rehearsal and a shadow of it. Deep and deadly security, like that in which the generation of Noah was folded, who "knew not" in the midst of their marriage feasts, and buying and selling speculations, till the flood came, will be one feature of that day. Prosperity, and its companion pride, will give form to that day also. And I ask, is not the mystery of such a day now working? Are not things taking a strong direction that way? If one may speak for another, the heart is conscious that the world is prospering. Are not the accommodations and embellishments of human life increasing to a wonder? Is not this generation very loudly congratulating itself on what it has attained, silently pitying those who spent their days before present advantages were known, and boasting in expectation of refining and multiplying the resources of every future hour?

I believe these things are so, and that the heart is conscious of it. The world is prospering; and we know not how soon it may be that if any one refuse to help forward the common self-satisfaction, he must be treated as a common enemy. And what a mistake we may judge it to be (as another has expressed it), to think "that the suavity, the tolerance, the blind indifference, and the enlightened liberality which now are the garb of the infidel spirit belong to it by nature, or would be retained a day after it had nothing to fear."

This is all solemn. The sentence of death has not gone out yet from the wounded pride of the Amalekite against the whole nation of the godly. No; it has not worked to that. The day will not come yet, but the mystery of it is abroad. The pride itself has begun to labour in the heart; the throes and energies of that passion, which is to be the parent of such a decree, may, even now, be moving secretly, and be felt, and welcomed, and nourished.

Where is strength to be gathered? If pride and intolerance be nourished in some hearts, is faith in ours? Esther may read us a lesson upon victory in an evil day. She stood in such a day, and stood more than conqueror. Before it came she had kept herself, and refused to defile her garments. She had been in "the school of God," and learnt the way of strength and victory there, in communion with Himself, when circumstances were all against her.

And let me add, that this communion is to be simple and affectionate, not such as will feed itself with high thoughts and strange thoughts, but such as will find Christ in the

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sureness and perfectness of His work for sinners the great thought, the precious thought, animating, the invigorating, though simple truth, that tells upon the heart with divine and wondrous virtue. There is danger (as another has warned us) of this ceasing to give character to an age like the present, where there is a vast and varied quantity of qualifications and arguments, rather then fervour and simplicity of spirit, where, as the natural result of intellectual and religious progress, 'the glory of Christ, as Saviour of man, which should be always as the sun in the heavens, shines only with an astral lustre." But times of difficulty demand simple, nutritious, strengthening truth; "a different order of things around us would presently bring into play the more powerful elements of the moral life. Events may be imagined which would mar our levity, and break up the polished surface that reflects our case, and lead us home to the first principles of the gospel, and quite sicken our taste for everything but those principles; and it is under such an impression that the gospel (simple, plain truth of God's grace and salvation,) will assume its just dimensions in our sight, and the glad tidings of mercy be listened to with a new and genuine joy."

True, and also seasonable in this day of many a busy speculation, are these meditations. And most seasonable are the words of the blessed Lord Himself to His disciples, in the day that He began to talk to them of their coming troubles. "What is a man profited (said He to them) if he should gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt. xvi. 26.) Here is truth for the strengthening of the heart against the day of evil. For these words speak the excellency and the value of the glories which are to follow the day of evil. Our Lord uses the language of the merchant. He speaks of profit, and loss, and exchange. He contemplates a bargain, and for the comfort of the believer He decides that a bad bargain that man would make, who would take the whole world (supposing that he could get it) in exchange for a share in the glory that is to be revealed. He is not (though this is the general apprehension) in this passage so much settling the question of personal safety, as of profit and loss.

And we all know the power of bright and sure expectation, though they may be still distant. Man will toil through dangers, weariness, and mortification, to reach such. And the Lord here witnesses to us the sureness and the brightness

of our expectations, affirming His word, shortly after, by unveiling for a moment, on the holy hill, the very region of these promised glories. And if we believe His competency to handle these weights and measures, and to try comparative value, and then if we believe His truth in giving in the result of such trial or the judgment, our hearts will be further fortified for "every trying hour."

Peter, as it were, unconsciously vindicated the Lord's verdict on the value of the glory when he said, "Lord, it is good for us to be here." Oh, can we look to Him, and say, "Thou shalt choose our inheritance for us."

JESUS, HEIR OF ALL THINGS.
HEBREWS i.

THERE is great contrast between the things spoken of in the epistle to the Hebrews; on the one hand, evil and apostacy; and on the other, peculiarly precious truth. Indeed, there is perhaps no epistle in which we find more precious truth; just as though God meant to set in contrast the greatness of the evil and the preciousness of His truth. And thus He deals with souls now. A characteristic of the present hour is good and evil in marked contrast.

Evil and the power of Satan are fast spreading; also, the work of God is going on, and the great and deep truths of God are being made known to many souls. Thus the greatest light and the deepest darkness are seen side by side. These things cannot mingle, and therefore the contrast becomes more and more evident. The very light of heaven, in love and grace, is brought so near to the exercised soul, that in the darkest days of declension from the truth it may be said to get the most blessed knowledge of God; just as in Egypt darkness was spread over the whole land, but the Israelites had light in their dwellings.

This epistle sets forth the "heavenly calling" of the Church. It shows us the heavenly glory of Christ, IN WHOM we are; and though that glory will be hereafter manifested on the earth, our "calling" is a calling up into the place where He now is, above (not merely the earth, but) the

heavens.

But it speaks also of earth and of the things of the earth.

We find ourselves placed in the midst of this dark world, needing the present ministry of the priesthood of Christ, the cleansing power of His blood, and His sympathy. There is the going forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach; we have to be as those witnesses of whom it is said "the world was not worthy." All this is found in the epistle to the Hebrews. It places us in the midst of sin ; or why the need of the blood? It places us in the midst of sorrow; or why the need of the sympathy? It says, "Here have we no continuing city;" but before it enters at all upon these earthly things, it opens to us heaven's glory and blessedness, our portion in Christ, and tells us that all is of God. We are set again on earth, as cognizant of this.

Whatever is revealed to us of blessing comes from God. (James i. 17.) Therefore the epistle begins with God. It is God "who hath spoken to us." (v. 1.) Christ spoke, but it was God that spoke by Him. This is the thought - throughout. Christ is the "Apostle and High Priest of our profession." (Chap. iii. 1, 2.) Doubtless the High Priest is merciful and faithful in things pertaining to God; but it was God that "appointed Him." Christ is "that great Shepherd of the sheep" (chap. xiii. 20); but it was God who "brought again from the dead," and gave Him as the Shepherd over us. All blessing is through Christ, but it is from GOD.

We

This first verse refers to instruction given in "divers parts," and in "divers ways." The saints in the Old Testament dispensation-Moses, Samuel, and others-were only instructed partially (i.e. "in parts"), and often years intervened before more instruction was given. None of them could say at any time, "I have all that needs to be known of the mind of God." Now, in this their position was vastly inferior to ours. can say that we have all-the fulness of this knowledge. It is true, we know" as yet "but in part," and that hereafter we shall "know even as also we are known" (1 Cor. xiii. 12); still we have all that we need in the Word, whether it be "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," all is provided, so that no soul can now say that something more has to be revealed, in order to complete the man of God, throughly to furnish him unto all good works. (2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.) And I desire you should think how great a blessing this is. Suppose a soul desires to know the right path, what a blessing for that soul to be able to say,

"God has revealed all that I need." This gives firmness and fixedness of faith; it enables the soul to say, "I know." To us there is revealed that which we have to hold fast till Jesus

comes.

These Hebrews well knew the peculiar blessings of Israel. God had spoken unto the fathers by Moses and by the prophets; there were sacrifices for sins, appointed of God; and there was a priesthood instituted of God to offer those sacrifices the value and dignity of the priesthood they knew. But what a truth is taught in these verses! God has now spoken by His "SON." Having been Himself the sacrifice for sin, the "SON" has come to take the priesthood. It is not any longer office dignifying the person of him who holds it, but the person of the Son of God giving dignity and glory to every office that He holds.

There is joy, doubtless, to Christ in holding these offices (for there is joy in holding offices for blessing, and it will be our joy by and by to hold offices for blessing together with Him); but what is His chief glory? Is it not His own excellency--that which He is in Himself? And that will be the saints' chief blessing? It will not consist in any mere dignity of office (though we shall have that, and count it blessed), but in union with Christ the Son of God. Angels might stand in any office, but the chief excellency and the chiefest glory of the saints will be in their connection with the glorious person of the Son of God.

Now, it is the blessedness and the glory of the SON, and the connection of the saints with Him in all His blessedness and in all His glory, which the opening of this epistle unfolds.

Nothing so facilitates our knowledge of the proper glory of the Church as acquaintance with the person of the SON of God.

When we see sorrow and tears, and connect them with the person of one whom we love, we have a much more vivid sense of what human nature is, than when we consider it abstractedly. We sorrow too; our nature sympathises with his. So likewise is it with regard to joy.

All human similitudes must needs be imperfect here. In this second verse are words, given to us of God, by which we may understand a little about the person of the Son of God, and yet they fall short of describing that which fully expresses what pertains to Christ.

He is called "the brightness (the irradiation) of His glory"