the world alike obdurate to the arguments of interest, the persuasions of mercy, and the terrors of judgments;—not only lost to holiness and peace, but deliberately and pertinaciously lost to the claims of gratitude, the motives of reason and the attractions of goodness. But now was the church formally organized, for preserving and transmitting the knowledge of the truth to the end of time, for the erection of a standard for God, and maintaining a testimony for him against the apostasy of a rebel world.

Abram was called from Ur of the Chaldees. He buried his father, and left his brother's children in Haran, and was at length left, by the separation of Lot at Sodom, a pilgrim and a stranger upon the earth; alone, with his beloved Sarai. With him was established the covenant of peace:-"I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee,"-Gen. xvii. 7; "and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."-Gen. xxii. 18. But the church, as erected in the family of Abraham, was not designed for the publication of the truth and the proclamation of the promise, but to keep and transmit it to others. She was not privileged to bear forward the standard into the conflict with the world and Satan for the possession of the earth, but to guard it, planted in the camp, until the day of battle and conquest. Erected in Canaan, in the very midst of the lands, its light gleamed afar upon the surrounding nations,-shining, not to dispel, but to condemn, the darkness. That was the time of the minority of the church. As yet immature for her great commission, she was "under tutors and governors, until the time appointed of the Father."-Gal. iv. 2. The saints of that age, "having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect."-Heb. xi. 39, 40.

At length the fulness of time was come, and God sent forth his own Son into the world. He "loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such

thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."-Eph. v. 26, 27. Thus, having brought her up for himself, did the Son of God celebrate the espousals, purchasing her to himself at a price of blood. Then gave he her the world as her field, and the nations as her possession, with the promise that "the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High."-Dan. vii. 27. Thus espoused to himself, and endowed with a goodly dowry, he left her for a season, to return and dwell with her forever. As he departs, he gives her his commission of grace:-"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."-Mark xvi. 15. And "when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men;"-gifts of grace to the world, and of love to the church. "He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."-Eph. iv. 8, 11, 12.

But though thus organized and commissioned, thus qualified and endowed, she may not yet enter on the glory. Not yet is the kingdom given to Israel. "It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord."-Matt. x. 25. It is enough for the bride that she be as her husband. If he was abased before the exaltation,-if he shed his blood to win the glory, it is a small thing that she should be partaker in the shame and sufferings of her glorious Head. Yet, through centuries of imbecility and unfruitfulness, of persecution and apostasy, must she learn, that it is not her own arm that bringeth salvation; that it is not for her sake-faithless and forgetful that he doeth this, but for his own name's sake; that it is not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts, that the world is to be overcome, and the kingdom of righteousness and peace established. But she shall at length appear in beauty and power. She shall "look forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners."-Song of Solomon, vi. 10. Hitherto hath she rather bowed in widowhood and mourning, than sat as a queen,

or rejoiced as a bride. But the time draws near when her beauty, hitherto veiled, shall shine forth;-when, her widowhood ended, her tears shall cease, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

Such is she whose beauty delights the King-the bride, glorious and radiant in purest gold. Her body, the blood-bought host. Her office, the vindication of the honour of the Holy One in the presence of an apostate world. Her organization fitted in perfect adaptation to this end; in the perfection of beauty,— the glory of holiness which shines in her person; in the divine authority of her apostles, the wisdom and diligence of her evangelists and prophets, her pastors and teachers; the zeal and faithfulness, of her elders, and the charity and self-sacrifice of her deacons. Her robes,-of fine linen, spotless white, embroidered with gold,—the marriage gift of her husband. Her history, one of affliction and suffering, of toil and triumph, in his service. To the carnal eye there is in her, as in the King, no form nor comeliness. But to him she is altogether lovely; and to all holy beings, how radiant does her person appear, as she stands before the world, in the midst of the darkness of man's apostasy and sin, and the gloom of the curse, leaning on the arm of the Beloved, and testifying of his loveliness and grace; herself the purchase of his streaming blood and dying groans; herself his commissioned witness to the lost, proclaiming peace and offering salvation; herself baptized by that one Spirit with which he was anointed; and her whole being pervaded and quickened with the power and vitality of his life; she the fruitful mother of the many sons whom he will at length assemble on high. Shining in glory forever, sharing with the King in his throne, his sceptre and power, shall she present the perfection of beauty and the fruition of joy. In her will a wondering universe behold the riches of God's condescending grace, and the majesty of the Lamb's redeeming power; her countenance, beaming in his perfect likeness, and her beauty and blessedness, her history and state, the noblest display of the unsearchable depths of God's glorious wisdom and ineffable love, the subject of angelic studies, and the theme of all heaven's adoring song.

lation.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CHRIST'S KINGDOM AND GLORY.

IN the preceding pages we have traced some of the grand outlines of the wonderful system of divine wisdom and love. 1. Recapitu Of the whole discussion, this is the sum. The entire work of God has its origin in his eternal purpose to make himself known, to the glory of his own perfections, the infinite blessedness and honour of man, and the eternal happiness of all the holy creatures. That purpose was embodied in a perfect and all-embracing plan, which was devised by infinite wisdom, and the fulfilment of which is secured by the mutual covenant and oath of the Persons of the Godhead. By that covenant the Son of God was installed the revealing Mediator, through whom alone any creature can ever come to the knowledge of God; and through whom all holy beings shall attain to an adoring, loving and obedient communication with the invisible One. By it he was set up the eternal King and Head over all things,-to whose omnipotent and glorious sceptre the fulfilment of the plan is intrusted, and ordained Head of the elect, the church, in which, with him, the grand elements of the covenant concentrate their interest, and the glories of the Godhead pre-eminently shine. By the covenant Mediator was the material universe made out of nothing, and so organized and adapted, so upheld and governed, as to constitute at once a platform for the development of the plan and a proclamation of the being, power and godhead of the Creator. The angelic

intelligences were called into being by him, and endowed with intellectual and moral powers which qualify them to behold and appreciate the work of God, and in it discover and adore his perfections, alike as seen in the material creation, revealed

in their own moral natures, discovered to their consciences, and unfolded in the successive chapters of the plan. Their moral natures constitute the first announcement of a moral nature in God. Of it the holy law is a distinct exposition in didactic form, its precepts being a transcript of the perfections of that very nature. The authority of that law consists in the proprietary right of God as the self-existent Creator; and its excellence, in the fact that it is an expression of his perfections, to the imitation of which it calls the creatures; whilst its unalterable and imperative mandate asserts his absolute authority, its promise proclaims his goodness, and its penal curse reveals the spotless purity of his holiness, the sovereignty of his sceptre, the strictness of his justice and terribleness of his wrath. In the holiness of the elect angels is exemplified the excellence of God's moral perfections, whilst their blessedness exhibits, in its simplest form, the greatness of his goodness and love. Those perfections are brought out in yet stronger relief by the contrasted wickedness of Satan's apostasy, and his moral deformity and that of his followers; whilst naked justice and unmingled wrath shine forth in their perdition.

But whilst the godhead of the Eternal is signally proclaimed in the creation, and the broad outlines of his moral perfections set forth in his holy law, and illustrated in the angels, holy and apostate, and whilst that law is an unambiguous intimation of the plurality of the subsistence of the one God, by virtue of the fact that a moral nature implies relation, and, therefore, community, yet were further means requisite for the exhibition of the glories of God in unclouded light; for the discovery of unbounded wisdom, unspotted holiness and unfaltering justice, in triumphant harmony with infinite love and compassion, boundless mercy and grace, exercised toward the apostate and depraved; and for the unfolding of the mystery of the tri-personality of the divine subsistence, and the nature and mode of the relations of the Three who subsist in the one essence of the invisible God. This earth is the chosen scene of these discoveries, and man their subject. The dispensation in which they are embraced is heralded by that creative Word, "Let there