II.A SIGN OF OFFICE.

III.A MARK OF DIGNITY.

IV.A PLEDGE OF SECURITY.

V.A MEMENTO OF OBLIGATION.

1. To remember that ye are not your own.

2. To profess openly.

3. Faithfully to discharge functions.

4. To the exercise of unvarying trust.

5. To be holy.

(Preacher's Portfolio.)

1. Because it is the most ideal, for the ideal is the highest.

2. Because it most thoroughly expresses the various emotions of the human mind, and therefore has the widest reach over human life.

3. Because, like love, it is eternal.

I. WHAT KIND OF MUSIC IS BEST? Universal agreement on the subject is not to be expected, because the subject is so mixed up with questions of expediency, of taste, of knowledge. People have a right to expect that the canticles and hymns shall be sung to music in which they can join, but devout people who can sing must be taught that, while spiritually alert, they must be vocally silent in many parts of Divine worship.

II. HOW CAN WE BEST SECURE THE BEST MUSIC FOR DIVINE WORSHIP? As to the voices, assuming that those of the men are sweet in quality, the success of a male choir may be said to depend on three things mainly: First, that the voices of the boys shall be properly trained, so that they produce a clear and flute-like tone. Secondly, that no music should be attempted which is beyond the ability of the choir to execute. Thirdly, that nothing be put on the programme until it is thoroughly rehearsed and well known. Then let everything be done "decently and in order." Then will our Church music be a real help to devotion. Hearts will be uplifted, voices upraised. Then will our sacred songs be as the echo of the angelic songs above, and God will be glorified.

(J. W. Shackelford, D. D.)

(G. Kingsley.)

(Fred. Brooks.)

2. Continued freshness will characterise the song of heaven. The sweetest strains lose more or less of their freshness by constant repetition.

3. Further, the music of heaven shall give rise to new emotions. In the life of the celebrated composer Handel it is stated that upon being asked how he felt when composing "the Hallelujah Chorus," he replied, "I did think I did see all heaven before me, and the great God Himself." And it is said that a friend called upon him when he was in the act of setting to music the pathetic words, "He was despised and rejected of men," and found him absolutely sobbing. What will be the emotions of joy and gratitude which will be experienced when all the redeemed, gathered out of every nation, and kindred and tongue shall unite as with one heart and one voice, and sing "the song of Moses and of the Lamb"?

4. And then unlike the songs of earth, "the new song" shall never be interrupted. Sin, sorrow, death, are all unknown there! The song of heaven shall be an eternal song, and the strains of the music of the heavenly harpers shall flow on for evermore! Have you the prospect of joining the heavenly throng?

(S. D. Hillman.)

II. But another and higher sense remains, in which it would seem that the song of heaven is called a "new song," arising from the fact that this heavenly freedom which is sung, does not end in ourselves, in our freedom or holiness or joy, but ends in Christ, and in the Divine will in which dwells this pure and mighty power of the soul's deliverance from evil.

(J. M. Hoppin.)

II. THEIR PLACE. "Before the throne."

1. It is the place of glorious vision.

2. It is the place of eternal security. Day is there, never succeeded by night. There is quiet, unbroken by alarm: the gates of the city are not shut by day or night. There is life, never to be quenched in death. For ever does the river flow from under the throne, and the tree of life feels no winter.

III. THE REPRESENTED ACTION.

1. "They sang." Powerful emotions of joy seek for outward expression. This is one of the laws of our very nature. The expression will be suitable to the emotion. Grief pours forth its wailings; joy is heard in the modulations of verse, and the sweet swells and cadences of music.

2. They sang "a new song." Every deliverance experienced by the saints of God calls for a new song: How much more, therefore, this, the final deliverance from earth! Their song is new, as demanded by new blessings. John saw before the throne "a Lamb, as it had been newly slain." The phrase intimates that blessings for ever new will flow from the virtue of His atonement, and the manifestation of the Divine perfections by Him. Nor shall the song be new as to individuals only, but as to the whole glorified Church.

3. They sang it "before the throne." The glorious fruit of "the travail of His soul."

IV. THE PECULIARITY OF THEIR EMPLOYMENT. "No man could learn that song." Not so much to the sound, the music, of the song, as to its subject, does this language refer; and such subjects only can be turned into song, as dwell in the very spirits of the redeemed.

1. There are remembered subjects. The redeemed from earth recollect the hour when light broke In on their darkness.

2. There are present subjects.

(R. Watson.)

(C. A. Bartol.)

(James Kidd, B.A.)

(T. G. Selby.)

II. REDEMPTION IS THE CONDITION OF HIS TRAINING. "Those who were redeemed from the earth. The redemption here referred to is evidently that procured by the system of Christ (Revelation 5:9). The training requires something more than education; it needs emancipation — the delivering of the soul from certain feelings and forces incompatible with holiness — a deliverance from the guilt and power of evil. The grand characteristic of Christianity is, that it is a power "to redeem from all evil."

III. THE EARTH IS THE SCENE OF HIS TRAINING. "Redeemed from the earth." The brightest fact in the history of the dark world is, that it is a redemptive scene. Amidst all the clouds and storms of depravity and sorrow that sweep over our path, this fact rises up before us as a bright orb that shall one day dispel all gloom and hush all tumult. Thank God, this is not a retributive, but a redemptive scene. But it should be remembered that it is not only a redemptive scene, but the only redemptive scene.

(Homilist.)

1. First, they never were redeemed. from sins. Standing in the light of heaven, they know nothing about the joy of rescue. Having sailed for ages on the smooth seas of heaven, they know nothing about the joy of clambering out from the eternal shipwreck. Beautiful and triumphant song, but they cannot sing it. It is to them an eternal impossibility.

2. Again, these unfallen spirits of heaven cannot mingle in that anthem because they do not know what it is to be comforted in suffering. You sometimes find a pianist who has been through all the schools, and has his diploma; but there seems to be no feeling in his playing. You say: "What's the matter with that musician?" Why, I will tell you: he has never had any trouble. But after he has lost children, or been thrust into sickness, then he begins to pour out the deep emotion of his own soul into the instrument, and all hearts respond to it. So, I suppose that our sorrows here will be somewhat preparative for the heavenly accord. It will not be a cold artistic trill, but a chant struck through with all the tenderness of this world's sufferings.

3. Again, I remark that the unfallen spirits of heaven cannot join in the anthem of grace in heaven, because they never were helped to die. Death is a tremendous pass. Do you not suppose when we get through that dark pass of death, we are going to feel gratitude to Christ, and that we will have a glorious anthem of praise to sing to Him? But what will those unfallen spirits of heaven do with such a song as that? They never felt the death shudder. They never heard the moan of the dismal sea. But you say: "That makes only a half and half heaven; so many of these spirits will be silent." Oh, there will be anthems in which all the hosts of heaven can join. The fact that there will be a hundred and forty and four thousand, as stated in the text, intimates that there will be a vast congregation participating. That song is getting sweeter and louder all the time. Some of our friends have gone up and joined in it. If our hearing were only good enough, we would hear their sweet voices rippling on the night air.

(T. De Witt Talmage.)

(W. Milligan, D. D.)

1. First, notice their adherence to the doctrine of sacrifice while they are here: "These are they which follow the Lamb."

2. And, next, it is clear of these people that they followed the Lamb by practically imitating Christ's example, for it is written, "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth." Try to put your feet down in the footprints that He has left you. Do aim at complete conformity to Christ; and wherein you fail, mark that.

3. Now, notice in the sketch of these people that they recognised a special redemption: "These were redeemed from among men." Christ had done something for them that He had not done for others.

4. And as they recognized a special redemption, they made a full surrender of themselves to God and to the Lamb: "These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb." If you are the firstfruits unto God, be so; if you belong to yourself, serve yourself; but if, by the redemption of Christ, you are not your own, but bought with a price, then live as those who are the King's own, who must serve God, and cannot be content unless their every action shall tend to the Divine glory, and to the magnifying of Christ Jesus.

5. These people who are to be with Christ, the nearest to Him, are a people free from falsehood. "In their mouth was found no guile." If we profess to be Christians, we must have done with all craft, policy, double-dealing, and the like. The Christian man should be a plain man, who says what he means, and means what he says.

6. And then, once more, it is said that they are free from blemish; "they are without fault before the throne of God."

II. A GLIMPSE OF THE PERFECT PICTURE IN HEAVEN.

1. Well, first, those who are with Christ enjoy perfect fellowship with Him. Up there, they "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth." They are always with Him.

2. Well, now, notice in this complete picture, next, that up there they are perfectly accepted with God: "These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb." God always accepts them; He always looks upon them as His firstfruits, bought with His Son's blood, and brought by His Son into His heavenly temple, to be His for ever. Sometimes here we mar our service; but they never mar it there.

3. Observe, also, that they have perfect truth there in heart and soul: " In their mouth was found no guile." "No lie," says the Revised Version. Here, we do fail into error inadvertently, and sometimes, I fear me, negligently.

4. One more feature of that perfect picture is this, they enjoy perfect sinlessness before God: "They are without fault before the throne of God."

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

1. To follow Jesus is to maintain a visible profession of His religion. Are we doing this, or are we halting and hesitating? Is our character uniform, or are we religious and the contrary just as serves our convenience, and meets the wishes of our associates?

2. To follow Jesus is to receive Him as a Saviour. This implies the subjection of the soul to Him.

3. To follow Jesus is to listen to Him as a teacher. A scholar follows his master; he respects his authority.

4. To follow Jesus is to obey Him as a Sovereign.

5. To follow Jesus is to imitate Him as an example.

II. What there is in such persons REMARKABLE; or why our attention should be so particularly directed to them: "These are they."

1. We see in them the favourites of heaven. The Lord loves them; He honours them; He delights to bless them, and to do them good.

2. We see in them the monuments of Divine mercy. "These are they" whom God hath called out of darkness into His marvellous light.

3. They are the most honourable characters on the face of the earth. Honourable in reality, not in appearance; in the sight of angels and of God, not perhaps in the judgment of men.

4. They are the most happy persons in times of difficulty and trial. These enter into the spirit and life of religion: they taste its comfort, they prove its real enjoyment.

5. They are the instruments of the Redeemer's glory. "All Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them"; glorified in their faith, their patience, their hope, but especially in their holy and active obedience.

6. They will be the inhabitants of a better world, the companions of Christ in His kingdom.In that upper world they still follow Him, but without the least reluctance, without the most distant feeling of languor. Reflections:

1. Are we the followers of Jesus?

2. What cause have we all to lament our carelessness and cowardice in religious concerns!

3. Let us rise to greater vigour in the ways of the Lord, and be unreservedly devoted to Him.

(T. Kidd.)

II. In devotion to Christ, we find THE TRUE JOY OF LIFE.

III. In following Christ is revealed to us THE TRUE END OF LIFE.

(R. Forgan, B. D.)

II. WHY they follow the Lamb. Because they are redeemed by His blood — enlightened by Him — loving Him — possessing His spirit, etc.

III. THE EXCELLENCY of following the Lamb. They have His presence — shall know His mind — may come boldly to Him — shall be protected by Him, etc.

IV. HOW THEY MAY BE KNOWN who follow the Lamb. By their character — spirit — name — graces — associates — language.

(W. Dyer.)

I. IT IS PROBABLE THAT THERE ARE FEW, IF ANY, AMONGST YOU WHO DO NOT HOLD WHAT CALLED THE MAIN TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL. Complete unbelief is yet a rare thing amongst us. But if we go a little further and inquire to what the acceptance of the Christian Faith on the part of the multitude amounts, it will be found that their belief is but vague and general, that a vast element of scepticism mingles with their faith. To a certain extent, and to a certain extent only, do they follow the leading of Christ. Whilst He speaks of that which is easy of apprehension, which accords with the natural instinct, or is of palpable utility, they attend Him closely. Lo! He tells of meekness, and purity, and uprightness, and charity; they go heartily along with Him. He warns of a judgment to come, by which the inequalities of this earthly life shall be adjusted; this squares with the conclusion of human intellect and is cordially received. But when He would lead them further, to the acceptance of truths which cannot be demonstrated, which to some extent, at any rate, must be believed on the witness of others, they recoil. Thus the duty and expediency of public worship is admitted. It is a national acknowledgment of duty, an instrument of Christian instruction; but to partake of the Blessed Sacrament involves the admission of certain supernatural powers still operating among us, and forthwith the great congregation dwindles to a scanty company. Nay, is not this sort of feeling on the increase? Just as there have been those who would not neglect prayer, though abstaining from Holy Communion; so, because prayer involves the .present action of God, we are now hearing of men refusing to pray, and reducing religion yet further to the hearing and acting out moral lessons. Thus, while the guidance of the Lamb conducts to the knowledge of what is within the grasp of human reason, men are well pleased to wait upon His steps; but no sooner does He move, as it were, out of the open country, and pass onward into the narrower defiles of a land on which rest clouds and darkness, and there is nothing to guide save His footfall, than their steps halt. They follow Him not whithersoever He goeth.

II. But we would not confine the application of the text to the case of doctrine; IT MAY WELL BE EXTENDED TO THAT OF PRACTICE ALSO. There is no more sad spectacle than that of a man whose conduct falls short of his convictions. He can admire the nobility of character, the self-devotion, the unworldliness of the saints of God; he is acute enough to perceive that the doctrines which theoretically he has accepted do, if fairly worked out, lead to a higher line of life; but, withal, he shrinks from pursuing it. He foresees how much must be surrendered, how many difficulties must be encountered, how few, perhaps, will appreciate him when all is done; and so he continues to live on a commonplace life of coldness and self-indulgence, with high principles and low practice — a splendid ideal, but no personal approach to it. "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth!" How do they stand out, those saintly ones, in sharpest contrast with the half-obedience of ordinary Christians! Once having embraced the faith, theirs was the firm, unflinching tread of men prepared to resign all, to lose all. Through evil report and good report, through honour and dishonour, they followed their Lord whithersoever He led. Whithersoever — to the snapping asunder of closest ties, to the abandonment of our cherished hopes. Whithersoever — to the restraint of the reasoning faculty, to the submission of private opinion, to the subjection of the will, to the quenching of the passions. Would to God we might only drink in a little of their temper! There is, it has been well said, a first superficial will in man which resents opposition, refuses chastisement, as the child puts from it the medicine draught. So even Jesus Christ prayed that the cup might pass from Him. There is a second, deliberative will in man, which is formed upon reflection, and which is, in fact, the real act of volition. By this Jesus Christ took the cup and drank it to the dregs. That, whatever our first impulse, this second truest will shall in all things acquiesce in what God speaks and does about us and for us, must be our effort; so only can we train ourselves here for following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth along the infinite windings of the Everlasting Hills.

(Bp. Woodford.)

I. WHAT THESE ARE NOT.

1. They are not all the saved. The very word indicates that there is much more to follow. They are but the beginning. Nor —

2. Are these firstfruits the mass of the saved. True, a large number is named; but what is that compared with the "great multitude that no man can number, out of every," etc.

II. WHAT THEY ARE. The word "firstfruits " teaches us that these thus named are —

1. The pledge of all the rest. Thus Christ has "become the Firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Corinthians 15:20). And so the natural firstfruits of corn guaranteed the rest of the harvest. For the same sun, and all other nurturing forces which had ripened the firstfruits, were there ready to do the same kindly office for all the rest. And so we are told, "The Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." The same power is present for both the first and after fruits.

2. The pattern and representative of all the rest. Compare the first and after fruits. In the main they were alike, and so in the spiritual world also. But —

3. The firstfruits were pre-eminent over the rest. They were specially presented to God, and held in honour; so was it with the natural grain. But, without question, there is pre-eminence implied in being the firstfruits of the heavenly harvest.(1) In time. Theirs is "the first resurrection," of which we read in chap. Revelation 20. "The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years," etc. (chap. 20.).(2) In honour. St. Paul called it "the prize of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus." And our Lord tells us that there is a "first" and "last" in the kingdom of heaven; "a least" and "a greatest." "One star differeth from another star in glory." There is "an entrance administered abundantly," and there is a "being saved so as by fire."(3) In service. That they were pre-eminent here, who that knows their history on earth, or reads even this book, will question?(4) In character. See how they are described as to their spiritual purity, their unreserved consecration, their separateness from the world, their guilelessness and freedom from all deceit.(5) In the approval of God. Of them it is written, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection" (chap. Revelation 20.).

4. They are the elect of God. In another part of this book they are spoken of as "the called, and chosen, and faithful." All are not firstfruits, greatest, first, in the kingdom of heaven. The very words imply order, gradation, rank. But it is for us to take heed as to —

III. WHAT WE SHOULD STRIVE TO BE.

(S. Conway, B. A.)

(W. Milligan, D. D.)

II. THE INSTRUMENTALITY EMPLOYED, "the everlasting gospel." This was the book the Mission Angel held in his hand. It may seem to proud reason a poor weapon with which to effect the moral conquest of the world. And more especially when that gospel is proclaimed, not by angels, but by feeble men. "But the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." It seems to be a law or distinguishing feature in His government of the world that the mightiest ends are effected by the simplest and often unlikeliest means; that results are brought about by agencies and instrumentalities in themselves apparently inadequate to produce them. Look at His providential dealings as these are recorded in the page of Scripture. It was the sling of a shepherd-boy and a few pebbles from the brook which brought to the dust the giant of Philistia. Twelve humble fishermen from Tiberias' shores (1 Corinthians 1:27, 28, 29). And, powerful in the past, the same moral and spiritual forces are still to be mighty for the pulling down of heathen strongholds. Countless Dagons are to fall before this Ark of God. And who can fail to admire the wondrous adaptation of that everlasting gospel to all characters, and ages, and times! The vision of the text, moreover, tells us it is destined, on a yet vaster scale, to vindicate its title to be "the power of God unto salvation" unto the very ends of the earth — the grand fulcrum and lever in one which is to elevate degraded humanity.

III. THE EXTENT OF THE COMMISSION: "To preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people."

(J. R. Macduff, D. D.)

1. The heathen have lost the knowledge of God. We may infer the greatness of this loss from the fact that the knowledge of God is the only foundation of religion. But how can this knowledge be restored? It is only taught by three volumes — Nature, Providence, and Revelation. But Nature and Providence never taught this knowledge without the comment of Revelation. Nothing restores the lost knowledge of God but the gospel.

2. They are without the knowledge of their sinful state.

3. They are without the knowledge of acceptance and pardon through the true Mediator.

II. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS MINISTRY.

1. It is the ministry of men. The term "angel" is not a designation of nature, but of office; ministers are called angels in Holy Scripture. The ministry of the gospel is exercised by men, that they may not only teach doctrine, but be the witnesses of what they teach.

2. It is an authorised ministry. An "angel" is a messenger, and a messenger must be sent. The command of the Lord is, "Go ye into all the world," etc.

3. It is an open and undisguised ministry. St. Paul gloried in using "great plainness of speech." There is nothing in Christianity that requires concealment.

4. It is a zealous and successful ministry. The attitude of "flying," in which the angel is placed before us in the text, denotes zeal and activity; an eagerness to deliver the message, and to carry it into the remotest regions. And, thank God, we have such a ministry in progress. It has met with difficulties, and future difficulties await it, yet it is pressing onward.

III. ITS EXTENSIVE COMMISSION. It is sent to "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people."

1. The gospel is equally needed by all nations, and equally adapted to all.

2. There is an essential difference between the Jewish and Christian dispensations. The Jewish dispensation was restricted to one nation and period; the Christian dispensation is universal, embracing all the different tribes of men, and extending to the end of time.

3. The extensive commission recorded in the text is the foundation of universal philanthropy.

4. It gives noble and expanded views to Christians. Study and understand your own religion. It is not one amongst many modifications of human opinion. It is from God, and it is intended by Him, like Aaron's rod, to swallow up every other.

IV. THE SPECIFIC OBJECTS OF THE ANGEL'S MINISTRY.

1. The angel cries out, "Fear Him." The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the source and guard of virtue. But the heathen are without it. They have religious fear, but not the fear of God. The fear of God is a mixture of awe and love.

2. To establish His worship. This is another effect of the promulgation of the gospel. Instead of idols, to place the true God in His temples. Instead of polluting orgies, to teach men to wash their hands in innocency, and thus to encompass God's altar. Instead of vain mediators, to have the name of Jesus in which to trust.

3. To claim for God His revenue of praise and glory.Lessons:

1. Behold, then, a glorious object of contemplation — the progress of the angel in the midst of heaven.

2. It depends on you to speed or delay the angel.

3. Let it not discourage us, that the world maybe tossed and troubled.

(R. Watson.)

1. A gospel-message of Divine love.

2. An ever-enduring gospel.

(1)Because its elementary truths are absolute.

(2)Because its redemptive provisions are complete.

3. A world-wide gospel.

(1)A necessity to all mankind.

(2)Equal to all mankind.

II. HIS MOVEMENTS ARE EXPEDITIOUS.

1. The message is urgent.

2. The time is short.

3. Life is uncertain.

III. HIS SPHERE IS ELEVATED. It is the characteristic of all truly regenerated men that they are not of the flesh, but of the Spirit; that they set their affections on things above; that though in the world, they are not of the world; that they live in heavenly places.

(Homilist.)

1. The gospel in itself is good. It is at once the mirror and the medium of eternal good.

2. The gospel in its ministry is good. It comes from heaven, and is conveyed by heavenly messengers to men.

3. The gospel in its universality is good. It overleaps all geographic boundaries, all tribal, linguistic distinctions, and addresses man as man.

4. The gospel in its purpose is good. Its supreme aim is to induce all men to worship Him who made heaven, earth, and sea.

II. THE DESTRUCTION OF EVIL.

1. This aggregation of evil must fall. Faith is to overcome the world.

2. This aggregation of evil falls as the good advances.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

II. THE MANNER IN WHICH THAT COMMISSION IS TO BE EXECUTED.

1. By calling sinners to repentance.

2. By directing them to Christ.

3. By warning them of a future judgment.

(C. Clayton, M. A.)

2. The gospel, in its comprehension or extent, includes heaven and earth. The flying angel unites the two, and shows in clear and bold figure the celestial origin of the gospel. It is no growth of the darkened earth — no high stage of a merely natural development — no offspring of civilisation. Heaven and earth are made one again in the gospel.

3. The gospel, in its history, advances from the deepest obscurity to the highest prominence.

4. The gospel, in its design, unites the particular and the universal.

5. The gospel, in its spirit, unites the purest mercy with the most perfect justice.

I. A STATEMENT OF THE GOSPEL.

1. Its originality. That is original which is the first of its kind, and stands alone. Absolute originality is to be found in God alone; for the Divine mind alone has the power of pure creation. The gospel is original, whether we view it as emanating from God, as a series of facts in human history, or as a new life in man — that is, whether we view it as a creation of God the Father, of God the Son, or of God the Holy Ghost.

2. Its acceptability lies in this — that it satisfies the demands of an honest and earnest mind. Is proof required that the Word of God, as a historical and literary production, is what it claims to be? It possesses more evidence on this point than any other book. But the point in respect of which the gospel is most widely and warmly accepted is that it satisfies the heart and conscience.

II. HOW THE GOSPEL IS EVERLASTING. We may here take the two aspects under which we have just considered the gospel, and show how the epithet everlasting applies to each — how it is for ever original or new, and how it is for ever good or acceptable.

1. The gospel is everlasting in its originality. The word new has two meanings, not only different, but apparently opposed to each other, which yet, taken together, give all the more complete an idea of the gospel. We call that new which is the first of its kind; we also call that new which is the last or latest of its kind. The gospel is the first and last system of truth, the oldest and the newest thought of God. It is everlasting, although new. Other new things soon lose their freshness, wither, and grow old; but it remains ever new, full of the life of God, fresh as the morning of creation. It continues new by ever growing newer — ever leading us deeper into its source in God.

2. The gospel is everlasting in its acceptability. We do not grow insensible to its influence through repeated experience of its power. The more we come into living contact with it, the more do we see its beauty and profundity — the more do we see that its meaning and charm are quite inexhaustible.

(F. Ferguson.)

2. It is the everlasting gospel because it emanates from the everlasting God.

3. The everlasting gospel because it is based upon the everlasting covenant.

4. The everlasting gospel because it guarantees to us everlasting life, the life of communion; the life of knowledge, of entering more and more into the mind of God, and drawing our whole life's power from Him, the Lord our God.

5. The everlasting gospel because it is sure to bring to us everlasting joy.

(E. A. Stuart, M. A.)

II. THE TITLE WHICH THE SPIRIT OF GOD HERE GIVES IT. It is called in our text "the everlasting gospel."

1. It is called the everlasting gospel because the substance of it was settled in eternity by the triune Jehovah, in the counsel and in the covenant of peace. It is the revelation of the eternal purpose of God.

2. It is called the "everlasting gospel" because, in spite of all the opposition that has been offered to it, it has continued still to be preached, and it will always so continue.

3. Another reason is because, amidst all the changes to which this sublunary state is subject, the gospel alone is unchangeable, and alone affords a safe and solid foundation, on which the people of God can rest.

4. Once more, it is called "the everlasting gospel," because all its promises "are yea and amen in Christ Jesus," and never can be revoked.

III. THE INSTRUMENTALITY EMPLOYED IN ITS PROMULGATION.

IV. THE PREDICTED TRIUMPHS OF THE GOSPEL.

(R. Shutte, M. A.)

I. ITS UNIVERSAL MESSAGE. The reason why so many gospels have been doomed to become gospels of yesterday has been because they have addressed themselves to what is transient or partial in human nature, and not to what is permanent and universal. Men have been hailed as saviours of society because they have been able to give relief from a need pressing at some particular time, or because their doctrines have fallen in with some passing phase of popular sentiment. But the glory of Christianity is that its teaching is addressed to what is most characteristic in human nature and absolutely the same in all members of the human race, whether they be rich or poor, whether they inhabit the one hemisphere or the other, and whether they live in ancient or modern times. You have only to glance at the most outstanding words of the gospel to see this. Take, for example, the word soul. This word was in the very forefront of the teaching of Jesus. Jesus went down to the child, the beggar, the harlot — the weakest and most despised members of the human family; and when He was able to find even in them this infinitely precious thing, it was manifest that He had discovered the secret of a universal religion; because, if this existed even in the lowest, then it existed in all. Or take another great word of the message of the gospel: take the word sin. This word also is borne on the forefront of Christianity, and how universal is the response which it finds in the heart of man! Not to multiply illustrations too much, take only one more — the word eternity. This is also a word which the gospel carries on its very front. It speaks of it wherever it goes. Christ brought life and immortality to light by the gospel; He spoke of the objects of the world invisible as one who had lived among them; and He spoke to men of a home of many mansions to which they were to aspire. Now, this message strikes a chord in every human heart.

II. ITS PARTICULAR MESSAGE. The great things in human nature are, as I have said, common to all; yet human nature is never precisely the same in any two specimens. There were never in this world even two faces absolutely alike; and much less are the minds ever precisely alike which lie behind the faces. The gifts of nature, such as beauty, strength, ability, genius, are distributed in ever-varying proportions, and the various circumstances in which people grow up emphasise the natural differences. Some are born to wealth, others to poverty; the gifts of some are improved by education, the genius of others is buried beneath the hard conditions of adversity. What a difference it makes in the fate of a human being whether he is born in the heart of Africa or in the capital of England! But the gospel has a message for this difference in each specimen of human nature, and for each quarter of the globe and each age of the world, as well as for that which is common to all. God has a special message for every age. His gospel has a word in season for every condition of life — for the little child, and the young man in his prime, and for old age — a word for the multitude and a word for the few. The Chinese, when they accept the gospel, will find secrets in it which the British have never discovered; the twentieth century will discover phases of the Christian life which are lacking in the nineteenth. We have not exhausted Christ, and we have not exhausted the gospel of Christ.

(J. Stalker, D. D.)

I. THE GOSPEL HAS IN IT EVERY ELEMENT OF DURABILITY.

1. There are some enterprises, some houses of business so "safe," as you call them — so set for enduring — that even prudent men will count upon the future of them as if it were present. Such concerns are always conceived and conducted, you will find, on principles of wisdom — of wisdom that is calm and clear-sighted, fit to anticipate dangers and to provide for difficulties, so that surprise or loss is made as unlikely as may be. Such concerns, moreover, are usually built up slowly — grow firm as they grow great, and at every stage are solid all through to the heart. This element of durability belongs to the gospel. It took existence under a wisdom which was at once infinite in its range and eternal in its experience. The gospel was matured in sight of every difficulty and every danger it could ever meet. It has never shown the least kinship with things hasty, immature, unstable. It is built into the system of things, and is thus settled upon foundations that are too deep and broad to come within the power of any law of destruction or damage or change.

2. There is another important element of durability in the gospel. The Divine justice, it is evident — the eternal sense of what is morally due, and the eternal fulfilling of what is morally right — cannot afford to brook the least breath of contravention. Now, it is an eminent peculiarity of the gospel, that it stands in the most intimate harmony with justice. It is such, that whithersoever it goes supreme justice goes with it.

3. The gospel has still another element of durability. Purity is proof against decay; impurity is decay already begun. And the gospel is a holy thing. It sprang from holiness: it was framed upon holiness; it makes for holiness.

4. I will name only one thing more about the gospel which involves its enduringness. We count upon the success of an undertaking which has abundance of strength behind it. What project would we not reckon secure of a firm place in history if the flag of every nation were unfurled around it, and every heart was knit to every other in the resolve that it should prosper and last? But all our figures are poor when we bring them alongside of the fact concerning the strength which girds this gospel. It is the gospel of the Omnipotent. But is His gospel then omnipotent? Virtually it is.

II. The gospel may be called "eternal" because DURATION HITHERTO HAS BEEN SO FULL OF IT. The material universe, we have come to know, is stupendously great. Thought wearies itself in a wilderness of world-systems; and when our glasses have carried our vision farthest into the teeming depths of space, we more than conjecture that we have only been gazing around the horizon-line of an ocean of Divine handiwork. Yet, in the minds of those to whom both are equally known, the gospel bulks larger than this universe that is so nearly infinite. We catch stray echoes of the converse of mightier intelligences than time can hold — of beings who know creation with a knowledge which dwarfs all our science into the knowledge of children; and for once that they are thinking of God's creation they are ten times thinking of God's salvation. And this, we may assure ourselves, does no more than reflect the thought of the adorable Creator. The Lord of the gospel is the Lord of creation, and He is the Lord of creation as the Lord of the gospel — this actually now, and this potentially from "before the world began." This gospel would seem to be the oldest thing we know. For it has the look of being more than an eternal thought of the Divine mind, and more than an eternal purpose of the Divine will; it wears an appearance of completeness, of maturity, of readiness, of actuality almost; it has gotten a prerogative of making a place for itself among eternal things, and of casting its own influence into the whole current of the immeasurable past. We listen on this sea-board of time, and the sound which reaches us out of the shoreless eternity is a gospel-sound. We are hearing the far-coming murmur of "an eternal gospel."

III. The gospel may be spoken of as " eternal" because IT WILL ALWAYS BE WHAT IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN. No change is to be detected in its character or its contents through all the changes that have come to pass in its condition and its circumstances. It has not even developed, save in manifestation and in the spread of its influence among men. What, then, of the future? What of the coming generations of the history of the gospel in the world? These may see more of change than even the past generations have seen. Shall the gospel itself be touched with change? The Scriptures, which hold the revelation of it from the beginning, may come to be beheld in a light so searching, that venerable beliefs as to their formation may be universally modified. Meanwhile the gospel will stand as it has never but stood; and the total result of all new light, of all new movement, will be the more full and luminous display of what those tidings are which abide for ever. And is it so? Shall this gospel which we so poorly preach, and which men are so slow to hear — shall it be to some of us our theme, our motive, our inspiration, the breath of our life, when the first ages of redemption have gone far into the past? Still new? — and still the same? Even so. The same Saviour, the same great kinship to Him, the same clearing of the dark past, the same upward road to spiritual health and power, the same "everlasting righteousness," the same mercy, the same love, the same peace and joy made up to eternal measure — this, with deepening knowledge of what it all means, and ever-gathering enrichment from what it all infolds, will the gospel of Jesus Christ continue to be as long as eternity continues I

IV. The gospel may be called "eternal," IN CONTRAST TO SO MUCH THAT IS ASSOCIATED WITH IT IN THE WORLD. Is there anything at all in the world that is unshifting and sure? We think little about the uncertainty of things, because we know so little else. Yet it would be a luxury, we imagine, to be able to fix our thought, not to say our hope or our love, upon something which will not catch the general infection of things as it gets into treacherous motion, or slips our grasp, or vanishes, leaving us to soothe as we can our aching hearts. It is this gospel. It is what brings us to the friendly stability of God as a personal and present and settled possession. For the good tidings, from generation to generation, from man to man, from experience to experience, abides the same enriching, comforting, rectifying thing, unable to disappoint or deceive.

(J. A. Kerr Bain, M. A)

1. Of God's free love.

2. Of God's great gift.

3. Of God's propitiation for sin.

4. Of God's righteousness.

5. Of God's kingdom.

II. THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL.

(H. Bonar, D. D.)

III. Because it meets the universal wants of man.

IV. Because it possesses immortal youth.

V. Because it is ever gaining fresh empire and renown.

VI. Because its author has risen and reigns for ever.

(F. W. Brown.)

2. But this mystery of unprovoked or disproportionate suffering may grow clearer to us as we consider that, in his eternal gospel, St. John includes not only present, but also future judgments. The angel is always proclaiming judgment, but he also proclaims "hours" of judgment, crises in which the whole story of a life, a race, or an age, is summed up, and finally adjusted by an unerring standard. Such an hour was then at hand. Such an hour is never far off from any one of us. No fact, no truth, proclaimed by Christ and by His angels or messengers, has been invested with more awful terrors than this of the last judgment — the last, or at least the last for us, the judgment which closes this earthly span. And, to flesh and blood, it must always be full of terror. And yet there are considerations which may well abate our surprise. For, with all his fear of judgment, there is a deep craving for justice in every man's heart, and a profound conviction that, in some respects at least, he has never had it, or never had it to the full. His neighbours have wronged him. He has had to suffer for their folly, their extravagance, their crimes, their sins. His actions have been misrepresented, his motives misconstrued. Or circumstances have been against him, and he has never been able to get the culture he longed for and prized. Poverty, drudgery, grief, and care have exhausted him, leaving him no leisure and no force for pursuing the loftier aims of life. Or he has been unfortunate in the relationships he has formed, and found them a burden instead of a help. As you all know, there are men who, in a thousand different ways, have been crippled, hampered, thwarted, defeated in the race of life, who have never had a fair chance, whose hearts have been shaken and soured by the accidents and changes of time. And if to any of these sufferers from misfortune or injustice, sitting in darkness and asking, "What does it all mean?" you could say with conviction and authority, "It means that the end is not yet; but the end is coming. God will yet do you ample justice, redress all your wrongs, compensate you for all your losses, turn all your sorrows into joy, make you what you would be, and enable you to do and to get all you crave" — would not such a message be a true gospel to him? If he could believe it, would it not be to him as life from the dead? Would he be slow to give glory unto God? And is it not good news that when we pass from the hasty censures of a busy and careless, if not a cruel, world, we shall be weighed in finer scales and a truer balance? that our most inward and delicate motives will be taken into account, as well as the blundering actions which so ill expressed them by One who knows us altogether, and reads the thoughts and intents of the heart? Fear God, then, and give Him glory, for the hour of His judgment is coming and is nigh. You cannot help but fear Him, indeed, for His pure eyes must discern much evil in you which you have failed to detect; and at His bar you will have to answer for your injustice to your neighbours, for the wrongs you have done them, for your misconstructions of their characters, their actions, their motives. But, according to St. John, with fear or reverence we are to blend thanksgiving. According to him, retribution is a gospel as well as a law, and we are to give glory to God even as we advance toward His judgment-seat. How should either an apostle, or an angel, bid us bless God for the hour of judgment as for a gospel, if there were no mercy, no hope, no blessing in it?

3. This gospel is an eternal, or universal, gospel, a gospel for all ages, for all men. It is proclaimed unto "every nation, and tribe, and tongue and people." And here, surely, we may find a theme for praise. The world is full of injustice, full of misery. And as you think of these common events, events as common in every other circle as in your own, what a gospel is this which the angel, flying in mid-heaven, proclaims with a great voice: "This world is not all. It is not the end, but only the beginning; and the beginnings of life are always obscure and mysterious. The hour of judgment is coming, in which the mystery will be explained and vindicated; in which God will redress every wrong, compensate every loss." Take the world as it is, cut it off from the great astronomical system of which it forms part, and it is a mystery which none can fathom. And take human life as it is, as a story without a sequel, and you can only give it up as aa insoluble problem, a mighty maze without a plan. But listen to this gospel of retribution, connect this world with the world, or worlds, in heaven, regard the present life as an introduction to, a discipline for, a larger, happier life to come, and your burden is eased; the problem becomes capable of a happy solution. If you must still fear God, you can also give Him glory because the hour of His judgment is coming, the hour at which He will gather the whole world under His rule, and all nations and tribes, and tongues and peoples, shall become His people and know Him for their God. That this law of retribution has another aspect, that the justice of God must be full of terror for as many as cleave to their sins and will not let them go, none of us are likely to forget.

(S. Cox, D. D.)

(Bp. Boyd Carpenter.)

1. The prostitution of the soul to wrong is an alarming crime.

2. The prostitution of the soul to wrong always incurs lamentable suffering. The metaphors here are borrowed from the sacred books of the Hebrew people, and they convey the idea of suffering of an alarming kind, suggesting —(1) A consciousness of Divine antagonism. "Wine of the wrath of God." In the sense of malignant passion there is no wrath in Him who is love. But it is a psychological fact that the man who suffers because he has done another an injury, has a consciousness that the one he has offended is angry with him, and this consciousness is the chief element in his suffering.(2) A sense of intense agony. "Shall be tormented with fire and brimstone." Brimstone adds intensity to the heat and fury to the flames of fire. "My punishment is greater than I can bear," said Cain. A guilty conscience has its Tartarus or Gehenna within itself.(3) A state of constant restlessness. "They have no rest day nor (and) night." There is no rest in sin. "The wicked are like the troubled sea."

II. SOUL LOYALTY. "Here is the patience of the saints." What is patience? It is not insensibility. Some people are lauded for their patience who should be denounced for their stoicism and indifference. Patience implies at least two things.(1) The existence of trials. Patience lives only in difficulty and danger, in storms and tempests.(2) The highest mental power. Man's highest power of mind is seen not in unsurpassed mechanical inventions, or the sublimest productions of art, not in the most baffling and confounding strategies of bloody war, but in the successful effort to govern all the impulses and master all the boisterous passions of the human soul.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

1. Scripture gives no countenance to this absurd opinion, that the wicked shall have no part in resurrection and judgment (Romans 3:4, 5; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 20:12, 13, 15; John 5:28, 29).

2. Scripture clearly affirms that the punishment of the damned shall not consist of annihilation, but of real and sensible pain (Matthew 26:24; Matthew 11:24). Scripture-images of hell, which are many, will not allow us to confine future punishment to annihilation. It is a worm, a fire, a darkness; they are chains — weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

3. It appears by Scripture that future punishment will be eternal (Matthew 25:41; Mark 9:44; Matthew 18:8; Revelation 20:10).

II. IF THE DOCTRINE OF ETERNAL PUNISHMENT IMPLY A CONTRADICTION, IT MUST EITHER REGARD MAN, THE SUFFERER OF THE PAIN, OR GOD, WHO THREATENS TO INFLICT IT.

1. The nature of man hath nothing incongruous with that degree and duration of punishment of which we speak.

2. Let us attend now to objections taken from the nature of God. A man, who opposeth our doctrine, reasons in this manner. Which way soever I consider a Being supremely perfect, I cannot persuade myself that He will expose His creatures to eternal torments. All His perfections secure me from such terrors as this doctrine seems to inspire. In short, when I consider God under the idea of an equitable legislator, I cannot comprehend how sins committed in a finite period can deserve an infinite punishment.(1) Observe this general truth. It is not probable God would threaten mankind with a punishment, the infliction of which would be incompatible with His perfections.(2) Take each part of the objection drawn from the attributes of God, and said to destroy our doctrine, and consider it separately. The argument taken from the liberty of God would carry us from error to error, and from one absurdity to another. For, if God be free to relax any part of the punishment denounced, He is equally free to relax the whole. The difficulty taken from the goodness of God vanisheth when we rectify popular notions of this excellence of the Divine nature. Goodness in men is a virtue of constitution which makes them suffer when they see their fellow creatures in misery, and which excites them to relieve them. In God it is a perfection independent in its origin, free in its execution, and always restrained by laws of inviolable equity and exact severity. Justice is not incompatible with eternal punishment. It is not to be granted that a sin committed in a limited time ought not to be punished through an infinite duration. It is not the length of time employed in committing a crime that determines the degree and the duration of its punishment, it is the turpitude and atrociousness of it. The justice of God, far from opposing the punishment of the impenitent, requires it. Were we to examine in this manner each part of the objection opposed against our doctrine, we should open a second source of solutions to answer it.(3) The doctrine of degrees of punishment affords us a third. There is an extreme difference between a heathen and a Jew; there is an extreme distance between a Jew and a Christian; and a greater still between a Christian and a heathen. The gospel-rule is, "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." Take this principle which Scripture establisheth in the clearest manner; press home all its consequences; extend it as far as it can be carried; give scope even to your imagination till the punishments which such and such persons suffer in hell are reduced to a degree that may serve to solve the difficulty of the doctrine of their eternity; whatever system ye adopt on this article, I will even venture to say whatever difficulty ye may meet with in following it, it will be always more reasonable, I think, to make of one doctrine clearly revealed a clue to guide through the difficulties of another doctrine clearly revealed too, than rashly to deny the formal decisions of Scripture. I mean to say, it would be more rational to stretch the doctrine of degrees too far, if I may venture to speak so, than to deny that of their eternity.(4) The fourth source of solutions is a maxim from which a divine ought never to depart, and which we wish particularly to inculcate among those who extend the operations of reason too far in matters of religion. Our maxim is this. We know, indeed, in general, what are the attributes of God, but we are extremely ignorant of their sphere, we cannot determine how far they extend. We know, in general, God is free, He is just, He is merciful. But we are too ignorant to determine how far these perfections must go, because the infinity of them absorbs the capacity of our minds. Apply this to our subject. The idea of hell seems to you repugnant to the attributes of God, you cannot comprehend how a just God can punish finite sins with infinite pain; how a merciful God can abandon His creature to eternal miseries. Your difficulties have some probability, I grant. Your reasons, I allow, seem well grounded. But dost thou remember the attributes of God are infinite? Remember, thy knowledge is finite. You think future punishment inconsistent with the attributes of God, but your notion of inconsistence ought to vanish at the appearance of Scripture-light.

III. OBSERVE THE QUALITY AND THE DURATION OF THE PUNISHMENTS OF HELL.

1. The quality of the punishments of hell is expressed in these terms — smoke, torment. These metaphorical terms include five ideas. Privation of heavenly happiness, sensation of pain, remorse of conscience, horror of society, increase of crime.

2. It remains only that we consider the length and duration of them. But by what means shall we describe these profound articles of contemplation? Can we number the innumerable and measure that which is beyond all mensuration? Can we make you comprehend the incomprehensible? And shall we amuse you with our imaginations?

(J. Saurin.)

(J. A. Alexander, D. D.)

1. The first is taken from their dedication God.

2. The second is derived from their personal renovation. The instruments under the law were only holy by appropriation. No change passed upon them. It is otherwise with us; we must be "made meet for the" great "Master's use." Hence regeneration is necessary.

II. ON THE CONNECTION THERE IS BETWEEN SAINTS AND PATIENCE.

1. Saints only have patience. A man may endure, and not be patient; there may be no religious principle or motive to influence him; it may be a careless indolence; a stupid insensibility; a kind of mechanical or constitutional fortitude; a daring stoutness of spirit resulting from fatalism, philosophy, or pride. Christian patience is another thing; it is derived from a Divine agency; it is nourished by heavenly truth; it is guided by Scriptural rules.

2. Every saint possesses patience. They do not indeed possess it in equal degrees. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit; it is an essential part of the Divine image restored in man.

3. It highly becomes saints to cultivate patience. "The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price." It ennobles the possessor. It recommends his religion. It carries along with it a peculiar conviction.

III. Some CASES in which the patience of the saints is to be rendered ILLUSTRIOUS and STRIKING.

1. It is to be displayed in bearing provocation. "It must needs be that offences will come." Our opinions, reputations, connections, offices, businesses, render us widely vulnerable.(1) His peace requires it. People love to sting the passionate.(2) His wisdom requires it. "He that is slow to anger is of great understanding; but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. Anger resteth in the bosom of fools."(3) His dignity requires it. "It is the glory of a man to pass by a transgression."(4) It is also required by examples the most worthy of our imitation.

2. Patience is to be displayed in suffering affliction.

3. Patience is to be exercised under delays.

(W. Jay.)

1. You will, of course, thoroughly understand it — the Apostles' Creed. You will take pains to do so.(1) You will know, then, its history, I mean the history of its actual form.(2) And, again, we should understand the substance of the creed. It is, indeed, little else than the gospel narrative thrown into a short form.

2. And, secondly, having this creed, pledged as we are to this creed, we should know not only its history, and its meaning, but we should know its value. It is, indeed, a most precious heritage. I might remind you of Mr. Keble's words, "Next to a sound rule of faith, there is nothing of so much consequence as a sober standard of feeling in practical religion, and it is the peculiar happiness of the Church of England to possess in her authorised formularies an ample and secure provision for both."

3. Last of all, we must regard our Christian creed as final. It is "the faith of Jesus," "the faith once delivered to the saints." It is the perpetual reiteration of St. Peter's early creed, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," and it must hold good for all time, till He shall come again "who is the faithful Witness and the First-begotten of the dead." "Here," around this creed of His universal Church, this creed which you and I profess, — "here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."

(Canon Gough.)

1. To die in the Lord is, in the first place, to die in the faith of the Lard; it is to renounce all hope of salvation founded on ourselves, on our works, on our pretended merits, and to cause our hopes to rest only on the merits of Christ, on the atonement accomplished by His blood.

2. To die in the Lord is also to die in the love of the Lord; it is to love Him Who loved us first, and that unto the Cross; it is to feel ourselves drawn to Him by an intimate and powerful affection; it is, when dying, to be able to say with St. Paul; "I have a desire to depart, and be with Christ, which is far better."

3. To die in the Lord is once more to die in obedience to the Lord. It is to die after having lived here below in imitation of Jesus Christ; after having purified ourselves as He also is pure; it is to have lived, I do not say in a state of perfect holiness, but at least in the constant desire of holiness, making continual efforts to reach it, and approaching it more and more.

4. In fine, and to say all in one single word, to die in the Lord is to die in communion with the Lord; it is to die, after having lived, dead to the world and to sin, with a life "hid with Christ in God."

(H. Monod.)

1. "Here is the patience of the saints." To be blessed when we die we must be saints. By nature we are sinners, and by grace we must become saints if we would enter heaven. Since death does not change character, we must be made saints here below if we are to be saints above. The word "saint" denotes not merely the pure in character, but those who are set apart unto God, dedicated ones, sanctified by being devoted to holy uses — by being, in fact, consecrated to God alone. Do you belong to God? Do you live to glorify Jesus? "But how am I to attain to holiness?" You cannot rise to it save by Divine strength. The Holy Spirit is the Sanctifier.

2. But the glorified are also described in our text as patient ones. "Here is the patience of the saints," or, if you choose to render it differently, you may lawfully do so — "Here is the endurance of the saints." Those who are to be crowned in heaven must bear the cross on earth. Ii we are to win the glory we must be faithful unto death. "Here is the patience of the saints"; it cometh not by nature; it is the gift of the grace of God.

3. Farther on these saints are described as "they that keep the commandments of God."

4. The next mark of the blessed dead is that they kept "the faith of Jesus." Do not waver in your belief, but keep the faith, lest ye be like some in old time, who "made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience," and were utterly cast away.

5. Notice that these people continue faithful till they die. For it is said, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Final perseverance is the crown of the Christian life.

6. Those who thus entered into rest exercised themselves in labours for Christ. For it is said, "They rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." The idle Christian can have little hope of a reward.

7. To close this description of character, these people who die in the Lord were in the Lord. That is the great point. They could not have died in the Lord if they had not lived in the Lord. But are we in the Lord? Is the Lord by faith in us?

II. THE BLESSEDNESS which is ascribed to those who dis in the Lord. "They rest from their labours."

1. By this is meant that the saints in heaven rest from such labours as they performed here. There we shall not teach the ignorant, or rebuke the erring, or comfort the desponding, or help the needy. There we cannot oppose the teacher of error, or do battle against the tempter of youth.

2. They rest from their labours in the sense that they are no longer subject to the toil of labour. Whatever they do in heaven will yield them refreshment, and never cause them weariness. As some birds are said to rest upon the wing, so do the saints find in holy activity their serenest repose.

3. They rest also from the woe of labour, for I find the word has been read by some "they rest from their wailing."

4. To the servant of the Lord it is very sweet to think that when we reach our heavenly home we shall rest from the faults of our labours. We shall make no mistakes there, never use too strong language or mistaken words, nor err in spirit, nor fail through excess or want of zeal. We shall rest from all that which grieves us in the retrospect of our service.

5. We shall there rest from the discouragements of our labour. There no cold-hearted brethren will damp our ardour, or accuse us of evil motives; no desponding brethren will warn us that we are rash when our faith is strong, and obstinate when our confidence is firm.

6. It will be a sweet thing to get away to heaven, I am sure, to rest from all contentions amongst our fellow Christians.

III. THE REWARD of the blessed dead. "They rest from labours, and their works do follow them." They do not go before them; they have a forerunner infinitely superior to their works, for Jesus and His finished work have led the way. Jesus goes before, works follow after. Note well, that the works are in existence and are mentioned; immortality and honour belong to them. No desire for another's good is wasted, God has heard it. A word spoken for Jesus, a mite cast into Christ's treasury, a gracious line written to a friend — all these are things which shall last when yonder sun has blackened into a coal. Deeds done in the power of the Spirit are eternal.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

I. THE FIRST LINE: THAT THE UNION BETWEEN GOD AND HIS PEOPLE CONTINUES THROUGH DEATH — "die in the Lord." When a ship enters the harbour, after the long and stormy voyage, the captain pays off the crew. If they wish to go on that ship again, they must reship. But the godly have signed articles to die. The Lord does not pay them off when they are going to die — they die in His employ. They die in the service, beneath the care and look of the Master; and He will have His people to die aright.

II. THE SECOND LINE: THAT THE SAINTS AFTER DEATH GO TO REST. It is impossible to rest and to make progress; one of the two can alone be had here. I have seen a tired traveller mounted on a milestone — to rest, apparently. He looked weary, and his parcel lay at the foot of the milestone. I do not know how long he had been there, but I know that whenever he started he had nine miles to go to the next town — it was that on the milestone. But yonder they rest — not from work, but from labour. They grow, and yet they rest; they rest, and yet grow. "They shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

III. THE THIRD LINE: THAT THE WORKS OF THE SAINTS FOLLOW THEM. Many work on materials that cannot follow them to eternity. The artist for months works on the canvas: he dies, and leaves the portrait behind him. The sculptor works on the marble for years: dies, and leaves the sculpture behind. But the good man works on a material that will bear transferring to the other world without receiving any damage. He draws beautiful lines — draws them upon his own soul, upon himself. He has sought the best material to work on, that will last when the rocks melt. And their work in others will remain; it is cut deep enough, so that it shall be visible in the judgment. Many work upon objects which they will leave behind. True, that the lands must be tilled, and minerals raised, and iron wrought; but it is not as a farmer, or miner, or carpenter, or astronomer, or geologist, that any man passed into eternity.

IV. THE FOURTH LINE: THAT THE STATE OF THE SAINTS AFTER DEATH IS A STATE OF BLISS. What kind of a country would you like to emigrate" into?

1. A pleasant, country, with beautiful landscapes? Such is heaven — an "inheritance in the light."

2. A plentiful country, without scarcity or want, never lacking any good thing? Such is heaven — "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more."

3. A healthy country? So is heaven — "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick. Sorrow and mourning shall flee away."

V. THE FIFTH LINE: THAT IT IS TO CONTINUE SO. "From henceforth." Parents have often received a letter from their children in America or Australia; but they will still say that they are expecting the mail every day, to hear again. Why? Because the country is changeable. Though all was well when the last letter was sent, things may have changed. But as to heaven, a single letter is as good as if you had one every day. There it is always the came — "from henceforth."

(D. Roberts, D. D.)

1. Their existence in His affections. Christ's disciples live in Him; they are in His heart; He thinks upon them; He plans for them; He works for them; He causes all things to work together for their good.

2. Their existence in His character. Without figure, we live in the character of those we admire and love. Arnold's most loyal pupils live in his character now. We see their old master in their books, and hear him in their sermons. Christ is the grand object of their love, and the chief subject of their thought, and to please Him was the grand purpose of their life.

II. HEAVEN'S DESCRIPTION OF THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTED DEAD.

1. Their blessedness is in rest from all trying labour. Not rest from work, for work is the condition of blessedness; but from all trying labour, all anxious toil, all wearying, annoying, irritating, fruitless toll.(1) Rest from all trying labour pertaining to our physical subsistence.(2) Rest from all trying labour pertaining to intellectual culture. How much trying labour is there here to train our faculties, and to get knowledge.(3) Rest from all trying labour pertaining to our spiritual cultivation.(4) Rest from all trying labour to benefit our fellow-men. To do good here is a trying work. Not so yonder.

2. Their blessedness is in the influence of their works. No one act truly done for Christ, and in His spirit, will be lost.

3. Their blessedness begins immediately after death. "From henceforth." Not from the waking of thy soul into consciousness after the sleep of centuries; not from the extinction of purgatorial fires — but from death. "To-day shalt thou be with Me."

4. Their blessedness is vouched by the Spirit of God. He who knows the present and future; He who hears the last sigh of every saint on earth, and his first note of triumph. The Spirit saith it. Let us believe it with an unquestioning faith. The Spirit saith it: let us adore Him for His revelation.

(Homilist.)

II. This leads now to our second topic, raised by the second question — "HOW IS THIS HEAVENLY BLESSEDNESS GAINED?" It clearly lays down two things as needful to the inheritance of the skies. The one is faith; and the other is holy obedience.

1. Faith, then, is needful to give a title to the heavenly blessedness: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Faith is necessary to secure union to the Lord. Men simply as men are not savingly united to the Lord; and therefore cannot die blessed in Him. This is a connection that needs to be acquired; and to those to whom the gospel comes, it is acquired by faith in Christ (John 1:12; Galatians 3:26; Romans 8:1; John 8:24; John 14:5; 1 Corinthians 1:80).

2. The second point as to the means by which the heavenly blessedness is gained is the necessity of holy obedience. Beautifully has it been said, that the good works of Christians do not go before them to open heaven, but they must follow after, to make it a place of blessedness; for the spirit of heaven is the spirit that brings forth good works below; and thus "without holiness, no man shall see the Lord."

III. We now come to our third question — HOW IS THIS HEAVENLY BLESSEDNESS TO BE ENJOYED? The answer is, "They rest from their labours, and their works do follow them."

1. There is, first, the rest of the worker. It is not sloth, torpor, or inactivity. God forbid. That would be no heaven to an Elijah, a Paul, a Luther, a Wesley, and many more. But it is rest; rest the most pure, refreshing, and exalted. Who that knows anything of Christian labour in its highest forms — the labour of the Christian parent, who travails as in birth till Christ be formed in the hearts of all His children; the labour of the teacher, who regards the welfare of the soul as inseparable from the growth of the mind, but will appreciate this delightful and soul-soothing prospect of rest! No more out amidst the billows, toiling in rowing for that the wind is contrary, but at last in smooth water, and with the ripple breaking on the shore! No more down in the mine, with the hard and painful routine of grimy toil amidst darkness, and fire-damp, and rocky hindrances at every turn, but aloft in the pure air, the soiled raiment laid aside for the Sabbath dress, and the song and melody of the sanctuary filling each weary sense! The rest spoken of in this text is a "Sabbatism"; the keeping of an endless Sabbath, with its holy calm for ever unbroken, as fresh as when, in its virgin beauty, it first dawned upon the emancipated spirit, recalling Eden with its dews and flowers, but without trail of the serpent upon them, since for the redeemed all the sanctities of that higher paradise are over-arched and guarded by the "rainbow round about the throne in sight like unto an emerald,"

2. But the second element of blessedness, and one which in the case of the Christian worker, is more positive, is the continued influence of the work. "Their works do follow them." It is delightful to think of the perpetuity of all goodness. It is not too much to say that a truly good action, an action done from true love to it, and from a regard to the will and glory of God in it, lasts for ever. You are tempted to give an angry look. The memory of Christ restrains you; and you give a kind and loving one; and that glance — though sent forth in a moment of time, will be fixed as in a picture to all eternity. Nor are these influences for good that we have all received only to be traced back to persons of position and prominence in the true Church of God. The humblest have wrought with them. The history of the Church in regard to the influence of its members can only be written in the world of immortality; and what secrets of domestic, of congregational, and even of world-wide Christian import shall then be unveiled, where there is no fear of jealousy or misunderstanding being aroused, or of sensitive delicacy being offended. Much of the blessedness of heaven will arise from these disclosures, and from the endless bonds which they shall seal! In the light of these undying soul-relationships the labour of the way shall be forgotten. Such is the perpetuity of moral influence, and of its final disclosure, for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed, nor hid that shall not be known! And with all the other following of the good works of the righteous, let us not forget its influence upon themselves; for what are we but what our works make us? What on earth or what in heaven? We live in the atmosphere of our own actions, and if we have lived to God and to Christ, the work tells upon ourselves, more than upon all besides; and the spirit that prompted it is in us a well of water springing up into everlasting life! If these things be so, let us not mourn the dead that "die in the Lord." Shall we mourn rest, freedom, blessedness? How can any of us be satisfied till we seek and obtain, through union to Christ, the comfortable hope that we are in the Lord, and that through His grace, our works, with all their failures and shortcomings, are so wrought in Him as to leave a memorial of the right kind behind!

(John Cairns, D. D.)

1. Dying in the righteousness of Christ. By dying in His righteousness, understand dying interested in that atonement, which our Lord Jesus Christ has made for all such as believe upon Him.

2. Dying in the image of Christ. We are also to bear a resemblance to Him, and to be conformed to Him as our holy example.

3. Dying in union with Christ.

II. THE BLESSEDNESS OF SUCH AS DIE IN THE LORD.

1. They are blessed in a freedom from troubles and sorrows.

2. They are blessed in their enjoyment of positive glory and happiness.

(T. Gibbons, D. D.)

II. DEATH IS A BLESSING. How true these words — "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord!" A union that, more intimate than marriage which unfaithfulness in either party dissolves; a union that, more intimate than the connection between body and soul which a slight accident may endanger, which an ounce of lead, an inch of steel, a drop of poison, a wrong step, the hand of a child may dissolve; a union that, more intimate than binds together those sections of the Church which, though differing, co-operate. The union which is formed between Christ and His people being one of incorporation, and not one merely of co-operation, what the one is, the other is; and where the one is, the other is; and as the one feels, the other feels; and as our bodies and their limbs have blood in common, or the branches and trunk of a tree have sap in common, so Jesus and His people have all things in common. To be in Christ, therefore, to be in the Lord, implies that we shall infallibly enjoy all the blessings, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, which He shed His blood to purchase; these being secured to us by the great oath of God, and the bonds of a covenant which is well ordered in all things and sure. With Christ we shall be crowned, and throned in glory. Well then may the apostle say, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord"! They must be blessed. How can it be otherwise? "Die!" No doubt they must die; but death has lost its sting; and it does not matter when, or how, or where they die. Think of it, therefore, not as death, but as glory — going to heaven, and to your Father. It is life through Christ, and life in Christ; life most blissful, and life evermore.

III. DEATH IS A BLESSING AS INTRODUCING US INTO A STATE OF REST.

1. At death the believer rests from the toils of life.

2. At death the believer rests from the cares of life. Next to sin, these form life's heaviest burden. There will be nothing in the household above to withdraw Martha from sitting with her sister at Jesus' feet — there Jacob mourns no Joseph, and David weeps no Absalom; the pious widow dreads no empty barrel; Lazarus fears no rich man's frown, nor courts his favour.

3. At death the believer rests from the griefs of life.

(T. Guthrie, D. D.)

II. WHEREIN ARE THEY BLESSED WHO DIE IN THE LORD?

1. Death is birth to the believer, and birth is ever blessed.

2. Born out of a life which is a long pain to a life which is a long bliss.

3. They pass out of relations and fellowships which are ever changing, to those which abide and enlarge their ministries through eternity.

4. Blessed are they, for they are for ever beyond the reach of all that may imperil the prize.

(J. B. Brown, B. A.)

1. Heaven never speaks on trifling occasions, or upon matters of indifference. Its utterances are always solemn and weighty. They apprise of danger; they caution us against sin; they counsel us in difficulty; they point us to duty; they cheer us in sorrow; they embolden us in the conflict. Yet, of all its revelations, none can be of such transcendent moment as those which respect the eternal state of the dead.

2. Heaven never speaks but in words of truth and soberness. No possibility of error, no thought of deception. Truth reigns in heaven.

3. Heaven never speaks but with authority. Whether God speaks in His own person, or through the medium of an angelic ministry, it is plainly the duty of man to listen with reverential and obedient attention.

4. These several suggestions receive additional force from the command given to the prophet, saying, "Write"; which further implies the abiding and unchangeable operation of this truth to the end of time. It is as if the voice had said, Write, that it be not forgotten. Write, that generations yet to come, and nations yet unborn, may read, and derive therefrom incentives to faith and holiness — lessons of triumph over mortality and death.

II. THE GREAT SUBJECT OF PROCLAMATION. "Blessed are the dead." How widely opposed is the verdict of man! Blessed rather are the living, around whom life throws its treasures of enjoyment and hopes — "yea, a living dog is better then a dead lion." Death, to the eye of natural sense, is ever shrouded with gloom and sorrow. The gospel of life and immortality creates a difference; and, in the eyes of all who believe and obey the truth, arrays even this, the gloomiest dispensation of Divine providence, in colours of light and loveliness. A vital union with Him, the well-spring of life and happiness, secures them the uninterrupted flow of blessing through every changeful vicissitude of mortality. Death itself may not turn the stream, or prohibit its flow. The very sepulchre feels its fertilising influence, and they pluck flowers of hope and immortality from the margin of the grave.

III. THE DIVINE CONFIRMATION. "Yea, saith the Spirit." Why this solemn and impressive asseveration? Does the voice from heaven require a voucher, that the Spirit of truth Himself should appear as witness? Is there need of further testimony? Assuredly not. Yet, in a matter of such passing interest, that our faith may be stedfast and settled, God condescends to supply it. The Spirit witnesses with the voice of blood, and every doubt must vanish. This testimony is given in His Holy Word, which everywhere corroborates the doctrine of the text. This testimony is further given in the believer's heart. There, with still small voice, that Holy One doth sweetly and delightfully repeat the echoes of His written word; for "he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself," attesting and confirming whatsoever hath been written aforetime for our comfort and edification. Divine arguments are added for the fuller confirmation of our faith. The Spirit's voice is not a delusion, but an appeal to the understanding and judgment. "They rest from their labours." As the toilworn labourer retires from the busy and fatiguing occupations of the day, to seek his evening's repose, so the Christian believer relinquishes life for the rest of paradise. More than this. "Their works do follow them." When the rich man dieth, he shall carry nothing away, but leave his wealth to others. The great must relinquish their honours and distinctions; the wise and ingenious, the fruit of their labours. Nothing of all their pride and possessions may be transported beyond the grave; for their glory shall not descend after them. But these reap the reward of their own doings. No heir steps in to supersede the original owner, and enjoy his possession. As a glorious retinue, their works of piety and mercy grace their progress to the skies, and accompany them even to the very throne; yet not to plead their merits, but justify their faith; not to claim acquittal from the accusations of the law, but an interest in the promises of the gospel. They demonstrate a life of faith in the Son of God, and must therefore secure His approbation, as their author, their end.

(John Lyth.)

1. What is supposed to be necessary to it, as to their state, whilst they live. And here it is plain, they that die in the Lord must first live in Him. That is, as to the principle of their life, they must be quickened and made alive by Him: As to the work of their life, they must walk after Him: As to the scope of their life, they must live to Him.

2. That this includes, as to their temper, when they come to die. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord"; that is, that die —(1) In submission to His will; He having the fullest right to dispose of them as He pleases.(2) In a dependence upon Him, for life and immortality after death, as what He hath purchased and promised, and will assuredly bring His people to.(3) Dying in the Lord includes a sincere desire to be with Him, as far better than to be here.

II. THAT HENCEFORTH BELIEVERS ARE BLESSED INDEED.

III. CONSIDER THEIR BLESSEDNESS.

IV. FOR WHAT REASON IT IS SO SOLEMNLY PROCLAIMED BY A VOICE FROM HEAVEN, AND ORDERED TO BE RECORDED, THAT THE DEAD ARE BLESSED THAT DIE IN THE LORD.

1. To let it be known in this world how it fares with the friends of Jesus in another.

2. To assure believers that death is no bar to their happiness, but the sure, though awful way to it.

3. To leave it on record to the end of time, and assure those that live in every age, that here is not their rest.

(D. Wilcox.)

1. We here see the truth of the subsequent announcement. The doctrine to be taught is not of human origin. It is neither a dictate of man's imagination, nor an effusion of rash enthusiasm, nor a deduction of erring reason; but it comes direct from the region of unclouded light, the fountain of unerring truth.

2. We see also the importance of the doctrine announced.(1) This is evinced in its origin. If heaven speaks, it is not to proclaim a useless or insignificant truth, nor to unveil some trifling or uninteresting mystery. This would reflect on the Divine wisdom.(2) This is further seen in the command given. "I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me" — What? — Remember? — or Preach? — No, but "Write." — The truths thou art about to hear are of infinite moment, and deeply interest every child of man.

II. BUT WHAT IS IT that is promulgated by this high authority, and is revealed with attendant circumstances which so clearly attest its great importance? "Blessed are the dead," etc.

1. The subjects of this blessedness are the dead; yet not the dead indiscriminately, but "the dead that die in the Lord." Such is the ambiguity of the phrase "in the Lord," as to render its precise meaning in this passage somewhat uncertain. At times its obvious import is, "in the cause, or on account, of the Lord." And looking at the entire connexion in which the passage stands, such an interpretation appears by no means inappropriate. Every Christian, truly so called, is "in the Lord." Hence the striking language of the Redeemer Himself: "I am the vine, ye are the branches: abide in Me and I in you." This all-important union is affected, on the part of the Christian, by faith, and is consummated, on the part of Christ, by the bestowal of His indwelling Spirit. Two important parts of their blessedness are here brought before us: — They rest from their labours — and their works follow them. Does the wearied traveller rejoice on seeing his loved but long absent home, where he hopes to end his wanderings. Does the mariner, long tossed by the fierce storm, and endangered by the rolling waves, and drifted sands, and sunken or frowning rocks, rejoice on his entrance into the harbour, in which fear is exchanged for security, and turmoil for peace? Yes, they rest from their labours, and account themselves blessed.

III. Who does not feel that such an announcement would be incredible were it not so ATTESTED AS TO PLACE IT BEYOND THE REACH OF REASONABLE DOUBT? And, thanks to the condescension and abounding grace of God, such an attestation we have. "Yea, saith the Spirit." The doctrine of immortality, with its glorious and awful results, is one of those primeval truths that constitute the religious belief of the first generations of men. It underlay both the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations. But it was reserved for Him who came as the "light of the world" to present this doctrine in the fulness of its glory. But while in the economy of redemption it is the glory of the Son to ransom and save, it is the prerogative and glory of the Spirit to reveal and attest truth, and by its application to the understanding and heart, to enlighten, and sanctify, and make fit for heaven. And by that Spirit the great doctrine announced in our text is attested. "Yea, saith the Spirit." "True — certainly, infallibly true — I, the Spirit of Truth, whose prerogative it is to search all things, even the deep things of God, and to reveal them to man — I corroborate the testimony that the dead which die in the Lord are, and shall be, thus blessed. Though one of the things which no mortal eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the most fruitful imagination conceived, yet do I thus solemnly avow, that in all the brightness of the glories it unfolds, and in all the richness of the blessings it promises, it is true. On it, as an immovable rock, you may rest. And in its assured prospects you may trample on the world and sin — mortify self — multiply works of faith and labours of love — and defy the powers of persecution, how fierce soever the forms it may assume, or agonising the tortures and deaths it may inflict. Labours, sacrifices, and tortures are momentary only, but recompenses are eternal."

(Thomas Allin.)

(A. T. Pierson, D. D.)

I. Take the principle, then, as it affects THE PRODUCTION OF DIVINE SCRIPTURE. For not only in regard to the announcement made here, but the doctrine and the narratives of Scripture throughout, it holds true that the voice said, "Write," and the Spirit of God in the penman said, "Yea." He said, "Yea," as the Spirit of inspiration. And apart from the testimony of the Bible to itself, there is a proof of its origin in its own inner character. Take, among other evidences, this one: the persistency with which the facts and the truths transcribed run counter to the natural prepossessions and prejudice of those who transcribe them.

II. Note the same fact with regard to THE ACCEPTANCE OF DIVINE TRUTH. In regard, then, to the belief of the Scripture as well as its delivery, the Spirit returns His deep inward "Yea"; He returns it as the Spirit of conviction. And this, mark, in two cases. The response arises in the case of those whom the Spirit has entered to sanctify, and it arises in the ease of those with whom He is present to persuade. Deep in their heart of hearts there is a something that throbs back to them saying, "These things are real; I must believe them accordingly."

III. Take the principle as it refers to THE PERFORMANCE OF THE DIVINE COMMANDS. For the voice that bids us write and believe bids us also do and endure, and when it does so the Spirit again answers, "Yea." He answers "Yea," as the Spirit of submission and obedience.

IV. Take the thought of the text in regard to THE ENJOYMENT OF DIVINE PRIVILEGES. For the same voice from heaven has a message as to these, and while the message of assurance and of comfort is revealed from above, the Spirit responds from within with His "Yea": He does so as the Spirit of adoption. And surely, of all the Divine intimations, the sweetest and the fullest is this: "But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name: thou art Mine." There will be often a "Nay" to assurances such as these. There is the "Nay" of Satanic impeachment. Scripture clearly prepares us to meet and to deal with that. Y. Observe the principle of the text as it bears on THE WELCOME OF DIVINE HOPES. And of these hopes take one — the hope of the Lord's Second Advent. We close by considering His response as the Spirit of longing and of love. Try, again, there are voices that are raised in dissent. "Nay," say the unholy, to whom the thought of Christ's Advent is a terror; "Nay," say the profane, to whom the prophecy is a scoff, asking, "Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." But from a multitude whom no man can number, even the Church upon earth which a Saviour has chosen, to be saved through atoning blood, preserved by sanctifying grace, and made meet for eternal glory, there rises a mighty and manifold "Yea." And well may the Spirit in the Bride's heart say "Yea," and speak of the prospect disclosed as that " blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

(W. A. Gray.)

(Presbyterian.)

I. THE HARVEST. "The harvest of the earth." This tells of —

1. The multitude of God's people. Who can count the ears of corn even in one harvest-field? how much less in the harvest of the whole earth?

2. The preciousness of them. What could we do without the literal harvest of the earth? Our all, humanly speaking, depends upon it.

3. The joy of God in them. "They shall joy before Thee with the joy of harvest."

4. The care that has been needed and given.

5. The "long patience" that has been exercised. Who but God could be so patient? We often cry, "How long, O Lord, how long?" But He waits — and we must learn the like lesson — for the harvest of the earth, for that which is being ripened in our own soul.

6. The evidence of ripeness. We know of the natural harvest that it is ripe by the grain assuming its golden hue. And when it is thus with the people of God, when the golden light of the Sun of Righteousness shines on them and they are transformed thereby, then the evidence of ripeness is seen, and the season for the sickle has come.

7. God will certainly gather in His people. "Harvest shall not fail"; nor shall this harvest either. "Look up, lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."

II. THE VINTAGE. Under the altar on which was "the fire," over which the angel told of in ver. 18 "had power," were the souls of them that had been slain for the testimony of Jesus (Revelation 6:9). They had asked, "How long, O Lord dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" And now the answer is given. The vintage of vengeance has begun. For the "grapes" of the "vine of the earth" are fully ripe. It is the judgment of the whole earth, when "all nations" shall be gathered (Matthew 25.) before the Son of Man. The square of four — four ever the symbol of the earth — amplified by hundreds, the "one thousand and six hundred furlongs" of ver. 20, likewise point to the universality of this awful judgment. Minor fulfilments — presages, predictions, and patterns of the final judgment — of these there have been many and will be many; but in this vintage of vengeance upon the world's sin all are summed up and fulfilled. But will there be any such event at all?

1. Men have ever felt that there ought to be such judgment.

2. And now it is declared that such judgment shall be. Conscience assents to it.

3. Human law and justice strive after right judgment.

4. And the judgments that come now on ungodly nations, communities, and individuals are all in proof.

(S. Conway, B. A.)

1. His characteristic designation — "The Son of Man." This was the form or similitude He wore. The manhood of Christ is exalted to the throne of Deity.

2. His high exaltation. He is said to be throned on the clouds of heaven, and dignified with the highest honours.

3. The insignia appropriate to His office. He is advanced to the dignity and authority of a king, and therefore is invested with a crown of gold, and a sickle — an emblem of power, answering to a sceptre or sword, but put in this form, as having a relation to the service which was immediately to be performed in reaping the harvest of the earth. These are the regalia of His kingly office.

II. THE MAGNIFICENT APPEARANCE HE ASSUMED.

1. He is seated on a white cloud. On a cloud, to betoken His elevation and empire. On a white cloud, to signify the immaculate purity of His nature, as the Holy One of God; the unimpeachable rectitude of His administrations, transparent as the fleecy vapour of which these visible heavens are composed; and the blessed consequences of His government, when purity shall be universally established, and "white-robed Innocence," returning to our forsaken world, shall take place of fraud and rapine, violence and blood. Furthermore, on this luminous cloud He is said to have been seated, as on a throne, expressing at once the high dignity and perfect repose which He enjoys.

2. On His head was a golden crown. The crown is an emblem of empire and dominion, and a crown of pure gold fitly represents the validity of His title, and the honour and glory by which He is encircled.

3. In His hand there is a sharp sickle. This I apprehend to be an emblem of His judicial authority and retributive vengeance. To Him the Father hath given authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man, and hath put all things into His hands. What havoc and slaughter shall be made by the sharp sickle, with which He is invested, when His irreclaimable enemies shall be made the helpless victims of His inexorable indignation! When the great day of His wrath is come, who shall be able to stand?

III. THE PRACTICAL LESSONS INCULCATED BY THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE SUBJECT.

1. We infer the high and honourable conceptions we should form and entertain of the Lord Christ.

2. We infer that, "before honour is humility."

3. Let us learn how important it is to ascertain whether we are among the subjects of this exalted Prince.

4. Let us learn to rejoice in the perfection of His administration.

5. Let us learn how terrible will be the final doom of all the enemies of this mighty Prince.

6. If such be the advantages and pleasures connected with the sight and contemplation of a glorified Saviour in this world, what will the beatific vision include? To see Him as He is, without the interposition of any obscuring veil, any dense medium!

(G. Clayton.)

I. GOD PREPARED THE EARTH FOR HIS SEEDING. Scientific men may wrangle over the ages and order of creation. It is enough for us to know that, at a given time, God had prepared the earth to be the scene of a moral trial for a new race of beings. The farmer cleans, and ploughs, and manures, and harrows, and ridges, his fields, in precise adaptation to the crop that he intends to grow upon it; and earth is the prepared field of God, made ready for His sowing.

II. GOD SEEDS HIS PREPARED EARTH WITH MEN. Scattering the seed all over the earth, that man's probation may be carried on under every varying condition of soil, and landscape, and climate, and relationship. God keeps on seeding the earth with men; every seed with a great possibility in it; every seed set where its possibility may freely unfold, and where the God-provided influences all tend to the nourishment of all its best possibilities. Men, men everywhere are the seed of God. They are quick with Divine life, and sown in the earth to grow into a harvest for God.

III. THE HARVEST GOD SEEKS FROM HIS SEEDING IS CHARACTER. God sows His earth with moral beings, in the hope of reaping moral character. But what is moral character? It is the proper fruitage of the earth-experience of moral beings. But can we understand it a little more fully than that? A moral being is one that can recognise a distinction between good and evil, and, when the distinction is seen, can choose for itself which it will have, the good or the evil. But a moral being must be put into such circumstances as will offer it the choice between good and evil. And substantially the test amounts to this: good is doing what is known to be the will of the Creator: evil is doing the will of the moral being himself, when that is known to be not the will of the Creator. The story of a life is the story of that conflict. It is the growth, through the long months, of God's seed into the "full corn in the ear" of established moral character. It is the unfolding of what God would gather in from His seeding of men, the righteousness of the accepted will of God. One thing only does man take through the great gates — the character that he has gained. It is the full ear that heads the stalk, and ripens for the reaper.

IV. GOD HAS ANXIOUS TIMES WHILE HIS SEED OF MEN IS GROWING INTO HIS HARVEST OF CHARACTER. Every blade that breaks the earth in the farmer's field has to fight for its life with varied foes: insects, worms, mildew, rust, living creatures, varying temperatures, crowding weeds; the growth of every blade to stalk and ear is a hard-won victory. The stalk can do its best, and be its best, only at the cost of unceasing struggle and watchfulness. And the field of earth is but a type of the world of men. Every character is the product of a stern experience, the issue of a hundred fights; a triumph from an unceasing struggle. The problem of each man's dealings with his surroundings — helpful be they, or injurious — God is intensely interested in. He is anxious as the farmer is anxious over his growing blades. The one thing of profoundest interest to God is the making of characters in His great earth-fields. Be it so; then a fact of infinite sadness has to be faced. The issue is disappointing, for God's harvest-hope of reaping character from His sowing of men is only partially fulfilled.

(R. Tuck, B. A.)

II. THE TRUE THEORY OF DEATH as illustrated by the text. First of all, it is never premature. If the wicked are not cut down until they are ripe for judgment, we cannot believe that God's people are cut down till they are ripe for glory. Fitness for heaven, be it remembered, consists not in the particular state of mind in which a man may happen to be when the death-stroke overtakes him. It does not depend upon his being in a state of religious consciousness. No; it depends upon the habits in previous life, upon the principle of his previous history. Nor shall we be dismissed till we have had full opportunity of doing all that the Master intends us to do. There are different degrees of service, even as there are varied kinds of service. The terms of service are sometimes long and sometimes short. Nor forget that there may be much living to good purpose when the length of life has been very limited. We often measure life by length. Does not God measure it by depth and breadth? We look at quantity, does not He look at quality? The harvest is never premature, and is always carefully gathered in, and nothing lost. There is something very instructive in the signs of careful preparation for the harvest, which are indicated in the text. Before it is commenced, a voice announces the arrival of the time, and the purpose is calmly and deliberately executed. In the death harvest there is no haste and nothing lost. "Of all that the Father hath given Me," said Christ, "have I lost nothing." He is as careful of what there is of value in the soul as of the soul itself. How very apt are we to fancy, when such an one is suddenly cut off, that the great stores of his mind are wasted, that his acquirements by study and discipline are now lose to him. No, no, we may rely upon it, that there is not anything worth carrying into the eternal world that that sanctified soul will leave behind it; not one noble affection but is nobler than it ever was; not one great principle but it is stronger in the soul than ever, not one spiritual habit but it has grown in force, not one true excellence but it excels in beauty. And the harvest gathered in without less is preserved afterwards without loss: "Gather the wheat into My garner." Corn is laid up to be preserved; but that is not all, it is also laid up that it may be used. At the death harvest, the soul is placed for ever beyond the reach of harm. The accidents to which it was exposed while growing, the moral frost, and blight, and mildew, and the blast of the lightning, they are all among the former things, and have passed away. But the soul is preserved where it will be of greater use than it ever was. The best use of the corn comes when it is cut. All before was subordinate usefulness, beautifying the landscape and furnishing subjects for poets and painters; but when it is cut, it feeds and sustains the nations. So the best use of the soul and its acquirements will be in heaven, not here.

(J. Stoughton.)