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what else can there be embodied for you but a new source of terror? Look! But no! First cast a glance before you. Who slumbers under this turf? You turn away and weep. It is your father and mother! Aye, weep, but above all weep for yourself, that you so often made them shed tears of grief on your account. Ungrateful son! You were, perhaps, to them, as it were a nail in their coffin! And now you would fain beg for pardon! But that you may defer. Your mother's ear

is closed, your father's tongue is dumb! Ah! how can you be for even one minute cheerful, while you have not a friend in Him who can forgive in the name of those whose lips have long been closed in death? But is your whole guilt summed up in the sins you have committed against the fifth commandment? Come, cast your glance back to the past! Whither? I will not say to the past life, but merely to the very last year you have passed through! What do you behold? So far as you are directed and illumined by the true light, you perceive nothing to cheer you. As many steps as you have taken, so many trespasses have you heaped up; as many hours as have flown along, so many accusers have you accumulated together against you. Your foul at the core, very virtues even, rise up against you! Thou child of man! will this awaken in thee that monster of terror? No? Well then, it shall! Come, cast your look forwards! What a scene is there presented! Behold, a throne burning in flames of fire and a Judge seated upon it, who searches the heart and reins! Before him a law, which condemns the desire as well as the act: at his left a crowd howling and full of despair; beings equal and similar to yourself. Listen; "Depart from me, ye cursed, into

everlasting fire!" And they go forth! They are received by eternal darkness; flames, which never extinguish, envelope them! Alas! this back- ground of your life! "Of my life?" Yes, you likewise are advancing in full speed to meet this judgment. Child of man, can you still look cheerfully into the future? But now for the last glance! Direct it into your own heart. What do you behold? Rubbish, ashes and ruin. How desolate is the town! how fallen to wreck the temple! Sin and impotence in every part; no love to God, no heavenly feeling, no peace. O thou poor, poor mortal, who, if thou wouldst be in good spirits, thou must cover thine eyes, must, in fact, forget thyself! Deplorable object! for whom above as well as below, in the past as well as the future, are only sources of terror, only grounds for despair! No! nought more miserable and worthy of pity can exist than thou, O man! without Christ! But in Christ is pure peace and joy. If it is overcast round about us, it still beams bright in the distance; if present enjoyment be wanting, then the hope of the future refreshes and delights.

What hope? A crown beckons to the children of faith. How, a sinner and a crown? How can this be? In Christ, very well! The crown is the inheritance of the saints in light, the future glory. And well may this be termed a crown; this, which in excellence outshines every thing, with its weight for ever holds our knee bent to the earth, and will be rightfully borne by us, as children of the King! For are we not of the eternal King's seed, and, in a spiritual manner, "flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone?" And is not that crown a crown of righteousness?" Assuredly it is, since the 1 Matt. xxv. 41.

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Son was given to us by grace, and now that the works of the Son are become our works. One who is worthy of the crown is crowned, Christ; but we are his body; we are the inheritors of his worthiness. "We? Paul?" certainly, "for me," writes the apostle, "there is a crown laid up!" But what do you imagine? That Paul expects for himself a crown, because he is the apostle Paul? O, then you err egregiously. I tell you, Paul has a no better founded right to that crown than you and I. Certainly Paul could say of himself, "I have fought the good fight;" but who fought this good fight? The Spirit that was with him. Where then was the fame of the fighter? It was with Christ. What is a good fight? A fight which is fought against the common enemy, and is crowned with triumph. all fight it who are in Christ. You battle against the devil, and remain the last upon the field! It is true, Paul might boast-"I have kept the faith!" But do not all children of grace keep the faith? Did the great High Priest pray that with one only his faith might not cease? or did he in this petition spread forth his wings of faith over his entire people? The faith of believers may grow faint, but not perish; it may be prostrated, but it will still rise up again. It is true, Paul could say, "I have finished my course!" But

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the elect, one and all, can say that when their hour is arrived. It was done by the murderer; by the children slain by Herod's orders. No Christian dies too soon. He has accomplished, when the Lord calls him, what he was to accomplish. Paul, to be sure, might even say of himself, "I laboured more abundantly than they all!" But what does he add? "Not I, but the grace

of God which was with me."1 In the grace, therefore, he places all the glory. Paul might even encourage you by saying "Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ!" But how is it with these followers of Christ? "Draw me, we will run after thee," says Solomon. Again, therefore, with whom is the honour? With the Lord alone. And should we do wrong, my fellowredeemed, if we applied St. Paul's encouragement to those of our own time who wander thus from Christ ? Might we not address them thus? "Be with us, poor sinner; cling, as we do, to Jesus.". Should we by that sink into self-glory--we who are quite conscious to whom the whole honour of our conversion is due? The apostle knows that too, and where he speaks boastfully of himself, he always speaks of the grace within him. But where, on the contrary, without reference to grace, he considers only himself, he then can say no otherwise than: "I am the chief of sinners." None need therefore to be in anxiety, when Paul says: "For me there is a crown laid up;" but if any one is fainthearted, then let him only read Paul's sentence to the end: 66 not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." Listen, how consoling is this! ،، That love his appearing!" O, those are a great people. It is not those alone, who from the height of faith shout forth their hallelujahs, who spring with their God over the walls, and step upon adders and scorpions; such are also the cooing doves in the valley, such are the crushed worms in the dust. O ye poor mourners for sin, is not the coming of Jesus dear to you? Ye who are sunk in the depths of woe, what would be more dear to you than that Jesus should appear to you? Ye that lan11 Cor. xv. 10 Song of Solomon, i. 4.

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guish from the drought, whom do you thirst for? For Jesus! Ye fallen in Zion, can you, after your eyes are opened at your fall, be at peace, before Jesus appears? Ye weakest of all in the kingdom, who only timidly enquire, “Where do you rest at mid-day?" Ye who even lament, alas! that you have not enough desired his coming, tell me whether it be dear to you! There you stand on the shore, and look out and watch if the pennant of the small vessel waves, which is to bring to you Jesus your only deliverer. Ah, well may you all say, consoled with Paul: "Henceforth is the crown laid up for me." It is so! Comfort yourselves therewith in joyful confidence. Even should Satan wish to lead you astray, and would say to you, as once King Saul did to his servants : "Will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds," still defy him and reply: Yea, thus it pleaseth the son of Jesse to do unto us, turn thee hence from us, thou Satan!

It is said of this crown, that it is set apart for us. Significant expression! "That it is laid up for us," is what he more immediately means to say. We are here reminded of presents from the godfather or a godmother, which the fond mother carefully locks up, until the beloved infant is grown up to enjoy it. Our crown hangs ready upon the pillars of heaven, and awaits our coming. The word "set apart" is equivalent to taken care of, and demands patience and resignation in us. The crown is in heaven and not on earth. Whoever believes himself required to arrive at complete holiness here, exposes himself to self-delusion or despair. Let 1 1 Samuel, xxii. 7.

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