with the Spirit of God, and shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. These have come out of great tribulation; for they lived upon the earth, and were for the most part present among men, during the occurrence of one or other of these several perilous and awful conflicts which preceded and terminated in the utter destruction of sin and sinners from off the earth. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb: they wrought out their own salvation with fear and trembling, God working in them to will and to do of His own good pleasure. Therefore they are clothed with white robes, and have palms in their hands: the white robes being their personal works of righteousness, wrought in faith, not of themselves, but by the grace of God; and the palms of their individual triumph over sin while in the body. IIe that sitteth on the throne, even their Father, dwells among them. They are the objects of special love, because the subjects of special grace. The Lamb whom they honoured upon earth, will honour them in a particular manner in heaven. But there is a third class much more numerous than even the stars and the sun, they are those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world; and although not sanctified by a life of godliness, were, nevertheless, foreknown by God, and therefore predestinated by Him, of His own mere good pleasure, to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren. "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified." (Rom. viii. 29, 30.) Be it observed, sanctification-by which I mean a life of godliness upon the earth, between the

time of believing and the entrance into glory-sanctifi

cation is left out. Those who are sanctified, are chosen as well as called. Those who are only called, are nevertheless justified and glorified. These are they who shine with a borrowed light, never having shone as lights in the world. Their glory is the glory of the moon. So then we have the glory of a terrestrial body, the latterday glory of Christ's church upon the earth. The glory of the celestial bodies, the whole redeemed family of mankind. These apportioned into three divisions: the glory of the sun, those translated without tasting of death; the glory of the moon, those having no works of personal righteousness, wrought in faith, by grace, upon the earth; the glory of the stars, those bright jewels of Immanuel's crown, who, amid scorn, and reproach, and ridicule, and contempt, have been found faithful those excellent spirits, of whom the world was not worthy, who were faithful unto their Lord amid toils and labours, persecutions and tortures, even unto death itself those angels in human form, clothed with a cloud, who preached salvation, and turned many to righteousness; these stars shall differ the one from the other in glory, but they shall all shine as stars in the spiritual firmament. The salvation of any but those who believed was of necessity kept secret until the time came when the sheep and the goats would be separated, and when all the sheep would hear their Master's voice, and follow Him whithersoever He led them. The Scriptures are intended for those into whose hands they have come; and it is self-evident that if this truth had not been intentionally hid and obscure, many would have been tempted to the commission of the unpardonable sin of living as they pleased and yet hoping

for salvation. It is a painful fact, that the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction have been more numerous among those nations who made a profession of christianity. God has graciously arranged that Satan's chief victims in this life have been his own offspring. Satan knew not, neither did the world, neither any of God's creatures until the day reveal it. The children of God, and the children of the wicked one, had nothing in their individual character by nature to enable even Satan himself to distinguish his own. They whom God sealed Satan knew, and persecuted as often as he could unto the death. But just as his own offspring in the two great delusions, Popery and Mahomedanism, have been made the scourges of each other, so the children of the wicked one have been the tormentors of the children of the wicked in this world; while God's children, who had no mark set upon them, have in general lived unknown, and sometimes undisturbed, because in circumstances to be beneath the concern of Satan. It is a marvellous display of Divine wisdom, and all men shall see it fully in the world to come; for then it shall be made manifest that while a very large number of God's children, even ninetenths, with the exception of the stars, lived in this world the children of wrath, even as others, nevertheless, among Satan's own offspring, whom God never knew, was the principal power of his wickedness and fury felt; and they who should have been his peculiar care, had he one spark of proper feeling within him, will be found to have been those against whom he most frequently drew the great sword, and set them to war, causing to kill and destroy each other. Shall any one

ask a reason for God saving so many who all thought would be lost? Consider thyself, O man, what hast

thou that thou hast not received? If God has not only saved thee, but has given thee the high distinction of choosing thee in Christ, to bring forth good fruits in this life, wilt thou question for one moment the proceeding of that gracious and holy Being, who has not seen meet to confer the same privilege upon a very large number of thy fellow-saints, like whom you were also a child of wrath and disobedience? If thou wilt refuse salvation to any but those who believe the gospel, art thou not limiting the mercy and the grace of God in Christ? Art thou not also making thy faith somewhat meritorious in securing thy justification? Now faith and justification are both alike the gift of God. To those to whom the gospel is preached, the solemn alternative is, believe and be saved; believe not, that is, deliberately despise, and reject, and contemn my salvation and thou shalt be damned. But it is in the electing purpose of God all our hopes of salvation can alone rest. Good works will make for us a bright and glorious crown. Faith, working by love, overcoming the world, will make us bright gems in Messiah's body. Still to grace we owe it all; how then can we, who are wholly saved by grace, and saved with a richer and more glorious salvation, object to God's bestowing upon as many as He sees meet the great and unspeakable gift of life eternal. Believe it, for it is the true saying of God, every man shall be saved; every child f Adam is a child of God in Christ; and surely thy faith is small indeed if thou canst not believe it possible with God to do this. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit; and in the last breath breathed by myriads of the human

family, God may have breathed into them the Holy Ghost, and that free nature which otherwise would have been extinct, from thence become a living spirit made like unto the Son of God by the power of an endless life; and the body made a member of Christ's body, sown in the earth in corruption, it shall be raised in incorruption; sown in dishonour, it shall be raised in glory; sown in weakness, it shall be raised in power; sown a natural body, it shall be raised a spiritual body; for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So then, let all living saints give glory to God in the highest for the incomprehensible mercy and love of His eternal purpose to man. Know all men, if any presume to expect salvation, and yet deliberately despise it and live godless lives, saying they shall be raised in glory by the grace of God, the case of such is all but hopeless; they prove themselves to have neither part nor lot in the great redemption; and let those who believe be stirred up to greater perseverance and diligence, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as they know that their labour is not in vain in the Lord.