has not sometimes been breaking. There is no bright and sunny face that has not sometimes been clouded by sorrow. There is no home into which death has not penetrated; no household in which there is not one chair empty; no flock in which there is not one dead lamb; there are few families that have not a freehold in a grave upon earth, and a near and dear one who has crossed the great Atlantic of time, and now lives and reigns with God and with the Lamb on the other side. It is a world full of farewells to the dying and of mournings for the dead. But in that blessed world, in that glory-filled land, in that beautiful bay into which all the troubled surf of time shall break, and be stilled for ever, there is no tear shed, no sigh heaved—there will be no sin in the heart to vex it, no cloud upon the conscience to darken it—no pillow for the sick-no sods broken for the dead-no vigils by the dying. In that sweet and everlasting rest there will be no plague, nor pestilence, nor famine, nor death, nor murder, because there is no sin; there will be no suffering and no sorrow for ever. In words grander than those of Isaiah, though kindled from the same everlasting lightwords full of music, that sound like a burst of celestial harmony: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away." "And I saw," says the seer again, in words full of poetry, and not fuller of poetry than of truth, "I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day; for there shall be no night there." "The days of thy mourning shall be ended."

What is the ground of all this felicity? The prophet tells us: "Thy people shall be all righteous." That is

the secret of all-clad in a righteousness which is perfect; inspired by a righteousness which is progressive now, but completed then. What is the future? call it the millennium; call it the rest that remaineth for the people of God; call it the everlasting sabbath or the world that will be-I care not what is the name, if it be a scriptural one- -what is it? A prepared place for a prepared people, a holy place for a holy people, a royal place for a royal race. We have no righteousness to entitle us to enter there that is our own; but we are told his righteousness is unto all that will accept it, and it is upon all that will believe in it. If you be righteous in the righteousness of Christ; that is to say, if you are now submitting to be saved in God's way; you have washed your robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. You can say to Christ, Blessed Jesus, I know I have forfeited heaven; I know I deserve hell; but oh, my Lord, thou wast wounded for my sins, thou wast bruised for mine iniquities; the chastisement of my peace was upon thee; on thee were laid the iniquities of us all. Blessed Lord, I believe this; I lay my stress of heart, and hope, and prospect of eternal joy upon this. So doing, you have, in the words of the Apocalypse,"washed your robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb;" so doing-simple as it is; and plain as it was to look at the brass serpent, and be well; or to run under the shelter of the city of refuge, and be protected-you have put on the wedding garment; not woven it, not washed it, not bought it; but you have put it on by Christ offering it to you that purpose; and if there be truth in the Scriptures, if there be a hope in heaven, the man that thus submits to let Christ save him is justified and will be sanctified; his present condition is, "there is no condemnation ;" his future safety is, "nothing shall be able to separate him from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus the Lord."

for

Do we not feel that dim as our light is, cold as our love is, feeble as our trust is, that bright spot in our hearts which the Sun of righteousness has illuminated,

and kindled, and keeps burning there, we would not surrender for a world? for it tells us, in Christ alone is our glory, our peace, our hope; and we are not ashamed before the universe boldly and fearlessly to say so. Oh, may we be found at that day redeemed and justified and glorified in that light which has no need of the sun nor of the moon, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the light thereof!

LECTURE XXV.

THE BRIGHTENING PATHWAY.

As the believer wends his way upward to the glorious rest, he finds his ascent brightening as he rises from the grey morning twilight into the eternal and unclouded noon, for

"The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."-PROVERBS iv. 18.

PRIVILEGE in a Christian is always translated into practice. The path that begins at a cross does not deviate, nor swerve, nor disappear till it is lost and merged amidst the splendours of a crown. If Christ be that path beginning at a cross, and Christ all and in all the way that leads to heaven, to happiness, to God, walking in that path we shall find the appropriate illustration of our progress in "the shining light" of the morning, "that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

Who is the just man? There is none that is just not one. The word "righteous" denotes simply "just. What is justice? Character squared by a perfec infallible law. If we be not just, can we be All Scripture tells us we have broken Godhave swerved from the perfect rule-we astray from the straight, the onward and path-we have ceased to do those things the to do, and therefore we cannot live by the fore the question asked by Job on his east still may be asked by us: "How shall ma before God?" Not by deeds of law, for if day we could be perfect, what becomes of

period of our life in which we have broken that law in thought, in word, and in deed? But the very idea of perfection upon earth is the most Utopian dream. None are farther from perfection than those who think they are now treading its high and perfect level, and that whoever may be wrong God knows they are all that they should be. Then how are we to be just before God? There are two senses in which we may be described as just men; first, justified by Christ's righteousness, done for us, imputed to us; the alone, the perfect, the indefeasible right to heaven's highest height and to God's holiest and happiest presence; and secondly, we become just men by the work of the Spirit of God within us, removing the heart of stone, scattering the prejudices that cloud our eyesight, breaking the force of the passions that enslave us, and fitting us by an inner character for that glory to which we have become entitled by an outer righteousness received by faith and imputed to us. In a well-known Catechism called the Shorter Catechism, the question is asked: "What is justification?" "Justification is an

act"-mark the words " an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone." What a happy definition is that! how perfect and how conclusive! But when it requires an answer to the question: "What is sanctification?" "Sanctification is the work of God's Spirit." Mark well the distinction; justification is an act, it is a forensic act, a sentence pronounced, finished, and done with; so much so that the Christian who is justified to-day is as much justified as he will be through eternity; and the poorest, weakest, most vacillating Christian is as much entitled to heaven as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the apostle Paul, the evangelist John, or any of the apostles. Our right to heaven has no degrees; it is perfect; it is not ours, but Christ's. Our sins were never his when he died for us; his righteousness is never ours when we are justified by it. Our sins imputed to him brought him to that