'And

Perfect holiness will then be come. To the very last, the believer is borne down by a body of death. Sin adheres to all he thinks, and says, and does. After a long course of duty and discipline, after years of high privilege, and the utmost diligence and zeal in the use of means, he feels that he comes far short of the standard of obedience, and offends in all things. He has only to look calmly and honestly within, to see many stains; he has only to weigh his actions in the sanctuary balances, to discover many defects. But sin and suffering cease at death. The former will no longer pollute, as the latter will no longer annoy. Into heaven, nothing that defileth can enter. There will undoubtedly be a great change at death in the state of the soul. Every stain will be effaced, every defect supplied, every infirmity removed; and, shining in the splendour of a perfect conformity to the divine image, the soul will enter on a course of service, which will never more be interrupted by trial, or marred by defect.

Perfect happiness will then be come. The happiness of the Christian, on earth, is mixed with much evil. It is never so complete as to fill the whole heart, leaving no void. No doubt, he has a peace and a joy, to which the world is a stranger, but along with these, he has many fears, regrets, and sorrows; not to speak of those trials and distresses, which he shares in common with all men. There are times, as we have seen, when he cries out, 'O wretched man that I am!' His joy resembles the light of a shadowy day, now brightening into splendour, then overcast, and shaded into twilight by a cloud; while it is not to be denied, that there are cases in which the life of faith advances under a sky of perpetual gloom, with few intervals of sunshine to relieve it. But in heaven, there will be nothing to hurt or to destroy. Sin, the prolific source of all evil, cannot, as we have said, enter there. The sufferings which arise from the disorders and conflicts of the heart, will all cease. The burden of the body of death will be for ever taken away. Outward troubles, disappointments, and privations will disappear with discipline. The joy of the Christian will be full. How chaste, yet expressive, are the passages of scripture, which allude to the future state of the redeemed! God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor

:

When the apostle says, 'that which is in part will be done away,' the meaning is, that in heaven such will be the measure of knowledge and gifts, that the knowledge and gifts of the present state will be comparatively lost and forgotten. The light of the stars is lost in the glory of the rising sun, the waters of a river are lost in the immensity of the ocean; and so the attainments of the believer here will be lost in the inconceivable measure of intelligence and blessedness, to which he will be exalted in heaven. What a consummation, for poor guilty creatures, such as we are, to be raised to a condition of such transcendent felicity and honour! I go,' said our Lord to his disciples, to prepare a place for you.' Had he not prepared it, it could never have been ours. No merit of ours could ever have earned a title to it, as no skill or effort on our part could ever have qualified us to enjoy it. It is the free gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.'

TWENTY-FIFTH DAY.-EVENING.

'To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved,' Eph.

i. 6.

In the context, the apostle, after the customary salutation, expresses, in forcible terms, his gratitude to God for the inestimable spiritual blessings, which had been conferred both upon himself, and the members of the church at Ephesus, to whom this epistle was addressed. Among these blessings, he specifies election and adoption, two blessings, or rather, classes of blessing, which very strikingly show the love of God towards his people in Christ. In the former, God appears as choosing believers before the foundation of the world was laid, fixing his love upon them, arranging the various circumstances connected with their conversion, growth in grace, and final admission into glory, and thus surrounding their salvation with the infallible certainty of a decree. In the latter, we behold him, with infinite condescension, raising them from their fallen and wretched state, not merely distinguish

ing them by remarkable tokens of kindness, but restoring them to their forfeited rank as members of his family, giving them free access to his gracious presence, admitting them to the enjoyment of intimate and endearing fellowship with himself, and conferring upon them a full and unquestionable title to all the blessings, privileges, and triumphs of a complete salvation. Well might the apostle say, that such unparalleled love was to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved.' There is an extraordinary emphasis in the language of this verse. The apostle does not merely say, that the blessings to which he referred bore testimony to the grace of God, but that they were to the praise of that grace; and not merely to the praise of that grace, but to the praise of the glory of that grace. The grace of God, as displayed in the election and adoption, and consequently, in the redemption of believers, is indeed very glorious. Consider the objects of that grace, poor, worthless, ungrateful rebels; alienated outcasts, who, though originally formed to love and serve God, and to find their happiness in his favour, had refused to acknowledge his claims, heaped dishonour upon his law, and set at nought all its sanctions. Consider the cost at which this grace was shown. Before it could even be made known, or indeed allowed to operate, there behoved to be the mystery of mysteries, incarnation; the humiliation to atoning death of the incarnate Son; and the offering up of his life, the most valuable life, fit for sacrifice, in the universe,-upon the cross. Consider the blessings included in the provision of this grace. The pardon of sin by the dishonoured Lawgiver, the offended Sovereign; the acceptance of the sinner in the spotless court of heaven, though he had not a particle of merit; the adoption of the rebel into the same family with the seraphs and angels of heaven; the renewal of the divine image in the fallen and corrupt soul, together with the rebuilding of that soul in the beauty of holiness; the peace that passeth understanding, the joy unspeakable, and full of glory, and the hope that maketh not ashamed; and finally, the full qualification of the soul for heaven, and its admission there; these are some of its blessings, and to say they are incomparable, is to say little. They are not only beyond expression, but far above all thought. The grace, which has provided, and which patiently offers them, beyond all question, is glorious grace.

In this grace, says the apostle, we are accepted in the Beloved.' Naturally we are excluded from the divine presence, and are totally

disqualified for the enjoyment of the happiness inseparable from it. Into that presence, nothing sinful can be permitted to enter. 'God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity.' The heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?' Nor is it possible for us to acquire by our own efforts a title to acceptance with God. The law, under which we come into the world, is holy, just, and good. It is spiritual, reaching to the very thoughts and purposes of the heart; and failing in one particular, we offend in all. Even the believer, who is under the quickening power of the Spirit, cannot obey it; far less the sinner, who is at enmity with God, and hates all holiness and truth. Men, no doubt, are prone to imagine that they may yield a sincere obedience, and that this obedience, though imperfect, will be accepted on the ground of its sincerity. But this is a grievous error. The claims of the law are absolute and unchangable; to be obeyed at all, it must be obeyed perfectly; while if we come short in any one particular, we are excluded from its blessings, and condemned to suffer its penalty. Justification by the law, in every sense, is utterly hopeless.

The grace of God is most wonderfully shown in providing for our acceptance. Before we can appear before him, the law must have no claim against us; in other words, we must be righteous; and, as we cannot become so by our own efforts, there is a righteousness placed to our account, through faith, so that we stand before God, with as clear a title to his favour, as if we had never fallen from obedience, or having fallen, had recovered our original privileges and rank. The provision of this righteousness, whereby God is a just God and a Saviour, is the most astonishing manifestation of grace, which, as far as we know, the universe can supply. We are accepted in the Beloved.' This endearing name is applied to Christ, who is often termed the well-beloved Son of God. The Father is represented as looking on him with infinite compla cency, and regarding him with intense and peculiar love. We are accepted in him, because he has fulfilled all righteousness by his obedience unto death; and faith uniting us to him, his righteousness becomes ours, for all the purposes of pardon and acceptance before God. We are clothed with his righteousness as with a garment, which hides all stains and defects, and adorns us with faultless beauty. The acceptance of the believer is as complete, as that of Adam in Eden. His title to eternal life is as clear, as if Adam had

TWENTY-SIXTH DAY.-MORNING.

These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes,' Psal. 1. 21. In the context, God addresses sinners among the Jews, and reminds them of the heinous offences, with which they were chargeable before him. These offences had been committed under a variety of delusive pretexts; but all of them, with the minutest circumstances of aggravation, had been observed by the infinite God. No doubt, God had not spoken amidst the rebellion and iniquity, which had been recklessly displayed. In his own emphatic words, he had kept silence. This silence however, did not proceed from ignorance, or indifference. Men put this interpretation upon it, and went on sinning boldly, as if there had been no God in heaven, or a God, ignorant and immoral as the gods of the heathen. But God beheld, and abhorred every act; was the witness of every secret scene of guilt, and cherished purpose of impiety; and the reason why he did not come forth out of his place, and thunder forth the words of condemnation, was simply and solely, that he chose to forbear. In keeping silence, he had not relinquished any principle of his government, or relaxed any sanction of his law; but had merely refrained from judicial interference, that he might give his creatures free scope for the gratification of their desires, and the trial of their principles.

The sinner is very prone to think of God, as a creature like himself, limited in knowledge, lax in principle, and ready to accommodate, so as to meet the call of circumstances, whatever these may be. He deals with God as if he could deceive him; as if he could prevail upon him to wink at his sins; as if he could take advantage of his ignorance; as if, at times, God would lower his claims, and be satisfied with less than his law requires. There is thus a flagrant dishonouring of God in his thoughts. He makes God a man; he robs him of his divinity; he brings him down to his own level. This view of God is favourable to the execution of his sinful purposes and plans; for all the hindrances to a course of wickedness, arising from the omniscience, holiness,

God is dealt with as if he knew no more, as well as was not holier, or more righteous, than himself. Under the influence of these delusive views of God, the sinner rushes on in his wicked courses. The idea of God is the standard of conscience; and if that idea be broken down, conscience falls in proportion. Take away this standard, and conscience is amenable only to itself; for conscience will never cease to mutilate any idea of God, but that which is revealed, and therefore immutably true, till it brings it down to the level of its own knowledge. God thus put out of the way, there is no longer any restraint; for though you have a God to whom conscience may refer, yet he is no longer the spotlessly holy, and inflexibly righteous Jehovah, but a pliant, fallible, and changeable being, like the sinner himself.

God, in this verse, intimates to the sinner, that there is a time coming, when he will reprove him, and set his sins in order before him. That such a time will come, sooner or later, follows from the perfections of the divine nature. For, if we believe that God regards sin with infinite abhorrence, and condemns it, in all its forms and degrees, by his law, then wherever, in the wide compass of the universe, sin is committed; scrutiny, judgment, and condemnation must ensue. God may forbear, for wise and gracious purposes, for a time, as he does in the government of this world; but he cannot be indifferent, and therefore, cannot always continue silent. He is pledged to judgment by his own attributes. He must judge, otherwise he could not continue to reign. The integrity of his government would be broken down; the very bulwarks of law would be levelled with the dust. But there is no fear of this; he is silent, not he is forbearing, not indifferent.

Sometimes, in this life, he reproves sinners, and sets their sins in order before them. When the sinner is rejoicing in his iniquity, and there seems to be no hindrance to his success, or end to his security, God breaks in upon him by calamities, which rouse conscience, and turn it into a fierce accuser. The past passes in review. Dark scenes, long forgotten, are vividly remembered. Sins, unheeded at the time of commission, rise up as witnesses; and conscience, long silent and torpid, is compelled to condemn. Sometimes, before conversion, there is such a searching out, and judgment of the sins of the past. The subject of grace is made to consider in detail the vast sum of his transgressions; conscience, as it were, makes out a catalogue of his sins; and, dwelling upon their enormity and aggravations, shuts him up to