Whatever our debts were-and if it should be asked of us, "How much owest thou unto my Lord ?" we should have to answer, We owe all, we are bankrupts-a bankruptcy more terrible than was ever known on earth, or entered in the records of human lawyet Christ is our husband-has taken our responsibilities. He tells us that he is answerable for us; and when we stand at the judgment-seat of the Lamb, and when the law thunders "Do," our answer must be, "Christ has done it;" when its unsatisfied calls thunder "Suffer and die!" our answer shall be, "Christ has suffered and died for us." He is the husband; we are represented in him. What he suffered, we are considered as having suffered; what he paid, we are considered as having paid; and as soon may Christ be struck from his throne, as the humblest child of God be torn from that heaven to which Christ has entitled him and made him ready for. And as the wife resigns her own name, is detached from her own family and incorporated in that of her husband, so it is with the believer. Psalm xlv. is a beautiful nuptial song, in celebration of this sacred marriage-"Leave thine own household, and the house of thy fathers, and accept him who shall be to thee thine everlasting husband." And the wife not only resigns all her own, and enters into a new relationship, but she shares in all the sympathies of her husband's home: whatever is in it, is hers as well as his; whatever is there, she is made welcome to; nothing comes between them. And it is a right apprehension of this near relationship, that shows the absurdity of all intercession of saints and angels for the people of God. A husband and wife ought to live in perfect confidence; but would it not argue that there was a cessation of that confidence, if the wife, requiring money for the purchases of the week, should go to her neighbour and beg her to intercede with her husband that she might receive what was necessary for laying in provisions for the week, month, or year? But it is not more absurd or unscriptural to suppose that we, who constitute the Bride, should ask the highest angel in heaven to intercede with our Everlasting Husband to give us the blessings that we need. I could not condescend to ask an angel to intercede for me; I would not humble myself, or dishonour my Divine Head, by begging the greatest seraph that is beside the throne to ask him to bestow a blessing upon me. He loves me with an everlasting love, and has told me to ask and I shall obtain-to seek and I shall find: Christian brother, this is your relationship; and, as long as you recollect it, there will be no risk that you will ask angel, or archangel, or seraph, to intercede with Christ in your behalf. Here, then, is the relationship in which she stands "the Bride;" and how beautiful are the Apocalyptic pictures of that Bride! Here, a woman retreating into the wilderness to escape from her persecutors; there, two witnesses prophesying and praying in sackcloth. But when the marriage-feast of the Lamb is come, she "sings a new song;" she has "washed her robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb;" she cries, "Salvation to our God who sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb!" and of her it is stated, that she "shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, nor shall the sun light upon her, nor any heat; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed her, and shall lead her to living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from her eyes." And how beautiful is the picture presented to us in the chapter from which my text is taken! The prophet hears "a voice of much people”—that is, the voice of the Bride-"in heaven saying, Alleluia." That is the first instance of a Hebrew word mingling in the Apocalypse with the heavenly songs; thereby teaching us, that when this great era comes, God's ancient people the Jews shall be restored, and God's reconciled ones, the Gentiles, united to him; and both together shall sing the one Hebrew-Greek song, Alleluia! Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, be unto the Lord our God!" and blessed be his name, that "Ten thousand thousand are their tongues, -"for true and righteous are thy judgments. And again they said, Alleluia; and a voice came out of the throne saying, Praise God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great." And then "I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters"-not unison, but deep, rich, glorious harmony-" and as the voice of mighty thunders"-echoing from the heaven, and re-echoed from the earth saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, which is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage-supper of the Lamb." It is also added, she "hath made herself ready." What is meant by this? The command was, "Be ye ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh." She heard the summons, and is ready. The warning was, "Prepare to meet thy God." She heard the warning cry, and she prepared to meet him; but she has done so, not in her own strength, but having heard that God "makes us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light," she has opened her heart to the reception of that which she has heard, for his Spirit to sanctify it; and that Holy Spirit has made her meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. And thus the Bride has not only a bridal dress, which is her title-like the wedding-robe that we read of in the parable-but she has also her bridal spirit, which is fitness for the kingdom of heaven. The first thing required is a righteousness which is perfect, and without us; the second is that fitness which is progressive, and within The distinction is this: Christ's work is an act-once done, incapable of addition. The Spirit's work is a process, that goes on from grace to glory. The first is perfect righteousness, the second is imperfect. The first is without us, the second is within The first is Christ's act, the second is the Spirit's work. The first is imputed, the second is imparted. The one is our title, the other is our fitness. us. us. The bride has received the title, and the fitness too, for she "hath made herself ready;" and hence it is pronounced, "Blessed are they that are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb;" not "Blessed shall they be," but "Blessed are they." Blessed are you if you respond to his call. Blessed are you that hope for that hour. Blessed are you that are united to Jesus. Blessed are you, for you shall sit at the marriage-supper of the Lamb. Often bridal feasts upon earth are followed by bitter days; but that bridal feast shall only be the prelibation of richer and intenser joy than eye hath seen or man's heart hath conceived. The best and noblest festivals below have alloy in them. The sharp sword suspended by the single hair hangs over more feasts than that of the flatterer in ancient story; but at that great, that glorious festival, there shall be no sense of peril, no apprehension of a dark and disastrous close to it; but a deep and universal feeling that it is but the morning dawn of a light that shall advance until it is perfected in everlasting and blessed noon. Blessed are they that are invited, for they have the earnest and the foretaste of it. Blessed are they that are invited, for they have the hope of it. Blessed are they that are invited, for they shall be made possessors of it. Blessed are they that are invited, for they know that all things, prosperous and adverse, past, and present, and future, are only wafting them the more speedily to the marriage-supper of the Lamb. And, dear brethren, next Sabbath we approach a festival that commemorates a sacrifice that is finished, and which is to us the tapering finger that points into the future, and tells us of the marriage festival of the bride and of the Lamb. I do not conceive that that man's mind is right, or that man's trust where it should be, or that man's character as Christianity demands that it should be, who overlooks, or despises, or turns away from this festival below, which is a faint foretaste of that more blessed and glorious festi val that is to come. "Do this in remembrance of me," says our Saviour, for I bare your cross, and bequeathed to you "the fine linen, white and clean, which is the righteousness of saints." Do this till I come, "for I will not leave you orphans: I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am there you may may be also." The Lord's supper seems to me like a beauteous rainbow, one end of which rests upon the cross, and, after spanning the mighty flood between them, the other end rests upon the crown-binding in one bond of peace, and love, and harmony, and union, things that are past, with all their pains, and things that are to come, with all their joys; and teaching us, while drawing our title from the first, to draw our hopes from the second; when we shall rejoice, and feel that the marriage-feast of the Lamb is come, ard we, too, have made ourselves ready. 508 LECTURE XXXVI. THE NEW SONG. "And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.”—Revelation xiv. 3. THIS is the evening of the first Sabbath of a new year, (1849.) A new song becomes a new year; and he who has entered on its responsibilities with the truest heart, and has reflected on the mercies of the past with the greatest gratitude, will be the readiest to sing a new song, which, sung imperfectly below, shall be rendered in all its force, its fulness, and its harmony above. We read in Scripture of many songs that were sung on many a glorious occasion. One of the earliest that we read of is contained in the book of Exodus-a song alluded to in the book of Revelation where we are told that Moses and the children of Israel sung this song, "Sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea." A song of sublime poetry was this, sung, I have no doubt, with no less sublime music, when, standing on the opposite coast, the children of Israel looked back upon the passage they had made -a passage for the children of Israel, a sepulchre for all the hosts and the captains of Pharaoh. We have another instance of a song sung on the occasion of a kindred victory, in the book of Judges, v. 12, where we read, "Awake, awake Deborah; awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam. Then he made him that remaineth have dominion over the nobles among the people: the Lord made me have dominion over the mighty," &c. Judges v. 12-31. Another very beautiful song, and one worthy of your careful perusal at your leisure, we have in the book of Psalms, (Ps. xcvi.,) in which we are called upon to "sing unto the Lord |