us look at the other part of the text: and use that as the real touchstone, to see to what state we really claim to belong. It is possible to steer clear of many of the difficulties I have just now mentioned, and yet to be in great danger; to fancy ourselves, and to be in many ways, very religious, and yet to be grossly deceiving ourselves. Our religion may be a blind that hides Christ from us—our longing for salvation but the natural instinct of self-preservation: our heaven simply a future scene of harmless selfindulgence.

Now, what is heaven to us? what are our ideas about it? what does it contain for us? what do we expect from it? Is it simply a place where we hope never to have any more trouble? or is it in our thoughts, as it is in reality, the place "where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God"? Do you from it "look for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ "? For you, Christ will have much the same place in your earthly life as you allow Him to have in your heavenly expectation. There are few practical points in which the Church of the present day—I mean, of course, in its individuals—errs so generally or differs so widely from the Church of the martyrs as this. We talk of Advent, we say it is the coming of Christ; yet how little has that subject really entered into religious life, or even religious teaching. The coming of Christ! Mark the expression-not our dying; that is not His coming to us, but our going to Him. The coming of Christ actually, visibly coming in the flesh, to rule and reign over all things. If our citizenship

is in heaven, that fact will be prominent with us as it was with the early Christians. Read the New Testament. How little you find about death; how much about the coming of Christ. How little about the individual rescue, how much about the glory of our Lord; and where reference is made to the personal salvation, still how it is made to reflect the exceeding great glory of God. Are we sanctified day by day, made holy, fitted for perfection?" we are changed into His image." Does S. Paul speak of his own marvellous conversion ?—it was "that in me first, Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to everlasting life." And this wakes up his joyous doxology. If all we hold most dear is really treasured up beyond the skies, if our home is there, our country there, our Saviour there, and our heart there, then we too shall be patiently waiting here as a temporary sojourn, and earnestly looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It will be not only that we shall eagerly long for our own rescue from this world of sin and care, it will be not only the rapturous thought of seeing again those we have loved here; it will not be the certainty of no more change or danger-no, great as all these will be, there will be something that will sway our souls more than this! The triumph cry, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ," that will thrill through us with a holy exultation to which the warmest glow, the hottest pulse of earthly triumph or affection will be cold and stoical. “Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent

H

reigneth," will be a more joyous shout to us even than "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the Faith." The success of Christ, the triumph of all that is good, the banishment of evil, the vindication of the Church, the overthrow of scepticism, the silencing of scoff and blasphemy and clamour, the establishment of the throne of Him who is our Lord and Prince, our Saviour and our King. A nation's greatness is a majestic thing: the power of law and the voice of liberty, strength nobly used to help the oppressed; the strong right hand to carry out the wise decree; the gradual growth of intelligence, and rectitude, and honour-all this is grand; but grander far is the idea of that policy, the citizenship of that heavenly state, which will never need a remedial measure, for naught that offends can ever be therein; where there will be no disaffected citizen within, no possibility of tumult from without: where stands for ever and ever the reign of justice and of truth, bound up with perfect love. This, or rather that of which these or any words can be but a faint and distant echo, Christ will bring with Him when He comes. And come He will. Brethren, can you pray that that coming will be speedy? Through dangers abroad, through troubles and perplexities at home, with infidelity mocking more and more boldly, with vice outstripping even the gigantic strides of material improvement: through storm and earthquake, through terror and despair, does it seem to you that you hear the distant roll of those mighty chariot wheels? Are you longing, Christian, are you

panting, are you desiring the deliverer to come: are you thirsting for the hour when the world's tyrant idols shall be broken, and Christ shall reign in righteousness? Are you capable of this desire, are you worthy of it? Have you prayed for it, have you thought about it, have you hasted unto it, have you prepared for it? Remember the close connection between the citizenship and the coming. Realize the first and you will believe the second. It is those to whom that blessed city is revealed: it is those who see her as a bride descending out of heaven: it is those who think upon her glorious splendour, and trace that splendour to its source, to "the Lamb which is the Light thereof" it is those who amidst all the upheaving of the moral or material world, still hear the voice of God breathing in the prayers which He teaches His people: it is those who hear the Spirit and the Bride: the voice of conscience, and the voice of the Church, who hear them in their mystic prayer, and understand the longings of the regenerated soul within themselves-it is only those who so see and hear, that can with truth join in that blessed prayer, the prayer of the redeemed the prayer which marks the true Christian citizen in heart, "Even so come, Lord Jesus." O brethren, can you do that? Can you without falsehood pray, “Thy kingdom come"?

X.

THE DECAY OF FAITH.

S. LUKE xviii. 8.

Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

DID Jesus Christ ever despond? Did He who sighed as He healed the poor deaf mute, look forward over the ages and see before Him a world in which one here and one there shall be rescued out of a perishing multitude-ten cleansed and only one remain? Did He foresee that His own most holy work, His own most precious death and burial might effect all that was needed, all that was possible, and yet the boon be received with thanklessness except by one here and there? Did He who wept over Jerusalem sorrow for a world that knows not the time of its visitation ? Did He who groaned in His spirit and was troubled, stand as mourner over the spiritual death of the world He came to save? Did He who was exceeding sorrowful even unto death" feel the most crushing pang of all—that in Himself and in His messengers He stretched out His hands first on the Cross and then through all nations, "unto a disobedient and