the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” 5 And then they who have been "dead with him” on earth, shall rise to live with him above. They who have shared his sufferings, shall also appear with him in glory. He shall "change their vile body, that it may be made like unto his glorious body:" this "corruptible shall put on incorruption; this mortal shall put on immortality." The very place of their future habitation was disclosed in a vision to St. John, who writes: "I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. And I heard a great voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men; and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; for the former things are passed away." " 6

These are the things which are above: the things of which St. Paul says, Set your affections on them: the things to which he says, we are risen: risen in thought, and desire, and title: the things upon which our heart should be fixed, and among which our life, "our conversation "7 should be even now; for where our heart is, there will our life be also.

This, then, is the proper attitude of every Christian man. His residence here; his home, above; his tone of mind, his habits of living such, as to show that his affections are set on heavenly things. Nothing less, is to answer the purpose of our redemption, by which

5 Matt. xvi. 27.

6 Rev. xxi. 1-4.

7 Phil. iii. 20.

we are

"delivered from this present evil world." Nothing less can answer the requirements of our baptism, in which we engaged to renounce all worldly pomps and vanities. Nothing less, is to "walk worthy of Christ, who has called us to his kingdom and glory." Nothing less will enable us, when he shall appear, to "have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming." 8

LXXII.

HEAVEN THE ABODE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

2 PETER iii. 13.

We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

ST. PETER gives this short, but emphatic, description of the heavenly kingdom, which the Christian is permitted to look for, when all things which now are "shall be dissolved." He does not speak of it as a place "where is fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore:" he does not attempt to represent its glories,

81 John ii. 28.

by figuring to our minds gates of pearl, and streets of gold he does not even make mention of the absence of all sorrow, "where they shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more, neither shall there be any more pain: "1 -but he simply speaks of a new world wherein dwelleth righteousness. He states this, and this alone, as if this were all, and this all-sufficient.

And truly, speaking thus, he speaks as one who had gone through the ranks of mankind, and the abodes of human nature, and had learnt what causes misery, and what real happiness consists in. He speaks as one who had entered into the recesses of his own heart, and had discovered what was needful to its peace and then he describes heaven as a place wherein dwelleth righteousness.

This world would have been free from all calamity, if there had been no unrighteousness. If the heart of man had remained uncorrupt, all things else would have remained as they were at first pronounced by their Creator, who surveyed the works of his hands, "and behold they were very good." With sin came death; came all the pain and woe that leads to death, and attends it. With sin came that blight upon the earth, from which labour and indigence and privation spring. And yet it is not in these-not in the severity of labour nor in the straits of poverty that real unhappiness consists: indeed under all the calamities and trials of life the pious and godly mind may be upheld moral evil is the thorn which rankles in the side, and causes the wound which cannot be remedied or mitigated, till its source is removed.

1 See Rev. vii. and xxi.

I look (for example) to the history of the patriarch Jacob, and find one who is leaving his country and his home, his whole fortune and his sole companion, being the staff on which he leaned; a mother too, who loved him but too well, is forced to conquer nature and hasten his departure. This is one of the sore distresses of life the separation of those who are dear to each other the departure from the home we have known, and the country we have loved. If we trace this case of unhappiness to its cause, it arises from sin. It arises from the practice of deceit in one, and in the indulgence of revenge in another. Jacob is forced to fly, because he has supplanted his brother of his birthright: because Esau is waiting for an opportunity to slay him.

I look again to the history of the kings of Israel,3 and find the picture of a monarch who "comes home to his house heavy and displeased, and lays him down upon his bed, and turns away his face, and will eat no bread." Here too is unhappiness. And here too is sin under another form: the form of covetousness. Ahab has been disappointed in his desire to possess Naboth's vineyard.

Again, I turn to the thirty-eighth Psalm and read these words: "O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh by reason of thine anger: neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burthen, they are too heavy

for me."

2 Gen. xxvii.

3 1 Kings xxi.

The complaint is from David. It is not pain, it is not poverty, it is not the loss of those dear to him, which cause these mournful words: he is grieving, because he acknowledges his transgressions, and his sin is ever before him. And what would these, and such as these, require, that their sorrow may be turned into joy, their mourning changed for peace? A nature which shall not sin: a nature which shall not be overcome by evil desires: a nature which shall not covet what God has not permitted: a nature which shall not be capable of envy, hatred, malice, and uncharitableness: a nature where the flesh shall not lust against the spirit, or a law in the members war against the law of the mind: a nature, in short, wherein dwelleth righteousness: dwelleth, not as now, a guest brought in, admitted into the heart, yet often finding itself a stranger, as one not in its native home: not as now, even at the best, soon disturbed as a bird from the resting-place it has chosen, and forced to flee away; but where righteousness dwells as in its own birthplace.

Neither is it a man's own sinfulness alone which brings him unhappiness in this world. How much of what is suffered comes from the sin of others! How many families are made miserable from the conduct of those who ought to be their stay and comfort! What wretchedness did Jacob suffer from the wickedness of his children! David, too; was there any sorrow like the sorrow which he felt for Absalom? St. Peter, like all the early Christians, knew much of this: so that if, as St. Paul writes, "in this world only they had hope, they were of all men most miserable:" reproached by their friends, cast off by their relations, despoiled of