singing; and perhaps, after a time, they may be induced to join the class, and learn to sing properly.

The plan I have mentioned has been tried with great success in several churches I know; and with due perseverance is sure to answer in a little time.

I am making this too long, but have not said nearly all I wish on the subject before us; if, however, what I have said should prove interesting, or be of use, to any of your readers who wish to be real church singers, I hope I may be able another time to give a sketch of the musical course the class should pursue, and to add a few words on the best way of guiding them through it.

O. W. D.

THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD.

REV. xxii. 20.

"He which testifieth these things, saith, Surely I come quickly; Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

HAVING in a former number briefly and in a general manner considered the statement of our Lord Jesus Christ in the text, let us now proceed to remark upon the welcome with which this statement is received. "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." These words are to be understood as simply expressing the assured faith and strong desire of every true believer with regard to Christ's second coming. "Surely I come quickly, says the Saviour. The Christian answers, Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." "Amen: so be it." Herein the Church of Christ testifies her faith in our Lord's declaration. And this spirit of implicit faith is a great distinctive mark of the Christian character. When the Saviour speaks, it is with authority. We must, therefore, not only listen with attention, but must at once and fully receive what is spoken as an article of faith. Whether it be doctrine, promise, or precept-whatever the declaration be, unless we add our hearty "Amen” to the word spoken, we are far, indeed, from treating it as the word of Christ. But let it be well remembered, that the mere "Amen" is not sufficient; nor even a feeling of general admission and approval of what Holy Scripture enjoins; but rather a principle of cordial faith

in all the Saviour's meaning, when He says, "Surely I come quickly: I come for the final destruction of those ine enemies, who will not that I shall rule over them." 66 Amen," says the Church of Christ. "I come to turn the wicked into hell, and all the nations that forget God. I come to reign for ever King of kings, and Lord of lords. I come to perfect all that concerns the complete redemption of my blood-bought people. I come to abolish every thing earthly, and to place heaven in the stead thereof; to consume every idol pleasure, and with it every one who has made pleasure his idol. I come to take away riches from the wealthy, and power from the mighty, and high station from the lofty; 'for the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.'" (Isa. ii. 11.) Now for such, and whatever other great events may follow upon Christ's second coming, the Christian's soul must be prepared by a firm and realizing faith. Whatever is plainly predicted in the Bible concerning the future kingdom of Christ in his eternal glory, must be met by the joyful "Amen” of every Bible Christian. But, again; not only do believers express their assured faith in the truth of our Lord's second coming, but also their longing desire for the event. This is signified in the text, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." What they believe, therefore, is what they desire. Their faith and hope are close companions. In this does the Christian very mainly differ from the ungodly. Many men, who have no reason whatever to desire the second coming of Christ, profess to look for that event. But their faith, if any, must be attended with fear, and not with hope; like the faith of the devils, who also believe in a day of future judgment, while at the same time they know full well they can have no reason to desire that day; they cannot say, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus:" neither can the ungodly; neither can they, who are living regardless of those heavenly pursuits, which distinguish the character and condition of all who are looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, say, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Put these words into the mouth of

one, whose heart is bound up in the love of this present world-why, they are mockery, they are blasphemy; to such a man the coming of Christ signifies the wreck of his hopes, the end of his joys; he has no part or lot in the matter of Christian privilege or obedience now on earth; and therefore it is hardly possible to suppose him glad in the prospect of a rest for which he does not labour, and into which he therefore cannot enter. His whole spirit and course of living flow right contrary to a heavenly direction. His affections, instead of mounting upward in devotion to the King of saints, are ever rooting themselves deeper and deeper in this sordid world; he can in no wise enter into Christian feelings, nor estimate Christian principles; to such a one Christian feelings are fanaticism, and Christian principles rigid and needless peculiarities: and, therefore, instead of directing his supreme hope and aim to a future world, he makes as much as he can of this: here is his rest; and although proof upon proof chides his sensual and foolish confidence, yet do they too generally fail to check him, until he is forced to yield to the conviction of dearbought and soul-bought experience. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus:" these, therefore, are not the words of any but those who are expecting and seeking their best portion, their true inheritance beyond the grave; and who, in consequence of this their hope, are living in a righteous contempt of a rest here below. Thus we may consider these words as denoting the spirit of holy desire, in which every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is found habitually to live. In either the more public or more private course of the Christian's experience, in all his relative duties, in divine ordinances, in secret devotion, in social intercourse, this, his prevailing spirit, is mostly evident; in all things he is endeavouring to approve himself unto God, that he may stand forth unblamable in the day of his Son's appearing. But most especially in the multitude of his thoughts, and in the deep affection of his soul, does the Christian. nourish this heavenly frame of desiring, looking for, and hasting unto his Lord's promised coming. And by constant meditation on the victories of Christ over sin,

death, and hell, he is ever gaining fresh courage to his own soul in the various seasons of conflict and trial. When manifold temptation presses around him, and threatens to turn him aside from a circumspect walk and conversation, then does the wholesome fear possess him, lest his Lord should come, and find him astray and slumbering. And so, by exercising his soul with the awfulness of such an event, his convictions are kept alive, his resolutions are strengthened, and his whole spirit more and more determined on that straightforward and decided course, which alone can conduct a man to a blessed eternity. But again, by entertaining the desirableness of Christ's second coming, and by learning to welcome the prospect of its approach, the fear of death, which is far too natural in the very best of men, will more and more give way and be subdued within us. What, I ask, emboldened and enabled the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen, to welcome the violent hands of an enraged multitude determined upon his destruction? We read in Acts vi. 15, that "all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel." And what was his voice in death? "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And well might he say so, for we read that he was full of the Holy Ghost. He was looking stedfastly up into heaven, and he saw there the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God (Acts vii. 55, 56); and Christians in every age of the Gospel may have the same view-may make the same discovery-not indeed with their bodily eyes, but by the sure insight of a realizing faith. And in the near prospect of an eternal world-a prospect which the sinfulness of our nature may well prompt us to regard without a welcome, but rather with apprehension and dismay; yet even then may the language of praise and joyful greeting resound from the lips of every obedient believer in the Saviour's name, knowing, as he does, that his redemption in its full accomplishment now draweth nigh." Even so," saith the dying Christian, "come, Lord Jesus."

In concluding these remarks, I desire to address, in the first place, most solemnly, those who cannot with

any sincerity welcome the prospect and declaration of our Lord's second coming. Such are they who have never yet by a true reception of his grace, cordially welcomed Christ's first advent into our world. You are the persons who are now rejecting the Saviour in view of his low estate, as the man of Nazareth. You are ashamed of Jesus Christ; or, if not ashamed to profess his name, you are too sensual to be influenced by his Spirit, too worldly to rejoice in the heavenly character of his example, or to walk in his steps. You talk of Christ, it may be, but in your works you deny Him. The view of heaven at last is good and fair in your eyes, but the way of holiness, which alone leads to it, seems to you cheerless and toilsome. You do not object to the idea of eternal joys as a last resource, as a sequel to present indulgences, which must so quickly terminate; but you are not now rising towards that bright inheritance in newness of life, and a growing meetness for its pure and solid and unchanging bliss-in a word, you are thoroughly intent upon the acquisitions of this life, let what will come to you in another world. O! then, let not any such persons, remaining such, dream of peace and comfort as derivable to their souls from the declaration of Christ's second coming. That great event, which will bring the perfect day of eternal glory to every true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, will bring equal confusion to every insincere and unholy professor of the Christian faith. They into whose hearts Christ and his Gospel are not now admitted with a renewing and a sanctifying power, will receive no advantage from our Lord's second advent. To them the archangel's thrilling trumpet, announcing that there shall be time no longer, should be indeed a terrible expectation. At that hour of judgment, the book of God's unfailing remembrance will present its record against them; and although they may have been heard to say, "Lord, Lord," in professed attachment to the Saviour, yet, having never in the time of their mortal life entered into any spiritual covenant of faith and holiness with Christ as their Lord and Master, they will then be disowned by Him. They never welcomed Him with any hearty and supreme attachment to his go