petty warfare has fastened on the Church. We are fallen on an age in which the chief zeal for truth is, that men have not so absolutely ceased to care for it, as to keep from quarrelling about it. Almost are we tempted to cry out, Would that a season of stern trial might sift the Church of all shallow, petulant, self-loving, boastful men, that the true and loyal hearts might be made manifest, and, by one decisive trial, short as it is sharp, win their crown of life. But not so; God has willed otherwise. We must wait, and not be weary; we must bear all the fretfulness and provocation of earthly tempers and false tongues for a little season. Meanwhile, the perpetual worship of our unseen Master, and the communion of hidden saints, and the fellowship of the invisible Church, shall be our strength and stay.

And see, also, how broad a light this throws on our duties towards all around us. The first debt we owe them is, to endeavour by all means to draw them into the same blessed fellowship. We owe this to every member of Christ's visible Church, but, above all, to such as are bound to us by ties of an especial nearness, whether by blood or by the benediction of the Church. There is no other lasting basis of friendship or affection, but this only, that our spirits be knit in the unseen unity of the saints. All else is mere falsehood.

"Two

men shall be working in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left;" so shall all fellowships be cut asunder but those that meet in God. In the choice of friends, in all great changes and casts in life, let this be your rule. Such is the mysterious action and re-action of moral beings on each other, that no one can say what may be the end of an ill-chosen fellowship. "What knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?"1 On one side or the other the power of assimilation must prevail. How often has the earthlier mind drawn away a high and ripening spirit from the fellowship of saints! And O fearful fall which draws others in its ruin! Watch, then, and pray, that you may not only enter into the mystical sanctuary of saints, and go no more out, but gather in also all your loved ones, that there be no parting any more. Though God tarries, yet all things hasten on. Day by day we are nearer our last change. Church is crying "How long?" the Church in warfare ceases not continually to pray for the consummation of the elect. And albeit so short, yet this fleeting life to them is as a long and lingering day, which holds off a blessed morrow. Though the time be not yet, nevertheless there are tokens

1 1 Cor. vii. 16.

The unseen

The

of mighty changes coming on the earth. shadows are lengthening out, and the day of its toilsome life is well nigh spent. Oh, when He comes, and the dead are judged, and the names of those that have overcome, which are written in the Lamb's book of life, are read one by one in our ears, how shall our hearts thrill to bursting, while we hear prophets, apostles, martyrs, and saints, bid "come up hither;" and all our loved ones, a friend, a sister, a husband, each in turn called out, and clad in white robes for the marriage-feast! What if we should be left out at last? What if our name be "not found written in the

book of life ?" "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified."

1 Rev. xx. 15.

SERMON XXIV.

THE WAITING OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH.

1 COR. vii. 29, 30, 31.

"This I say, brethren, the time is short : it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away.”

Arrer St. Paul had given to the Church in Corinth many counsels of wisdom and perfection, he brings all his teaching to this end: "Brethren, the time is short." Life is fleeting, and Christ is coming. In whatsoever state ye be," the Lord is at hand." The apostles had been taught, by the parables of their Master, to look for Him at any time, as servants for their lord, and virgins for the bridegroom. The angels of His Father, who had received Him with glory into heaven, had bid them look for His coming even as He went away. And therefore they were for ever saying, "We shall not all sleep;" "We which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the

Lord, shall not prevent those that are asleep: for the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." Again, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand.”2 "The end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." "3 And this habitual expectation chastened and subdued their hearts with awe and gladness; with a faith full of joy, and yet of fear. Their Lord was taken from them; but He was coming again; and the Church of Christ was as a family that had received one great visitation, and is waiting for another. At such a time, all thoughts are absorbed into one; all feelings, all cares, all forecastings; and that one thought and feeling is too great for words. All levity is repressed; all common and unnecessary things suspended; only necessary duties are tolerable, and they are done in an uncommon way. There is a check upon the mind, and a limit to all its movements. And men go about the business of life with a calm and sedate carriage, and meet each other with graver looks; for the one habitual master-thought of their hearts is, the greatness and nearness of God.

And so the Christians of early days did all things

Thess. iv. 15-17.

31 St. Pet. iv. 7.

2 Rom. xiii. 12.