grant that we, following His Divine motions, may hear and obey Thy loving voice, and suffer ourselves to be gathered under Thy wing, to be willingly led into the way of Thy commandments, and at last, through Thy perfect merits, to Thy heavenly kingdom. Amen. The people of Jerusalem were to lose the Divine presence of Christ, until in the fulness of time they shall own Him for their Saviour, and with believing joy exclaim, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!" Happy day for the poor wandering Israelite, when all his vain hope in his own righteousness shall vanish away, and when, in the city of his fathers, he shall own the persecuted and crucified Jesus for his Saviour and for his righteousness! Happy, both for converted Jew and for the converted of all nations, who shall be able to bless the Lord Jesus Christ, when He comes in the name of His Father to execute that judgment "which He hath committed unto Him!" May you and I be of the number! May we have grace to love Him, and to keep His commandments, so that when He cometh He may take us under the shadow of His wings, there to remain rejoicing in His salvation for ever and ever! A LAYMAN. THE SON OF MAN ON THE THRONE OF HIS GLORY (concluded). MATT. XXV. 31-33. THE Son of Man shall then, in an eminent sense, "sit on the throne of His glory," and without dispute. This is not so at present. Ever since the entrance of sin into the world there has always prevailed an evident general disaffection to the Divine government, nay, "the carnal mind is enmity against God," is not subject to the law of God; so that, speaking in terms almost universally applicable, we are obliged to confess the earth's surface, in its length and breadth, to be a field of battle and rebellion against the sovereignty of God and His Christ. It is in vain for sinners to profess, that they do not mean to deny the sovereignty, or to cast off the government of their heavenly King, whilst the arms of their high treason are found upon them, actively employed against the Law of His mouth, and the plain decrees of His gracious Will. O man, sin is the weapon in thy heart, in thy hand! I know, indeed, that thy fallen nature has placed it there; but what has kept it there? why have you not renounced that lawless strife? You must know, that such a contest will ever be ineffectual, except as a means for ensuring your own utter destruction. O, then, while yet the Son of Man lingers, as it were, upon His Throne of Grace, to see you repent and return,-to-day, after so long a time, ere the mercy-seat on earth be for ever forsaken, and the throne of glory be revealed as the seat of judgment, now repent and believe unto holiness and salvation! Once more, it is manifest that the Son of Man at the last day will then, in an eminent sense, "sit upon the throne of His glory;" and that for the especial purpose mentioned in the following verses,-a purpose of judicial separation, when all nations shall be gathered before Him. He shall then sit, to proceed and act as the Universal Judge on the throne of His glory; " and before Him shall be gathered all nations," from the first man that died, to the last that shall live. All God's responsible human creation must then appear before the Lord, the Judge of all, without one excused exception; the raised dead, and the changed living, will all be gathered there; accordingly you and I shall most certainly be there to complete this universal perfect number. And now, as to the total amount of that mighty concourse, no man can number them; it fatigues and baffles his best powers of calculation accurately to reckon up the millions of the passing generation; those final numbers, however, are doubtless already known by Him who will judge them, who numbers the stars, the very hairs of our head, and the countless sands of the sea-shore. It will therefore be a far more profitable employment for us to allude to the almost infinite variety of national and individual character, which will await the sentence and separation of Almighty God. "Before Him shall be gathered all nations." Whatever lords they served on earth, those lords are now at their side, to be judged even as themselves; Egyptian Pharaoh and oppressed Israel; the Babylonian conqueror and the Babylonian captive; the Gentile, the Jew, and the Christian; Africa the slave, and England the free, are all united before the judgmentseat, under the resistless authority of one Divine universal summons. And now, then, where are all the distinctions which on earth looked so fair, and even sounded so rational? where are the crown and sceptre, the purple and fine linen, nobility, riches, beauty, and power? and where is even the wisdom of this world? where are those presuming judgments which object to God's written word, and would deny to Him the right of legislation in His own universe, which with a word He made, and with a word can at once destroy? where, in that great day, will be found a place for those false expedients which prevail against every better conviction, and set a man at strange variance with the professed principles of his heart? When it is considered for whose judgment-seat we are all destined, what an omniscient eye is now ever upon us, and what an unerring discretion will at last separate us, shall we dare to tamper with vain appearances? shall we feign Heaven to be the first of our hopes, while it is the very last in our affections? shall we dangerously unite ourselves with the ranks of a moderated, halting Christianity? do we think to make a justifiable stand between the sheep and the goats on earth, and yet do we hope to share the security of the one, and to escape the rejection of the other at the judgment-day? I pray you, before you take your final resolve, see to it, that you are proceeding on some certain warrant; learn, first of all, that there is a place reserved in heaven for all who die in this doubtful state which you propose to yourselves; make sure that this third class is to be found recognized by the Supreme Judge for a sentence different from that of the wicked who manifestly know not God! Ah, my brethren, amongst all the mighty congregation of that day, we shall not find this doubtful class; such were really in heart mingled with the wicked on earth; so that now, convicted by their own consciences, as well as by the immediate act of the Judge, they turn miserably aside to their own place, the side of dishonour, the left hand of the Judge; "He shall separate them one from another." It is not left for us to imagine from this lan guage that God is in any case now ignorant of character and undecided in His judgment of it; the sentence of the last day will not express God's first act of judgment against the sinner; God is judging him now. In the meanwhile, if that sinner will but pray, repent, and turn, there is hope concerning him. Judgment in this life is not to be considered by us as final and irreversible, forasmuch as we know, that though God's judgment against sin cannot be set aside, yet that through Christ the sinner may undoubtedly be delivered from condemnation, and saved from his sins. But in that day the judgment of separation will leave to the ungodly no hope behind; in this life, indeed, when by any sentence of God's word the robe of self-righteousness and the mask of hypocrisy are torn from man's detected character, there is hope yet left him he may yet enter into the bonds of a new covenant, he may yet find peace with God; and however far astray from the true fold of Christ, he may yet return and rank among the sheep of His pasture, and on the right hand of His eternal kingdom. Blessed be God, that great, fathomless, impassable gulf of which we read in Scripture is fixed, not between heaven and earth, but between heaven and hell; and at what time soever, as long as time shall last, any sinner, feeling the guilt and condemnation of sin, shall turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, for pardon, holiness, and salvation, he may assuredly lift up his head, and take courage, and press forward even into the kingdom of heaven! But oh, how precarious, and therefore how precious is the sinner's proving time! even now it may be ready to close upon him for ever, and if he thinks not, his danger may be greater than if he felt himself dying, for when a man shall say, " Peace and safety, then sudden destruction may come upon him," and that without remedy. O, my brethren, suffer, I pray you, the word of exhortation, suffer me to linger upon your attention, while I proceed to apply, and so to close this present discourse; and now, that no age or condition of life before me should go away this time either ignorant or excused, dear children, I have a word for you. Do not think, that when God shall : arise to judge the earth, children will be lost sight of among the very great numbers of men and women who will then appear for judgment. Ah, no! beyond all doubt, there will be children on his right hand, and children on his left; and what sort of children, do you think, will be placed on his right hand among the blessed sheep of his pasture? Oh, they will be the children of his grace; children who have learnt truly to love and fear God; children who have sought in daily prayer the favour of God, and the Spirit of God, to change them and make them new creatures in Christ Jesus; children who have loved instruction, who have hated sin, who have fled from temptation; humble, teachable, thankful children, who have struggled against those unholy tempers and dispositions, which can never find a place in heaven in a word, the children who will assuredly be separated to the right hand of the Judge will be holy children, something, indeed, like the Holy Child Jesus; they are the recovered lambs of His flock upon earth; they only can be reckoned among the sheep of His right hand in His glorious kingdom. And now, who are the children on the left hand of the Judge? Oh, they are an unhappy company; they hang down their heads, as well they may, knowing themselves to be guilty, but knowing it too late. And are you led to inquire, Are there any Sunday School children among them? Oh, I fear there are! At any rate, I am sadly sure of this one thing, that those very children who, having been instructed in a Sunday School, do nevertheless die in the service of sin, and without salvation, will have far more to answer for than any other set of children on the face of the earth. And can any child here present bear the thought of being taken out of the world by an angry God, to dwell for ever with the wicked in outer darkness? God forbid, dear children! go home and pray; you may not be able to utter many words; but if you only desire to pray with the heart, in the name of Jesus Christ, God will assuredly hear and answer your prayer; and then, when you have prayed to God to keep you, you shall be able to keep yourselves from evil company, from the ways of sin, from the temptations of sin; and then, when |