was

3

indeed the Son of God, he can do all this for his people; if he be not," then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." But, of his divine nature, we are not permitted to doubt for a moment. It foreshewn by prophecy," the mighty God, the everlasting Father 1;" it was claimed by himself,-"I and my Father are one ";"-it was proclaimed by a voice from heaven,-" This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased 3." He, then, who was our Redeemer, is also our God; "God," says St. Paul," was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory " Bearing, then, in mind, that he who styled himself the Son of Man was indeed the Son of God, we see at once the reasonableness and force of the declaration of St. John in the text, "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even

1 Isaiah ix. 6.

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2 John x. 30. 3 Matthew iii. 17.

* 1 Timothy iii. 16.

to them that believe on his name." Being the Son of God himself, he hath granted to his disciples a portion of his own inheritance; and power to become his sons also, in the only way by which man can become the son of God,-by adoption and grace. He, as the Son, is heir of all things; and we, as his brethren, are jointheirs with him. He succeeds by inheritance, we by his free gift. In his Father's

house are many mansions, many abodes

of bliss and realms of glory; and thither he is gone before to prepare an appropriate place for all his followers, and to watch over, and further their progress to the land of their final rest. The main, the insuperable difficulties in the way, he hath already removed. He hath appeased the Divine wrath against us, by the shedding of his innocent blood. He hath revealed to us his Father's will, in language which we cannot mistake; and, lest we should ignorantly or perversely do so, he hath shewn us the meaning of his precepts, by the light of his example. He hath granted to us,-to every one of

the rite of baptism,—the aid of his Holy Spirit, a portion of the divine influence, an additional ray of that light which illuminated man before the fall, to open our minds to the truth; to guide us through the darkness of this world; to reveal to us the devices of the tempter, and the deceits of our own wicked hearts; to keep the bright prospects which the Gospel discloses continually before our eyes, and the dangers of neglecting our duty continually in our thoughts; to put into our minds good desires, and to enable us to bring the same to good effect. All this he hath done for us already-of his own free grace-without our wish, and without our knowledge; all this hath he done for us now, and much more than this will he do for us hereafter. After a life, uncertain, as human life always is, in its duration, and checquered, as a scene of trial always must be, with good and evil, pleasure and pain; after a series of struggles with the power of evil, of failure in his best endeavours, and disappointment in his fondest hopes-the Christian, supported by his Saviour through

life, shall not be deserted by him in death. The grave had no power over our divine Master, nor shall it triumph over his faithful people. Death has now lost his sting, and the grave has been robbed of its victory; so that, when the appointed years of the world have run their course, and the harvest of the Church shall be ready for the gathering-that Almighty Word which at first called the earth out of nothing, and which redeemed it from the power of sin, shall once more exert the authority which he has received from his Father, and pronounce the final doom of the universe. Then all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and shall come forth. But as his faithful followers were never neglected or forgotten by him, in their lives, so shall they be first remembered by him in their graves. "The dead in Christ," says St. Paul, "shall rise first." "Then we" i. e. his people, who are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we be ever with the

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Lord."

Then all trial and trouble shall

cease the Church militant hath ended its warfare, and the glories of the Church triumphant have begun. Then to every faithful son of the spiritual Israel shall be allotted his inheritance in the heavenly Canaan, by him who is the Moses of a better covenant, the Joshua of a richer land of promise. Then, according to the mystical language of the book of Revelation, the new and heavenly Jerusalem shall rise in all its splendour. Its walls shall be of precious stone, its gates of pearl, and its streets of pure gold. It shall differ, indeed, in a striking manner from the Jerusalem which was of old, in that there shall be no temple therein; for, adds St. John, "The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it for the glory of God shall 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

1 1 Thessalonians iv. 16, 17.