and serving him both here and hereafter: of knowing him here by faith, that hereafter you may know him "by the seeing of the eye;" of beginning to serve him here, that hereafter you may serve him through ages without end. This is the great subject of thankfulness; and if you feel no disposition towards it now, you are ill prepared for that future life of praise, of which the chapter under consideration affords a specimen. 66 And here I cannot but observe the high dignity to which we are raised, we Christians who have the Scriptures in our hands. We, sinful and imperfect as we are, yet here on earth are taught to lift up our praises to our Maker in the same strains as those used by the angels and glorified spirits above. We have this morning joined in saying "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth: heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory." And this is the hymn of the angels themselves. "I saw the Lord," says the prophet, sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple; and one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts: the whole earth is full of thy glory." You have also heard to-day the strain of praise which those repeat whose station is nearest to the throne of God: namely, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive honor, and glory, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." So again, the chapter which follows, reveals to us the song of angels "in number ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and glory, and blessing." Thus are we permitted to join in the songs of heaven, and to utter the ideas which are conceived in heaven. What a gratifying thought to all who enter the sanctuary in the sincerity of faith and love, and rejoice that such an opportunity is granted them of rising above the cares of this world, and leaving its vexations behind them! Here indeed may the "brother of low degree rejoice, in that he is exalted," exalted to an occupation of dignity which sets him on a level with the highest; and here may the "rich rejoice, in that he is made low:" brought down, when on his knees in prayer, to that natural equality in which we all, high and low, rich and poor, one with another, appear before Him who is "no respecter of persons." And shall any frequent a service so pure in its nature and so spiritualizing in its tendency, without reflection and without devotion: merely out of decent respect for the Lord's day, or because the grandeur of the place attracts them? Can they be listless or irreverent in a duty in which angels are engaged? We need no other test of the state of the soul. If a Sabbath is burthensome, if such employments are tedious for a few hours, how will a perpetual Sabbath, an eternity of praise be endured? It is true, our service will be faulty and imperfect, at the best; and we have all too much reason to implore that God may not weigh the merits, but pardon the offences of our prayers: the sinfulness of our nature mixes with all we do, and presses down the soul; but the more we can purify our devotion from this alloy, the more sensibly we feel the strains of confession, and of praise, and of supplication which succeed each other, so much the nearer we approach to that frame of mind which it is the purpose of Divine grace to create in those who shall hereafter be admitted to join the communion of saints in heaven. I will only remark, in conclusion, that no weak or humble Christian ought to go away discouraged, from reflecting how different his daily avocations in this world appear from those which the Bible describes as the employments of heaven. It must be borne in mind, that we are not here in a glorified state: our business, our one thing needful, is to prepare for such a state; and this scene of our probation gives us other duties to perform besides those in which angels are engaged. We honor God, while we labor to do his will; we glorify him, when we serve him, our unseen Master, in discharging faithfully the duties of our several stations; we praise him, when in obedience to his commands, we order our conversation right, and exercise ourselves to "keep a conscience void of offence both towards him and towards man." We are in this respect as children, who are to be educated, taught, and disciplined in their youth, that they may afterwards perform the duties of grown persons. We do not expect the child to execute the business of a man. But still we know, that as the child is, so will the man be; as the child which is brought up in sin and ignorance, will live in sin and ignorance; as the child which is taught nothing useful when young, will be able, in his riper years, to discharge no useful duty; so it is with respect to the soul. No radical change is to be looked for in its passage from this state of being to another. Those duties must be loved and practised here, which will form hereafter its nobler work; those dispositions must be created and cherished now, which will be perfected in a higher statc. If we do not serve God with reverence and holy fear, in the only way in which we are enabled to serve him here on earth; we shall not be admitted to serve him hereafter in a more exalted manner, with faculties enlarged and cleansed from human corrupticn. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." "For the Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity." Therefore examine, faithfully examine, what you are now; for on what you become now, what you will be through eternity depends. "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still." "Those who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," "they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." nor any heat. VOL. II.-12 SERMON X. THE BELIEVER'S HOPE OF LIKENESS TO CHRIST. By the Rev. EDWARD CRAIG, A. M., 1 JOHN, iii. 2. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. It is natural to the human mind to crave after a knowledge of its future lot. Even those whose characters are debased by a criminal attachment to this world, and whose views are limited and narrowed by that attachment, eagerly desire to know what will be their portion here in days to come; and for this purpose frequently give themselves up to be deluded by the most absurd pretenders to prophetic knowledge. Much of this restlessness is however calmed by an experimental and saving knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. When a man discovers his real character, and sees himself as the Scripture says, "in the light of God's countenance;" when he ascertains by this comparison his own guilt, and the extent of punishment he has deserved, and learns that through the love of God manifested by the death of his only Son, he is spared, redeemed, and received into favor: when instead of living under the perpetual dread of divine indignation, he can say, "Now are we the sons of God," then the whole circumstances of his case are altered. Instead of speculating with pride and selfishness upon his future gain or exaltation, he lies low before the throne of God in the spirit of contrition, counting it a mercy that he was not long since consigned to the eternal prison. He regards every comfort of mind or body as an undeserved mercy; and if amid the vicissitudes of this life, he finds "the peace of God which passeth all understanding, keeping his heart and mind," he can then draw near in thankfulness to God, conscious that his cup of blessing runneth over, that goodness and mercy have followed him all the days of his life, and that he can affectionately leave the future in those mighty and beneficent hands, from whence he has already received so much. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God," goes far indeed to sooth the irritable restlessness of the human heart. It is easy then to say of the yet unseen world, "Thou wilt guide me by thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory;" or to say of the future in this chequered life, "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, and the labor of the olive shall fail; yet will I rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation." "The Lord God is my strength." Or, as St. Paul says, "My God shall supply all my needs out of his riches in Glory by Christ Jesus." But although that eager craving after a knowledge of the future is much subdued and quieted on right principles in the truly cnlightened and Christian mind; there is still an allowable feeling of desire going forth after a clearer view of the realities of that future state on which the Christian hopes, as the adopted son of God, shortly to enter. The interests of time are sunk with him to an insignificant point. The value of the whole of this transitory dispensation, is summed up in the one gracious result to which in his case it has led. To be able to say, "Now are we the sons of God;" to feel on satisfactory grounds that the issue of our progress hitherto through earthly sorrows, has been the gift of such a title and such an inheritance is to have realized the crowning blessing of this existence. It is to have obtained by a spiritual chimistry, the concentrated essence of all that is really valuable. It is to have gathered the pearl of great price: and after this, all that this life has to offer, is insipid and commonplace. Thenceforth the only real happiness which this life can administer, will flow from the opportunity of exemplifying here, the characteristics of that heavenly sonship, and realizing, while we remain on earth, a foretaste of that heavenly inheritance which is now in prospect,―a prelibation of the joy of those celestial dwellings on the everlasting hills, to which this valley leads. But the great object now before the mind of the real Christian, |