future world, we shall be holy, and the subjects of a happiness which in its intensity and duration shall inconceivably transcend all that we knew of sorrow or wretchedness in this.

Who that has stood and gazed upon a gorgeous landscape, bathed in the mellow light of a summer's afternoon; where, for example, beneath a brilliant and variegated sky, was spread out before him a broad expanse of waters,-studded here and there with a picturesque island, skirted by sloping and verdant shores spangled with the cottages of a prosperous yeomanry; and, in the distance, a sombre range of mountains stretching their woody and broken summits along the horizon; who that has walked through the sequestered dell, fragrant with the perfume of the violet and vocal with the ripplings of the streamlet and the carolings of the springtide songster, has not exclaimed,-How wonderful are thy works, O God, in wisdom hast thou made them all! O my Father, if earth be so beautiful, what shall heaven be! Who that has sat beside the old hearthstone in the home of his childhood, when his father and his mother were yet there, while death was a stranger and separations were not dreamed of, has not, in the fullness of his heart, asked,-If this atmosphere of love be so soft and balmy, and these interchanges and associations so sweet, what shall be my joys in the mansions of the blest, when the household is all gathered, and God himself presides over our felicities? In the investigation of some exuberant subject, has not one glowing truth after another burst upon your perceptions, until your brain kindled and your bosom swelled with the emotions awakened by the attainment; have you not listened to the strains of song as they fell from human lips, and heard the inan of gifted mind, as he poured forth his lofty conceptions and piled thought upon thought,-until the pleasure which you experienced from the effort became painfully excessive; and in reflecting on the effects thus produced, has not the inquiry often suggested itself,If knowledge so limited, and art so imperfect, be capable of ministering such delight to me here, what must it be to drink from the pure fountains of celestial learning, and listen to the voice of angels and saints, as they hymn their rapt praises, or descant on the sublimities of heavenly mysteries! When returning from the communings of the closet, the cherished services of the meeting for prayer, or the holy convocations of the Lord's house, where we had enjoyed a blessedness such as no other companionships or employments could impart,-who of us, in the outgoings of his comfort in the Holy Ghost, has not said,-O my Saviour, if the foreshadowings be so blissful, what shall the substance be; if thy gracious manifestations give such serene peace to the bosom now, what will be the results of thy glorious revealings when we see thee as thou art, and the smiles of thy visage, once marred for us, fall upon our enraptured and unclouded gaze!

The glory spoken of in the text will, in its nature, be such as

is adapted to the glorified man. All his faculties will be enlarged and purified and ennobled. His pulses "will beat healthful music," his eye will not tire with seeing, nor his ear with hearing, nor will diversified forms of beauty or sounds of melody be wanting ceaselessly to charm the one or the other. The social affections will find objects for constant and blissful exercise;

"There parted hearts again shall meet,

In union holy, calm and sweet."

The mind will be employed on subjects the most vast and the most interesting. And the soul shall have, in brimming fruition, its satisfying good;-it shall be perfect in holiness, and all its powers and movements shall be pervaded with the contemplation and love of God and the Lamb;-not an unkind look shall distress it; not a fear shall alarm it; not a sinful thought or feeling shall estrange it.

In respect of the measure of this glory,-it shall be as much and as great as the capacities of its subject will admit, without by its intensity producing discomfort; and both the capacities and the glory shall, in rapid and unending gradations, be expanded and augmented. It shall, moreover, be eternal in its duration. There will be no abatement or termination in the revelations of blessedness to the immortalized saint. Should the stars become so old as to moulder away; should the sun shine so long as to expend all his light and set in blackness, even then the heaven-gathered spirit will have reached only the early morning of its nightless glorification.

Choose now, from yonder white-robed host, the one who was afflicted more than all the sons of earth besides. Let him have been for an hundred, or as the patriarchs for five hundred years, an inhabitant of this sin-stricken world; say that he was born in poverty, brought up in orphanage, and lived toil-worn, and tempted, and persecuted; his frame may have been emaciated all his days with disease, and his very limbs dislocated with protracted and excruciating pains; he may have seen all who were dear to him heaving their last breath and leaving him to wander lonely and heart-broken; he may have eaten his crusts with tears, and been scorned and derided and cruelly maltreated by all who knew him; he may have dragged out a large portion of his mortal existence amid the chill damps of a prison, and completed it beneath instruments of torture. But in early life he heard the gospel tidings; he became a believer, and in his sorest afflictions he cherished the hope of a better country, and was sustained by the consolations of the religion of the cross. When he died, he was carried by angels to the bosom of Jesus,-and there is his everlasting home. Suppose, that now for fifty years, he has been a denizen of the celestial city, and for all this time, amid those untold glories, his faculties have been developing, and his happiness increasing, as he has been soaring upwards towards the Di

vinity; and tell me, whether the extatic joys revealed in him and to him in the brief lapse of one of our days, will not compensate for all his earthly sufferings? Imagine ten thousand years to pass away, but a needle's point in the immensity of endless ages, and that once wretched man, will then, doubtless know more and enjoy more than Gabriel does this hour. Consider again, that should the countless orbs in yonder firmament be extinguished one by one, at intervals of a million of years each,when the last one is put out, he will still be rising higher and higher in felicity, and no nearer to its farthest summit than he is now, but that the ascent will continue forever and ever;--and then say, "are the sufferings of this present time worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us."

Does the venerable leader and lawgiver of Israel regret now, think you, that he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,-having respect unto the recompense of reward? Does not the Patriarch of Uz, deem you, now bless the day that gave him birth and regard it well that he held fast his integrity when the winds, and the fire, and the sword, and fierce disease, left him bare and in bitterness? Can Daniel otherwise than rejoice that "he prayed to his God as he did aforetime, after the decree was signed," even though he was cast into the den of lions? Did the holy Paul himself conceive the fullness of the meaning of these blessed words when he first uttered them, as he now does? And those sainted witnesses for the faith, who were sawn asunder, and stoned, and put to the sword; the martyrs, who wandered, destitute, afflicted, tormented; they who perished by pitch and faggots, and wild beasts at Rome; they who fell in the streets of Paris on Bartholomew's morning, or who bled in the valleys of the Alps by the hand of the Man of Sin; they who groaned out their life in the dark chambers of the Inquisition, rather than disown their Lord; the ministering servants of God, in all ages the troubled and the tried; the innumerable souls under the altar, who came out of great tribulation, the poor, the friendless, the tempest-tossed here, -do they, say ye, sanctified palm-bearers, do ye "reckon the sufferings of this present time worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us ?"

Disciple of Jesus,-"Be steadfast, unmoveable, always abound ing in the work of the Lord,-forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord;" you shall have your reward, though you seem to fail of success. Trials you must have; but see that they are sanctified; seek the shadow of the wings of the Almighty, and be patient, be patient,-heaven will make amends for the peace and happiness you are denied in this world. Envy not those who have all their good things in the present life. Let others prefer their ease, and refuse to deny themselves or to make

sacrifices for Christ's sake; but if you are found faithful and endure to the end you shall be saved! If you would wear the crown forever, you must cheerfully, for a brief season, bear the cross.

And to all those who would share this blessedness, let me say in conclusion, that it is freely offered to every one of you, on the simple conditions that you repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, your compliance with which will be evinced by devotion to his service in a life of faith, and prayer, and good works. And whatever hindrances or trials you may experience in the Christian life, you shall know at last, "That the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

"Who is on the Lord's side."-Ex. xxxii. 26.

Ir is not necessary for me to go into any very particular detail of the circumstances in which this question was put to the Israelites. Suffice it to say, that the people were divided into two parties. On the one side, were the worshippers of the golden calf, engaged in offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, and sitting down to eat and drink; and rising up to play, while on the other, were those who continued faithful to the living and true God. Of these two classes the abettors of idolatry were most open and bold, as well as most numerous. As Moses and Joshua came down from the mount, and saw the calf and the dancing, and heard the shouts of the excited multitude, they could be at no loss whatever to determine on which side a vast majority of the people was to be found. So loud and zealous were they as to settle the point at once. But, sad to say, those on the Lord's side appeared far less firm and cordial. For a while they seem indeed to have been borne down by the tide of popular enthusiasm, and it required the well-known voice of their leader and lawgiver, lifted up at the gates of the camp, to recall them to a sense of duty and responsibility.

This was the juncture at which the solemn query was made, "Who is on the Lord's side?" No question could have been more arousing. It must have sent dismay and trepidation into the bosom of the whole host of idolators, while at the same time it so