joint-heirs of Christ Jesus. At that day a glorious change will pass upon this poor body of ours. There is reason to believe that we have scarcely an idea of what matter was from what matter now is. From the loveliest rose that blooms in the garden, and wastes its sweetness on the desert air, down to the humblest weed that grows by the way-side, a great degeneracy has taken place. From the noblest specimen of humanity down to the humblest and the lowest, as in the case of the negro, there is a terrible deterioration. We know not by anything we now see, unless by the glimpse of glory which the Master left behind him when he rose from the Mount of Olives, and the cloud received him out of sight, into what shapes of beauty, into what media of light, into what mirrors of loveliness, all creation will be wrought when God shall make all things new, and Paradise shall be restored and a new world will dawn. The chrysalis worm-the repulsive chrysalis worm-gives no idea of the beautiful butterfly into which it is to be developed. The seed that rots and moulders in the earth gives faint foresight of the fair and fragrant blossom that will bloom upon it in summer. So this frail, sick, dying, shattered body of ours, in which are so many fissures and clefts caused by sin-this body of ours, which is sometimes almost broken to pieces by the convulsive efforts of the spirit to escape from its thraldom, and to taste the freedom wherewith Christ makes his people free, when raised from the dead shall be all beauty, and exquisite proportion; identity discernible in glory; the glorified not concealing likeness but imperfection. Decay and sin shall be left behind, and remembered faces shall come forth from behind the shadow of the grave into everlasting sunshine; and the old, weary, weeping earth shall put on her loveliest apparel, her bridal dress, and the footprints of death shall be abolished, and all tears shall be dried up; and the yearnings after union and reunion shall be satisfied; and for the extinguished passions of hate, and envy, and jealousy, and all uncharitableness, shall be lighted on the altar of humanity love, and joy, and peace, and

T

happiness in believing; and tabernacles that shall never be taken down shall enclose a glory that shall never take flight, and all things shall be made new. Friendships annealed in suffering shall be perpetuated in heaven ; the love that shed lustre on life's long vista shall be perfected and purified there. Martyrs for truth, who have borne its burden on their souls and its scar upon their hearts; who have toiled for the world's highest interests and died for the world's greatest good; who have swept life's humble way with their garments on their errands of beneficence; whose voices have fallen as consolatory music into the hearts of the widow and the orphan-these, with palms in their hands and crowns on their brows, with nothing on their faces remaining of the trials through which they have passed, except the glory of the victory they have gained, shall mingle with the white-robed group who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; and faith shall be lost in sight, and hope shall be merged in having, and pain shall be absorbed in indescribable pleasure, and death shall be extinguished in everlasting life; and there shall be no more tears, nor sorrow, nor pain, nor death, for all former things have passed away, and the world as it is has been transfigured into the world as it will be.

O Lord, number us with these thy saints in glory everlasting, for Christ's sake!

LECTURE XXI.

ALL THINGS NEW.

THE old and weary and worn-out earth has in reserve a glorious regenesis, a magnificent palingenesia. What it shall be is so sure, that prophecy shapes itself in history.

"The former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new."-REVELATION xxi. 4, 5.

I HAVE shown that, assuming this to be a fallen world, and its people to be the victims of sin, pain and death, instead of being intrinsically calamities, are turned into mercies. Whilst pain and death introduced by sin are abnormal in their real character, yet in a world overwhelmed by sin, and amidst a people full of imperfections, these exercise a beneficent as well as retributive power. Pain in the body, the fruit of sin, is a warning of danger and of the inroads of death. Death also has in it mercy. It ends the quarrels, the disputes, the controversies of the world. I showed that the possibility of a miser living for ever would be a calamity to mankind. The death therefore of the individual is often a blessing to society. What a calamity would have been an immortal Napoleon Bonaparte, the scourge of Europe, the terror of the nations! When too we know in this present fallen state what ills and aches, what diseases and disappointments, what broken hearts, what bruised spirits, the wear and tear and conflicts of the world create, we must see that the death which does not extinguish the soul, but frees it from its restraints, is overruled as far as a penal thing can be overruled to be a blessing to believers.

Death to a

Christian is not ceasing to be, it is only ceasing to be seen by us; it is not ceasing to be conscious, it is only ceasing to be able to express and unfold that consciousness to men. As the lightning leaves the cloud, and is free as the bright scimitar leaps from the scabbard and gleams in the sunshine-so the soul leaps from the disorganised or the clay-cold frame; and absent from the body it is not unconscious, nor asleep; it is present with the Lord. And what is presence with the Lord? "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore."

Former

I proceed to sum up the contents of these beautiful words: "The former things are passed away; and I," says the Saviour, "make all things new." things; not first things, which were in Paradise, but subsequent things, or former things to that-that is, subsequent to that economy, are all passed away. What are some of these? It means no more sorrow, nor death, nor tears, nor crying; sin is swept away like a shadow from the dial of time; all that follows in the train of sin-sickness, disease, death, have been dispersed for ever; the tears of sorrow dried, broken hearts healed, bleeding spirits bound up; beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Error of every shade shall be dissolved. There never has been truth in the world without shadow, nor a pure Gospel preached without a corresponding counterfeit of error; and the more vivid and vital the truth becomes, the darker often the shadow that Satan conjures up and gathers round it. But when the day predicted here dawns on earth, all error shall flee away like a mist before the wind, and we shall no more see through a glass darkly, but face to face. As a necessary consequence of this, all controversies, theological, social, moral, political, shall cease for ever. No one can look at the church of Christ in any one stage of its progress without noticing how complicated and painful are the controversies that vex it. Never has there been a year in the church's history in which there has not appeared some man with an odd crotchet,

or some minister with a twist in his temperament, or a distortion in his intellect, or a disease in his heart, so that precious truths, the glory of centuries, have been denounced and denied, as if they were the novelties of the day, instead of being the inspiration and the wisdom of God. One day all this will pass away; instead of each looking at truth from his own stand-point all will look at truth from the throne of the Lamb. Then every truth will appear in its own beautiful and perfect proportion. We shall see the truth in its fulness and know even as we are known. There will be no more disputes, and quarrels, and coldness, and suspicions among those that are true Christians. It is sad that such men should suspect, and doubt one another, and speak unkindly, and unjustly and ungenerously of one another. How much more happy would the church be, how much more impressed would the world feel, if every Christian would forbear to say an unkind word about a brother when he cannot say a kind one, or would conceal a brother's defects as much as he can, instead of magnifying the defects and diminishing to the very utmost the excellences that accompany them! How much more of the love of God would be felt and how much more of the peace of the church and of the world would be manifested if, whilst we could say nothing good about the worst, we should say as little evil as we possibly can! What is charity? It believeth all things, it hopeth all things. In those you think the worst, if you knew them as God knows them, you would see latent excellences of which you have no suspicion; and in those that you think the very best, if you were to see them as God's omniscient eye sees them, you would detect shadows deep and dark in proportion to the excellences which are set in the midst of them. What says the apostle? Charity covereth a multitude of sins." What does that mean? Does it mean charity in me atones for my sins? Not at all; it means charity in me casts its veil over the imperfections and sins of a brother; that is to say, while I see a brother doing what I must condemn, thinking what I

66