whither you come with a glad and thankful heart, or a place to perform a melancholy duty to pacify your conscience, or rather to do penance in atonement for sin, than to partake of those spiritual pleasures and employments which God has vouchsafed in it? If you love the Sabbath in this world which passeth away, you will love the eternal Sabbath which will succeed the six thousand years of this world that are now drawing to a close. I believe that these six thousand years, according to the most ancient and best calculation, are very near their accomplishment. I believe that we are at the opening of the pouring out of the seventh vial, and at the commencement of scenes which will not last very long, but which shall be tempestuous and stormy beyond all parallel; the din, discord, and confusion of which, however, shall be like the preparation of the instruments of a great concert for the harmony and jubilee that will prevail over all the earth. And if this be so, let us set our hearts on things above, let us sit loose to this world, let us so pass through the things that are seen and temporal, that we may direct our attention mainly to the things which are unseen and eternal. I need not remind you that many of the things to which we looked forward, as predicted, have actually taken place. I told you, not more than six months ago, that when the seventh vial was poured out, the whole continent of Europe would be convulsed, shattered, and torn: I told you that, during that crisis, Babylon would come into remembrance before God, and her judgments begin to descend upon her; and, strange enough, a few weeks ago, we were informed by reports in the newspapers, that the present pope would be the last occupant of the pontifical chair, and then the gratifying result would be, that there would be no sovereign pontiff for us to renew diplomatic relations with. And soon after this, he was actually made a prisoner in his palace, for refusing to declare war against Austria. These momentous events have already taken place; and it is now not improbable that the usurped spiritual dominion of Babylon will also soon be broken up; and when that is broken up, the Jews will then march forth to the land of their fathers; and though excluded (justly or unjustly) from the parliament of the nation, God's ancient chosen people will be invested with far nobler honours, and higher dignities, when they become visible members of the visible church of the living God. These are events we anticipate with joy. They are the burden of a thousand prophecies-the aspiration of many hearts-the hope of the universal church. We are upon the eve of a grand response. The spreading anarchy of nations is opening up a clearer and nearer view of that city whose gates are praise, and its walls salvation. It will soon emerge from the chaos in all its predicted beauty-the envy of those that are without, the admiration of those that are within— the rosy eve of departing time-the auspicious twilight of opening eternity. Jerusalem, my happy home, Name ever dear to me; When shall my labours have an end, In joy, and peace, and thee! When shall mine eyes thy heaven-built walls And pearly gates behold; Thy bulwarks with salvation strong, And streets of shining gold! Apostles, martyrs, prophets, there Around my Saviour stand; Jerusalem, our happy home, Our souls still long for thee; When we thy joys shall see. 171 LECTURE XII. DAY WITHOUT NIGHT. "And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it."-Revelation xxi. 24-26. THESE words seem to indicate a national existence during the millennial age. There is nothing necessarily sinful in those ties, and bonds, and affinities that make up what is called a nation. Rule for Christ and obedience in Christ, if perfectly developed, would be a noble and glorious spectacle. It may, perhaps, be true that those divisions and intersections of the great family of man, which are found in the age that now is, may be of divine origin, and of a destiny no less divine. It may be that, instead of being dislocated and broken up in the dispensation to come, they may be only more thoroughly consolidated; and being pervaded and cemented by love and truth, nations may endure in the after-ages of the earth; and these shall be testimonies then that national existence is a holy and heavenly ordinance—to be purified and perfected, not dissolved with frameworks of merely earthly origin. If this shall be so, then the New Jerusalem shall be the great metropolis of the earth, reposing in the light and beauty of an unsetting sun, and the crowns, and sceptres, and thrones of innumerable kings, reflecting the rays of the Shechinah, shall give the glory of all they are to Him, whose are their thrones, and for whom they rule. Laws shall then be leaves from the tree of life, love shall be the secret and the source of allegiance, and perfect liberty and light the possession and the enjoyment of all. But however possible such national existence may be, it is not necessarily implied in the words before us. The Greek word Ovo means frequently a multitude, without any implied reference to organization of any class or kind; thus, we read in the Iliad of Homer, 005 εratpwv, a body, or number of comrades; εθνος λαων, a multitude of men; έθνεα μελισσάων, swarms of bees and, in harmony with this, we may render 05 Gwopevov, multitudes or companies of the saved. The redeemed will not be a few, nor easily counted; they will be " a great multitude, which no man could number." "The saved," are those referred to in Acts ii. 47: "The Lord added to the church daily (rods awsoμevous, the saved ones, literally) such as should be saved." They are saved from the curse and condemnation of sin, by the blood of Jesus; and from the power, dominion, and tyranny of sin, by the Holy Spirit of Jesus; from the penal consequences of sin, by the sacrifice of Christ; and from the prevalence and predominance of sin, by the Spirit of Christ; and that, too, in the future age, perfect, finally, for ever. Their distinguishing possession is salvation-a salvation received in time and perfected in eternity-begun now, and consummated in the age to come. Its fountain is in God; "in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel;" it is through Christ alone. "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." It was announced in Paradise-prefigured in sacrifice-proclaimed in promises-preintimated in propheciesportrayed in shadows, and types, and ceremonies; "but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ," who was raised up its "Captain," and is exalted a Prince and a Saviour to bestow it. It comes in grace, and ends in glory; begins in individual hearts, and terminates in multitudes of the saved. It is described in Scripture, and acknowledged by believers to be "great," "glorious," "to the uttermost," from "generation to generation;" having prophets for its inquirers, and angels for its students, and preachers for its advocates, and the Scriptures for its channel, and the sacraments for its seals, and happiness for its issue. Saints are chosen and appointed to it before the foundation of the world, "are kept through the power of God unto it-realize the assurance and earnest of it"— "receive it as the end of their faith"-rejoice and glory in it; and, finally, constitute together, amid the light of the millennial state, a great multitude of the saved, with palms in their hands, saying, Salvation unto our God and to the Lamb. These companies of the saved will all walk, and thus make progress in the light of the New Jerusalem, guided by the unerring beams of that glory which originally dwelt between the cherubim, now no longer the monopoly of a few, but the possession and the privilege of "a great multitude which no man can number." The church, which they compose, shall no more be local or national, but catholic, in the strictest sense of that misused and perverted word. The whole earth shall be filled with the glory of God, and its humblest and its highest tenantry shall follow no longer the fitful flashes of human passion, or the meteor-lights of illregulated fancy, nor the guesses at truth of wavering reason, nor the dim lights of patristic or ecclesiastical tradition; but the pure and perfect guidance of the Lamb. Every province of nature, every path of the saved, every work of Providence, or product of grace, shall reflect the glory of God, and each inmate of that sacred and sublime metropolis shall walk, i. e. make progress in the light of it, rising evermore on untiring wing to loftier heights of knowledge, and drinking ever fresh and ever multiplying delight from every new Apocalypse of the glories and perfections of him who is King of kings and Lord of lords. The kings of the earth, it is here stated, shall bring their glory and honour into it. So it was predicted, many hundred years before John, in Isa. lx. 11: "Therefore thy gates shall be open continually, they shall not be shut day nor night, that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. The glory of Lebanon shall come to thee, the fir-tree, and the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious." Again, it is written, "The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee;" and again, "All they from Sheba shall come, they shall bring gold and incense;" and again it is written, "Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings." In Ps. lxxii. it is also written, "The kings of Tarshish and the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall |