of justification. "The Lord our righteousness," is that alone in which we can stand or appear before God. By this alone our state is changed.

The other epithet, "holy," which describes a character, is the special inspiration and creation of the Holy Spirit of God. "We are his workmanship, created unto good works." "He works within us, to will and to do of his good pleasure.” “Without holiness none shall see the Lord." This noble element is the air, the light, the beauty of the child of God. His taste, his principles, his sympathies are all upon its side. His song is, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts." It is not outward appearance, but inward purity. It is not cleaning the outside, and leaving the inside untouched. It is not the adjusting of the robe, but the regeneration of the heart. The future state will be the impress of power stamped upon this; and superadded to that impress there will be the impulse of endless development, expansion, progress; and at each stage of this development will be tasted the richest joys of the saved. In holy character, I believe, are mines of precious wealth, springs of refreshment, elements of joy, out of which holy and happy men are built up for ever. So truly is this the case, that no material beauty, or wealth, or outward circumstances, can constitute happiness now, if there be within the possessor disquiet, envy, malice, avarice, and ill-wil. On the other hand, let there be a cold climate, and an ungenial soil, and no hostile feelings, or jealous competitorship, or envious emotions-but love in all hearts, and worship, and peace-and there, in spite of every undesirable physical element, there will prevail substantial happiness and joy. I can conceive a Millennium without sunshine, or clusters of flowers, or walls of jasper, or floors of emerald, or fountains of water, or palms, or eversounding harmonies; but I cannot conceive the very possibility of a Millennium without holiness, and goodness, and purity, and truth, and Christ in the midst, the living fountain of them all. The first may be, and I believe will be. The last must be. Spiritual and moral excellence can erect a paradise in the Sahara; whereas, moral turpitude would exhale a very pandemonium in "Araby the blest."

Holiness is not a mere preparation for heaven-it is heaven

it is of the essence of salvation-it is happiness-it is joy. How unfounded is the charge we sometimes hear adduced against the distinctive and blessed doctrine of justification by faith alone in the righteousness of Christ, that it leads to immorality! The word of God, and every faithful expounder of it, insist as strongly on fitness for the presence of God, as on a title to the rewards of glory. Forgiveness of sin, through the shed blood and perfect sacrifice of the Son of Man, is not a substitute for holiness, but the removal of an obstruction to its growth, development, and progress. We insist on holiness of nature, not simply as evidence of faith, but as the essence of the happiness into which believers will be admitted. The unsanctified are not in the number of the justified. The new state into which reconciliation brings us is the birthplace of a new heart. Forgiven much, we love much; for love is the fulfilling of the law-the germ of holiness-the nutriment of it-the spring of its highest attainments. We have an ear open to all the commands of God; and the highest requirements fall gently on the heart of him who has been taught to love God as his great benefactor, his reconciled Father.

How intimate is the connection that subsists between time and eternity! The one is the efflorescence of the other. Time is the twilight of an everlasting noon to come, or of an everlasting night to fall. As the one is, the other will be. Influences which are received every day by all of us, gentle in their approach, but mighty in their action, are leaving effects behind which will be felt for ever. Death, which ends time and begins eternity, is not the arrest or alteration of our course, but the continuance of it. The body is dropped as the tent is struck, or buried; and the spirit pursues its journey, gazing into that unsounded futurity that stretches far and wide before it. If our character be righteous and holy now, it will advance in the same direction for ever-blooming in greater beauty-exhaling richer fragrance. The pilot who has steered it safely through the rapids of time, will conduct it to the peaceful haven of eternity, and perfect it there. He who is Priest, and Prophet, and King, will guide us from grace to glory, and make us like himself, for we shall see him as he is. How great is the importance which this considera

tion stamps on all we say and do now! We are building up an immortal nature-we are accepting impulses before which we shall move for ever-we are imbibing influences and hues fixed as our being. For heaven or hell-for happiness or misery—all things are preparing us, and every step is taking us. Every analogy or experience we become acquainted with, teaches this lesson. Habit is the act of yesterday, added to the act of to-day -an accumulating force gradually building up a character which will endure for ever. Youth makes manhood, and manhood old age; and we can read the earlier in the later, the young man in the old. The same law of continuity runs beyond the world; and in the joys of the saved, or in the miseries of the lost, we may read the character acquired and exhibited here. The one is the reproduction of the other for ever and ever. What we shall be is just what we are; and the difference is purely in degree. If holiness be the very essence of heaven-the substance of Christian character the only fitness for the presence of Godhow earnestly should we desire it!-how fervently pray for it! What should we not be ready to surrender and sacrifice, in order to have our very hearts inlaid with that holiness without which none shall see the Lord! By this test we may try all the employments and pleasures of life. What influence do they leave on us? What improvement do they produce? What is the nature and amount of the impression they leave behind? Thus we shall look on this world in the light of the upper, and render it subservient to higher and more enduring things.

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LECTURE XXII.

THE JUDGMENT.

"And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be."-Revelation xxii. 12.

THIS announcement is the same as that described under the seventh trumpet, in Revelation xi. 18: "And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great."

We have also delineated another division of the same great event, depicted under the striking simile, Rev. xx. 11: "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away." This last occurs at the end of the Millennium, when the whole family of Adam are gathered together, and the last awful doom is pronounced upon the guilty. An allusion to this solemn ordeal is also contained in 2 Cor. v. 10: "For we must all appear before the judgmentseat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." This last is likewise referred to in Romans ii. 6-10: "Who will render to every man according to his deeds, &c.—to the Jew first," because he had greater privileges, and therefore greater responsibility," and also to the Gentile." It is again written, "For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works."

These are some of the prominent passages that indicate the first and last judgment of the quick and dead.

That there will be a judgment-day, may be concluded even from the light of nature. The existence of God necessarily im

plies it for the creation of the world implies the government of the world, and that government, law; and if there be law there must be trial, and that trial followed by reward or penalty, or it is no law at all.

It is evident to every man, that in this world the good occasionally suffer, and the wicked triumph. In this dispensation, it is no less clear that this is perfectly incompatible with justice, if there be not a day to come when all wrongs shall be righted, and when all that is beautiful and holy shall have its necessary reward. We might therefore conclude, from natural reasoning alone, that there will be a day of judgment. Again, in every bosom in this assembly there is an inferior court or tribunal; and often without any outward accuser or counsel to defend, or instant judge to condemn, there is felt within a deep and corroding sense of guilt, an awful presentiment of demerit, an incipient sense of the wo pronounced at the judgment hereafter. You have, thus, in man's conscience an inferior tribunal, whose judgments and decisions are the reverberations of that proclaimed or prefelt in the higher court, telling us, in tones that we may somewhat muffle, and by sensibility that we may deaden by the opiates of the world, that there is a Judge in the future. who will "give to every man according as his work shall be."

But I need not use arguments drawn from nature, and man's natural conscience, to convince you of this truth; to you who are believers in the Bible, I must use an argument far more decisive, as well as welcome, than any other: "Thus saith the Lord" is an instant and conclusive answer to every objection. It is because of this, that when I am endeavouring to substantiate a doctrine, I have a shrinking fear lest I should appear to make an attempt at proving the truth of it. If it be plainly declared in Scripture, it is already proved: it is the minister's duty, indeed, to unfold a truth clearly enunciated, and to show that it is a note from the great harmony of divine revelation; but he is never required to prove that what God has stated is true: it is absurd to attempt it; it is supererogation; it is folly. It is written, "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ;" and this alone decides the question. God has bowed the heavens to announce it, and so ends the controversy. As far as the fact is concerned,