Many, it is to be feared, are at ease in Zion.' Some, probably, there are, who, had they been suddenly called into eternity, would have been saved, yet so as by fire,' while others would have gone down to the grave, leaving only a dark and dubious hope to their surviving friends. Let our aim be higher than this; henceforward may we be stirred up to give all diligence in making our calling and election sure, that so an entrance may be ministered unto us abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom. And whereas, we are in so many ways reminded, that

'Dangers stand thick thro' all the road,

To push us to the tomb,'

let us endeavour after an immediate readiness for death and eternity. "May our loins be girded about, and our lights burning; and we ourselves be like unto men who wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, we may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those

servants, whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants." God grant it to us, my brethren, that in a dying moment such blessedness may indeed be ours.

SERMON XI.

THE BELIEVER PUTTING ON CHRIST AS HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS AND

STRENGTH.

ROMANS XIII. 12—14.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.

BELIEVERS are figuratively represented in scripture as the children of the day.' "Ye, brethren," saith St. Paul in writing to the Thessalonians, "are not in darkness; ye are all the children of light and the children of the day." In which

Here

passage there is a manifest comparison between a state of grace, and the state of those who are unconverted and unenlightened. In this view it may properly be said of real christians, that they are not of the night, nor of darkness.' In the context, however, the Apostle makes a different use of the same terms. the comparison appears to be between a state of grace and a state of glory. The former, though properly denominated light, in comparison of a totally graceless condition, is little better than darkness, or at best, mere twilight, compared with that transcendently more glorious state to which it leads. Doubtless the light of heaven, that is, the holiness and felicity of the heavenly state, will as much exceed the utmost attainment of the most eminent believer on earth, as the full splendour of meridian noon outshines the glimmering of a star. Thus the beauty of the figure which the Apostle uses, and the force of his argument, become at once apparent. He represents heaven as a state of perfect light, where we shall be

perfectly holy and completely happy; and he sets this state before us, not as a thing to be expected at some remote and indefinite period, but as near at hand; a state into which we shall presently enter, and for which immediate preparation must be made. Seeing the day of glory, the light of heaven is about to burst upon us, let us seek without delay to become meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, by casting off the works of darkness, and putting on the armour of light;' as in the morning, when the dark

ness has passed away, and day light is again restored, in rising from our beds we throw aside our night-clothes and put on our proper daily apparel. "Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ." The Apostle does not, in as many words, exhort to put on sobriety instead of rioting and drunkenness; purity instead of chambering and wantonness; or, love, meekness and forbearance, instead of