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CONCLUSION.

L. V.

transcendent importance of the subject, to set before you that Scriptural doctrine of Eternal Judgment which alone,-even were there no other cogent argument, would compel me to seek for some other than the literal interpretation of the first Resurrection. From the days of "Enoch the seventh from Adam," have all the inspired heralds and ambassadors of Christ made proclamation, saying, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." If I would follow in their steps, I must not teach either a divided Resurrection, or its necessary consequence, a divided Judgment.

"And now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen P."

LECTURE VI.

THE RECOMPENSE OF REWARD TO BE CONFERRED UPON THE SAINTS AT THE SECOND COMING OF THEIR LORD.

1 PETER i. 3-5.

BLESSED BE THE GOD AND FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHICH ACCORDING TO HIS ABUNDANT MERCY HATH BEGOTTEN US AGAIN UNTO A LIVELY HOPE BY THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD, TO AN INHERITANCE INCORRUPTIBLE, AND UNdefiled, AND THAT FADETH NOT AWAY, RESERVED IN HEAVEN FOR YOU, WHO ARE KEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD THROUGH FAITH UNTO SALVATION.

THERE is in the Vatican palace at Rome a long gallery, the walls of which are lined with ancient monumental inscriptions. Read them carefully, and you discover a remarkable difference between the right hand range of tablets and the left. The one tell only of despair-the other breathe only of hope. Heathenism has peopled the right hand wall-Christianity has occupied the left.

And truly to the heathen all beyond the grave was one dreary blank. There every thing definite, every thing personal, every thing he knew,

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A COMPENSATING REWARD

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for others he

Nor was there

every thing that for himself or feared and loved, came to an end. aught to fill the aching void: the truths of revelation were unknown: his own speculations were unsatisfying. No marvel if he said, "Let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die."

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How different the case of the Christian! He also "cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower;" he also "fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay." Moreover, sacrifices are required of him, of which the heathen never heard. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Truly, if "in this life only" he had hope in Christ," he would be "of all men most miserable." But is there nothing beyond? Yes! there is a more than compensating eternity. And this "the Holy Ghost the Comforter" teaches him to anticipate with a personal, an eager, a patient, a joyful expectation. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day and

b Luke xiv. 26.

c

e 1 Cor. xv. 19.

a 1 Cor. xv. 32. For a full exhibition of the true nature of Scriptural hope, the reader is referred to the last of the Author's four Sermons before the University, in a volume styled, "The Way of Peace."

L. VI.

PROPOSED TO THE CHRISTIAN.

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not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

It is to the contemplation of this " recompense of reward" that I would lead your thoughts to day. Thither also would our Pre-Millennarian brethren attend our steps. But we have reason to pause before we accept them as our guides. They have divested the day of doom of its chiefest alarms, perchance they may also deprive eternity itself of its most purifying consolations.

And such is really the case. They are honestly desirous of kindling in the church a practical, an invigorating, a sanctifying appetency for good things to come. But they mistake the means. for compassing that end. Descending from the regions of faith to the domains of sight, they depress things heavenly to the level of things terrestrial. As an immediate result, the range of apparent influence is extended; for sensuous imaginings find a response in the affections of many a natural man. But the ultimate issue is the substitution of a restless excitement for a sober expectancy,―of a sickly sentimentalism for a thriving spirituality. Nor will you think it could well be otherwise, if I succeed in shewing you to day how very far the Pre-Millennial account of good things to come falls short of the lofty standard of Scriptural promise.

With this object in view I propose, in the first

e 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8.

f Heb. xi. 26.

Lecture V.

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place, to give what seems to me to be Scripture's own account of that inheritance, which shall be the saints' reward" at the coming of their Lord;in the second place, to exhibit by way of contrast a portraiture of the inheritance which our PreMillennarian brethren are compelled by the exigencies of their system to substitute for it.

And First for Scripture's own account of the saints' inheritance.

The only continuous passage of holy writ which (as is almost universally admitted) treats exclusively of the glory yet to be revealed, abounds in highly metaphorical language. I refer to the twentyfirst and twenty-second chapters of the Revelation of St. John. Nor is it difficult to discern the reason why their announcements should be clad in the garb of imagery. At" the resurrection of the justi,"

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h The reader is requested to keep this distinctly before his mind, that our enquiry is into the nature of the reward which the saints shall receive at the coming of the Lord. We have already learnt in Lecture IV, that at that eventful hour their persons shall be glorified and their numbers accomplished. But Scripture goes beyond this: it proposes to them a "reward,” (μolòs, Matt. v. 12: Luke vi. 23, 35.),—a recompense of reward" (μσañodoσía, Heb. x. 35: xi. 26.),—a compense" (avraлódoμa, Luke xiv. 12.),-an "inheritance" (λnpovoμía, Acts xx. 32: Eph. i. 14.),-a "kingdom" (Bavideía, James ii. 5.),-in short, a "compensation" (avтапódoσis, Col. iii. 24.) for present loyal service, even though of the most humble character. It is into the Scriptural account of this reward that it is our present purpose to enquire.

i Luke xiv. 14.

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re