Father of glory, would give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of their understanding being enlightened." Those, then, who behold the glory of the Lord are the subjects of spiritual illumination. Though they were once darkness, yet now are they light in the Lord. The vail is taken from their minds, their eyes are opened, the scales have fallen. With open, or unvailed face, they look into the mirror of the gospel. Here they see the glory of their Immanuel, and the brightness of His rays are in proportion to the purity and strength of their vision. The more the heart is sanctified, and the intellect enlarged, the sweeter, the fuller, and the more enrapturing the discoveries.

But these discoveries have also a reflex influence, producing their own image, leaving their own impress. When they shall be unobstructed, then the new creation will be completed. "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." Even now, however, every view of Christ loosens the dominion of sin, and gives increasing vigor to the life of holiness. This leads me,

3dly, To show that a discovery of the glory of Christ, as revealed in the Gospel, promotes sanctification. "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." When Christ Jesus was upon earth, He declared, respecting the Holy Spirit, "He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." Here we are taught that the Spirit makes the contemplation of the glory of Christ an effectual means of holiness. It is the Spirit that quickeneth, but in quickening, He shines in the heart, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We become dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ. But

III. How does a discovery of the glory of the Divine Redeemer promote sanctification?

1. It guards the mind against worldly and vain thoughts. When you are in the presence of some wonderfully grand and sublime object, how completely does it chain the thoughts? It elevates the mind above trifles, and even ordinary objects, though present, are overlooked and forgotten. The shaking of a leaf is unheard amid the rattling of thunders, the glare of lightning, and the rush and roar of winds. The loss of a little property is unfelt, when death makes your house desolate. It is, indeed, an universal law of mind, that great and commanding objects will crowd out attention to those which are of minor importance. Apply this principle to the subject under consideration. The creature is looking at Him whose glory is the fulness of the earth. His mind is completely occupied. It reaches forth to catch still further discoveries of His majesty; and if the brilliancy of the vision be not

overpowering, it will awaken the highest possible degree of attention. When Paul was caught up into the third heavens, and saw and heard things which it was impossible for a man to utter, he was so occupied with the august scene, that even the things which distinguish life from death, time from eternity, had no place in his mind. When lifted up to the seat of Divine Glory, the place where Christ dwells at the right hand of the Father, having in subjection all the principalities and powers, he could not tell whether he was in the body, or out of the body. Let the rays of this vision, though in fainter glory, fall upon your minds, and where, where could worldly and vain thoughts find a lodging-place? It would burn them up root and branch. When the soul, that living temple of yours, is filled with Divine glory, other objects must be displaced, and you yourselves changed into the same image from glory to glory.

2. A perception of the glory of the Lord promotes love. You will bear in mind that a perception of this glory is a moral exercise, and cannot, therefore, differ from love in its purest, liveliest form. To behold the glory of God, and to love God, are synonymous phrases. The wicked may, indeed, see God, but they are never said, in the Bible, to behold the glory of God. To them God is a dreadful, terrible, but not a glorious, lovely being. His glory can be seen only by those who bear His image. Every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love." When the heart is in harmony with His truth, and with all His adorable perfections, then, and not till then, do you behold His real excellency. Then, also, will you desire to be like Him. When the Lord God manifests Himself to you as He does not to the world, how sweetly, how effectually are all the powers of the soul brought into subjection to His will? The reflected image of your Master brightens daily upon your heart. Never is the process of sanctification going on more rapidly, never are you dying unto sin so efficaciously, never are you rising so swiftly into the stature of perfect ones in Christ Jesus. Would any of you be transformed by the renewing of your minds? Come to the place where His glory will pour down its softening, its reconciling beams upon your souls. Here you will see that God is love; and you will feel, too, the life-giving effect of the vision. Here love, which is the fulfilling of the law, will supplant every unhallowed passion, break down the dominion of sin, and fix its heavenly impress upon the heart. Here you will be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Then, also, will you abound in every good word and work; for rich, exceedingly rich and various are the fruits of love. "And this I pray that your love may abound more and more, in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve the things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and

without offence till the day of Jesus Christ, being filled with all the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the praise and glory of God."

3. A contemplation of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the Gospel, promotes patience, peace, and heavenly mindedness.

In the midst of disappointments, conflicts, and abuses, patience will find appropriate employment. "Ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. "Peace, also, that peace which the world can neither give nor take away, that peace which passeth all understanding, is a blessing for which you will often pant. This is not your rest. Here you shall have tribulation. How desirable, then, that you should have a foretaste of the rest that remaineth; that heavenly consolations should comfort, strengthen, and encourage your hearts. And in this world of worldliness, where every one is mad upon his idols, where the thoughts and affections are set on things on the earth, how desirable and necessary that the spell should be broken; that the heart should rise in freedom to nobler objects; that heaven should be the home of the mind, the place towards which the thoughts lead, and where they fix themselves in quietness and supreme delight? And how can these graces of the Spirit, patience, peace, and a mind fed on heavenly things, be so effectually learned, as by a contemplation of the glory of the Lord?

"Had I a glance of thee, my God,

Kingdoms and men would vanish soon."

This is light in darkness, joy in sorrow, heaven upon earth. Oh, come then with unvailed face, and behold the glory of the Lord. Look at this great sight. It will transform, renew and sanctify; it will change you into the same image from glory to glory.

REFLECTIONS.

1. If correct views of the glory of Christ are necessary to a full understanding of the Scriptures, then those who have incorrect views of this glory, cannot be regarded as safe interpreters of the Bible.

They err respecting a cardinal truth, an essential principle; a principle which lies at the foundation of the entire system of revelation. If they are consistent with themselves, their error here must modify all their future investigations. Would that man be a safe guide in natural philosophy, who should assume it as a fact, that the sun made his daily revolutions round the earth; or, who should deny the existence of such a law as gravitation? His errors are not trifling, but cardinal. Whatever may be the strength of

his mental powers, or the charms of his eloquence, he begins in error, and in error he must end. The true theory of the solar system he cannot teach; the laws by which it is governed he does not understand; he perverts them, and introduces others which have no existence, except in his darkened and bewildered mind. Of course, all his instructions must be false. Now apply these remarks to the subject we are considering. Jesus Christ is the sun of the moral system; His offices the great influential and attractive principle in this system. How can the man who misunstands their cardinal truths, correctly and clearly explain other truths belonging to the same system? Such an individual, like a man walking in the night, stumbles because there is no light in him. He stumbles at that stumbling-stone and rock of offence; and then he goes on to stumble, and stumble at the whole word, being disobedient. He is blind, and if he lead the blind, how fearful will be the end of both?

2. This subject shows us the importance of being well established in the cardinal truths of the gospel.

This is a shield from error. The man who has a few first principles in any science, well established, is in little danger of wandering. They are fixed points, to which he can look, and by which he may guide all his footsteps. A similar guide to all his investigations, is within the reach of that man who understands and loves the distinguishing doctrines of the cross. Be established, then, in these truths. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.

3. We learn from this subject that the perfection of saints in glory, consists in their being like their Divine Lord.

To form them into His image, He died, rose again, ascended up on high, and governs all things. To form them into His image, He revealed His word, and appointed the ministry of reconciliation. To form them into His image, the Spirit takes up His abode in their hearts. This is the last finish of beauty which their souls can receive; the fullest preparation for enjoyment which they can acquire; the highest degree of exaltation to which they can be raised. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him." How sweet the rest of saints in the presence of their Divine Lord! There they are, clothed in white; all tears wiped from their eyes, crowned with glory, bowing before the throne, partaking of the joy of their Lord; He in them, and they in Him. And so shall they ever be with the Lord. May we but rise to that blissful state, and we ask no more. Amen, and amen.

SERMON CCCCLXXXI.

BY REV. SAMUEL IRENEUS PRIME,

New York.

THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION OF CHRIST.

"I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore." REVELATION, i. 18.

THE resurrection of Christ had a prominence in the instructions of the primitive Church, which it has not in modern times. Then it was a doctrine, now it is only an historical fact. Then it was the central truth of Christianity, now it is believed but not honored as the life of the system. Our preaching is vain, and your faith also is vain," said Paul, if Christ be not risen. To restore this doctrine to its appropriate rank among the truths of the Gospel, to discover the vital relation it bears to all that man is to believe, to comprehend the power of testimony concentrated in this event to the verity of the Divine revelation, and to feel the strength of motive to be developed for the believer's hope, we have only to open the New Testament and study the writings of the apostles with an eye to this doctrine, and its grandeur and importance rise, as we proceed, till the evidence is irresistible that this is a cardinal truth of the Christian system, and the confirmation of all the rest. As in a chain of circumstantial evidence, often more conclusive than the most luminous testimony of eye-witnesses, there is one link that fastens all the rest to the great fact to be proved; so the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the fact that binds His system to the faith of man; if this is believed, the whole is received; if doubted, our faith is vain: we are yet in our sins.

The nature of the subjects proposed for discussion this evening, renders it impossible to do more than to present a skeleton of thought. This would have been true had my time been limited to a single topic; but if we attempt the contemplation of both the resurrection and ascension of our Lord, we shall find the evening far spent while we are yet at the portals of our theme. It will, therefore, be my aim to seize upon a few points of interest in this portion of our Saviour's history, and invite your minds to their pious