of His love, and this distrusting of His grace, after all the melting exhibitions of the one, and all that convincing evidence of the other.

But, is it the desire of your inmost soul that Christ should be glorified by you? then do not forget the grand, luminous truth of the Bible, that He is the Savior of sinners, and of sinners as sinners- that in the great matter of the soul's salvation, He recognizes nothing of worthiness in the creature; and that whatever human merit is brought to Him with a view of commending the case to His notice- whatever- be it even the incipient work of His own Spirit in the heart- is appended to His finished work, as a ground of acceptance with God, is so much detraction from His glory as a Redeemer- than which, of nothing He is more jealous- and, consequently, places the soul at a great remove from His grace. But like Bartimeus, casting the garment from you- be that garment what it may- pride of merit- pride of intellect- pride of learning- pride of family- pride of place- yes, whatever hinders your entering the narrow way, and prevents your receiving the kingdom of God "as a little child," and coming to Jesus to be saved by Him alone, brings more real glory to Him, than imagination can conceive, or words can describe.

If, then, Jesus is especially glorified in the faith of His people, let yours be a life of faith in all its minute detail. Live upon Him for spiritual supplies; live upon Him for temporal supplies. Go to Him in dark providences, that you may be kept from sinking: go to Him in bright providences, that you may be kept from falling. Go to Him when the path is rough, that you may walk in it contentedly: go to Him when the path is smooth, that you may walk in it surely. Let your daily history be a traveling to Jesus empty, and a coming from Jesus filled. Keep the truth constantly and prominently before your eye, "The just shall live by faith." If this be so, do not expect that God will ever permit you to live by sight. Bend your whole soul submissively to Him in this matter. Let His will and yours be one. If, in the course of your wilderness journeyings, He has brought you into a great strait, yes, to the very margin of the sea, still at His bidding, 'go forward,' though it be into that sea. Trust Him to cleave asunder its waters, making a dry passage for your feet, and causing those very waves that threatened to engulf you, now to prove as a cloud canopying you above, and as walls of strength, fencing you in on every side. Remember, too, that it is one peculiar exercise and precious privilege of faith, to "wait patiently for the Lord." The Divine exhortation is, "Commit your way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He will bring it to pass." "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." This patience of the soul is the rest of faith, on the faithful God; it is a 'standing still, to see His salvation.' And the Divine encouragement is, that in this posture will be found the secret of your real power. "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." "Their strength is to sit still." Be watchful against everything that would mar the simplicity of your faith, and so dim the glory of Jesus. Especially guard against the adoption of unlawful or doubtful measures, with a view to disentanglement from present difficulties. Endure the pressure, submit to the wrong, bear the suffering, rather than sin against God, by seeking to forestall His mind, or to antedate His purpose, or by transferring your interests from His hands to your own.

"Beware of desperate steps: the darkest day,

Wait but tomorrow, will have passed away."

Oh, the glory that is brought to Jesus by a life of faith! Who can fully estimate it? Taking to Him the corruption, as it is discovered- the guilt, as it rises- the grief, as it is felt- the cross, as it is experienced- the wound, as it is received; yes, simply following the example of John's disciples, who, when their master was slain, took up his headless body, and buried it, and then went and poured their mournful intelligence into the ear of Jesus, and laid their deep sorrow on His heart; this is to glorify Christ! Truly is this "precious faith," and truly is the "trial of our faith precious," for it renders more precious to the heart "His precious blood," who, in His person, is unutterably "precious to those who believe."

By a patient endurance of suffering for His sake, the Redeemer is greatly glorified in His saints. The apostle- and few drank of the bitter cup more deeply than He- presents suffering for Christ, in the soothing light of a Christian privilege. "Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to safer for His sake." And how touchingly did the experience of the disciples correspond with this: "They departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name." Has it pleased the Lord, dear reader, to place you in a somewhat similar position? Ah! is it no suffering to stand up in the midst of one's beloved family, surrounded by irreligion, and worldliness, and a total disregard of the fear of God, a lone and a despised witness for Jesus? Ah! is it no suffering to thread the intricate and narrow way, or to run with you the Christian race, in the domestic circle- no eye beaming with holy love, no voice responding in cheering accent, no hand to guide, no arm to lean upon, no bosom to weep upon, no kindred spirit, no second self; to see one's God denied, one's Savior rejected, one's religion scoffed, one's principles trampled under foot, and one's privileges curtailed; to have one's name cast out as evil, to be counted a fool, an enthusiast, or mad; to endure the loss of temporal interest, and domestic happiness, and earthly prospects, and in a sense to "forsake house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for Christ's sake;" -is this no path of trial and suffering? "But if you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you," for thereby is Christ glorified in you. He is glorified in your patient endurance of suffering, in your meek submission to reproach, in your overcoming evil with good, your return of prayer for cursing, of blessing for railing, and of love for hatred. Believer, suffering for Christ! rejoice, yes, rejoice that you are counted worthy to suffer shame for His sake! What distinction is awarded you! What honor is put upon you! What a favored opportunity have you now of bringing glory to His name! -for illustrating His sustaining grace, and upholding strength, and almighty power, and infinite wisdom, and comforting love! By the firm, yet mild maintenance of your principles, by the dignified, yet gentle spirit of forbearance, by the uncompromising, yet kind resistance to allurement, let the Redeemer be glorified in you! In all your persecution for righteousness' sake, let your eye be immovably fixed on Jesus. In Him, and in this peculiar path, you have a bright example. "Consider Him that endured such contradiction from sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your mind." Remember how, for your redemption, He "endured the cross, despising the shame;" and for your continual support, "is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." "Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees," "for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you."

Great, too, is the glory brought to our incarnate God by the sanctified afflictions of His saints. How deep these often are, let many testify; and yet the deeper the affliction, the deeper the glory. Behold the glory brought to God by Daniel in the den of lions; by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the fiery furnace; and by Paul and Silas in the prison. And what is their history, but a type of all the afflicted members of God's family? The Lord will be glorified in His people- therefore does He afflict, and try, and chasten them. "The Lord tries the righteous." He has His den, His prison, His furnace. He has His own mode, His appointed way of proving His work in their hearts; and whether by the lions' den, or the prison, or the furnace, He is glorified in them. To see how Christ can shut the mouth of the lion, and can temper the devouring flame, and can unbar the doors of the prison-house, how glorious thus appears His power! To mark the resigned will, the subdued spirit, the mute submission, the cheerful acquiescence in the deepest affliction, how glorious thus appears His grace! To behold the daily strength imparted, the precious promises applied, the soothing consolation experienced, how glorious thus appears His love! To see the chaff scattered, and the dross consumed, and the mind brought into perfect harmony with God's will, to say with David, "My soul is even as a weaned child," how glorious thus appears His wisdom! Oh, if these are the blessings which blossom upon the rod, then welcome the rod! If this is the glory brought to the name of Jesus by a process of sanctified affliction, then welcome the affliction! Only see that He is truly glorified in you by it. See that He is glorified while you are in the furnace, by your passive graces; see that He is glorified when you have come forth from the furnace, by your active graces. "Wherefore glorify you the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel." "When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold."

Nor must we overlook that path walking in which the Redeemer is so manifestly glorified in His saints- even the way of a holy and cheerful obedience to His commands. Were we to select a single word from the Bible which we would desire to be distinctly, prominently, and constantly before the eye of the believer, it would be- obedience. The stress which the Holy Spirit has laid upon the duty is great, and the blessing and honor which the Lord has attached to its observance, is immense and encouraging. It involves every covenant mercy, and it is the great secret of all holiness, and therefore of all happiness.

What the Lord once spoke to His ancient people, He speaks at the present to all His spiritual Israel, "Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." And who does not trace the blessing which the Lord has attached to obedience in the history of Abraham, when, at God's command, be bound his son as a sacrifice upon the altar- "And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice." And see how the Lord confirmed the fact of his obedient walk, and fulfilled the promise of blessing to his son Isaac, to whom He said, "Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for unto you, and unto your seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I aware unto Abraham your father . . . because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." Rich, too, is the blessing annexed to the promise, "If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat of the good of the land." And solemn and searching the word addressed by the holy prophet to the temporizing king, "Has the Lord as great delight in burned offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

As King in Zion, our adorable Lord Jesus delights to reign over a loving and an obedient people. Thus He has made their obedience to His commands a test of their love to His person- "If you love me, keep my commandments." "Teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you," was the last charge given to His disciples. Now it is this keeping of His commandments, this observance of what He has enjoined, that glorifies Him in His saints. Coming to Him in our ignorance, glorifies Him as our Prophet; coming to Him with our guilt, glorifies him as our Priest; and walking obediently to His precepts, glorifies Him as our King. It places the crown upon the head of His sovereignty, it recognizes the spiritual nature of His kingdom, and it upholds the purity, majesty, and authority of His laws. It becomes, then, the solemn and imperative duty of every believer to search the will and testament of his dying, risen, and exalted Lord, to ascertain all that He has enjoined upon his obedience in the way of precept and command. For how can he be a good and an obedient subject, if be understands not the laws of Christ's kingdom? Then, when the precept is clearly revealed, and the command is distinctly made known, immediate, self-denying, and cheerful obedience is to follow, as that path which, while it insures the sweetest peace to the soul, brings the highest glory to Christ. Let yours be an obedient walk, dear reader! Let your obedience be the fruit of faith, the dictate of love. Permit no reserve in your obedience! let it be full, honest, and complete. Search the New

Testament Scripture, and examine closely your own walk, and ascertain in what particular your obedience to Christ is deficient. Be upright, honest, and sincere in your inquiry. Let your fervent prayer be, "Lord, what will You have me to do? Is there any precept of Your word slighted, any command disobeyed, any cross not taken up? Is there any desire to withhold my neck from Your yoke, or to withdraw my shoulder from Your burden, or to mark out a smoother path than that which You have chosen and bid me walk in? Is there any secret framing of excuse for my disobedience, any temporizing, any carnal feeling, any worldly motive, any fear of man, any shrinking from consequences? Lord, You know all things, You know that I love You. You are precious to my soul, for You have borne my sins, endured my curse, carried my cross; and in return do only ask, as an evidence of how much I owe, and how much I love, that I should keep Your commandments, and follow Your example. Now, Lord, take my poor heart, and let it be Yours, Yours only, and Yours forever. Let Your sweet love constrain me to 'run in the way of Your commandments,' for this will I do when You shall enlarge my heart." Then will follow the precious fruits of obedience, even as the bud expands into the blossom, and the blossom ripens into the fruit. There will be a growth, a delightful expansion of the life of God in the soul! and with the increase of the Divine life, there will be an increase of all the precious 'fruits of the Spirit.' "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel! I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go. Oh that you had hearkened to my commandments! then had your peace been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea." See that your Redeemer is glorified in your obedience; that for the happiness of your soul, and for the honor of Christ, you "stand complete in all the will of God!"

The branch of our subject, thus imperfectly placed before the reader, is deeply practical. In what a solemn and responsible position it places every believer! "You are my witnesses, says the Lord." "I have created him for my glory." "You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified." Then, how "very jealous for the Lord God of hosts" should we be! How vigilant, lest in any degree, or in any way, we withhold from Christ the glory due unto Him. There are many ways by which we may be betrayed into this grievous sin- a careless walk- unmortified sin- self-indulgence- a light and volatile spirit- a neglect of means- a distant walk with God- coldness of love towards the saints. But especially mixing up with, and indulging in, a sinful conformity to the world, its fashions, its pleasures, its literature, its religion. Christian professor! can you rigidly conform to these fashions- can you spend your hours over that novel- can you attend that ball- can you move in that dance- can you embark in that enterprise, and glorify Jesus by it? Put the question fairly, honestly, and closely to your conscience, "Do I bring glory to Christ by this? Is my Redeemer thus magnified in me before the world and the Church?" Oh, aim for a high standard! Do not be a common-place professor. Do not be an ordinary Christian. Shun not to be singular. Dare for the glory of Christ to come out of the world, not to touch the unclean thing, and to be separate, set apart for God alone. "Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit! so shall you be my disciples." Thank God for the little, but, oh, aim for the 'much fruit!' -strong faith, ardent love, self-consuming zeal, unreserved obedience, holy, and entire, and supreme surrender. "From me is your fruit found." Your union with Christ, your living in Christ, your close adherence to Christ, your constant drawing from Christ, will be found to involve the happy secret of that great fruitfulness which brings most glory to the Triune God. Come- drawn by grace, constrained by love, attracted by the glory and the preciousness of Jesus- come now to that one' altar which sanctifies both the giver and the gift,' and as you lay yourself upon it, body, soul, and spirit, exclaim with the apostle, "Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death." The solemn vow is taken! The holy surrender is made! It is seen, it is heard, it is ratified in heaven. May you be so strengthened from above, "that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of God, even the Lord Jesus Christ," is the devout and fervent desire of one who, with you, through time and through eternity, hopes to unite in the grateful, adoring, and never ceasing hallelujah,

"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift!"

The Holy Spirit Glorifying the Redeemer

He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. John 16:14

He will bring me glory by revealing to you whatever he receives from me. John 16:14

How replete with the deepest instruction, and how copious with the richest comfort, is the chapter which embodies the great truth, on the unfolding of which we have now entered! We have before observed, that it was a marked characteristic of the farewell discourse of our blessed Lord to His disciples, that He then went more fully into the character and official work of the Holy Spirit than at any former period of His ministry. There is an air of solemnity and a force of affirmation in the manner and in the terms with which He proceeds to enunciate the great truth of the Spirit's descent, as an immediate and necessary consequent of His own departure, which not only awaken on its behalf the deepest interest, but which evidence that, in the mind of the glorious Promiser Himself, the gift was identical with the most enlarged, costly, and enduring blessing to the Church: "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you: but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." Thereby implying, that the permanent presence and indwelling of the Spirit as the Comforter, was even more than an equivalent for His bodily absence; and would fully compensate the Church for any loss it might sustain from His departure. Ah, it is the mercy of the believer to know that he is not only a temple of the Holy Spirit, but that through all his pilgrimage he shall be gladdened with the presence, and cheered with the smile, of Jesus too.

Our Lord then proceeds to advance another reason for the gift which He was about to bestow. "I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now." We are not to understand, that by this He meant to convey the idea that He had kept back any doctrines or precepts of the Gospel, to be afterwards revealed to, and more fully promulgated by the apostles: far from it; for in His frequent discourses, on various suitable occasions, He had fully expounded to His disciples all the great leading truths and doctrines of His Gospel, leaving them nothing to conjecture or to doubt. Hence, on a previous occasion, He declares, "I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard from my Father, I have made known unto you." But we are to interpret His meaning as referring, among other things, to the enlargement of His kingdom, by the accession of the Gentiles to it; to the nature of the Gospel Church, of which they as yet were imperfectly informed, if informed at all; to the dispersion of the Jewish nation, and their final restoration to their own land; to the entire abrogation of the Mosaic economy, and to the rise and progress of Antichrist; the full disclosure of these things, they could not then bear, in consequence of their Jewish prejudices, which yet existed- the earthly conceptions of Christ's kingdom, which they still cherished, and the scanty measure- the mere pledge- of the Holy Spirit, which they had as yet but received.

There is yet another declaration of our Lord concerning the Spirit, to which we would refer, vindicating it from a misinterpretation, which it has received- "He will not speak of Himself." This passage has led many to suppose, that the Spirit does not speak of, or witness to, His own work! But this is, obviously, not the true meaning of the words. "He will not speak of (or, from) Himself," that is, in opposition to, or independently of, the Father and the Son. Thus our Lord, referring to Himself, says, "I have not spoken of (or, from) myself;" and again, "The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself," evidently meaning, "I come not in my own name, I come to do my Father's will; I have no separate authority of my own; I act in concert with Him that sent me." And in this obvious sense, our Lord says of the Spirit, "He shall not speak of (or, from) Himself;" -not that He shall not speak of or witness to His own work in the soul, but that He shall not speak of His own self, as separate from the Godhead. The misinterpretation which we have thus endeavored to correct, has led those who entertained it, to question the absolute Deity of the Spirit; as if the text implied inferiority of nature. But we answer, Did not our Lord come as a servant, and not in His own name; and did that inferiority of office prove an inferiority of nature? Surely not. Is the King's Son less a prince royal, because He bears a commission from His Father? He may be inferior to His Father in office, yet equal to Him in all the personal and essential attributes of royalty. When Christ affirmed, "My Father is greater than I," He alluded to a subordination of office, not to an inequality of nature. Thus the Spirit is as much a procession from the Father as the Son, and is as much the messenger of Christ as Christ is of the Father. The Spirit leads us to the Son, and the Son conducts us to the Father. "For through Him (the Son) we both (Jew and Gentile) have access by one Spirit unto the Father." The Father is God- the Son is God- and the Holy Spirit is God, and these three constitute the One Triune Jehovah.

But the great work of the Spirit is to glorify Christ. To the devout and solemn consideration of this precious and important branch of our great subject, let us now direct our thoughts. Thus does our Lord affirm the truth- "He will glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." Viewed in relation to this truth, the work of the Holy Spirit appears in a light of immeasurable greatness and glory. It would seem to be the pivot on which turned the entire work of Jesus- the source which supplied its life, its power, and its efficacy. Not for a moment would we hazard the idea, that the testimony and grace of the Spirit imparted any intrinsic efficacy to the atoning work of Jesus; the entire completeness of that work, its full acceptance in the court of justice, the legal discharge of the Church on its ground, and the Father's approval of it by the resurrection and exaltation of His Son; as we have shown at some length. The sacrificial work of Jesus, therefore, receives no measure of intrinsic value, or efficacy, from any part of the work of the Spirit: and yet there is a connection, and a dependence. As far as the work of our dear Lord becomes available in the personal salvation of the believer, it depends solely upon the life-giving influence of God the Holy Spirit. Complete as is the righteousness, efficacious as is the blood, and all-sufficient as is the grace of Christ, yet apart from the especial, effectual, and Divine operation of the Spirit upon the heart, they would remain to us as a robe unworn, a fulness untouched, a "fountain sealed." Thus, there is a beautiful relation, a sweet harmony, between the atoning work of Jesus and the official work of the Holy Spirit- "He will glorify me."

We have already alluded to the day of Pentecost. We recur to it again, because on that memorable day the Spirit first glorified Christ, openly, visibly, manifestly. It would seem as if the curtain of eternity were parted, and the windows of heaven were opened, and eyes that saw nothing but lowliness, and poverty and degradation in Jesus before, now were permitted to behold Him inaugurated in His throne, a Prince and a Savior, encircled with glory, and with gifts of grace in His hand, ready to shower them profusely upon the rebellious. Three thousand souls pierced to their heart, made to see the plague within, stretched out their hands of faith, and welcomed these gifts, adoring the grace, extolling the love, crowning the Prince, and lauding the Savior, from where, and through whom, they proceeded. Oh, how illustriously did the Spirit now outwardly glorify Jesus! How glorious did He appear to those who now saw nothing but deformity in themselves! How precious to those whose hearts were never before stricken with godly grief! What compunction, what sadness, what sorrow must have bowed their hearts to the dust as they thought- "This is He whom we called a Nazarene, whom we stigmatized as a glutton and a wine-bibber, whom we bound, whom we scourged, whom we spat upon, whom we mocked, and whom we crucified!" But how glorious to their eye would He now appear, returning them good for evil, blessing for cursing, cherishing them on the bosom they had wounded, and causing pardon, acceptance, present hope and future glory, to flow to them through that very blood in the shedding of which their hands had been imbrued! What an open, visible glorifying of Christ by the Eternal Spirit was this!

The Spirit glorifies Jesus in the Word. The Word of God is full of Christ. He is the sun of this Divine system, the fountain of its light and beauty. How emphatically does He Himself declare this truth, and we know that His witness is true- "You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!" The Scriptures testify of Jesus. Every doctrine derives its substance from His person, every precept its force from His work, every promise its sweetness from His love. Is it not to be feared, that in the study of the Scriptures, it is a much forgotten truth, that they testify of Jesus? Are they not read, searched, and examined, with a mind too little intent upon adding to its wealth, by an increased knowledge of His person, and character, and work? And thus it is we lower the character of the Bible. We may read it as a mere uninspired record; we may study it as a book of human literature. Its antiquity may interest us, its history may inform us, its philosophy may instruct us, its poetry may charm us; and thus, while skimming the surface of this Book of books, the glorious Christ, who is its substance, its subject, its sweetness, its work- and but for whom there had been no Bible- has been deeply and darkly veiled from the eye.

But it is the office of the blessed and eternal Spirit to unfold, and so to glorify, Jesus in the Word. All that we spiritually and savingly learn respecting Him, through this revealed medium, is by the sole teaching of the Holy Spirit, opening up this word to the mind. He shows how all the luminous lines of Scripture truth emanate from, return to, and center in, Christ- how all the doctrines set forth the glory of His person, how all the promises are written in His heart's blood, and how all the precepts are embodied in His life.

To the question often earnestly propounded- "What is the best method of reading, so as to understand the Scriptures?" I would, in this connection of our subject, reply- Read them with the one desire and end of learning more of Christ, and with earnest prayer for the teaching of the Spirit, that Christ may be unfolded in the Word. With this simple method persevered in, you shall not fail to comprehend the mind of the Holy Spirit, in portions which previously may have been unintelligible and obscure. Do not restrict yourself to fixed rules, or to human helps. Rely less upon dictionaries, and maps, and annotations. With singleness of aim, with a specific object of research, and with fervent prayer for the Holy Spirit's teaching, "you need not that any man teach you;" but collating Scripture with Scripture, "comparing spiritual things with spiritual," you may fearlessly enter upon the investigation of the greatest mysteries contained in the sacred Volume, assured that the Savior, for whose glories and riches you search, will reveal Himself to your eye, "full of grace and truth." Precious Bible! so full of a precious Jesus! How do all its clouds and darkness melt into light and beauty, as He, the Sun of Righteousness, rises in noontide glory upon its page!

Search it, my reader, with a view of seeing and knowing more of your Redeemer, compared with whom, nothing else is worth knowing or making known. Love your Bible, because it testifies of Jesus; because it unfolds the great Savior, the almighty Redeemer; because it reveals the glory of the sin-pardoning God, in the person of Jesus Christ. Aim to unravel Jesus in the types, to observe Him amid the shadows, to trace Him through the predictions of the prophets, the records of the evangelists, and the letters of the apostles. All speak of, and all lead to, Jesus. "They are they which testify of me."

And not only thus, but by employing the truth which especially testifies of Jesus, as the grand instrument of producing that holiness in the soul of which He is the Divine Author, He confers unspeakable honor on Christ in the word. The Spirit of God undertakes the achievement of a stupendous work. He enters the soul, and proposes to restore the empire of grace, the reign of holiness, and the throne of God. He engages to form all things anew- to create a revolution in favor of Christ and of heaven. He undertakes to change the heart, turning its enmity into love; to collect all the elements of darkness and confusion, educing from them perfect light and perfect order; to subdue the will, bringing it into harmony with God's will; to explore all the recesses of sin, turning its very impurity into holiness- in a word, to regenerate the soul, restoring the Divine image, and fitting it for the full and eternal enjoyment of God in glory. Now, in accomplishing this great work, what instrumentality does He employ? Passing by all human philosophy, and pouring contempt upon the profoundest wisdom and the mightiest power of man, He employs, in the product of a work, in comparison with which the rise and the fall of empires were as infants' play, simply and alone, the "truth as it is in Jesus." With this instrument He enters the soul- the seat of the greatest revolution that ever transpired. He moves over the dark chaos, without form and void, and in a moment, a world of immortal beauty bursts into view. He overshadows the soul, and a vital principle is imparted, whose stream of existence, once commenced, flows on with the eternity of God Himself. How Divine, yet how natural, too, the process! In the illapses of human thought, in the overtasked power of the human intellect, how often is the mind impaired and shattered by the severe process through which it passes! But here is a revolution which touches every faculty of the soul, which changes all the powers of the mind; and yet, so gentle, so persuasive, and so mild, is the Spirit's operation, that so far from deranging the power, or disturbing the balance, of the intellect, it develops resources, awakens energies, and inspires strength, of which, until now, it knew not its possession. "The entrance of Your word gives light; it gives understanding unto the simple."

And to what shall we turn for the secret of this? To the Gospel, so replete with the glory of Jesus. That Gospel, the substance of which is the incarnate God; the theme of which is Christ crucified. That Gospel which testifies of His Godhead, which declares His manhood, which unfolds the union of both in the person of the glorious Redeemer; and which holds Him up to view, mighty and willing to save to the uttermost. Well may the great apostle of the Gentiles exclaim, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes."

In the further work of sanctification by the truth, the Divine Spirit equally magnifies Christ. Still does He employ the truth, that speaks of Jesus. Does He quicken? it is by a Gospel precept. Does He establish? it is by a Gospel doctrine. Does He comfort? it is by a Gospel promise. Does He sanctify? it is by a Gospel admonition. Thus is Jesus honored through the word, in every step of our way to heaven. And oh, how sanctifying and comforting is the truth which testifies of Jesus! It has but to point to Him, and, clothed with the energy of the Spirit, the strongest corruption is subdued, the deepest grief is soothed. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." And this it does, by unfolding Jesus in the word. Oh, of what, value or efficacy is all our knowledge of the truth, if it lead us not to Jesus; if it expand not our views of His glory; if it conform not our minds to His image; if it increase not our love to His person, and if it quicken not our obedience to His commands, and our zeal for His cause; and mature us not, by a progressive holiness, for the enjoyment of His beatific presence?

But here let us vindicate the honor of the Divine Spirit against the view of some, calculated greatly to affect it. There are those who deny any other operation of the Holy Spirit, than that which exists in the written word- thus restricting His influence solely to the letter of the truth, and thereby limiting His power and detracting from His glory.

But is not this an exalting of the instrumental above the efficient cause of regeneration? Divine as is the record, and precious as is the revelation it affords of Jesus, it yet is but an instrument, and nothing more. Unaccompanied with the power of the Holy Spirit, it is inactive, inoperative, a mere dead letter. It quickens not, it sanctifies not, it comforts not. It may be read constantly, and searched deeply, and known accurately, and understood partially, and quoted appropriately; yet, left to its own unassisted power, 'it comes but in word only,' producing no hallowing, no abiding, no saving results. If there be no other, especial and invincible, influence of the Divine Spirit, operating upon the mind, how comes it to pass that all who read the word are not instantly converted by the word? -that wherever these healing leaves are borne, wherever this precious seed is scattered, broad-cast upon the world, man's moral malady is not arrested, and a harvest of happiness to the creature, and of glory to God, springs not forth. Let those who insist upon no other extraneous and superior operation of the Holy Spirit, in the spiritual creation of the soul, than exists in the mere letter of the word, reply.

But the truth itself shall testify. See how it disclaims all such glory, ascribing it to Him to whom it of right and alone belongs- God the Holy Spirit. "Our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit." Here, evidently, are the word and the Spirit, the instrument and the Agent, co-operating together. The apostle, in another place, speaks of the truth, as the "sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Of what real service can the sword be, if not used? Its surface may be polished, and its edge may be keen, yet if there is no powerful arm to wield it, it can do no execution- none feel, none fear it. But it is the "sword of the Spirit," -He employs it then it is that the "word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword," -then it separates, then it wounds, then it slays.

"The word declares Christ, and the Spirit excites the heart to accept Him. The word shows His excellency, and the Spirit stirs up strong cries after Him. The word declares the promises, and the Spirit helps us to plead them. The word administers reasons against our reasonings, and the Spirit applies them. The word shows the way, the Spirit enables us to walk in it. The word is the seed of the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Quickener of the word. The word is the graft, and the Spirit is the Engrafter. The word is the pool of water, and the Spirit stirs it to make it healing." (Charnock)

In the clear and decided testimony which He bears to the Godhead of the Redeemer, the Spirit especially glorifies Him. We have seen in the preceding pages, that the great glory of our Emmanuel is His essential glory. When our faith can firmly grasp the Deity of our adorable Lord- and on this precious doctrine may it never waver!- there is a corresponding confidence and repose of the mind in each particular of His sacrificial work. Then it is we talk of Him as a Mediator, and love to view Him as the great Sin-bearer of His people. In vain do we admire His righteousness, or extol His death, if we look not upon Him in the glory which belongs to Him as essentially God. From this truth, as from a fountain of light, beams forth the glory which sheds its soft halo around His atoning work. Oh, when, in the near view of death, memory summons back the past, and sin in battle-array passes before the eye, and we think of the Lord God, the Holy One, into whose awful presence we are about to enter, how will every other support but this sink beneath us! And as the Holy Spirit then glorifies Christ in His essential glory, testifying that the blood and righteousness- the soul's great trust- are from the incarnate God, we shall rise superior to fear, smile at death, and pass in peace and triumph to glory. Yes, reader, we shall be satisfied with nothing short of absolute Deity when we come to die. And in proportion as you find this great truth the substance of your life, you will experience it the support of your death. Thus does the Spirit glorify Christ in His Godhead.

But especially in the experience of all His saints, does the Holy Spirit magnify Christ. "He shall glorify me, for He shall take of the things of mine, and show them unto you." We would not have you forget, that the first step which the Spirit takes in glorifying Christ in the creature, is to lay that creature low in the dust. He uncrowns, and humbles the pride of man, before He glorifies Jesus in the soul's experience. Oh, what a mighty work is this- what a great preparation for the entrance of Christ's glory in the soul! A preparation performed, not by the creature, but by the Spirit in the creature. And in what does the Spirit's preparation consist? Not in bettering the condition, but in exposing the depravity of our fallen nature. Not in concealing, but in uncovering the leprosy within. He goes before the Lord, to prepare His way, by discovering to the soul its extreme emptiness, poverty, and vileness. He creates a felt-necessity for Christ's entrance. He brings the soul into such a position, that none but Christ can meet its case. He inflicts a wound, which Christ alone can heal: He awakens grief, which Christ only can assuage: He creates a void, which Christ only can fill. Oh, what is the spectacle which fills God with delight, and heaven with gladness? Not the palace, rising in stately grandeur; not the monarch, ascending his throne in imposing royalty; not the cathedral, with its long-drawn aisle, and fretted roof, and pealing music, and burning incense, and fluttering robes. Nor is it the splendid but empty 'form of godliness,' which distinguishes the religion of the many. All is not gold. Many a man has been applauded for his benevolence, and the Lord has said, "I saw no benevolence in it!" And many a man has been extolled for his prayers, and the Lord has said, "I heard no prayer!" What then? It is a poor sinner laid low before the cross, uncrowning himself, and crowning Jesus. And as Jehovah looks down upon the spectacle- despised by man, honored by God, for "to this man will I look, who is of a humble and a contrite spirit," -He seems to say, "I see a broken heart; I see a holy trembling at my word; I see one smiting on his breast, I hear a cry- oh, it is the voice of my Spirit- 'God be merciful to me a Sinner!' I behold my own image reflected in that lowly, contrite soul."

Now the Spirit proceeds to glorify Christ, by revealing what Christ is to such an emptied, lowly, penitent soul. And this He does, by unfolding the great truth of the Bible- that Jesus died for sinners. Not for the righteous, not for the worthy, but for sinners, as sinners; for the unrighteous, for the unworthy, for the guilty, for the lost. Precious moment, when the Eternal Spirit, the great Glorifier of Jesus, brings this truth with power to the heart! "I had believed," exclaims the transported soul, "that Jesus died only for those who were worthy of so rich a sacrifice, of such immense love. I thought to bring some price of merit in my hands, some self-preparation, some previous fitness, something to render my case worthy of His notice, and to propitiate His kind regard. But now I see His salvation is for the vile, the poor, the penniless. I read, that 'when we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly,' that 'while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,'- that 'when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son'- that 'it is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,'- that it is 'without money and without price,'- that it is 'by grace we are saved,'- and that it is 'of faith, that it might be by grace."' This good news, these joyful tidings, this glorious message of free mercy for the vilest of the vile, believed, received, welcomed, in a moment the clouds all vanish, the fogs all disappear, the face of God beams in mild and softened luster, and amid light and joy, gladness and praise, the jubilee of the soul is ushered in. Oh, what glory now encircles the Redeemer! That soul venturing upon Him with but the faith of reliance, traveling to Him in all weakness, and in the face of all opposition, brings more glory to His name than all the hallelujahs of the heavenly minstrelsy ever brought.

Having conducted the soul to a sweet rest in Christ, the Spirit carries on His work, by keeping that soul perpetually within the influence of Christ's grace. The planets revolving around the sun, each moment liable to wander from their orbit, yet kept by the power of the sun's attraction, illustrates the position of every true believer. The Lord is the sun- in His orbit of light and glory every believer moves. Nor is there a moment in which there is not a tendency in that believer to start off, like a shooting star, or a wandering comet. The apostle has his eye upon this truth, when he thus sounds the note of tender warning- "Take heed, brethren; lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." And observe to what cause he traces all departure from God- unbelief. This is the sin which, in another place, he exhorts the Christian to 'lay aside,' as "the sin which does so easily beset us." What is the besetting sin of every child of God? Let any believer testify. Ask him to point to his most subtle, constant, powerful, and dangerous foe. Ask him what has the most easy access to his mind; what most entangles his feet, and so impedes him in the race that is set before him; what has most easily and frequently vanquished him; what has brought most distress to his soul, and dishonor to God- and he will unhesitatingly reply, "my evil heart of unbelief." He may have constitutional infirmities, and be assailed by peculiar temptations, and may yield to 'presumptuous sins,' and these, in secret and close transaction with God, may cause him the deepest bitterness and humiliation of soul. But the sin which does so easily and so perpetually beset him, is the sin of unbelief, the fruitful cause of all other sin. For as faith is the parent of all holiness, so is unbelief the parent of all unholiness. "It is always present with us," as Owen says, speaking of the restless workings of this evil heart of unbelief, "and so never lacking with any occasion. It stands in need of no help nor furtherance from any outward advantages to tempt our minds. Dwelling in us, abiding with us, cleaving unto us, it is always ready to clog, to hinder, and to disturb us. Does any difficulty or danger appear in the way? It is at hand to cry, 'Spare yourself,' working by fear. Is any sinful compliance proposed unto us? It is ready to argue for its embracement, working by carnal wisdom. Does the weariness of the flesh decline perseverance in necessary duties? It needs not arguments to promote its inclination, working by the dispositions of remaining enmity and vanity. Does the whole matter and cause of our profession come into question, as in a time of severe persecution? It is ready to set all its engines on work for our ruin- fear of danger, love of things present, hope of recovery, reserves for a better season, the example of others esteemed good and wise, shall all be put into the hands of unbelief, to be managed against faith, patience, constancy, and perseverance. It has this advantage, because it has a remaining interest in all the faculties of our souls. It is not in us as a disease that attempts and weakens one single part of the body, but is an evil habit that infects and weakens the whole. Hence it has a readiness to oppose all the actings of grace in every faculty of the soul. The flesh always, and in all things, lusts against the soul."

This being the power of repulsion, so innate and so strong in the heart of a child of God, by what counteracting power is it opposed? By what other and mightier influence is the soul so kept within its Divine orbit, that it becomes not as a "wandering star, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever?" By what but the Sun's perpetual and never-failing attraction? Jesus, by the ceaseless energies of His grace, upholds, restrains, and restores the believer. Oh, the mighty power of the Lord continually exerted on behalf of His people! See, how He wins them by His attraction- "Draw us, and we will run after You!" See, how He upholds them by His power- "I have prayed for you that your faith fail not." See, how He checks them by His grace- "I kept you from sinning against me." See, how He restores them by His love- "And Jesus turned and looked upon Peter, and he went out and wept bitterly." Oh, wonderful patience, that bears with all our departures! Oh, surpassing love, that endures all our imperfections! Oh, powerful grace, that heals all our backslidings! Less than this never could meet our case. We need deity from first to last in our salvation. We need the power that never faints! the love that never changes! the patience that never wearies! the tenderness that never fails! the sympathy that never flags! We need Jesus in all that He is. We need the Sun that draws back the roving star. We need the Shepherd that goes after the stray sheep. We need the Fountain that perpetually cleanses from all sin. We need the righteousness that constantly imparts perfect peace. Oh, how does the Spirit glorify Jesus, as He thus unfolds Him in the experience of the believer! -and this He does by keeping the soul each moment within the influence of His grace.

"He shall take of the things of mine, and shall show them unto you." The Spirit is the Great Conveyancer of Christ to the soul. Placing Himself between the Fountain and the believer, He purposes to convey all blessing, to supply all need, by taking the things of Christ's mediatorial fulness, bringing them into our blessed and holy experience. Having gone before to prepare the soul for the blessing, by discovering its poverty of state, and creating its poverty of spirit, He now takes of the atoning blood, and applies it to the conscience; and the justifying righteousness, and wraps it around the soul; and the sanctifying grace, and conducts it into the heart. In a word, He reveals Jesus to the mind, testifies of Christ to the soul: how Divine He is, therefore able to save; how loving He is, therefore as willing as He is able; how gracious He is, therefore stooping to our lowest circumstance; how tender He is, therefore trampling not upon our weak faith, nor despising our little grace; how sympathizing He is, therefore turning not away His ear, and withdrawing not His heart from our tale of sorrow or our burden of grief. Oh, what a glorifier of Christ is the Divine Spirit! All that we truly know of Jesus, all that we have inwardly experienced of His grace, has been from His teaching and conveyance. He has conducted us to the Fountain- He has led us to the robing-chamber of the King- He has anointed us with the 'oil of gladness,'- He has caused our "garments to smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces," -He has opened the treasury, taking of the precious, glorious things of the precious, glorious Christ, spreading them out in all their vastness, suitableness, and freeness, before our longing eye. How often, when the soul has hungered, He has broken up to us the bread that came down from heaven! when it has thirsted, He has smitten the Rock, and satiated us with its life-giving stream! How often, when guilt has distressed us, He has sprinkled anew the peace-speaking blood; and when sorrow has oppressed, and difficulties have embarrassed, and dependences have failed, and resources have become exhausted, and creatures most deeply loved have most deeply wounded us, He, the tender, loving Comforter, He, the blessed Teacher, He, the great Glorifier of Jesus, has given to us some new, and appropriate, and precious view of our Emmanuel; and in a moment the storm has passed, the waves have stilled, and peace, serenity, and joy, have shed their luster on the soul. One glimpse of Jesus in deep tribulation, one glance in heart-rending bereavement, one discovery of His countenance when all is dark, and dreary, and desolate, one surprisal of His love when the heart sinks into loneliness, one touch of His cross when it is depressed, and bowed, and broken by sin; oh, it is as though heaven had expanded its gates, and we had passed within, where neither tribulation, nor bereavement, nor darkness, nor loneliness, nor sin, is known any more forever!

In placing before the renewed mind the Lord Jesus, as the model by which it is to be molded and fashioned in all godliness, the Spirit glorifies Him. Every soul re-cast into this model, every mind conformed to this pattern, and every life reflecting this image, is an exalting and a glorifying of the Son of God. Now there is no single practical truth in the word of God, on which the Spirit is more emphatic, than the example which Christ has set for the imitation of His followers. The Church needed a perfect pattern, a flawless model. It needed an impersonation, a living embodiment, of those precepts of the Gospel so strictly enjoined upon every believer. To whom should it look? To the holiest of mere men? Hear what one says who yearned to be a pattern of all that was noble and magnanimous in the Christian character, and whom some would have claimed as their master: "Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ," "only as I follow Christ, only as I am conformed to Him as my copy, my pattern, my example." But God has graciously set before us our true model. "Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son." And what says Christ Himself? "My sheep follow me." Now, in laying stress upon this great practical truth, we concede that much heavenly wisdom and caution are here required. We allow that there are points in which we cannot, and are not required literally and strictly to follow Christ. We cannot lay claim to His infallibility. He who sets himself up as infallible in his judgment, spotlessly pure in his heart, and perfect in his attainments in holiness, deceives his own soul. Jesus did many things, too, as our surety, which we cannot do. We cannot drink of the cup of Divine trembling which He drank; nor can we be baptized with the baptism of blood with which He was baptized. He did many things as a Jew- was circumcised, kept the passover, etc., which things are not obligatory upon us. And yet, in all that is essential to our sanctification, to our holy, obedient, God-glorifying walk, He has "left us an example, that we should follow His steps." In His lowly spirit, meek, humble deportment, and patient endurance of suffering: "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." In the freeness of His love, His pure benevolence, the unselfishness of His religion: "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others; let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." "We then that are strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. For even Christ pleased not Himself." Look not every man on his own circle, his own family, his own gifts, his own interests, comfort, and happiness; upon his own church, his own community, his own minister. Let him not look upon these exclusively. Let him not prefer his own advantage to the public good. Let him not be self-willed in matters involving the peace and comfort of others. Let him not form favorite theories, or individual opinions, to the hazard of a church's prosperity, or of a family's happiness. Let him yield, sacrifice, and give place, rather than carry a point to the detriment of others. Let him with a generous, magnanimous, disinterested spirit, in all things imitate Jesus, who "pleased not Himself." Let him seek the good of others, honoring their gifts, respecting their opinions, nobly yielding when they correct and overrule his own. Let him promote the peace of the Church, consult the honor of Christ, and seek the glory of God, above and beyond all private and selfish ends. Oh, this is to be conformed to the image of God's dear Son, to which high calling we are predestinated! But as the preceding pages have frequently alluded to the example of Christ, on this point we need not further enlarge; only adding, that in any feature of resemblance which the Holy Spirit brings out in the holy life of a follower of the Lamb, Christ is thereby glorified before men and angels. "These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He goes."

The Spirit glorifies Christ in the death of the believer. In that last, closing, trying moment, when life is brought to a fine point, and on that point is suspended an eternal world of glory, Jesus stands by the departing soul. Heart and flesh are failing- the world fades upon the eye- reason wanders- the hand returns not affection's last grasp- the cheek feels not the scalding tear of grief that falls upon it- external objects, once so fond and pleasing, affect no more; but Jesus is there, walking through the dark valley, side by side with the receding spirit. Yes, He is bearing it up in His arms, and is carrying it over the flood gently and safely in His bosom. How many saints in dying have been privileged, with all the strength of their powers, to testify, "Christ is with me in the valley!" The Eternal Spirit in this awful moment has applied afresh the atoning blood- He has wrapped around the spotless righteousness- He has fed with the hidden manna- He has spoken the comforting promise- in a word, He has testified of Jesus. Oh what anticipations of heaven, what transporting joys, what untold glory, what visions of God, have now burst upon the soul! How one has longed to die with them! "Death is not terrible," said Halyburton, when dying in an ecstasy; "it is unstinged, the curse of the fiery law is done away: I bless His name, I have found Him; I am taken up in blessing Him; I am dying, rejoicing in the Lord; I long to be in the promised land! I wait for Your salvation; how long? Come, sweet Lord Jesus, take me by the hand. What means He to stay so long? I am like to faint for delay; I could not believe that I could have borne, and borne cheerfully, this rod so long. This is a miracle, pain without pain; and this is not a fancy of a man disordered in his brain, but of one lying in full composure.

Oh, blessed that ever I was born! Oh, if I were where He is! and yet for all this, God's withdrawing from me would make me weak as water. I am wonderfully helped, beyond the power of nature; though my body be sufficiently afflicted, yet my spirit is untouched. In the Mediator, Christ Jesus, there is all the fulness of the Godhead, and it will never run out. When I fall so low that I am not able to speak, I'll show you a sign of triumph when I am near glory, if I be able." This he did by elevating his hands, and clapping them together when speechless, and just departing. Janeway declared in his last sickness: "I am through mercy quite above the fears of death, and am going unto Him whom I love above life. Oh that I could let you know what I now feel! Oh that I could show you what I see! Oh that I could now express the thousandth part of that sweetness which I now find in Christ! You little think what a Christ is worth upon a deathbed. Oh, the glory, the unspeakable glory that I behold! My heart is full, my heart is full! Christ smiles- would you keep me from my crown? The arms of my blessed Savior are open to embrace me, the angels stand ready to carry my soul into His bosom! You would not have the heart to detain me, if you could but see what I see!" Dr Goodwin said, "I am going to the three People with whom I have held communion: they have taken me, I did not take them. I shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye; all my corruptions I shall be rid of in a moment!" Then alluding to the eleventh of the Hebrews, he said, "All these died in faith. I could not have imagined I should ever have had such a measure of faith in this hour; no, I could never have imagined it; my love abides in strength. Is Christ divided? No, I have the whole of His righteousness; Christ cannot love me better than He does; I think I cannot love Christ better than I do; I am swallowed up in God: soon I shall be forever with the Lord!" John Knox thus spoke in dying: "That day is now at hand, which I have so often and intensely longed for, in which I shall be dissolved, and be with Christ. O my friends, wait on the Lord, and death will not be terrible! I have a certain persuasion in my own breast, that Satan shall not be permitted to return, or molest me any more in my passage to glory; but that I shall soon, without any pain of body or agony of mind, sweetly and peacefully exchange this wretched life for that which is through Christ Jesus." Rutherford said, "I shall shine! I shall see Him as He is, and all the fair company with Him, and shall have my large share. I have gotten the victory; Christ is holding forth His arms to embrace me: I have had my fears and faintings, but as sure as ever He spoke to me in His word, His Spirit witnessed to my heart, saying, 'Fear not."' A few moments before breathing his last, he exclaimed, "Now I feel, I believe, I enjoy, I rejoice, I feed on manna, I have angels' food; my eyes shall see my Redeemer: I know that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth!" and then expired, saying, "Glory, glory dwells in Emmanuel's land!" Mr. Holland, overwhelmed with a vision of glory on his death-bed, asked whether the candles had been lighted: he was told it was the sunshine. "Sunshine!" said he, "no, it is my Savior's shine. Oh! tell at my funeral God deals favorably with man; whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell, God knows; but I see things unutterable;" and in this rapture he fell asleep. And how shall we describe the last moments of the seraphic Payson? To go and stand by his dying-bed seems more like a visit to the land of Beulah than to the place where the 'king of terrors' was waging his last conflict. It is to stand 'quite on the verge of heaven.' Listen to the dying saint: "The celestial city is full in my view. Its glories beam upon me, its breezes fan me, its odors are wafted to me, its sounds strike upon my ears, and its spirit is breathed into my heart. Nothing separates me from it but the river of death, which now appears but an insignificant rill, that may be crossed at a single step, whenever God shall give permission. The Sun of Righteousness has been drawing nearer and nearer, appearing larger and brighter as He approached, and now He fills the whole hemisphere, pouring forth a flood of glory in which I seem to float like an insect in the beams of the sun, exulting, yet almost trembling, while I gaze on this excessive brightness, and wondering, with unutterable wonder, why God should deign thus to shine upon a sinful worm. Oh! if ministers only saw the inconceivable glory that is before them, and the preciousness of Christ, they would not be able to refrain from going about, leaping and clapping their hands for joy, and exclaiming, 'I'm a minister of Christ! I'm a minister of Christ!'

I can find no words to express my happiness. I seem to be swimming in a river of pleasure, which is carrying me on to the great Fountain. I find no satisfaction in looking at anything I have done; I need to leave all this behind- it is nothing- and fly to Christ, to be clothed in His righteousness. I have done nothing myself. I have not fought, but Christ has fought for me; I have not run, but Christ has carried me; I have not worked, but Christ has wrought in me- Christ has done all! It seems as if the promise, 'God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,' were already fulfilled to me, as it respects tears of sorrow. I have no tears to shed now, but those of love, and joy, and thankfulness. Peace! peace! Victory! victory!" Thus, to life's closing scene, the Spirit glorifies Jesus in the experience of the believer. And thus will He take of Christ's and show them unto you, Christian reader, in the final hour. You shall not lack your Christ when you most need Him. He who has been with you through all your earthly pilgrimage, will be with you in its last step. The Shepherd who has guided you through the wilderness will not leave you when just emerging from it into the promised land. The Pilot who has conducted you across the stormy main, will not resign the government just as the vessel enters the haven of rest. The Captain who has conquered for, and conquered in you, will not leave you when on the eve of the final conflict, and the certain victory. Oh no! Jesus will be with you to the last. Do not be painfully anxious about your dying hour. Let all your solicitude be how you may best glorify Him in your life- He will glorify Himself in your death. All grace, all strength, all glory is laid up for you against that moment. And when it comes, and not until then, will Jesus unlock the treasury, and bring it forth. But oh, to live to Him! To be able to say, "To me to live is Christ!" "Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death." Strive for this. Whatever opposes it, take it to His grace, lay it beneath, yes, fasten it to His cross. Oh! let Christ be everything to you in life, then will He be everything to you in death.

Does the ear of some dear departing saint of God lend itself to the recital of these closing words? Beloved of the Lord, beloved in the Lord, what a blessed opportunity have you now of leaning the entire weight of your soul, with all its sins and sorrows, upon the finished work of Jesus, your Almighty Savior, your Goel, your Redeemer! The great debt is cancelled. Justice exacts not a second payment, the first from your Surety, the second from you. No! justice itself is on your side; every perfection of God is a wall of fire round about you. You stand complete in the righteousness of the incarnate God. The blood of Jesus Christ, the Father's own Son, cleanses you from all sin. Many and aggravated you now see to have been your flaws, your derelictions, your departures, your backslidings, your stumblings; sin appears now as it never did before; the sense of your utter unworthiness presses you to the earth. Well, who is on the eager watch for the first kindlings of godly sorrow in the heart of the prodigal? Who welcomes his return with joy, with music, with honors? Whose heart has not ceased to love, whose eye has not ceased to follow, amid all the waywardness and wandering of that child? Oh, it is the Father! "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." Behold your God, your covenant God and Father in Christ Jesus! This reconciled Father is yours. Throw yourself into His arms, and He will fall on your neck, and will seal upon your heart afresh the sense of His free forgiveness and His pardoning love. Heaven is before you. Soon you will be freed, entirely and forever freed, from all the remains of sin. Soon the last sigh will heave your breast, and the last tear will fall from your eye, and the last pang will convulse your body. Soon, oh how soon, will you "see the King in His beauty," the Jesus who loved you, died for you, ransomed you, and loves you still! Soon you will fall at His feet, and be raised in His arms, and be hushed to rest in His bosom. Soon you will mingle, a pure and happy spirit, with patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs, and with all who sleep in Jesus, who have gone but a little before you. See how they line the shores on the other side, and wait to welcome you over! See how they beckon you away! Above all, sweetest and most glorious of all, behold Jesus standing at the right hand of God, prepared to receive you to Himself! Then, may you not sing–

"What's this that steals, that steals away my breath?

Is it death? Is it death?

That soon will quench, will quench this vital flame?

Is it death? Is it death?

If this be death, I soon shall be

From all my sins and sorrows free,

I shall the King of glory see!

All is well, all is well!

Weep not, my friends, dear friends, weep not for me,

All is well, all is well!

For I am pardoned, pardoned, I am free;

All is well, all is well!

There's not a cloud that does arise

To hide my Jesus from my eyes;

I soon shall mount the upper skies!

All is well, all is well!

"Tune, tune your harps, your harps, you saints in glory,

All is well, all is well!

I will rehearse the pleasing story,

All is well, all is well!

Bright angels are from glory come!

They're round my bed, they're in my room;

They wait to waft my spirit home!

All is well, all is well!

"Hark! hark! my Lord, my Lord and Master calls me!

All is well, all is well!

I soon shall see His face in glory!

All is well, all is well!

Farewell, loved friends, adieu, adieu,

I can no longer stay with you!

My glittering crown appears in view!

All is well, all is well!

"Hail, hail, all hail, all hail, you blood-washed throng,

Saved by grace, saved by grace

I soon shall join, shall join your rapturous song,

Saved by grace, saved by grace!

All, all is peace and joy divine,

And heaven and glory now are mine!

Oh, hallelujah to the Lamb,

All is well, all is well!"

With this song of joy may you wade the swellings of Jordan, until, landing on the other side, you drop it, to join the triumphant hymn– "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable Gift"

The Glory of the Redeemer in His Second Coming

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Titus 2:13

while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, Titus 2:13

while we look forward to that wonderful event when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. Titus 2:13

If it were true, that the abuse or the perversion of a good thing formed a valid argument against its truth, or were a proper objection to its utility, then how soon should we be compelled to abandon all our strongholds of truth, tamely relinquishing into the hands of the sceptic and the caviler the power of controlling our opinions, and legislating for our consciences! If the advocates of Christianity were responsible for all the flaws, mistakes, and inconsistencies, with which its professed disciples were chargeable; and if it were demanded from them to concede a doctrine or an institution, because that doctrine or that institution had been made the instrument of unrighteousness, then how little would be left to us of the "glorious Gospel of the blessed God!" To what a mere skeleton of truth would this sublime, life-inspiring system be reduced! Take, for example, the Scripture doctrine of justification by faith in Christ. To the urgent and faithful expositor of this cardinal truth, laid deeply and pressed home upon the conscience with earnestness and power, how ready is the opponent of this truth with the remonstrance, "You are teaching a doctrine which has proved most injurious to the best interests of the Christian Church- a doctrine which undermines the foundations of morality, and which weakens the obligation to practical holiness!" Suppose that the believer, admitting the truth of this allegation, were in consequence to abandon the doctrine altogether- what would he be relinquishing? One of the essential corner-stones of the great fabric of the Gospel; one of the main pillars of Christianity; one of the most sanctifying, God-glorifying truths of the Bible; yes, a truth which has well been denominated the doctrine of a standing or a falling Church.

Now the subject of this closing chapter is one of those Scripture doctrines against which the prejudices of many Christian minds have been formed, in consequence of the speculative and fanciful views with which it has been associated by many of its advocates. The same mode of reasoning which we have applied in the vindication of the great doctrine of justification, will with equal force apply here. Is the doctrine of Christ's second appearing less a doctrine of Divine revelation- is it less glorious in its nature and holy in its tendency, because some have abused it? Assuredly not. But separated from human speculation, disentangled from the errors with which men have interwoven it, and made to stand out dressed in its own native sweetness and sublimity, it will be found to be one of the most precious, holy, and influential truths revealed in God's holy word.

The doctrine of a coming Savior was to the early Church a fully received, most endearing, and practical truth. They are represented as "waiting for His Son from heaven;" as "loving His appearing;" as "looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God even our Savior Jesus Christ." The great apostasy, however, dimmed this star of hope on which the eye was accustomed to gaze so intently and so fondly. And as it waned, with it waned her true spirituality. The Church of Rome, 'the mother of abominations,' the great extinguisher of all evangelical light, by the introduction of doctrines more palatable to the taste of a declining Church, drew off its mind from the great truth, and the expectation of the Lord's coming became, almost entirely extinct. A purgatory after death, which might allow a longer period and an easier atonement to cleanse the souls of the wicked, was far more agreeable to such a system, than the sure and near approach of the Almighty King, "coming to take vengeance on those who knew not God, and that obeyed not the Gospel of His Son." To the Reformation we are indebted for the recovery of this, as of many other glorious truths of the Bible, so long buried beneath the rubbish of the great apostasy. The reformers, returning to the principles of the early Christians, returned to the 'blessed hope' of the Church, and once more pointed her eye to this bright constellation, which, though darkened and lost to view for a while, now shone forth as if robed with new and richer effulgence; and again the Bride was brought into the holy posture of an anxious expectant of her Lord.

The great subject which has for some time occupied our attention, I trust to the endearing of His name to our hearts, has been the glory of Jesus. Imperfectly as it has been discussed, I am reluctant to conduct it to a close without directing the eye of my reader to one more view of the Redeemer's glory- the last, the crowning one of all- the glory of His second appearing. Let it be premised, however, that with the spiritual and practical bearing of the doctrine as it is laid down in God's word, we have alone to do. It comes not within our scope or design to meet the objections which have been alleged against it, or to touch upon those controverted prophetic points with which, in the minds and in the writings of many, it has been connected. This would divert our attention from the grand topic before us. May the Holy Spirit descend upon us while investigating this great truth! May He unfold it deeply to our minds, and lay it closely upon our hearts, that we may awake out of sleep, gird up afresh the loins of our minds, trim anew our lamps, and be found waiting, watching, and looking for the coming of the Bridegroom, that thus we may be prepared to go forth and meet Him, when He shall "appear the second time without sin unto salvation."

We shall first endeavor to place the doctrine of the second coming of the Redeemer upon a scriptural basis; and then proceed to unfold His glory in connection with the grand event. If it be found to be a truth revealed by God the Holy Spirit, then it becomes us with all teachableness, humility, and joy, to receive it- all prejudices and objections yielding before- "Thus says the Lord."

We commence the SCRIPTURE PROOF with adducing a few of the more prominent predictions of the Old Testament, quoting an observation of Sir Isaac Newton, that "there is scarcely a prophecy in the Old Testament which does not in something or other relate to the second coming of Christ." The first promise of mercy to fallen man must be regarded as containing an intimation of the second advent of our Lord, for the events of the first advent did not fulfil all that is contained in this prediction. "And I will put enmity between You and the woman, and between Your seed and her seed: he shall bruise Your head, and You shall bruise his heel." Now, the incarnation of our adorable Lord has taught us who is the "woman's Seed;" His death has fully explained the prophecy of the "bruising of his heel;" but that part which relates to the bruising of the serpent's head must be considered as yet an unfulfilled prophecy. Christ did indeed defeat and overcome Satan upon the cross; chaining Him to His car, thus "leading captivity captive." But the fatal blow aimed at the head, cannot be said to have been inflicted until Christ tames the second time to take full possession of His kingdom, to raise His saints, and chain down Satan, so that he shall never go forth again to deceive the nations that are upon the earth. The head, or the power of the serpent, is not yet fully bruised nor destroyed; but it will be when the descending Redeemer shall place His foot upon him, trampling him to the earth in complete and glorious triumph.

Restored to its chronological order, the remarkable prophecy of Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, as preserved by the Apostle Jude, is worthy of our next consideration. "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of His saints to execute judgment upon all." That this refers not to the first, but to the second coming of Christ, is unquestionable, from the fact that the former was an errand of mercy, whereas the latter is here represented as one of judgment.

We must be content to present in a single group, and without comment, the remaining prophetic testimonies. Thus the patriarch Job, in the strength of a far-reaching faith, testifies, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." Thus the prophet Daniel: "I watched as thrones were put in place and the Ancient One sat down to judge. His clothing was as white as snow, his hair like whitest wool. He sat on a fiery throne with wheels of blazing fire, and a river of fire flowed from his presence. Millions of angels ministered to him, and a hundred million stood to attend him. Then the court began its session, and the books were opened." Thus, too, speaks the prophet Haggai: "Thus says the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come." Malachi, in a similar strain, closes the prophetic testimony: "The Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: behold, He shall come, says the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appears? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap." Thus clearly, as a golden thread, does the great truth run through the prophecies of the Old Testament. We pass to the proof afforded by the New Testament writings.

Intimations of a second appearing are clearly discoverable in the angel's annunciation to Mary. "Behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. And He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end." Surely the subsequent history of our suffering Lord forbids the application of this angelic prediction to the era of His humiliation in the flesh. The Son of David at that time found no throne; the scene of His humiliation was the ignominious cross; thorns the only crown which He wore; and a reed, mocking in His dying, agonies the claims of His majesty, the only scepter which He swayed. But we look for its full accomplishment at a period of far greater visible glory, when He shall part the heavens asunder, and appear in great and acknowledged majesty.

While upon the testimony of the angels, we may refer to the period of His ascension, when, for anything that we know, the same 'ministering spirits' thus proclaimed His second coming: "And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; who also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven."

We pass on to our Lord's own testimony to the doctrine. Comprehending two distinct predictions, the one the destruction of His temple, and the other His coming again, when the nation now rejecting Him should gladly welcome and acknowledge Him their Redeemer and their King, He thus addresses the Jews- Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, You shall not see me henceforth, until you shall say, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord." Again, intimating that the time of His appearing would be a season for which His Church would long have to wait, thus rebuking the received opinion that it was then near at hand: "He said unto the disciples, The days will come, when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and you shall not see it." He then presents an emblem of His manifestation: "As the lightning, that lights out of the one part under heaven, shines into the other part under heaven, so shall also the Son of man be in His day." He then proceeds in the following verses to describe the unexpected manner in which the day of His appearing will burst upon an ungodly and unprepared world; illustrates it by the sudden surprisal of Sodom and Gomorrah by the Divine judgments, leaving not a moment to loiter upon worldly possessions; and then, to rebuke a hankering spirit after earthly glory, now fading upon the view, pointed to the case of Lot's wife, who, casting a lingering look upon the doomed city she had left, became instantly a monument of God's indignation.

It only remains that we adduce the proof found to exist in the writings of the apostles. Here the doctrine of the second coming is inscribed as with a sun beam. How solemnly and emphatically are we reminded of this great and grand event, on each return of the ordinance of the Lord's Supper! "As often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show

the Lord's death until He come." Thus fitly is this precious truth entwined with our most solemn rites, and blended with our most hallowed scenes. Well is it that we keep in mind, when partaking of the sacred emblems, the speedy return of Him, the elements of whose dying love are at that moment melting upon our lips, and the splendor of whose personal appearing will soon burst upon our view.

With this same truth the apostle seeks to soothe the sorrow of those who were mourning over the pious dead. "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent (or rise before) those who are asleep." Mark the certainty which He attaches to the second coming: "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again." As surely as Christ has atoned for our sins, and has risen again for our justification, so surely will He come again for our glorification. The three great facts form so many links in one golden, indissoluble chain.

Yet again. "Our conversation is in heaven, from where also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." "When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory." "It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." "Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." "Christ the first-fruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming." "To the end He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints." "We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him." "The coming of the Lord draws near."

What further testimony need we? The doctrine stands upon the impregnable basis of Divine revelation, and happy and holy is he that receives and embraces it as the "blessed hope" of the Church.

Let us now contemplate THE GLORY OF THE REDEEMER AS CONNECTED WITH THIS GREAT EVENT. It is called the "glorious appearing of the great God our Savior." Surpassing in glory all that the eye has ever seen, or the imagination has ever conceived, will be the second personal appearing of the Son of God. A perfect contrast will it present to His first advent. Then He appeared a king, but disguised in the form of a servant, without a retinue, without the insignia of royalty, without visible glory, His throne a cross, His crown the thorns, His scepter a reed. But His second coming will be in perfect contrast with this. He will now have thrown off the garment of humiliation, and will appear clad with the robe of majesty, the King acknowledged and adored.

In the first place, He will appear in the glory of His Father. "The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father." As the representative of the Father, He appeared in the flesh: "He that has seen me has seen the Father." But when He appears the second time, it will be with a clearer, brighter manifestation of the Father's glory. He will come as the Father's equal- as His own beloved Son, and with all the glory which the Father gave Him as the Mediator of His Church. This will contribute immensely to the splendor of the scene. The Father's glory and the Son's glory will now be seen to be one glory. All His former claims to a oneness with the Father, to a perfect equality with Him in essential dignity, will now be made good. How gloriously will shine out the Father's love, the Father's grace, the Father's wisdom, when the Son of God appears in the clouds of heaven with great glory and majesty! Exalted and precious as had been our previous views of the Father, methinks they will appear as nothing compared with the revelations which at that moment will burst in overwhelming power on the soul.

But more especially will He appear in His own personal glory. "The Son of man shall come in His glory." He will come in the glory of His Divine nature. His Deity will now be unveiled, unclouded, and undenied, the "God over all, blessed forever more." He will appear as the" Great God, even our Savior." The question of His Deity will be set at rest forever. Will men deny it now? Will they refuse Him Divine honor? Will they withhold from Him Divine worship? Will they now lift their puny hands and pluck the crown of Godhead from His brow? No! "At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Angels will laud Him, saints will crown Him, devils will fear Him, His enemies will bow to Him. Every tongue will confess His Deity. His own glory will shine out to the confusion of His foes, to the admiration of His friends.

But He will also appear in the glory of His human nature. This was concealed beneath the cloud of sin and sorrow when He was on earth. Although it was holy, spotless, flawless, yet it was humbled, bruised, and trodden under foot. But He will "appear the second time without sin unto salvation," that same humanity now robed in glory and exalted in dignity. Especially will the glory of His priestly character now burst forth; and like the Jewish high priest, who, after He had offered the sacrifice, entered the holy of holies, taking in His hands the blood of the atonement; then when He had sprinkled the blood upon the mercy-seat, put on His gorgeous robes, and appeared again to bless the congregation; so Jesus, our great High Priest, having offered Himself a sacrifice, and having entered within the veil with His own blood, will appear the second time, robed in majesty and glory, to bless His people, and to take them to Himself forever.

Angels and saints will contribute to the glory of the scene. The celestial beings who sang His nativity song, and who escorted Him back to heaven with ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands more, will now throng His descending way. Clustering around still nearer to His person will be the ransomed Church, the "holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." And as she nears the new earth, the future scene of her rest and her glory, a "great voice out of heaven" will be heard, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." Oh, blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God our Savior, "when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all those who believe!"

But let us briefly trace SOME OF THE IMPORTANT EVENTS suspended upon the coming of the Lord, which will contribute greatly to the glory of the Redeemer, and to the grandeur of the scene.

The first that will then transpire will be the resurrection of the righteous. This is termed in the Apocalypse the "first resurrection." After a glowing description of the thrones, and of the happy saints who filled them, the apostle proceeds to say, "This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is He that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." Now this first resurrection, which will transpire a thousand years before the second, will be exclusively the resurrection of the saints. They shall take precedence of the ungodly world. How distinctly is this truth thus affirmed! "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Then the upright shall have dominion over the wicked in the morning of the resurrection; and in the evening of the thousand years- for with the Lord a thousand years are but as one day- the rest of the dead shall come forth. Blessed hope! transporting prospect! The Lord descends! the trumpet sounds! the earth trembles! the graves open! And who emerge?

None but those who slept in Jesus. All the rest of mankind remain locked in the iron dominion of death until the thousand years shall have expired. Not an enemy of God, not a despiser of Christ, not a foe of the Christian, now rears his dark brow! None but holy and happy forms are seen throwing back the clods, and coming forth, gilded with the light, breathing the air, and drinking the dew of that orient and blessed morning. What calmness reigns! All sounds of sin and of suffering are now hushed, and no voice breaks the holy stillness of that hour, save the joyous challenge, as each mounts in triumph from the tomb, "O grave! where is your victory?" Saints of God! this will be your resurrection! Oh to have a part in it! Then will God's electing love shine forth in all its magnificence. Then will sovereign grace appear truly glorious. And then will the crown be laid at Jesus' feet, and every tongue will confess, "Salvation is from the Lord."

The perfect glorification of His saints will then follow. In what will it consist? The reunion of the soul and the body, and both made like Christ. "Our citizenship is in heaven; from where we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." "It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." "As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." This will constitute the perfect glory of the risen saints- they shall be like Christ in body and in soul. The body spiritual, immortal, glorified: the soul resembling a sea of glass, transparent, pure, serene, reflecting every perfection and lineament of the Divine image: "We shall be like Him." Then we will not speculate as fo the details of that happy and holy existence- it is enough that we shall be like Jesus: this, we know, will comprehend perfect holiness and consummate bliss. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

The mutual recognition and reunion of the saints, will form another element in the glory which is to be revealed at the first resurrection, and at the second coming of the Redeemer. This truth is not one of vain speculation or idle theory, and conducting to no important practical result. It is one, if not of express, yet of clear, revelation in God's word, is comforting in its influence, and is associated with the most sublime prospect of the believer's faith. We shall meet and know each other at the appearing of the Lord. That the saints will recognize and have communion with each other immediately on their entrance into glory, is, we think, clear from the apostle's words, when enumerating the privileges of the released believers: "We are come . . . . to the spirits of just men made perfect." We indulge, therefore, the fond hope that, should death remove us before the coming of the Lord, we shall meet, know, and have delightful communion with our friends, who departed this life in Jesus. But the recognition and the communion must necessarily be not so perfect and full as when Christ shall appear, and the risen saints shall cluster together around the person and in the kingdom of their Lord; since neither we nor they have attained our state of full knowledge and capacity, until that great event take place, and the "blessed hope" is realized.

How clearly is this truth stated by the apostle! Attempting to console the minds of those who were mourning for their departed kindred, he uses these animating words: "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, that you sorrow not even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." These members of the Church in Thessalonica were bereaved: the apostle seeks to soothe their grief by assuring those who, at the coming of Jesus, they would meet their departed relatives again. But what real consolation could this hope inspire if, when they met them again, they should not know them?

But we argue the recognition of the saints from the fact of the perfection of knowledge to which the coming glory will advance us. Our dear Lord reminds His saints that they shall be equal to the angels. They know each other. It would seem impossible, living together for so many years, that they should not. If, then, the saints are equal to them at all, they must be in this sweet privilege. And is it reasonable to suppose, that in all other respects our knowledge will be perfected, save in this one particular only? Shall we possess an element of mental power here, which we shall lose in a gradation towards perfection, and consequently, shall not possess in a higher degree hereafter? Assuredly not. When, therefore, the dead in Christ shall rise at His coming, every intellectual faculty will be enlarged, and not only retaining all our former, but increasing the amount by a larger degree of additional knowledge, we shall "know even as we are known."

The perfection of happiness, which glorification implies, involves this blessing. What a rich source of high and holy delight does the communion of saints supply even in our present state! How it elevates, chastens, expands, and soothes the mind and heart, so much beclouded by care and chafed by sorrow! A look beaming with love, an expression of the countenance speaking of sympathy, a word unfolding counsel or uttering a promise, oh, it has been like the sudden gleam of the sun bursting through the dark clouds of a storm-wreathed sky!

Above all price is Christian friendship! How sweet the communion of holy minds! To rush into the warm embrace of fond ones, from whom oceans had divided or years had long separated us; to recognize their well-remembered features, too deeply engraven on memory's tablet to have faded- to know again the speaking eye, the familiar countenance, the gentle voice- oh, who has not felt the joyous thrill of that moment?

But heaven will perfect this bliss. Does it not heighten the beauty of the prospect, and strengthen the expectation of the scene? Will it add nothing to the glory of that event, and to the happiness of that moment, when the Son of God descends, and, dissolving the soft slumbers of the holy dead, will re-animate each with its former occupant, that then we shall perfectly recognize those we once knew and loved, and renew the sweet communion before imperfect and limited, but now complete and eternal? Dry, then, your tears, and cease to mourn, you saints of God. They are 'not lost, but gone before.' Their spirits live with Jesus. And when He comes, He will bring them with Him, and you shall see and know them with a cloudless sight and a perfect knowledge. The very eyes which once smiled upon you so kindly- the very tongue which spoke to you so comfortingly- the very hands which administered to you so skillfully- the very feet which traveled by your side so faithfully- the very bosom which pillowed you so tenderly- you shall meet again. "The coming of the Lord draws near," and those who "sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." Let us "comfort one another with these words."

And will it be no additional joy to meet and to know those eminent servants of the Lord whose histories and whose writings stimulated, instructed, and cheered us, shedding light and gladness on our way? Abraham, whose faith had animated us; David, whose experimental psalms had comforted us; Isaiah, whose vision of Jesus had gladdened us; Paul, whose doctrinal epistles had instructed us; John, whose letters of love had subdued us; to gaze upon 'Magdalene' sitting at Jesus' feet- upon the 'beggar' reposing in Abraham's bosom- upon the 'thief' with Christ in paradise- oh! will not this add to the happiness of heaven? Will this be no joy, no bliss, no glory? Assuredly it will!

At Christ's coming, will not His ministers, too, and those to whom their labors had been useful, meet, know, and rejoice in each other? The pastor and the flock, will there be no certain and permanent reunion? no sweet, and fond, and holy recognition? Shall their union in the Church below exceed, in its beauty and sweetness, their reunion in the Church above? Here it is necessarily mingled with much that is imperfect. Much concealment is connected with their united labors in the vineyard of Christ. They go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, and often are called to their rest before the fruit of their prayers, and tears, and toil appears. Here, too, seasons of sickness and of separation frequently transpire, enshrouding the spirit with gloom, and wringing the heart with anguish. And then, at last, death itself rudely breaks the tender bond, lays the Standard-bearer low, leaving the affectionate flock to gaze with streaming eye upon the lessening spirit of their pastor as it ascends and towers away to glory. But the coming of Jesus, with all His saints, will restore this happy union, invest it with new and richer glory, and place it upon a permanent, yes, everlasting basis. "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy." It was this hope which animated the apostle so fully and constantly to preach Jesus: "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Do we not see here an argument for the mutual recognition of the saints at the coming of the Lord? For how could the apostle present those believers in that day, unless he had a knowledge of their persons? or how, without this recognition, could he call them his "crown of rejoicing?" Yes, beloved, we shall know one another again, altered and glorified though we may be. Our Lord's appearing, if it change our vile body, fashioning it like unto His glorious body, will also enlarge our mental capacity of knowing even as also we shall be known. You bereaved flocks! you mourning churches! has the Lord taken from you the faithful minister, the tender pastor, the watchful shepherd? Has he who first led you to Jesus, who preached to you Jesus, who built you up in Jesus, gone now to be with Jesus? Oh think, as you gaze upon the vacant and mourning-clad pulpit, that soon Jesus will come in the clouds of heaven, attended by your pastor; and you shall meet him again, and he will present you, even you, his children begotten in the faith, before God perfect in Christ Jesus.

The restoration of the Jewish nation to their own land, and their national conversion to God, will be an event greatly contributing to the glory of the Redeemer at His coming. Into the full investigation of this deeply interesting subject- deepening in interest as the "day draws near" our few remaining pages will not allow us to enter. We must content ourselves with a rapid glance at the Scripture testimony on which we ground our belief of the gathering together of Israel and Judah to the land of their fathers, and the reunion of the two kingdoms subsequently to, and yet closely connected with, the second advent of Him whom they pierced. We need not spend any time in proving that the descendants of Abraham are not only not in possession of Palestine, but are at this moment a people 'scattered and torn,' the dispersed over all the lands. This fact is too evident to need proof. Where is there scarcely a spot on the earth, trodden by the foot of civilized man, where the Jews have not, in their wanderings, found their way? Separate and distinct from all, they yet have existed among all nations, a living monument of the truth of God's word, and a mournful witness to the sin of their fathers. In almost every part of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, they have been alike found. No mountains nor rivers, no deserts nor oceans, have terminated their wanderings. They have penetrated into the very heart of countries, where the traveler hears of their existence, but can not reach them. Thus are fulfilled to the letter the predictions which foretold their ostracism and dispersion among all countries, their total separation from all people, and the severe persecution of which they should everywhere be the subjects: "I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste." "And the Lord shall scatter you among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other. . . And among these nations shall you find no ease, nor shall the sole of your foot have rest: but the Lord shall give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind." "And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them." "So the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." How literally have these prophecies been accomplished! From the moment of their banishment from their own land they have roamed the world in quest of rest, finding it not, a "proverb and a byword," the objects of individual hate, of national scorn, proscription, and violence. Oh what an overwhelming evidence to the truth of revelation does their thrilling history afford! Let the infidel honestly study it with God's word in his hand, and he must bend his judgment to the irresistible conviction that that word is truth. Their preservation is a standing miracle, and that miracle is a standing proof of the divinity of the Bible. But exceedingly great and precious promises are theirs. Bright and glowing prospects are placed before them.

Their own land, now occupied by Turks, Greeks, Christians, Arabians, and Moors, while very few Jews are permitted to remain in it- let it be distinctly borne in mind- God gave to them unconditionally, and as theirs forever. Thus He spoke to Abraham, "Unto your seed will I give this land." "All the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed forever." "I will give unto you, and to your seed after you, the land wherein you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an ever lasting possession; and I sill be their God." Now this gift God has never revoked, in any subsequent period of their history, painful and chequered as that history has been. The unconditional promise of their perpetual possession of the land of Palestine remains to this day as God gave it to Abraham, and will ever so remain.

Let us now turn our attention to some of the promises which distinctly point to their certain restoration to this their own land. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left." How striking and conclusive is this passage! It refers to a second recovery of the Jews. Hitherto there has been but one restoration of the whole nation, which was when God delivered them out of Egypt, for their partial recovery from Babylon does not correspond with the fulness of the language of this prophecy. Again, the prophet declares that the Lord shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." "In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers." "The days come, says the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it." "Thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.... Thus says the Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you." What a bright and radiant landscape stretches out before the view of God's ancient people! What hues of beauty tint and adorn their sky! What blessings, what bliss, what honor, what distinction await them!

The conversion of the Jews to the faith of Jesus- perhaps the first in order of time- is a subject as distinctly and clearly specified in God's word as is their literal restoration to their own land. A few passages only, affirming the certainty of this blessed event, must suffice for our present proof. "I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and I will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and anew spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them. And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God." "Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth .... They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them." "They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son."

Passing on to the New Testament, we find the conversion of Israel as unequivocally and explicitly declared. "I say then, Has God cast away His people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Know you not what the Scripture says of Elias, how he makes intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed Your prophets, and dug down Your altars: and I am left alone, and they seek my life? But what says the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." The apostle then goes on to show, that the accession of Jacob's posterity to the Church of God will involve on a large and national scale the conversion of the Gentiles. "Now if the full of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness! ... If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?" "God has concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all. Oh the depth of, the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!"

But the glory which these events- the complete recovery of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and their gathering together within one fold, and under the one Shepherd- will enkindle around the descending form of the Redeemer, what imagination can fully conceive, or pen describe? Then how glorious will appear His word, magnified above all His name! How manifest His faithfulness in fulfilling to the letter all His promises to His ancient people! How stupendous His love, how rich His grace, how precious His blood, how mighty His power, how illustrious His wisdom, yes, how transcendent His whole moral government, as from the valley of dry bones a mighty army is seen to arise, of living, joyous, holy beings as from every part under heaven, His long lost, long afflicted, long rebellious people are seen to come clustering in adoring crowds around Him whom their fathers slew and hanged upon a tree! Methinks it will be the crowning act of redeeming, pardoning, quickening grace- the brightest, the sweetest, the richest of all. The cry of wondrous joy will be raised, "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to the windows of their dove-cote?" Ten thousand voices will be heard replying- "These are they who have come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb;" while from their lips, once muttering imprecations upon their Messiah, the song will now float, filling the air with its melody, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness." Oh, who does not love and long for His appearing in the clouds of heaven, whose coming will be the signal of such blessings to the Church as these?

Other events dependent upon the coming of the Redeemer will augment the glory of His person and the splendor of the scene. Then will take place the full revelation, and the final overthrow of the "Man of sin," and all anti-christian confederates- the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, in which will dwell righteousness- the setting up of the throne of David, and the millennial reign of the saints with Christ over a holy and happy creation. "Then will He sit upon the throne of His glory." "He will judge among the nations." He "shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously." "All things shall be put under His feet." He shall wear the "many crowns," and the "kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever." "Even so, come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!"

Let us now briefly contemplate THE APPROPRIATE AND SPIRITUAL POSTURE IN WHICH IT BEHOOVES ALL, AND ESPECIALLY CHRIST'S CHURCH, TO BE FOUND IN VIEW OF SO GLORIOUS AND NEAR AN EVENT AS THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS. For "behold the Lord comes with ten thousand of His saints." The becoming attitude is in general terms thus expressed- "Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God even our Savior Jesus Christ." It involves among other particulars, Faith in the doctrine of the coming Savior, as the basis of a holy posture of expectation. Without a belief of this truth, there can be no looking for this blessed hope. "When the Son of man comes, will He find faith" -in this doctrine- "on the earth?" No: it is to be feared that many in the Church will be found sadly lacking here. They had believed in the coming of death, but they had not believed in the coming of Him who has 'abolished death.' They had expected with trembling the "king of terror," but had not expected with joy the "King of glory." They had hoped to go to Christ, but they had not hoped that Christ would come to them. But the "glorious appearing" of Jesus, and not the death of the saints, is the "blessed hope" of the Church of God. On this one grand event the eye of faith is bade to rest, as the pole-star of the soul: "Until the day-star arise in your hearts." And how much more soothing to the believing mind is such an object of faith, than the terrific monster- Death! To look up to the "bright and morning Star," and not down into the misty vault of the grave- to anticipate the glorious coming of the great Captain of my salvation, and not the gloomy and subtle approach- perhaps by slow and lingering steps- of the "last enemy" of my being- to hope for the coming of the Conqueror, and not to live in dread expectation of the foe, surely is more strengthening to faith, animating to hope, and stimulating to love!

Faith thus firmly grasping the doctrine that reveals, will inspire the hope that expects, the event. The child of God first believing it, will then be found looking for it. Resembling the faithful and affectionate wife, who frequently retires to read over the letters of her long-absent and far-distant husband, lingering with especial interest and delight over the assurances of his certain and speedy return to her again, love will constrain you to dwell upon the promise- "Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, you may be also." "I will not leave you comfortless (orphans), I will come to you." Thus, a quickening power and holy exercise are given to these sister graces of the Spirit, faith, hope, and love. Faith believes it; hope expects it; love desires it.

Thus, with this firm belief in the doctrine of the Lord's coming, the truth itself will be found an eminently influential one. Is it asked, Of what PRACTICAL USE is this blessed hope to the Church of God? We answer, 'Much every way.' Chiefly in the emptiness and nothingness to which it reduces all worldly glory, and in the holy elevation which it gives the believer above all sublunary enjoyments. And is this no great attainment in holiness? The grand duty of the believer is to live above the world. He is not of the world, even as Christ was not of it. The very name of a Christian implies his crucifixion to the world. In his profession, his joys, his pursuits, his hopes, he seems to say, with the soaring eagle, "I was born on the earth, but I live in the sky." But we require powerful motives to influence us to this. We are moved by motive, and the religion of Jesus is pre-eminently a religion of motive. The certain and speedy coming of Christ to glorify His Church, oh, what a motive is here! Were you to rise in the morning impressed with this truth, how sweetly would it carry you through your day! How effectually would it dim the luster of the world's pomp, deaden its joys, soothe your sorrows, dry your tears, lighten your burdens, reconcile you to poverty, to crosses, to losses, yes, to whatever your Lord ordains! You would feel, "What have I to do with the world's vanities, its smiles, and its glories? I am waiting, expecting, looking, hoping, praying, for that blessed hope, the appearing of my Redeemer." Oh what an eminent Christian would you be! What a burning and shining light! What vigorous faith, what lively hope, what fervent love, what a holy living for God, for Christ, and for eternity, would henceforth distinguish you!

It stimulates to the exercise of watchfulness and prayer. How closely and beautifully has our dear Lord connected together these two important Christian duties, "Watch and pray!" The one as necessary as the other is sublime. Watchfulness implying uncertainty as to time; prayer expressive of an earnest desire to be found in an appropriate attitude for the event. "Watch therefore and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." "Watch therefore, for you know not what hour your Lord does come." "Therefore, be you ready also, for in such an hour as you do not think, the Son of man comes." "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches and keeps his garments." Surely, if our affections were supremely fixed on Jesus- were He to us the "chief among ten thousand," and did we really feel in our hearts the sentiment which our lips so often utter, "Whom have I in heaven but You? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides You," the return of our Lord would be to us a matter of most delightsome expectation and joyous desire. Our earnest prayer would oftener be, "Why are Your chariot-wheels so long in coming? Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!"

Yet again: we are the expectants of a "new heaven and a new earth," from which will be excluded all that is sinful and sorrowful, and in which will dwell all that is holy and blissful. This world of pollution and of woe, and yonder skies of storm and of tempest, soon will pass away. "The heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and of perdition of ungodly men." "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up. Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness." As to the precise period at which

God will thus create all things new, the students of prophecy are divided in opinion. Some place it at the commencement of the thousand years of millennial blessedness, believing that on this renovated earth Christ will reign in glory with His saints, and that at its expiration, the second or general resurrection will take place, the judgment will be set, and the books be opened. But differing from this view as to the time of the new creation, we are constrained to place it after the first resurrection, at the close of the thousand years, and immediately following the judicial process of the judgment day. In support of this opinion we again quote the words of Peter, "The heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and of perdition of ungodly men." And it will be recollected that immediately after John describes the process of the last judgment, he says, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea."

The heavens and the earth, thus renovated and formed anew, will constitute the home and the abode of the glorified, palm-bearing saints. All the physical evils, all the ravages of sin, all the emblems of the curse, will have passed away; and from the conflagration of the old, a new creation will spring, like the fabled phoenix from its ashes, robed in beauty, order, and loveliness. "For behold," says God, "I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create." That this view of a renovated earth may disturb the conceptions of many pious minds, we are prepared to believe. To the believer the present material world has so long been the scene of moral degradation and of sin, a valley of bereavement and of tears, that he has labored to detach his best sympathies and affections from its locality, and fix them upon some distant though undefined abode of glory and of bliss. Throwing his eye around, and resting it on nothing but spots blighted with the mildew of the curse; forms of pollution each moment crowding around his path, and spectacles of suffering meeting him at every glance; his ears assailed with the plaintive sighs of grief, or the harsh sounds of blasphemy, he has longed for the wings of a dove, with which he might soar to another and a holier dwelling-place, far removed from all the sorrows of earth and the grossness of materialism. But of such would I inquire, May not your views and anticipations of heaven be less spiritual than you have supposed? Are not your conceptions of its nature derived less from anticipations of the Divine glory, than they are intertwined with cherished expectations of your own happiness? What is it to me, whether I float in ether, or whether I dwell in a material heaven- a world re-created, restored, made holy, if God is but glorified, and His will is done on earth, even as it is done in heaven? And this is heaven!

To come back, wearing my same material but glorified body, to the same material but glorified earth, both springing from their ruin, lovely, pure, beauteous, immortal- "to be with Christ"- to be like Christ- to behold the glory of Christ- to mark His triumphs- to witness the golden harvest of Redemption waving in a world once accursed through rebellion, and barren through sin- to behold the contrast between revolt and allegiance, hatred and love, sorrow and bliss, death and immortality- to go and trace the spot where this picture of incarnate love was displayed- to see the crown upon His head, who singlehanded fought the battle and won the victory- to reign with Him, and to unite in the accordant song of praise in the presence of Him to whom it refers, "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen," -oh, can we form a loftier conception of heaven, or cherish a fonder desire for its happiness and joy, than this? Where is rest, where is peace, where is joy, where is purity, if not found in the presence of the crowned Lamb, associated with the reigning Church, and on the actual theater of His glorious triumph? "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of people ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and basting unto the coming of the day of God!"

But the appearing of the Lord, while it will be "the year of His redeemed," will also be the "day of vengeance" to His enemies. He comes to judgment! "Look, the Lord is coming with thousands of his holy ones. He will bring the people of the world to judgment. He will convict the ungodly of all the evil things they have done in rebellion and of all the insults that godless sinners have spoken against him." You may think lightly of Christ now- you may despise and reject Him now- you may scoff at the doctrine, and say, "Where is the promise of His coming? " but, He will come to judgment, and every eye shall see Him, and you shall see Him. That same Jesus whose Deity, perhaps, you have denied, whose atonement you have rejected, whose saints you have ridiculed, that same "Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." Then will "all the kindreds of the earth wail because of Him." "I beheld," says the apostle, "and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

You enemies of God! You despisers of Christ! You lovers of the world, dazzled with its pomp, and fascinated with its pleasures, pause for a moment, and contemplate this tremendous scene. "Look at that point, far away in the ethereal regions, where the gradually lessening form of our Savior disappeared from the gaze of His disciples, when He ascended to heaven. In that point see an uncommon, but faint and undefined, brightness, just beginning to appear. It has caught the roving eye of yon careless gazer, and excited his curiosity. He points it out to a second and a third. A little circle now collects, and various are the conjectures which they form respecting it. Similar circles are formed, and similar conjectures made, in a thousand different parts of the world. But conjecture is soon to give place to certainty- awful, appalling, overwhelming certainty. While they gaze, the appearance which has excited their curiosity rapidly approaches, and still more rapidly brightens. Some begin to suspect what it may prove; but no one dares to give utterance to his suspicions. Meanwhile the light of the sun begins to fade before a brightness superior to its own. Thousands see their shadows cast in a new direction, and thousands of hitherto careless eyes look up at once, to discover the cause. Full clearly they see it; and now new hopes and fears begin to agitate their breasts. The afflicted and persecuted servants of Christ begin to hope that the predicted, long-expected day of their deliverance is arrived. The wicked, the careless, the unbelieving, begin to fear that the Bible is about to prove no idle tale. And fiery shapes, moving like streams of lightning, begin to appear indistinctly amid the bright dazzling cloud which comes rushing down as on the wings of a whirlwind. At length it reaches its destined place. It pauses; then, suddenly unfolding, discloses at once a great white throne, where sits, starry resplendent, in all the glories of the Godhead, the Man Christ Jesus! Every eye sees Him, every heart knows Him. Too well do the wretched unprepared inhabitants of the earth now know what to expect; and one universal shriek of anguish and despair rises to heaven, and is echoed back to earth. But louder, far louder than the universal cry, now sounds the last trumpet; and, far above all, is heard the voice of the Omnipotent, summoning the dead to arise, and come to judgment. New terrors now assail the living. On every side, no, under their very feet, the earth heaves, as in convulsions; the graves open, and the dead come forth, while, at the same moment, a change, equivalent to that occasioned by death, is effected by Almighty power on the bodies of the living. Their mortal bodies put on immortality, and are thus prepared to sustain a weight of glory, or of wretchedness, which flesh and blood could not endure. Meanwhile legions of angels are seen darting from pole to pole, gathering together the faithful servants of Christ from the four winds of heaven, and bearing them aloft to meet the Lord in the air, where He causes them to be placed at His own right hand, preparatory to the sentence which is to award to them everlasting life." But another and a different scene presents itself. Consternation now seizes the myriads whom this event has surprised amid their worldliness, their gaiety, their voluptuousness, their employment, their marrying, and their being given in marriage. As a thief in the night, the Bridegroom has startled them from their sleep! And now the graceless professor seizes his lamp, and finds it destitute of oil. The pharisee hastens to wrap his righteousness around him, but discovers that it is too narrow to conceal his deformity. The scoffer, the sceptic, the careless, the procrastinator, are seen fleeing from refuge to refuge, from mountain to mountain, from rock to rock, but none afford a shelter from the darkening storm. The great day of His wrath is come, and who is able to stand? The judgment is set! the books are opened! the wicked are arraigned! the trial proceeds! the verdict is given! the sentence is pronounced! the doom is fixed! and the undying worm and the quenchless flame are their portion forever! "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." "Upon the wicked He will rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup." Reader! are you prepared for the coming of the Lord? Are you ready to enter in with Him to the marriage supper? Are you a professor? Have you grace- renewing, humbling, sanctifying, Christ-exalting grace in your heart? Is your preparation one of principle, one of habit? Will it abide the searching scrutiny of that day? Examine and see. Take nothing for granted, in deciding a matter so solemn, and involving interests so momentous. Christ must be all in all to you- the entire groundwork and fabric of your salvation. Mere notions of truth- external membership with the Church- sacraments- regular attendance upon means- punctilious observance of days, and forms, and ceremonies, in themselves, are no fit preparation for this awful event. As the fruit of a living faith in Jesus, they are valuable; but standing alone, without repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they are the wood, the hay, the stubble which the last fire will consume.

Believer in Jesus, the day of your redemption draws near! The Lord is at hand. Behold, the Judge stands at the door. The days we live in are eventful. The times are perilous. The signs, thickening and darkening around us, are deeply and fearfully significant. We are standing on the eve of events perhaps more awful than the world has ever seen. A period of glory for the Church brighter than has yet shone upon her, and a period of woe to the world more dark than has yet cast its shadows upon it, seems rapidly approaching. Then, "let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober." "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand." "Watch you therefore for you know not when the master of the house comes, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping." Oh, to blend the steady thought of our Redeemer's coming with every present duty, privilege, and effort: how would it hallow, cheer, and dignify us, consecrating by one of the most solemn motives, the lowliest work of faith, and the feeblest labor of love!

Thus, too, would there be a growing preparedness of mind for the judgments which are yet to come upon the earth. "For there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." "Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws near."

"A child of God! and can this earth's vain pleasures

Be anything to you for whom the Savior died?

Rise, rise above them all! its worthless treasures,

Its soul-destroying joys, its pomp and pride.

Be His in all, your soul and eye be single,

Fixed as the glory that surrounds the throne;

Seek not Christ's service with the world to mingle;

Remember God has sealed you for His own.

O child of God! do not be this earth your dwelling,

But stand in spirit on that glassy sea,

Where the rich harmonies forever swelling,

Sound forth the slain Lamb's love, so full, so free.

Stand forth in peace, far above all the madness

Of sinful man, weighing with even scale

The worth of all things- feeling the deep gladness

Of one who follows Christ within the veil.

Child of the living God! what boundless blessing!

His Spirit yours, to comfort and refine;

The heir of God! joint-heir with Christ, possessing

All things in Him, and He Himself too thine.

Hold fast your crown, go forth with joy, meet Him

Soon will He come, and take you for His own.

With girded loins and burning lamps then greet Him,

The Bridegroom's triumph yours; yours too His throne!"

Precious Jesus! we have been contemplating Your glory as through a glass darkly. And yet we thank and adore You even for this glimpse. Dim and imperfect though it is, it has endeared You, unutterably endeared You, to our hearts. Oh! if this is Your glory beheld through a clouded medium, what will it be when seen face to face! Soon, soon shall we gaze upon it. Then, glorious King, we will exclaim, "It was a true report that I heard of Your acts and of Your wisdom, and behold, the half was not told me." "Seeing that we look for such things, grant us grace, that being diligent, we may be found of You in peace, without spot and blameless. Send to us what You will, withhold from us what You will; only vouchsafe to us a "part in the first resurrection," and a seat at Your right hand when You come to Your kingdom. Low at Your feet we fall! Here may Your Spirit reveal to us more of Your glory! Oh irradiate, sanctify, and cheer us with its beams! Behold, we cling to You! You are our Emmanuel, our portion, and our all. In darkness, we repair to the fountain of Your light. In sorrow, we flee to the asylum of Your bosom. Oppressed, we come to the shelter of Your cross. Oh take our hearts, and bind them closer and still closer to Yourself! Won by Your beauty, and drawn by Your love, let there be a renewed surrender of our whole spirit, and soul, and body. Claim and take a fresh possession. "Your statutes have been our songs in the house of out pilgrimage;" "You shall guide us with Your counsel, and afterward receive us to glory." Then, oh then shall we unite with the Hallelujah Chorus, and sing in strains of surpassing sweetness, gratitude, and love

"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift!"

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MONERGISM BOOKS

The Glory of the Redeemer by Octavius Winslow, Copyright © 2021

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Table of Contents

The Redeemer, the Revelation of the Father's Glory

The Typical Glory of the Redeemer

The Prophetical Glory of the Redeemer

The Glory of the Redeemer in His Humiliation

The Glory of the Redeemer in His Resurrection

The Glory of the Redeemer in His Ascension and Exaltation

The Glory of the Redeemer in His People

The Holy Spirit Glorifying the Redeemer

The Glory of the Redeemer in His Second Coming