marcations of nations, the divisions of churches, were thrown down when the veil of the temple was rent, and the glory, the inner glory, broke upon the outer world. What was a national cistern, refreshing Israel of old, has become now the great fountain, whose inexhaustible streams water and make glad all tongues, kindreds, peoples, and nations. Of old the ears of the ripe wheat were gathered around Jerusalem only; now wherever the wheat is ripe (and, as the old Covenanter said, God still spares the green, and takes the ripe), be it in east, west, north, or south, it is bound into a sheaf, and it is welcome as an offering before God. We read that "Many shall come from the east and the west, and from the north and from the south, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;" or in the beautiful words of the Moravian poet, Montgomery "Arabia's desert ranger To Christ shall bow the knee; His glory come and see. With anthems of devotion, Ships from the isles shall meet; Kings shall fall down before him, Or dove's light wing can soar." Such is the mighty multitude that will be gathered out of all nations. They sing the song, it is said, of Moses and the Lamb. You recollect the splendid song: "I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation." Well, now, that song of Moses had its key-note Christ, and at that blissful day the song of Moses shall be merged in the song of the Lamb; and it will be seen that all true songs that were ever sung from lonely believing hearts were all connected with the grand central key-note, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is said, lastly, in the Apocalypse: "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." When we read there was no temple where the Lamb was, we seem to feel a deficiency. Take away from England and Scotland their sabbaths, their sanctuaries, with their spires like fingers pointing upward and tapering to the rest that remaineth for the people of God, and you would rob the landscape of its loveliest features. Then it does seem strange that it should be said there was no temple there. But the reason is obvious; the whole earth, with its mosaic of rock, and wood, and streams, and seas, and flowers, has been consecrated and made the floor of that great temple whose high altar is the Son of God, whose component stones are living stones; the cement of which is love, knitting all these stones, more beautiful, infinitely more precious, than diamonds, to the great foundation stone; and in that new temple, of which the earth's floor is the consecrated pavement, there is daily service; there is nightly service also; for they serve him day and night without ceasing; and a hurricane of praise, like the voice of many thunders and as the voice of many waters, ceaselessly rises around the throne of God and of the Lamb; and the glory of the Lamb, that puts out the light of sun, and moon, and stars, renders all other lights unnecessary. And no more as servants in the cold and wintry outer porch, which is the present state, but worshippers in beauty, in holiness, in peace, those we would have kept, but whom God took because he loved them more, shall meet and mingle and join in that anthem peal which shall never cease, round that high altar, the only altar in the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then all that redeemed multitude, as they constitute one temple, so they constitute, we are told, one bride. We read, just before the millennial light breaks out in the 20th of Revelation: "The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his bride hath made herself ready." And one of the ministering spirits came and said: "I will show you the bride of the Lamb." What does this mean? It is this-Christ selects all that believe, of all ages, of all generations, all that will wash their robes in his precious blood; that is, all that will believe on him as he is set forth in the Gospel; and makes them his bride. And we are told by the apostle that Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; and that he will present her at that day to himself a glorious church, without spot, or wrinkle, or blemish, or any such thing-his name hers, his rights hers, his glory hers. And the most marvellous fact in God's most marvellous universe-for new marvels are daily discovered by new efforts of science will be that the Prince of Peace, the King of glory, looked upon us in rags, in wretchedness, in sin, in wickedness, in iniquity, diseased, dying, dead; and made of us his bride, whom he loves with a love that never falters, and crowns with a glory which shall never die, and has identified, notwithstanding all she has been, with himself for ever and ever. Such then are some of the pictures of the Lamb as he is set forth in the Scriptures. He is spoken of, in conclusion, as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. There never was but one way to heaven, never was but one Saviour, never was but one Sacrifice; its virtues extending backward from the Cross to poor Eve, looking on the rose that faded in her hands as her retreating footsteps sounded at the gates of Paradise, and extending forward to the last generation of humankind. Christ crucified is the central fact, the central date, the grand event in the history of God's universe. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Abraham was a Christian in the dawn; we are Christians near the high, the ceaseless noon; both however trusting in the same Saviour. LECTURE XXXVII. THE LESSON OF THE DAY. DOCTRINE leads to duty. Prophecy inspires the present with its hopes. They that look for the glorious morrow learn and live the lesson of to-day. "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless."-2 PETER iii. 14. HERE is the practical duty that flows from all the themes to which we have been directing attention. The words are evidence that these themes are fraught with practical importance that they are not mere speculations fitted to gratify an itching curiosity-but grand thoughts, suggestive themes, tending to make man wiser, happier, holier, and fitted for the kingdom of heaven. Now what are "such things," which the apostle says, ye look for? " Seeing that ye look for such things." He tells us in the previous part of the chapter: a dissolving earth, under the action of intense heat-an evanishing heavens, before the breath of the Lord of hosts the elements melting with fervent heat-nature passing into her last transformation with a mighty noise-all things dissolved-God the Saviour descending on the earth-a new heaven and a new earth, according to his promise in Isaiah lxv., wherein dwelleth righteousness. But, what should be the effect of our looking for all this? Terror? No. Apathy? No. Indifference? No. Giving up all for lost, like men in a wreck on the ocean, and plunging into the wildest excesses? No; but-" Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things," the logic of these things is, "be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless." Here then we have the practical action of this hope: "Seeing that ye look for such things." If we are not looking for them, we are not acting in accordance with the apostle's prescription. If then we are looking for these things, where do we look for them? In promise, in prophecy; in the signs of the age, in the phenomena of the day. Our blessed Lord rebuked the generation in which he lived when he told them, You judge of the weather by the signs in the sky; and yet you are ignorant of and insensible to the signs, the moral and far more important signs of the age in which you live. If then we are looking for these things, we are first of all to be diligent. We look for a new heavens and a new earth; see that we have new hearts and a new nature meet for the mighty transformation. As righteousness is the tenant of the new earth, righteousness must be the tenant of each heart that is to beat on that new earth. Let the Lord our righteousness, Jesus Christ, dwell in every heart, that when he comes, in the beautiful words of the apostle, we may be found of him without spot and blameless in that day. Our looking, therefore, for this is the exercise of hope. What are the component elements of Christian character? Faith that looks back; love that looks up; hope that looks forward. Faith is fed by facts, doctrines, and truths, that grow out of the cross of Christ; love is fed by studying him who so loved us that he died for us, and of whom it is said: "We love him because he first loved us;" and hope is fed by using the promise and the prophecy as a telescopic tube along which we look, and see more clearly and brightly the glory that shines in the distant horizon, destined to overflow with its splendour the length and breadth of the globe. This hope which is now in our hearts-this looking for these things-is a flower gathered from Paradise that is to be; perfuming our hearts with its precious fragrance, and giving the man who looks for the glory that is to come an inner taste of it that is an earnest and a prelibation of it before that glory overtakes him. Hope is the earnest |