Thus, if we take the whole of this chapter, and set it like a beautiful gem in the centre of surrounding gems, we shall find they all cast light on it, and that it casts light on them.

Then let us comfort our hearts with this blessed hope, that the devil is not to have the mastery; that evil is not to triumph; that Satan is a usurper now, and shall be cast out an exile then; that the Saviour has left us not to forget us, but having engraved our names upon his heart, and upon the palms of his hands, he will come for his bride, that has been crying for so many hundreds of years, "Come, Lord Jesus; take to

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thee thy power; come quickly ;" and he will answer, "Behold, I come;" and "the dead in Christ shall rise, and the living in Christ shall be changed;” and “ Thou shalt be mine in that day when I make up my jewels ;" and all nations shall bless him, and all shall be blessed in him; and the whole earth shall be filled with his glory.

LECTURE V.

THE FIRST RESURRECTION.

THEY that sleep in Christ and they that are found alive in Christ at his coming shall, the former rejoin their bodies raised from the grave, and the latter experience a complete transfiguration.

“I saw thrones and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus," &c. -REVELATION XX. 4, 5.

I PRODUCED in the course of previous remarks the key to the solution of the majestic and sublime chapter from which I have taken the subject of this lecture. I will now comment upon that blessed prospect-that true Easter morning, when there shall take place not the resurrection of a few, as when Christ rose from the dead, but the resurrection of all that sleep in the dust who have died in Christ, and in hope of the glory that he has promised soon and sure to be revealed. Before I advance further, let me explain the peculiar imagery here employed. He says: “I saw thrones, and they sat upon them;" that is, I saw fulfilled what God himself has promised by the lips, or rather by the pen, of his servant the prophet Daniel. Daniel predicts what John in this chapter records as taking place at the commencement of that millennial epoch to which all past ages have contributed, and in whose glory and splendour all past times shall be crowned and glorified. Daniel says in the 7th chapter, at the 9th verse: "I beheld till the thrones were cast down;" so John says here: "I saw thrones ;' "and," continues Daniel, "the Ancient of days," that is, the Saviour, "did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the

pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld them because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake; I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away; yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like a," not the, but a, "like a Son of man came with the clouds of heaven;" as in the prediction in the 24th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew: "The Son of man shall come in the clouds of heaven;", " and they brought him near before him. And there was given him," what is recorded in this very passage, "dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." John saw in the distant vision of the future, that passed before him like a splendid panorama, across the Isle of Patmos and over the Ægean Sea, the accomplishment of what Daniel predicted; namely, the thrones set, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. What a sublime finale to the chequered story of human joys and human sorrows! They that were persecuted and reproached of men at last accepted and acquitted of God-they that were misconstrued on earth, and suffered because of the misconstruction, now glorified and honoured by being placed at the right hand of God— thrones set for them who had known only crosses; joy ministered to the hearts of them that had rarely bounded, and frequently been breaking-dignity the inheritance of those who had been degraded; saints judging the world-men judging angels-all things restored, the glory returned, the church perfect, the bride complete ; heaven, the continent of glory, and earth, the long