And now, in conclusion, the question comes upon us individually, as pilgrims through this world, and partakers of its cares, and as hastening rapidly onward to meet the Son of God in death and judgment: is this our hope? Are we prepared to take up this language, as knowing the full meaning of the terms, and to say calmly and deliberately before God, "Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be;" but this gives us no cause for anxiety, for the main point is determined; in the day "when he shall appear, we shall be like him." Are you prepared to make this statement in humble hope? If you are not, rest assured that you have not realized all the blessing which God has provided for us in the Gospel. Its hope was meant to be to us as "an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast, entering into that within the veil." With such merciful purposes towards us, God will not keep those who are in earnest, capriciously in darkness. He giveth liberally and upbraideth not. So that if you are without this encouraging hope, it is your own fault. You cannot lay the blame upon God. You must take the sin of your hopelessness in the midst of such privileges, home to yourself; for be assured, that if you are ever thoroughly in carnest you will break your way through all earthly impediments, through all the fetters and fascinations that a world of sense can throw around you, to meet a gracious Saviour with joy, upon his own compas

sionate terms.

But if this is your hope; if you feel that in meekness you may take up the language of the text, and look out joyfully beyond the confines of mortality, to the promised meeting of your Saviour, and the consummation of your happiness in him; then what important results should this have in your conduct and your heart! It is impossible but that your whole views, habits, and dispositions should be influenced by this expectation.

First, If this is indeed our expectation, how little and trifling should the things of time appear. A prospect so glorious, throws them all at once into the shade. Whatever be the appointments of providence below for those whom God loves, they are to issue in this blessed result: and no earthly joy can for an instant compare with a felicity so exalted and so desirable. Surely our affections cannot linger round that which is at the best sensual and uncertain, when such unspeakable joy is "near even at the doors." Every thing here must shrink to its due standard; and if we do

not write over it in bitterness, "Vanity and vexation of spirit;" we may at least say, "Ichabod, the glory is departed." Then,

Secondly, How ought our affections to go forth towards the promised day of glory. "To me," said St. Paul, "to live is Christ, but to die is gain." "Behold I come quickly," said the Saviour; and John replied, "Even so come, Lord Jesus." This, if we are all we should be, would be our language and feeling. To be perfectly like the Son of God, is the highest conceivable point of exaltation and happiness. Every thing that comes short of this, is so much present misery. Look forward, then, in the true spirit of the saints: "My soul is athirst for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God:" "I am ready to be offered." How glorious the confidence that can thus make earthly sorrow unimportant; that can make the dark valley appear light; that can in one most interesting respect penetrate the veil that shrouds another existence, and realize blessings that this world could never give. Let us emulate this heavenly composure, and so live near to God below, that any moment may find us ready and willing to enter into his eternal presence. And then,

Lastly, If the contemplation of the perfections of Jesus Christ is the appointed process of conversion into his spotless image, how earnestly should we devote ourselves to this important occupation. We are to "consider him:" we are to look unto Jesus; we are to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ." This is to be the great business of life; and every thing else should be done in subserviency to this one essential, soul-elevating duty. In every subordinate occupation of business or pleasure, this fact should never be lost sight of. Every thing is to be done unto the Lord, and not to man, and as setting the Lord always before us. Happy are they who live in the habit of thus beholding the glory of the Lord; and they who are wise enough to devote the time of their sojourning to it most entirely, will realize below, the most rapid progress in grace, and watch with the most triumphant ardor, for the dawn of the promised glory.

SERMON XI.

THE PRACTICAL INFLUENCE OF THE BELIEVER'S

HOPE.

By the Rev. EDWARD CRAIG, A. M.,
Minister of St. James' Chapel, Edinburgh.

1 JOHN, iii. 3.

And every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as He is pure.

OUR attention has been occupied lately by a consideration of the present privileges and hopes of the Christian. It has been shown, that they who are really believers in Christ, are by an extraordinary act of divine grace, changed from the children of sin and of the devil, to the children of God; that this character is unperceived and incomprehensible to the unbelieving multitude, out of which they were called to be the sons of God; that the fact of their filial relation to God gives them peace; and that although in some respects, their lot beyond the limits of this existence remains unknown, yet one statement of Revelation respecting the future, they do repose with the fullest confidence, that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming in his glory; and that when he does so appear, they shall be like him for they shall see him as he is.

These are no unimportant facts to come before the mind of man. They are most extraordinary. They are facts involving such immense results, that if it were not for the sensual and irreligious bias of men in general, the whole world would be eagerly seeking after such a knowledge. Every one who heard of it, would wish to be able to say, "When he shall appear, we know that we shall appear with him in glory." Nay, such is the value of a sure and certain hope for the yet unseen existence which we call eternity, that many who have not on them a single shred of the Christian*

character but the name, do passionately desire to realize the blessing of eternal life, and say, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." And many, listening to the spontaneous intimations of their immortal nature, and longing after a never-ending felicity, do continue to patch up for themselves a sort of hope, which they call Christian, which grasps at the end while it neglects the means, and which counts on the reward, while it detests the appointed way to seek it. Many thus continue to lull themselves asleep in an unscriptural and utterly unfounded delusion, that they can be God's without being godly; that they who do not righteousness are righteous; and that they who commit wilful and habitual sin, are not of the devil.

6.

To guard against so fearful an evil, it becomes us to follow out the subject to the following verse of the chapter, and to consider it very seriously, because it exhibits to us the practical effect of the true Christian's hope. Every man," says St. John, "that hath this hope in Christ, purifieth himself even as Christ is pure." This is the result, the real influence of the Gospel. This is the test to which all men must ultimately be brought; and this test the true believer can abide. Let us, then, endeavor to approach it now, with sincere prayer that God would enable us to judge accurately of our case, and to determine whether we yet possess any thing more than the mere form of godliness.

Three ideas present themselves for our consideration

I. The standard of purity, which is CHRIST,

II. The principles of purification which are put in operation,
III. The result,-a conformity to that standard.

I. We will consider the standard of purity recognised by the believer in the Gospel. This is Jesus Christ: the perfections of Jesus Christ as a man upon the earth. It is certainly no mean standard. It is awfully sublime. But it is that which the moral creature of God, however sunk and degraded, is bound to set before him as the standard to which he ought to have been ever conformed. Jesus Christ was precisely an exhibition of that moral perfection which God had a right to require in every one of his creatures; and which we should have possessed, had we not yielded to temptation. He was perfect and complete in all the will of God. He was a representation to us of what entire obedience to the will of God would have made us; and what the spirits of the just men made perfect will be, when they are again VOL. II.-14

united to a purified body. He was set before us not merely as the atonement for sin, and the justifying righteousness of the saints; but as an embodying or showing forth of perfect holiness in the humanity; and as such he was to be "an example that we should follow his steps." It was the purpose of God that not only should we believe on his name, but that in running the race set before us, we should "look unto Jesus" as the pattern to which we ought to be conformed. We should consider him attentively as the means of elevating our views of holy obedience by his blessed example, and of stimulating us to seek for higher attainments in grace, than we are likely to find by our very imperfect knowledge of our yet imperfect brethren.

But further than this, we are to set the spotless purity of Jesus Christ before us, not merely that by aiming at more than is attainable, we may apprehend something more than we have; but that we may actually regard the moral perfection of the man Christ Jesus, who is in that moral perfection the image of God, as the very type or pattern of the excellence to which we ourselves must be actually raised, before we can enter into the Divine presence. Even we who are now so sinful, are to be presented faultless before the presence of his glory. We are to be "holy and unrebukeable in his sight;" "without spot or blemish, or any such thing." And the appointed means of that perfection is this:that the veil of unbelief is to be taken from us, and then we are to behold as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, and by so beholding in the character of Jesus Christ, the glory and perfection of God, we are to be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord: that is, we are to be made like unto the Son of God.

And what a pattern of excellence was the adorable Saviour. How fully our own mind recognizes that excellence! There is not one single instance of defect or of omission in moral duty. There is not one action of his life that we can say might have been better done. How restlessly active! How sublimely pure! How disinterested and self-denying, how dignified and venerable, how meek and lowly, how patient and unoffending, how benevo lent and kind! How bold in his reprehension of prosperous guilt! how ready to sooth and to relieve the unfortunate and the forgotten! How manifestly unstained by any one of the defiling passions of our race! Whatever was implied in the two grea