morn when Jesus shall call his sleeping members to meet Him in the air, there is but Paradise

""Twixt them and resurrection,

But Paradise doth stand."

I might, if I had time, trace out many other operations of His grace in the days when He was down here upon the earth. Look at that poor publican: the description may have been only a parable, but it seems a reality; that publican laid hold on God; he said, “God be merciful to me a sinner;" he said, "I am nothing, and I can do nothing." He brought no claim; he did not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven; but he had got hold of God; he says nothing good of himself, but looks only to God; God having provided an atonement, He could show grace and mercy to the chief of sinners. He went to his home justified. I might enlarge on this. I might collect instances all through the history of the blessed Lord to illustrate the grace He loved to manifest to those who had no claim on Him, and who were without strength. I might multiply instances of that wonderful love and grace which in His life on earth showed, as in a mirror, what Jesus really is. But the moments are brief, and in conclusion I would ask, "Have you seen Jesus? Have you seen Him for yourself? Some of you have, and you long to see Him where He is. Like Paul, you would be absent from the body, present with the Lord. All the past and the present urge to this. Some of you are weak, and weary, and old, and alone in life; and you are saying—

"We would see Jesus, for the shadows lengthen

Across this little landscape of our life;
We would see Jesus, our weak faith to strengthen
For the last nearness-the final strife.

"We would see Jesus, for life's hand hath rested

With its dark touch upon both heart and brow;
And though our souls have many a billow breasted,
Others are rising in the distance now.

"We would see Jesus! Other lights are paling
Which for long years we have rejoiced to see;
The blessings of our pilgrimage are failing-

We would not mourn them, for we go to Thee."

But death is not our hope. Nor is paradise. Our hope is that He Himself will come-come as He said to receive us unto Himself-unto the man Christ Jesus, who loves us-unto Him who also is Son, whose glory we shall see. Our hope is that we are to see Him face to face, and be like Him, and be for ever with Him. Would you not see Him thus ? Are you daily receiving His assurances that He will soon come? Does He not say "quickly"? Love cannot have its object too soon, but says, "Come, Lord Jesus; come quickly." Oh, it is Himself we want; all that He is as Head-His life, and love, and holiness; and all that He is as man, and as Son, and all that He shadowed forth 66 as God in manhood," when He made man in His image-the image of that which was to be His Eternal form.

What ravishing views even now may we have of Jesus! One dear dying saint has confessed to have had to put his hand on his eyes, he felt the glory to be so great. Beloved, very few of us have ever seen Him so.

Now, my heart's desire and prayer for you who are seeking salvation is, that you may see Jesus-see Him for yourselves, and seeing Him have the peace and rest which the knowledge of Him gives. Mark, it is Jesus you are to see, not any other-no man save Jesus only; seeing and owning Him as your Saviour, you will have rest. And remember that, believing in Jesus, you are before God as He is. Once dead, now as He is, raised from the dead; accepted as He; justified, sanctified as He; this is rest for the weary

"He your redemption is,
Wisdom and righteousness,
Life, light, and holiness."

H

The writer of that letter says he was unhappy because he had always thought his old nature-the carnal mind-was to be perfectly sanctified; but when he got a glimpse of what Christ was for him before God, and what He had done in condemning but not eradicating sin in the flesh, and, as to its guilt, in putting it away by the sacrifice of Himself, he had peace. It is the work of faith to see this. The first announcement God made in Paradise, and which Adam believed, was, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head;" also that the Seed Himself was to be bruised-was to die. He has died. Hence we live-are saved. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

Dear people, I solemnly warn you against rejecting this grace of God. I impress it on you, you are either converted, or you are not; you have either seen Jesus, or you have never seen Him, and are yet in your sins; you are on the verge either of a converted or an unconverted eternity; you are either a candidate for heaven, or you are one of Satan's slaves led captive at his will. There is no middle condition, beloved hearers. "Well, then," you say, "what am I to do ?" Mark, when God told the good news to Adam, that the Seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head would Himself, for us and for our salvation, be bruised, what had Adam to do? Why, nothing. Adam was passive; he received the message; he believed God.

There is, to my own heart, a sweet thought here, which I would not willingly pass over. It is this-it was Eve who was first in the transgression, not Adam; but, mark, Adam went down with Eve into the deepest depths rather than be separated from her, even to the death and separation from Paradise that sin had caused. Thus it was the Church who had sinned; but Christ, the Second Adam, became one with His Church-not a partaker of her sin, for He knew no sin; but He took her place in judgment, with sin upon Him. We

cannot lower or compromise the truth, beloved: Jesus took the sin of His Church-He who had no sin in Him, was made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Eve was in the transgression, and Adam must either take his stand with her who was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, or he must take his stand apart from her. He chose the former. In a sense, he left Paradise for her sake; and the "Lord for our sake became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich."

But mark further. Man, out of Paradise, had nothing but the Word of God which told of redemption. The world was enmity to God; His Word was despised, and from that day there sprang up two parties-the Cain party, who hugged a ruined world, and the Abel party, who embraced the Word. These two exist to this day; the one party loving and adorning a ruined world, trying to make the best of it, as is seen wherever the Cain principle culminates, and where men are trying to be happy outside of God; and the other, like Abel, content with knowing the truth of God, and in finding salvation through the blood of the Lamb.

Dear friends, in which class are you? My heart's prayer for you is, that you may be saved that, taking God at His word, you may see Jesus, "bruised for your iniquities." "He who knew no sin was made sin for us." May the Holy Ghost, whose work it is, take of the things of Christ, and show it to your soul. "This is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." The world does not know this. Do you know it? God give you, beloved people, to stand still, as did Moses, and see the salvation of God. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

I bring you the good news of God, the message of His love; not that you must first love God, but

that God first loved you, and now that what you need is to know it; thence to your believing soul will spring a thousand joys-a thousand anticipations-each one like the mystic "white stone," known only to such as have them. Beloved, may you have that receptive mind of which we have spoken this morning; may you receive God's truth as a little child-see Jesus as He is presented to you-see His blood for righteousness, and, like the lily that toils not, neither does it spin, may you simply believe, and enter into rest. May you "see Jesus." May the Lord, by His Spirit, teach you. May He bless you. May God bless you.