as that is described to have been in which Elijah was translated. Her passage, indeed, was very different from his; but it was of short continuance, and it conveyed her to the same state of glory and felicity. But, oh my brethren, had her life been spent to the last in scenes of frivolous dissipation; for even the aged, on the very brink of eternity, especially when affluent, can find some feeble means of dissipating the thoughts of death and judgment, of God and eternity; had she lived "without Christ; " had she not "washed her robes "and made them white in the blood of the Lamb;" how different would the event have appeared to every serious and reflecting mind! "The wicked "is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death." Her Lord "indeed came suddenly, but he did not find her sleeping." 66 66 "Therefore they are before the throne of God, "and serve him day and night in his temple." Observe the word therefore; it is more emphatical in the original dia rero, because of this. The blessed company were " before the throne," not on account of their moral virtues, or superstitious austerities, or human absolutions: nor even on account of their repentance, love, obedience, and other things "accompanying salvation:" but "because they "had washed their robes and made them white in "the blood of the Lamb." "I am the way, and the 66 truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Fa"ther but by me." Christ alone is our salvation faith alone receives Christ for salvation; but faith is not alone in him who possesses it. The eye 1 Prov. xiv. 32. alone sees, yet it is the eye of a living man: it is not alone; an eye separated from the living body could not see. All things else truly good, "accompany salvation : salvation:" none are saved in whom they are wholly wanting; none come short in whom they are found.' 66 66 To be "before the throne of God," in this connexion, evidently means admission into a state of perfect happiness, in the immediate presence, and manifested glory, and communicated love, of Almighty God. "Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours, "and their works do follow them."2 "There "remaineth therefore a rest" (the keeping of a sabbath, calcariouòs)" to the people of God:"3 but "to not a rest of indolence, or inactive repose; for they serve God day and night in his temple." This may refer to the services of the priests and Levites at the sanctuary; some of whom, in the days of David and of other pious kings. ministered and sang praises to God without intermission, day and night. These could do it only by rotation, one company succeeding and relieving another: but the heavenly worshippers do it all together and perpetually, without weariness, and with incessant delight. The apostle in his description of the holy city the new Jerusalem, says, "I saw no temple in it for the Lord God 'Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it."5 The manifested glory of God, as "a God of salva"tion," in and through Jesus Christ, seems in 'Heb. vi. 9. 2 Rev. xiv. 13. 3 Heb. iv. 9. tended by the expression " in his temple." Thus the worshippers "cried with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God, who sitteth on the throne, "and unto the Lamb and all the angels stood "round about the throne, and about the elders, " and the four living creatures, and fell before the "throne on their faces, and worshipped God saying, Amen!" "Serving God" here means especially religious worship: though, no doubt, the blessed in glory serve God in various ways of which we have no knowledge or conception; and most perfectly and delightfully fulfil the whole will of their heavenly Father. Like the holy angels, they " do his com"mandments, hearkening to the voice of his "words."1 But worship is here especially intended. In the fourth chapter of this book, a vision opens in which the whole church of God, by its representatives and ministers, is introduced as worshipping God, saying, " Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Al 66 mighty, who was, and is, and is to come." Thus they "worship him who liveth for ever and ever, "and cast their crowns before his throne, saying, "Thou art worthy to receive glory, and honour, "and power; for thou hast created all things, and "for thy pleasure they are, and were created." 2 They adore the living, the eternal, self existent, and most holy God, as the Creator of all things; though the mysteries of the Godhead and of redemption are generally allowed to be intimated in the threefold repetition of the word "holy." In the subsequent chapter, however, another scene is opened to our view; and the same company "fall down before the Lamb, and sing a new "song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, "and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast "slain, and hast redeemed us to God with thy "blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us to our "God kings and priests, and we shall reign for "ever. And I beheld," says the apostle, "and I "heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures and the elders; " and the number of them was ten thousand times "ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that "was slain, to receive power, and riches, and 66 wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, "and blessing. And every creature, which is in "heaven, and on the earth, and such as are in "the sea, and all that are in them, heard I say, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be "unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto "the Lamb for ever and ever; and the four living "creatures said, Amen." Here God, as our Saviour and Redeemer, is the special object of the worship. "God become our salvation." "The Lamb that "was slain," equally with "Him that sitteth on "the throne," and in the very same words: and even angels, who do not want a Saviour, take up the song, omitting only the words, "Who hath "redeemed us to God with his blood."-" When "he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, " he saith, Let all the angels of God worship him." Nothing can be more evident than that God incarnate, "purchasing the church with his own "blood," is, along with the Father, the object of the incessant worship of the saints in glory, and of all the holy angels, who "see in his church" of redeemed sinners "the manifold wisdom of God," and the stupendous display of all his harmonious perfections. Surely then they that worship a su preme Being, who is not, in this way, " a God of "salvation;" and who not only refuse to worship "the Lamb that was slain," and "to honour him "as the Father who sent him;" but charge those who do it with idolatry; would be disgusted and offended with the worship and the worshippers of heaven. And so indeed must all those who "have "not washed their robes and made them white in "the blood of the Lamb;" either having never, as they think, defiled them, or supposing that they have washed away their sins in other fountains, and by other means. Deep humiliation, as sinners before God, in an entire reliance, not merely on the mercy of God, but on the mercy of " a just God and a Saviour; mercy through the blood of Jesus, Emmanuel; a life of faith in him "who loved us and gave him"self for us "-till that faith be lost in sight; fervent, thankful, adoring love to this divine Saviour; a disposition to "honour him, even as we honour," or should honour, "the Father who sent him;" the "spiritual mind," to which devotion and adoration, is the element and delight; and a love and longing after holiness, perfect holiness: these things are essential to such a worship of " God "day and night at his temple" as is here described. If religion be a task; if communion with God and his saints, or any thing resembling |