barked in a cause, the success of which is doubtful. Their hopes are not those of the dreamer and of the enthusiast. These hopes arise from the sure promises of God. They are dependent upon the veracity of him who cannot lie. They are connected with the certain return of that great Deliverer, who " having the keys of death and the grave," and being himself"the resurrection and the life," has assured his followers, that he will come again and receive them to himself, that where he is, there they may be also.

Among merely nominal Christians, the notion of the future connection of Christ with the earth is very indistinct and uninfluential. But the servant of Christ explicitly expects his Lord's advent. "Behold he cometh, and every eye shall see him." "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. In the epistle to the Thessalonians, the advent of the Redeemer is yet more distinctly noticed. "I would not, says the apostle, "that ye be ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will

the Lord bring with him. For this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent those which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be ever with the Lord."

Happy is that faithful servant who on the warrant of these and similar assurances, is waiting for this day of final victory! Happy is he who in the patient continuance of welldoing, casts not away his confidence, but "abides in the truth," and expects this joyful meeting with his Master!

Christian! Thou shalt ere long behold thy Saviour! Thou shalt see him face to face! Thou shalt share his glory and his felicity! Thy life is bound up in his! Yet a little while, and the sorrows, and conflicts, and infirmities, and sins of life, shall be forgotten in the brightness of his coming! Hold fast then thy confidence. Detach thy affections from earthly things, and fix them upon heavenly things! Be patient, and hope to the end!

And as he cometh even as "a thief in the VOL. II.

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night," watch and be prepared!

Keep thy

garments clean, thy loins girded, and thy lamp burning! Act as even now in his presence. Die daily to the world; crucify the flesh, with its base affections and lusts; cherish every high, and generous, and ennobling sentiment; and walk worthy of the name by which thou art called! How bright is thy prospect, how certain thy happiness, how unassailable thy protection! Believe and be happy. Never despond; never cast away thy confidence. Jesus Christ is the same at this moment as he was in the elder times. His eye is upon his own record, and he will not fail to accomplish it. The spectacle now before thine eyes may be often wearisome and afflictive. The groans of the oppressed, the pangs of the diseased, the crimes of the wicked, the contentions of the good, the bitterness of the wrathful, the tears of the miserable, the passion of the ignorant, the struggles of the dying: these, and many other sources of disaster, may crowd upon thy sight; but wait in faith, and prayer, and welldoing. Watch and be sober. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" "Behold he standeth before the door." Another moment, and the mystery of grace will be complete. Then farewell sorrow, and welcome the fulness of eternal joy! And meantime he lives to put

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down every foe, to blot out every sin, to dry every tear, to soothe every sorrow. He lives to gather his elect from the four winds of heaven," and to be their everlasting refuge "when time shall be no more!"

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SERMON XXIII.

THE CARNAL AND THE SPIRITUAL MIND.

ROMANS viii. 6.

"FOR TO BE CARNALLY MINDED IS DEATH, BUT TO BE SPIRITUALLY MINDED IS LIFE AND PEACE."

THOSE Who rightly consider the degradation both of propensity and of aim to which sin has reduced us, will not be surprised at the assurance of Christ to Nicodemus, that a man "must be born again in order to enter into the kingdom of God." No image will appear to them too strong to describe the change needful to constitute a man, earth-born in all his feelings and habits, a subject of that heavenly and spiritual kingdom. Such a change is, indeed, as a birth into a new world. It is descriptive of a total alteration in all the estimates which the mind forms of good and evil.

The difference between these two states of mind is so decided, as to stamp an actual and distinctive character upon those who possess them. In fact, these two conditions of cha