originated the doubts of Thomas; it is in every disease that racks the body; in every pestilence that rides upon the air; in every hurricane that dismantles the earth; in every earthquake that convulses it. We have in all these the outward blots, and blains, and boils, into which sin breaks out everywhere, till poor afflicted nature groans and travails in pain, and yearns, and longs, and seeks to be delivered. What is wanted is not this earth swept away, but purified and cleansed. Let the voice that once said in majestic tones, "Let there be light," and there was light, only pronounce the words, Let there be a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness ; and this earth of ours will have its tears dried up, its groans stilled, its yearnings gratified; and those bleak wildernesses shall rejoice, and those desert places shall blossom like the rose; and our world, the fairest and the loveliest orb in the universe, will in consequence of its marvellous story awaken the deepest interest, and concentrate on itself the intensest regards of all the orbs in the universe of God. No orb is there in the starry hosts of the sky on which a cross has been raised; no city in Jupiter, or Saturn, or Mars, or Venus, or any of the planets belonging to our system, in which there is a grave in which God manifest in the flesh once lay; in no other orb has there been a Pentecost. The antecedents of our globe are the most brilliant; the historic traditions of our world are the most thrilling; and it seems to me as if it would be an awful catastrophe if a world with such antecedents, such a history, covered with so magnificent footprints, should ever be expunged or annihilated, or disappear from the orbs and records of the universe. But we know it will not. Its sin will be eliminated, and it will be reconsecrated by the footstep of its present Lord; it will be beautiful again, and so beautiful that the former heavens and earth shall not come into remembrance; the joy of its inhabitants shall make them forget their former sorrow. The sailor forgets the storm after he enjoys the peacefulness of the desired haven; the soldier forgets the roar, and the scenes, and the awful tragedies of war, after he

has settled down in his native and peaceful hamlet; the traveller forgets the flints, and thorns, and winds, and rains of the long, rough, weary road, when he has reached his happy home; and the mother forgets her sorrow for joy that a man child is born into the world; and we shall forget the griefs of the present in the intense, untiring, uninterrupted enjoyment of that magnificent future in which the present shall be crowned and culminate.

This new heaven and new earth are meant for a people that have new hearts, and to whom all things are made new. The future rest, with all its blessedness, is a prepared place for a prepared people; "which things," it is said, "he has laid up for them that love him." Do we love the Saviour? or are our hearts so numbed by the cold of this present miserable age that they are never thawed and warmed by the love of Christ, and the hopes of the brighter and the better rest that is to come? Can we say from the very heart, "Whom having not seen we love; in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing we rejoice with joy unutterable and full of glory?" Can we say from the very heart, "Lord Jesus, thou knowest all things, and thou knowest this one thing: however insignificant I am, however poor in this world's estimation, thou knowest that I love thee?" Can you say even now, "Whom have I in heaven but thee?" You have relatives there; some of you have a father there, some of you a mother, some of you a sister, some a brother, some a husband, some a wife; but though you love them, and desire to meet them again, and you will meet them again, can you cease to see them in the greater splendour of Him who is the glory and the burden of their songs? and can you say, "Whom have I in heaven but thee?" And can you add, too, in this world-looking at your wealth, your profits, your pleasures, estimating your home, gauging the happiness and appreciating the joys that nestle like swallows under its roof-tree-can you say, "And there is none upon earth that I desire beside or above thee?" If so, you need not fear; you will be a

tenant of that new heaven and that new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. "Unto them that look for him will he come the second time unto salvation." Let us then fill the present with the privileges it offers; with the duties God demands, and God will crown it with the promises he has made, and with the new heaven and the new earth he keeps in reserve for all them that love him.

LECTURE II.

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS.

It would be strange if in the prophecies of the Millennial Rest there were no "things hard to be understood." The history of the future in the Apocalypse is of course not so plain as that of the past of Genesis. Yet there are difficulties in the latter. We may therefore expect more in the former.

"But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusa lem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed."-ISAIAH lxv. 18-20.

THE first question we must try to answer is this: Does this photographic portrait represent something in the age to come? Is it the delineation of the phenomena peculiar to it? or is it the portrait of something that will transpire before those great changes indicated in other portions of the Word of God will arrive? In other words, does it belong to the period spoken of in Revelation xx. in these words: "They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years;" or does it belong to an epoch long antecedent to this? It does seem to be the duty of the minister of Christ not to shrink from trying to explain, even if he should fail, every portion of the Word of God that comes before him in due course. What respect would you have for one whose duty it is to labour

during the week in order to edify his flock on the Sunday, if he constantly repeated, what indeed are worth repeating, the precious and vital truths of evangelical Christianity, but as often as he came to a passage that needed research for illustration, or on which good men differ, were to say, I am too busy, or I am too idle, to examine and expiscate the meaning of this portion of the Word of God, and therefore I will skip it, and leave you to make of that passage what in your own judgments, ignorance, or mistakes you may? The more difficult a passage is the more dutiful it is to try to explain it. There are passages in this book which we cannot explain. Being a revelation of the Infinite, an apocalypse of the incomprehensible God, we must expect to meet in it touches of light too brilliant for the intellect to endure, too magnificent for imagination in its highest soarings to reach, and to bring down within the horizon of the very highest minds. We must not, therefore, be surprised if passages occur on which we may throw a little light, but on which we cannot throw full light, or rather on which we cannot give complete satisfaction. Persons must not think it inconsistent if the minister of Christ, where he is sure, speaks with the absolute dogmatism of an oracle; but where he is not sure, tells you so; and where he is utterly unable, admits at once the depth of the mysteries of heaven, and the feebleness of the human intellect.

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In trying to cast light upon this passage, we have to answer the inquiry, Is it the picture of the millennial rest? Is it a scene that transpires subsequent to the conflagration of the earth, and the restoration of all things? I believe it unquestionably to be so. For you observe Isaiah begins, or rather God speaks by Isaiah in these words, in the 17th verse : Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth." You turn to Peter in his Second Epistle, and he quotes this as a promise soon to be fulfilled. He says: "The heavens and the earth which are now, being stored with fire, are reserved against the judgment of ungodly men. Nevertheless we, according to his promise;" what promise? There