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Psalm as one feature of the forgiven man, of him.

whose sin is covered, that in his spirit there is no Ps. 32. 1,2.

guile. What has the forgiven man to conceal?

Why should he be crooked, why should his tongue depart from the truth, when God who knows all has pardoned and cancelled all? While he was keeping his secret, while he was avoiding God, while he was afraid and ashamed to tell out all to Him and heartily to seek forgiveness, so long he had a motive for guile; so long truth was his enemy; so long the thing that is was at variance with the thing which seemed. But the hundred and forty and four thousand are all redeemed, all forgiven. They have told God all their secrets, and what God knows they care not if man knows. They are not masked men, they are frank and real. See the difference between a Christian man and a worldly man in this one respect! See how the one cares about appearances: What will men think of me? how can I gain or keep their good opinion? how shall I prevent this or that from being known against me? how shall I keep the veil close over this folly, that weakness, this vice? It is not so with a Christian. I acknowledged my ways, he Ps. 119.26, says, and Thou heardest me. All my ways are before Thee; all my past sins, all my present infirmities, all my shortcomings and backslidings. Now therefore why should I fear? If God has forgiven, what Ps. 118. 6. can man do unto me? Let me give glory to the Lord Jos. 7. 19.

168.

God of my salvation, by making no secret of the state from which He has redeemed me.

Other senses of the words before us are patent and obvious: I select this one as most appropriate to the call of this solemn season. Soon will another year have gone in to its account; and let each one ask himself, What account will it carry of me? Let us strip off all our disguises, and come every one of Heb. 4. 13. us into God's presence as we are. To Him, it is

written, all things are naked and opened: let us have no reserve with Him ourselves. Then shall we know that blessedness of which David speaks so Ps. 32. 1,2. touchingly; the blessedness of him whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sin is covered, of him to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, in whose spirit there is no guile, in whose mouth no falsehood!

2. Our time has been fully occupied with the first topic proposed, the character of God's saints. We have no space for the second, their condition in glory. But this we may briefly say; that they are safe, that they are at rest, that they are happy, that they are with Christ. The song which they learn, we are expressly told, is not yet intelligible to us: when we speak of their condition, we fall at once into negatives: by their safety we mean that they are not like us in danger; by their rest, that they are not like us toiling; by their happiness, that they

are not like us suffering from sorrow or suffering from sin: and indeed in these negatives there is a reality of comfort which we may thankfully accept and treasure. Amidst them all there is one and but one positive; they are with Christ. His name and His Father's name is in their foreheads: they are marked for His own: and they stand with the Lamb on the mount Zion. Is that thought more to us, or less, than the others? is the presence of Christ more or less intelligible to us, more or less attractive to us, than the absence of care and fear, of pain and sorrow? Alas! that is a question which we dare not answer. It is to ask in other words, What is Christ Himself to us now? What place does He оссиру in our life, in our heart, yes, in our religion? Is He anything more than a name for the atonement? as little of a real Person, of a living Saviour, as is the doctrine, the blessed doctrine, of sacrifice, of propitiation, of forgiveness of sin? It was not so once. It was not so to St Peter, to St John, to St Paul: it was not so to the Ethiopian eunuch, it was not so to the Philippian jailer: it is not so to any one of the hundred and forty and four thousand who were indeed redeemed from the earth. If to any us Christ is an abstraction; a doctrine, a name, and not a living and life-giving Saviour; then indeed we have lost out of our heaven its one bright light, its one positive and intelligible revelation: we won

of

der not that our eyes are upon earth, that our hearts know no lofty aspiration, that we acquiesce in a life of time and sense, and have no hunger and thirst after joys invisible and eternal, if in that unseen world there is no central figure, no Son of Man carrying our sorrows, no Son of God swift to hear and mighty to save. There, yes there, is our deficiency: we are like persons travelling without a guide, voyaging without a pilot, fighting without a captain, labouring without a master. Instead of demanding a Saviour, we are satisfied with a theology instead of trusting in a Person, we are catching at a shadow. Can we wonder that in such a 1 Pet. 5. 1. condition the glory that shall be revealed becomes to us colourless, cold, and unattractive? even because we have lost altogether the personal faith which breathed in the Apostle when he wrote for all time 1 Joh. 3.2. those glowing words of inspiration, 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.

SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS DAY,

December 29, 1861.

LECTURE XXVI.

REVELATION XIV. 6-13.

AND I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having 6 an everlasting gospel to announce over them that sit on the earth, and over every nation and tribe and tongue and people; saying in a mighty voice, Fear God, and give Him 7 glory, because the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and springs of waters.

AND another, a second, angel followed, saying, Fallen, 8 fallen is the great Babylon, she who of the wine of the wrath of her fornication has made all the nations to drink.

AND another angel, a third, followed them, saying in a 9 mighty voice, If any one worships the wild beast and his image, and receives a mark upon his forehead or on to his hand, he also himself shall drink of that wine of the wrath of God 10 which is mingled unmixed in the cup of His indignation, and shall be tormented in fire and brimstone in the presence of the angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke 11 of their torment goes up unto ages of ages; and they have not rest, by day and by night, who worship the wild beast and his image, and if any one receives the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints, who keep the command- 12 ments of God and the faith of Jesus.

AND I heard a voice out of the heaven saying, Write: 13 Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, in order that they shall (may) rest from their toils; and their works follow with them.

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