them in their houses, saith the Lord." But there is in these orders nothing repulsive nor arrogant, nothing humiliated nor depressed; there is no wall of partition; all is intermingled; all is one; one acclaiming host! one holy community! one happy family! All the places round about are a blessing! They are heavenly places in Christ Jesus!

6. The Series of their Progression.

The tendencies and yearnings of the human mind are towards an indefinite life and advancement. These keep us restless and dissatisfied while we are in our sins: these excite us to grow in grace, to follow on to know the Lord, to lay hold on eternal life, when we receive the grace of God in truth. If there was a point in our existence at which we must be hopelessly resisted, beyond which we could learn nothing further and enjoy nothing more,large as the information already attained, vast as the happiness already found,—that would be the limit of well-being. Of little consequence would it be whether we then ceased to desire, or only desired in vain. Our misery, instead of being lessened by what we had acquired, would be unspeakably aggravated. The prospect which had drawn out our soul would be suddenly closed against it. It would be like an ascent to some everlasting hill to gaze for first and for last our full of the glorious land, not then to die amidst the rapture, but to be doomed to life beneath the sudden fall of an endless night. We should feel that our nature was reversed. It was not allowed its growth. It was stunted and overborne. Now this is the description of what belongs to God's presence: "fulness of joy." But that alone would involve satiety: "At His right hand there are pleasures for evermore." While in our pilgrimage, the mercies which are new every morning inspire fresh joys and praises. There shall be in heaven everopening wells of delight. Nothing can be stationary in its knowledge or in its bliss. It is a field for boundless meliorations. It is a track for onward footsteps. The song is a song of degrees! The heaven is a heaven of heavens! From the lowest mansion the spirit may ascend to a higher and a higher still. There must be a period when we shall have overtaken all the fire of the present Paul, all the love of the present John. There must be a period

when we shall sing a sweeter strain than now is heard from the sweetest singer beneath the throne. There must be a period when our intellect shall have stretched beyond the capacities of the greatest actual intellect. Perhaps an economy of tuition may be supposed. "One of the elders" may awaken curiosity to gratify it. "There may be given us a reed," that we should judge the measurements of things for ourselves. "A fellow-servant and of them which keep the sayings of this book" may show us the "pure river of water of life," carrying us along "either side," until we mark the very source. So they who were "faithful over a few things are appointed rulers over many things": they "have authority over ten cities." Here is the symbol of influence, and it must be benevolently employed. May it not imply mutual assistance and instruction? A constant fulfilling of the law of Christ? And thus these many mansions shall rise in an interminable series. How high may the lowest believer reach! How incalculably may the highest transcend themselves! Nor is there difficulty. The interval is still between the finite and the infinite! The stretch for these progressions is the duration of eternity!

Such, Dear Christians, is your solemn home, your holy habitation! There you shall be at rest. There shall gather around you the family of the redeemed. Each countenance wears an unfading smile. The eye knows no tear. There is endless greeting. The heart swells with transport. There is the full tide of love. Identity and variety lend their charms. It is our house! There are many mansions!

My Father's House! Where, in distant space, rise thy pinnacles? Where sweep thy many mansions? Where, in the starkindled firmament, is thy ethereal dome? It is in "His holy When shall my feet

heaven"! When shall mine eyes see thee?

stand in the midst of thee? When shall thy children all be brought home? When shall the latest born have passed thy gate? When shall the hymn of that great assemblage salute the ear, and bless the grace, of Him who hath said, "I will be a Father unto you"! "O that I had wings, like a dove, then would I flee away and be at rest"! Amen.

SERMON III.

VALID CHRISTIANITY.

1 COR. iv. 20.

"FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NOT IN WORD, BUT IN POWER."

No phrase is of more frequent recurrence in the writings of both Testaments than this, "the kingdom of God." It was originally the prophetic description of the Christian dispensation: evangelists, apostles, and the Messiah himself, adopted and employed it. There is, however, a disadvantage in the translated term. Kingdom generally expresses the territory reigned over, rather than the reign itself. But the idea required is that of the authority or the rule, not of the realm which it governs. Dominion might answer, but that when used in the plural it equally suggests the thought of extended space, and is not indeed necessarily imperial. Sovereignty might serve, but that it has obtained a specific force and value in theological nomenclature. Royalty might suffice, but that it commonly denotes special privilege and prerogative, and when multiplied, royalties are understood to signify the seignioral rights of peculiar estates and domains. Monarchy is liable to the same objection, it being of the same mixed sense. It is well to seize a single expression, rather than that we should be compelled to compound several terms. Regal sway, domination, supremacy, are cumbrous, ungraceful, unpointed, combinations: rule is feeble, reign only a little better, while king-ship, though not quite faultless, is, perhaps, the happiest substitute of all. With this criticism we shall now proceed no farther: we only value it as it conveys a just limitation: nor shall we make any service of it in altering the given phrase. That is so familiar to our ear that any other would sound harshly to us. All that is

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necessary is, to disabuse our mind of locality and area when we "speak of the glory of this kingdom," and when we would "make known to the sons of men the glorious majesty of this kingdom." Let our thinking be of a simple principle and administration of Divine government.

This "kingdom" is special. It is not the kingdom which is the Lord's as the Governor among the nations. It is not the kingdom of God in the outward dispensation of the gospel, a kingdom which is "preached" unto us, "which has "come nigh" unto us. It is not the kingdom of God, the sphere of celestial bliss, to which we are "called," and "for which we suffer." It is spiritual. "It cometh not with observation." It is "within us." We can only "see" it,—we can only "enter" it,—by being "born again." It is not ceremonial observance, but "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Its "mystery" can alone be appreciated by subjection to it. It is so inestimable in its rich hopes and lofty dignities, that we must "seek it first,” -that is, before all things,-in point of time and in ardour of solicitude!

This kingdom of God, his control of the hidden man of the heart, is not in "word,”—a formal show, an unbinding dictate, -a mere proclamation and behest,-a splendid spectacle and pageant,-it is in Power. This is a thing very difficult to define. To tell us that it is ability, capacity, strength, is vain. It is idle repetition. They are only other words. You have not advanced a step towards the explanation. The most decisive mode to treat it is, to unite it in our own minds with some change which we cannot but think ourselves have produced, some effect which, without perplexing ourselves in mere verbal subtilty, we know that we have wrought. I will to pluck that flower: my hand is the instrument: it is extended: its fingers lay hold of the flower: the flower is gathered: I had the power: and this is the result. I will to think of a certain subject: my attention is given to it: my meditations embrace it: the thought stands up before me: I have accomplished my purpose. I will to impress my fellowcreature's mind: I avail myself of the reasonings suited to such an aim, or I work upon his excitable feelings by more direct

appeals. Concerning power little more can be understood. It will better reveal its true meaning in the facts which the text will identify, and the illustrations which it will enforce. Christianity will then appear, and approve itself, as a scheme of singular influence, a mysterious potency, an outforce of incessant action, a spring of water welling up without effort or exhaustion, a rod of strength and ever-budding life; and it will be seen, also, that Christians, informed with the same quickening spirit, burn with its zeal, move with its courage; that they act with its habit, travail with its purpose: "thereunto labouring, agonising with an energy which energises in them mightily.” "The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power."

Having offered these prefatory remarks, we propose to consider True and Vital and Experienced Christianity in its Dignified Character and Energetic Ascendancy.

I. IN FOLLOWING THE HOLY SCRIPTURE WE MUST SPEAK OF RELIGION IN ITS HOLD AND OPERATION UPON THE HEART AS NOTHING LESS THAN THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

sense.

And, accordingly, you must lay out of your minds all notion of wide and wealthy empires, of powerful and accumulated states; of diadems, thrones, and sceptres. No ensign is to be set up around which the warrior could rally. No standard is to flap its folds which might tempt cupidity and ambition. It is not victory which any worldly project could apply. It is not aggrandisement which any sordid folly could convert to its design. Nothing must be left to dazzle the fancy and charm the You must remove all your ideas to the inner recesses of the soul. With that spirit, shut out from every thing besides, must you, henceforth, commune. There does this kingdom fix its seat. There it issues its mandate. There it expends its operation. That field is withdrawn from mortal notice, and the treasure, which is now buried in it, gives it not only an incalculable value but converts it into a productive mine of riches! It was, ere God planted his kingdom in it, a den of anarchy and misrule. It belonged to the kingdom of Satan. It was full of darkness, torn by division, embroiled by confusion, distracted with strife. Ignorance, even to blindness, decided all. Vile