at hand,-what must be the state of such a person's mind? The greater his conscientiousness, the deeper would be his dismay; the more correct his views of the perfection of the Divine attributes, the fuller would he be of apprehension as he speculated upon the probabilities of his future destiny. All earthly comforters would be unavailing: affection and tenderness could do nothing to allay the deep anxiety of his soul. In vain would he exclaim in the extremity of his distress, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" There would be none to answer, none to console, none to deliver. All would be dark and terrible foreboding: the best he could hope for would be annihilation, that his soul should die with his body; and yet there is that within him which would tell him that this may not be, but that he shall be preserved to meet an offended God, and to receive from Him a sentence of punishment more awful than tongue can tell, or heart imagine. And thus he dies!

And now contrast with such a case as this the state of any Christian,-of any one, that

is, who has been admitted into the Church of Christ, and has received with all his heart the doctrines of the everlasting Gospel. He, too, must die; he, too, must prepare for that hour in which earthly help will be unavailing, and earthly friends can minister no more, and earthly hopes must fail. But he, bowed down though he be with the sense of his utter inability to meet the gaze of a righteous and heart-searching God, with the remembrance of accumulated sins, and frequent falls, and imperfect penitences, and his best services but a miserable, partial, defective, worthless obedience, is still able to see the advance of death without despair. He stands on the confines of the grave; but he knows that there is One Who hath triumphed over it,-Whose, by Baptism, he has been made, and in Whose strength he believes that even such an one as he is, so weak, so vile, may still be more than conqueror. He knows that he is about to undergo the first part of the sentence denounced on sin,—death temporal, but he has been taught where to look for refuge from death eternal. He is assured that in a few hours more he will

have entered the confines of the world unseen; but he remembers Who it is that reigns paramount therein: "I am the First and the Last; I am He that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell, and of death:" he believes that the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, do rest in Him in a state of joy and felicity: he believes deliverance out of the miseries of this sinful world to be a source of thankfulness; and he has not been afraid to pray that God would hasten His kingdom, and bring this world of sin and sorrow to an end. Finally, he knows that he must stand before the Judge of quick and dead to render an account of all the deeds done in the body; but in that judgment-seat he sees, not the formidable array of severe, inflexible justice, but a throne of grace: in that Judge he recognizes One not untouched with human sympathies, but One Who knoweth whereof we are made, and remembereth that we are but dust;-a Saviour Who hath partaken of our nature, and known its wants, and weakness, and infirmities;

224 THE RISEN SAVIOUR THE LORD OF DEATH.

Who, in His compassion and tender pity, hath loved us, and washed us from our sins with His Blood, Who destroyed sin upon the Cross, triumphed over death and hell by His Resurrection, and is now invested with power to save to the uttermost All that come unto God by Him, seeing that He ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Is it needful that I should pursue the contrast further? Is it requisite for me to urge you to continual thankfulness for your inestimable privileges, or to press on you the tremendous responsibilities which privileges such as ours imply? I would rather lay my hand upon my lips and keep silence. Let us bow our heads, and cast our eyes upon the ground, and meditate on our miseries and our mercies.

"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?I thank God, through Jesus Christ Our Lord."

LECTURE XIV.

FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS ON THE FIRST OF THE TWO FINAL PRAYERS.

The Christian's Deliverance hy Death a source of thankfulness to Survivors.

PHILIPPIANS iii. 20, 21.

"FOR OUR CONVERSATION IS IN HEAVEN ; FROM WHENCE ALSO WE LOOK FOR THE SAVIOUR, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST: WHO SHALL CHANGE OUR VILE BODY, THAT IT MAY BE FASHIONED LIKE UNTO HIS GLORIOUS BODY, ACCORDING TO THE WORKING WHEREBY HE IS ABLE EVEN TO SUBDUE ALL THINGS UNTO HIMSELF.”

THE presence or absence of that childlike docility, which obeys readily and at once, without raising questions or making difficulties, is a sure test of a disciplined or undisciplined mind. The child does what he is bidden because he loves his parents, he