ends of the earth shall fear him! Oh, the deep feelings of reverence and holy awe, and earnest longings of spirit which then lead us to cry, My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?

5. The Gospel REVEALS THE Weight of glory

TO BE BESTOWED ON US AT THE RETURN OF OUR HEAVENLY KINGDOM. All

LORD AND IN HIS

who have read the Scriptures, and marked the passages which refer to our future state, must have observed, how dim is the light given on the state of the departed saints before the advent. It is, indeed, for our great comfort, assured to us as a state of real happiness, being with Christ and his saints in paradise, and far better than anything his best servants have enjoyed here below (Luke xvi. 22; xxiii. 43; Phil. i. 23); and this is all that is required for our hope, peace, and joy, respecting that stage in the unseen world which precedes the Lord's return. It is a brief interval; an interval really brief to all, however early in the world's history they may have died, as compared with the everlasting kingdom. But promise crowds on promise to describe their glory in the day of their Lord's return and of their resurrection. Hence true faith in these revelations of glory leads to earnest longing and waiting for Christ. This blessed hope becomes all the salva

tion and all the desire of the soul, for which the believer is intently looking. Nothing nearer, nothing lower, will satisfy its thirst for full unfailing happiness. The gathering together of all the family of God from all ages and all countries, kindreds, and tongues; the resurrection of all who have died in the Lord, and the change of the living saints, and their being caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, the reward of all their works of love, the royal priesthood unto God and the Father given to them, the restitution of all things, the millennial kingdom, succeeded by the everlasting kingdom in which God is all in all; the visible glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being with him, and beholding his glory, and seeing God himself as he is, face to face. O brethren, what a prospect of bliss and glory is here! These things form a solid hope of joy unspeakable and full of glory, that dazzles by its intense brightness; and yet, when in lively faith we view it, when we gaze on it in believing admiration and gratitude, it is a hope that attracts the soul into its own glory, and raises us up together with Christ and makes us sit together in heavenly places.

Thus we have shewn at length that waiting for Christ's coming and kingdom is a necessary fruit of the Gospel fully received.

Let us proceed to consider

II. THE SOLEMN TRUTHS BY WHICH THIS DUTY IS IN OUR TEXT ENFORCED.

To wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

There are three great truths which are added by the Apostle to impress more powerfully on our minds this duty of waiting.

1. THE WRATH FROM WHICH CHRIST HAS DELIVERED HIS PEOPLE. The whole history of our world displays the wrath of God against transgressors. We e may see this in the deluge, the confounding of tongues at Babel, the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, the destruction of the seven nations of Canaan, the punishments of Israel again and again, and their captivities, the desolation of the African and Eastern Churches by Saracens and Turks, and the vials of wrath on Western Christendom. These things have already visibly manifested it in this world. But a more fearful wrath still is yet to come. There is now daily by impenitent transgressors a treasuring up of wrath, against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. This is reserved for them who are contentious and do not obey the truth; but obey unrighteousness—it is even indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and

every

also of the Gentile. (Rom. ii. 5-10.) This wrath has various manifestations in this world and also in that which is to come; but they all seem comprehended under the one term, the day of wrath, though that be an eternal day of misery to the perseveringly wicked as it is of glory to the righteous: (nμepav aιwvos, 2 Pet. iii. 18.) This day, as it regards the Jewish nation, began in wars and rumours of wars, in famines, pestilence, and earthquakes in divers places, which our Lord calls the beginning of sorrows; and so, we may suppose, it will be as it regards Christendom, according to the many predictions yet unfulfilled of the great tribulation. But its issue to the impenitent is the lake of fire burning with brimstone (Rev. xix. 20), and being tormented day and night for ever and The children of light, the children of the day, who have put on the breast-plate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation, are wholly delivered from all this wrath, even though they may, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, be for a brief season in the furnace. who believe in Jesus shall not perish, but have everlasting life. God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Rescued already by our blessed Redeemer, from so deep a ruin as the impending wrath of God; having already the forgiveness of our sins,

ever.

They

the freedom from the dominion and love of sin, and the hope of coming glory; how should we long for our Redeemer's return to complete the work, the great work of our salvation, to deliver us wholly from that body of death under which we now groan, with all its temptations, fears, sins, and sorrows, and to carry us safely and triumphantly above the coming wrath to his heavenly kingdom. We may say, in the confidence of faith, Though I walk in the midst of trouble thou wilt revive me— thy right hand shall save me, the Lord shall perfect that which concerneth me. (Psalm cxxxviii. 7, 8.)

2. THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD is another blessed truth, impressing on us the duty of waiting for Christ. The Apostle here beautifully introduces the fact that Jesus is risen from the dead, to lead our minds to that victory in which all who believe in him have so large a share. He is the first begotten from the dead; he is the first-fruits of them that slept, and his resurrection has secured ours. When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. A subtle criticism, full though it may be of much ingenuity and straining of the chief texts which prove the doctrine,* can never get over the

* I allude here to a very painful and distressing work,