DISCOURSE XIV.

PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN.

WE ALL, WITH OPEN FACE BEHOLDING AS IN A GLASS THE GLORY OF THE LORD, ARE CHANGED INTO THE SAME IMAGE FROM GLORY TO GLORY, EVEN AS BY THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD.-2 Cor. iii. 18.

WHEN the Lord Jesus Christ forewarned His disciples of His approaching death, He endeavoured to reconcile them to the thought of losing Him, by explaining the necessity of His departure, in order that He might prepare for them a place in heaven and He comforted them with a promise, that He would come again and receive them to Himself, that where He was, there they might he also. (John xiv. 1-4.)

But they also would need to be made ready for the place that He was to provide for their reception. Heaven is the region of holiness: and God, the centre of happiness there, is most holy. None, therefore, can be prepared for His presence, and for the enjoyment of heaven, until

their infirmities are healed, their passions mortified, their impurities cleansed, and their souls transformed into the similitude of the Divine holiness.

This will, doubtless, be received as a selfevident proposition. Who will require further proof than a single declaration of the Bible, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord? (Heb. xii. 14.) But how this perfection may be acquired, will need explanation. In our text the Apostle explains, both the means and the cause of its attainment.

The means are, the Holy Scriptures. We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord.

The cause is, the Holy Spirit. Are changed into the same image from glory, to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The Holy Scriptures reveal to us the glory of the Lord, in the description they give of His nature, commands and promises. Man is naturally in the dark as to the Divine will and perfections. Though the works around him are calculated to elevate his thoughts to the Being who created them, yet so perverted are all the faculties of his mind, and so depraved the affections of his heart, that, left to himself, he knows not how to look beyond visible objects for the Great First cause of their production; nor to seek any pleasure more refined than the gratification which they afford to his reason and appetites.

But the word of God contains as full a revelation of Himself to mankind as they are competent to receive. It is as a mirror, which reflects upon this dark world, the truth and justice, the love and holiness, the commands and promises of Jehovah, to guide our feet in the way of peace, and to prepare us for the holiness of heaven. It is, however, only the medium through which this sacred knowledge is conveyed to the soul. The cause of its attainment is, the Spirit of the Lord. And this He accomplishes, both by enlightening the understanding, and purifying the heart.

First, the Holy Spirit enlightens the understanding with the knowledge of God. Though His nature and will are sufficiently explained in His word, yet the unassisted mind of man can never understand what he reads therein. The plainest truths of the Bible will appear mysterious and void of interest, if examined only by the glimmering taper of human reason.

But when the Spirit of the Lord enters the soul, its clouds of ignorance flee away, like the shades of night before the opening dawn: and he who is the subject of this Divine illumination, then puts on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him. (Col. iii. 10.) He was formerly ignorant of the holiness of God, and, consequently, had no idea how odious in His sight are the unholy thoughts and feelings, words and deeds of men. But the Spirit has enabled him to view the

Almighty as an immaculate Being; so pure, that no unclean thing can at any time enter into His presence.

So also with respect to the truth, the mercy, and all those perfections which constitute the Divine glory. These are so many beams of that sacred effulgence which encircles the Almighty's throne, and shines through the visible and invisible worlds. And yet, resplendent as it is, the natural powers of the human mind are incapable of beholding it. The sun shines in vain to him who is shut up in a dark dungeon; but throw open his prison door, and he will behold and enjoy the cheerful beams of day. And our minds must be opened to admit the light of Truth, or it will never enter into our souls. Although "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handy work;" although there is not a plant or an animal in the creation, but what displays His wisdom in forming, and His power and care in preserving it; yet man is totally in the dark as to the light they reveal. He cannot appreciate the perfections they display. The Divine glory is diffused every where but in the unregenerate soul. Much is said about natural religion; and it is asserted, that the works of nature are sufficient to raise the mind to nature's God. Then why have they never done so? Many have become materialists, and deists, atheists, if not from a minute investigation of the animal and vegetable kingdoms: but the page of history

furnishes not one instance of a man who hath obtained, by these means alone, such a view of the glory of God as to produce any moral effect on his character. The works of creation display

their Maker's perfections indeed; but the mind's eye must be opened to behold them, or it will ever want capacity to discover the splendour of creation as beaming from the throne of God.

If this be the fact with reference to things of daily observation, how much more so when it is applied to the Gospel of Christ? Herein the glory of God shines with all its fulness and lustre. The substance of the New Testament is, the redemption of man from sin and its ruinous consequences, through the atonement and mediation of the Son of God. It unfolds to view the Divine economy whereby mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other, in the person and the work of Jesus Christ, for the purpose of reconciling the Creator to His sinful creatures. And yet, glorious as is the theme, and interesting to sinful man; it is as unintelligible to the human mind in its natural state, as the light of the sun is to one born blind. And wherefore? The reason is the same in the one case as in the other. The eye of the soul is by nature as closely shut against the Divine glory that shines in the Gospel, as the blind man's organ of vision is against the light of day. The Lord Jesus has expressly declared thus much, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be