that which will constitute our heaven will consist very much in exploring the great system of redemption, and the system of redemption will not be completed till the morning of the resurrection. Hence it is that we cannot see it to its full advantage at present. Were a glorious piece of machinery carrying on-were you to enter and see one wheel here, another in this place, and another in that, and were you to be inquisitive and ask the machinist, "Of what use, pray sir, is this? To what purpose is this?" and so on, probably he would cut short your inquiries by answering, "Have patience till the whole machine is finished, then you will see the use of every part." It is thus with a thousand present events; we do not see the use of those events at present, but when the grace shall be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ, the whole glorious machine will be completed, and then we shall perceive the use of every part; and for this reason, I take it, in a great degree the bliss of heaven will be probably ten thousand-fold augmented from that period, as compared with what it ever was or could be before.

But let us inquire a little more particularly what is that grace that shall be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Perhaps it may consist in three or four things. The first of those, according to the scripture account of it, will consist in the resurrection of the body, that is, one part of the grace that shall be brought to us at the reve lation of Jesus Christ. A glorious immortality-liberty to all those captives who have long lain slumbering in the dust; so the scripture tells us, "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first." That will be the first act in this divine drama-the resurrection of the body, which is represented as being in answer

to the sound of the trumpet. It alludes, I take it, to the trumpet of jubilee amongst the Jews. Every fifty years they had a year of general deliverance, in which all the captives were free, all debts were paid, and every man was restored to his former inheritance. You may easily conceive the state of feeling at the approach of the year of jubilee. It would raise an ardent hope in the breasts of the captives, and when the last, the forty-ninth year was entered upon, oh, how cheerful would be their countenances. When the last month came, the last week, the last day, every man would feel himself in a sort delivered. At length the sun sets, and at the setting of the sun you hear, perhaps, ten thousand trumpets blown through every quarter of the landLiberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Such was the acceptable year of the Lord; and at this instant every prison door flew open, and every captive lost his chains. Now, I apprehend, it is in allusion to this fact that it is said, "The Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout." Yes, all heaven, the souls of the redeemed, the innumerable company of angels, all the holy intelligences in God's universe, would unite in one general voice, and raise a shout throughout the universe that should rend the ground, "and the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God," that shall bring deliverance "and the dead in Christ shall rise." This is one part and a glorious part. How many excellent characters have been committed to the dust with weeping eyes-with the weeping eyes of their dear relations and Christian friends? How many active hands have been laid inactive? How many eyes have been closed and laid in the grave not to wake till the heavens are no more? But now they all wake.

Now joy sparkles in thousands and thousands of eyes; now we recognize our dear departed friends; now the dominion of death is ended; now death and mortality are abolished, the mortal puts on immortality, the corruption puts on incorruption, and death is swallowed up in victory. O! Christian, this is the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The next act in this divine drama, according to the scripture account of the matter, is this,-a general union with all the godly, quick and dead, and with the Lord Jesus Christ at their head. So you read in the Epistle to the Thessalonians, following the passage I before mentioned, "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 ever be with the Lord." Thus there will be a general union of all the godly, quick and dead. The prophets and patriarchs, with the apostles, and martyrs, and all the godly in every age and period of time, shall all form one general whole-one church of the First-born The armies of God that have been scattered abroad shall now form a glorious junction, with their Redeemer and Commander at their head, and a glorious whole this will be. This is another part of the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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offences, and more than absolved, approved in a sort, approved in so far as we have followed the Lamb in the present state, to hear him address us, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." This, this will be the grace that shall be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And then, lastly, for I can go no further, an abundant entrance will be ministered unto you into God's everlasting kingdom. I wish I had both the discernment and the opportunity to investigate the vast fulness that there is in these terms, "An abundant entrance shall be ministered unto you into God's everlasting kingdom." I think the terms express not only that the Christian shall enter into the kingdom, but that he shall enter, as we should say, with a high hand; not steal in, not enter one at a time scarcely daring to be seen, but rather like a company that shall march in with their colours flying, with their banners displayed, with their Commander at their head, entering in with the approbation of the Judge of the universe, with the shouts of heaven, and with the welcome of the Lord of glory. Yes, with the welcome of all holy intelligences. This is that abundant entrance that will be ministered unto us at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

My brethren! put these three or four thoughts together: a resurrection from the dead; a union with Christ and all holy intelligences; an acquittal at the judgment-seat of Christ; and an abundant entrance into God's ever

to form an object of hope? Is not this enough to stimulate us to gird up the loins of our minds? With this before us, do not let us faint under a few present difficulties and troubles. Gird

LET me give you the quaint description of the manners of the Athenians at their feasts from the Archæologiæ Attica: "For their behaviour at table, spitting, and coughing, and speaking aloud, was counted uncivil in any but a gentleman (as we say in the university, that nothing is fresh in a senior); and to him it was a glory, says Stobæus, to 'spit stoutly,' or, as Quintillian calls it, clare excreare, as it is among us for great men to sit and eat carelessly. But paring of nails was such a sordid thing that no gentility could bare it out. Their attendance was, every one his footboy, to whom they used to deliver choice bits, or such dainties as they liked best, to keep or to carry home with them but I must confess it was counted somewhat base, and, therefore, clancularly done, except it were a very high feast indeed, and open house. Your μspides, merides, portions which we read of were another thing, as a piece of the victim at a sacrifice, or a part of the choicest dishes at a feast, sent by all the company in a public manner to friends that were absent. And, indeed, not only the Greeks, but the Romans and the Jews too, are to be commended for remembering their friends in this kind; for the Jews, both at sacrifice (as Elkanah did to his wife), and also at feasts (as those

were bid to do by Nehemiah, viii. 10), used to send portions 'to them for whom nothing was prepared.' When they had greased their fingers they would take a piece of soft bread and rub them with it, and throw the crumbs to the dogs; and from thence came the proverb, tanquam canis vivens e magdalia, 'living like a dog upon handwipings.'

Do you suppose the allusion was to this practice when the woman said to our Lord, "Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table?" Matt. xv. 27.

The case of Lazarus, Luke xvi. 20, almost speaks for itself:-" And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table; moreover, the dogs," waiting for the magdalia which Lazarus desired, "came and licked his sores."

"Yet amidst all this jollity," he adds, "they had their ossicula to remind them of their mortality, indeed; but merely to hasten their merriment, like the Egyptians, who used at their feasts to bring in the picture of a dead man in a coffin; and he that brought him in bade every one to eat and drink, for to-morrow he should die."-- Birt's Patristic Evenings.

THE neglect of common truths causes the neglect of all truths.-Life of Mrs. Savage.