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By-and-by He who gave life to others was hanged on a tree, and yielding up His Spirit, was numbered with the dead. But at the appointed hour this ALMIGHTY Captive of the grave, who could see no corruption nor be holden in the bands of death, burst the fetters and raised Himself from the dead. And at the last day, He will call to the dead who are hidden underground, and in charnel houses and churchyards, and under the lofty pyramids; and at His command the sea will give up the dead that are in its dark caves; and all will come to life, and stand up an exceeding great army." Then will His Angels gather them together from the four winds, and rise with them to meet the Lord in the air; while He who is ALMIGHTY Will set the whole world on fire, and melt it with fervent heat, as in a furnace. But while heaven and earth shall be thus passing away with a great noise, and all the nations of the earth, in one vast crowd, will be waiting mute with wonder and amazement, the wheels of His chariot will be heard rolling in heaven. And "every eye shall see Him" coming in the clouds with power and great glory. And thus, when all other thrones are for ever cast down, Jesus, the ALMIGHTY, will ascend His great white throne and sit in judgment; for He is that ANCIENT OF DAYS, of whom we read in Dan. vii. 9-11.

ANCIENT OF DAYS. "His garment is white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool; His throne is like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issues and comes forth from before Him; thousand thousands minister unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before Him." And now "the judgment is set, and the books are opened." But who can paint that awful scene? And where shall the impenitent hide their heads? What rocks can conceal them? How will they answer those who accuse them? The ANCIENT OF DAYS has been the Witness of all their doings. He stood by when Cain slew his brother; and in the book of His remembrance are written all the sins of all mankind, from the creation of the world to its burning. And now this book is opened, and "God requireth that which is past." Ecc. iii. 15. Thrice happy they who see in the Person of this awful Judge their prevailing ADVOCATE! who have made a Friend of Him before this "evil day came upon them," and have "put on the Lord Jesus" as the Lord their Righteousness. They, and only they, can now lift up their heads with joy, for their full salvation draws nigh. On every side see the wicked dragged unwillingly from their graves! Hear them cry affrighted, "Ye mountains! fall on us, and hide us from the face of the Judge; for the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?" But behold the believer in Christ! He springs joyfully from his open tomb, and raising his happy eyes to the great white throne, confidently claims Him who sits thereon as "The Lord his Righteousness," "his Glory and the Lifter-up of his head."

"Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness,
My beauty are, my GLORIOUS DRESS:
'Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.
Bold shall I stand in that great day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through Thee I am,

From sin's tremendous curse and shame."

And now let me ask you-Will you have this glorious Being for your Friend and Patron? I will tell you once more what He is, and what He will do for you who trust in Him.

1. As an ANCHOR to your souls, He will keep you quiet in the dark night of sorrow, and peaceful in the midst of storms and troubles.

2. As your ADVOCATE, He will plead for you in heaven all the while you live on earth; and such a Friend at such a court is surely beyond all estimation.

3. As the ALMIGHTY, He will do all for you in the best manner, and without fail; He will befriend you till you die, and raise you up from the ruins of the grave.

4. After He shall have done all this, He it is, and not another, who will sit as the ANCIENT OF DAYS and judge you. And oh who would you have for a Judge, if not One who has known you thoroughly, and loved you sincerely all your life long; who has said all He can say in your behalf; who, as your ATONEMENT, has spilt His heart's blood for you; and who conceals all your shame, by giving you His own most perfect righteousness for your glorious apparel?

I ask again, WILL YOU HAVE THE LORD CHRIST FOR YOUR FRIEND AND PATRON?

THE tabernacle lamp was still burning, for the sun had not yet risen, when the child Samuel was aroused from his soft slumbers by a voice pronouncing his name. Thinking it was the aged Eli who called him, he rose hastily and ran to know what he required. However, it was not the High Priest, but the Lord who had spoken. God had something to say to him. And so, when the voice came the third time, the awe-struck boy timidly whispered, "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth." And God calls each one of you. Not, it is true, with audible voice, mysteriously sounding in your chamber, at midnight or early dawn: but He calls you by His Son. The parent, the minister who admonishes you from the Scriptures, is the echo of His voice who is God's Messenger to a lost world, the "ANGEL OF THE COVENANT."

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ANGEL, or Messenger of the Covenant." Mal. iii. 1. See also Gen. xlviii. 16, where He is called the "ANGEL of God's Presence; also Isa. lxiii. 9. There are several reasons why He is called an ANGEL, which perhaps we shall discover if we first enquire What Angels are,-What they were made for, and How they are employed. Kings have their favorite cities where they dwell in state. All Judea was under King Solomon, and all the Jews were his subjects. But there was one place above all others, where his greatness was seen, and where he held his court. That was Jerusalem. And there he built a sumptuous house of costly stones and cedar. And he set up on lofty steps his famous ivory throne, overlaid with pure gold and adorned with carved figures of lions. And around it stood his officers and servants in gorgeous apparel. When the queen of Sheba visited King Solomon, and saw his palaces and gardens, his cupbearers and officers, the silver, the gold, and the ivory:-and when she heard his wisdom-for he was wise above all princes-she almost envied his servants, and exclaimed, "Happy are these thy men, and happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom."

But do we not know of a greater King than Solomon, and happier servants than his, and a much more glorious palace, and a far loftier throne; where, robed in splendour, and clothed with majesty, and shrouded in dazzling brightness, sits the Almighty Lord of Angels and King of Kings? All creation was built for a temple to show His glory; all creatures are His servants and do His pleasure. But in that splendid house He is most seen and best served. We here beneath see but the "beams of His chambers" which He hath laid in the firmament, and on which He hath reared His stories in the heavens. And the stars we gaze at in the clear night, are but as the distant glimmering of the ten thousand lamps that encircle the throne of the Eternal. But there, in the third heavens, the Almighty has His "throne, high and lifted up," whence He issues His commands. And though He needeth not their help, there, continually, ten thousand times ten thousand bright Angels surround Him, to wait on Him and do His commandments.

And surely if the queen of Sheba was overcome with admiration when she saw Solomon's glory, and called his servants "happy!" much more must we say of the Angels which "stand continually" before God, "Happy are they!" And their happiness you shall share if you give yourself up to Him, for He will take you by the hand, before long, and lead you into that holy company; and you shall be "like unto the Angels."

But more about the Angels. They are called "Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers." Some of them "do always behold the face of the Father," abide by His throne and cry one to another, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts! Heaven and earth are filled with the majesty of His glory!" Some fly hither and thither, swift as the lightning, to do His errands; and coming again at the

appointed times give account of their embassies. 1 Kings xxii. 19 Job i. 6, and ii. 1. Some fight the battles of the Lord against the Prince of the power of the air. Michael and his Angels "contend with the Devil and his Angels." Jude 9; Rev. xii. 7. Sometimes they come to earth with orders to kill and to destroy. An Angel, one night, killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers who were come up to fight against God's people. Isa. xxxvii. 36. At evening when the sun went down, there they lay encamped in the field like grasshoppers for multitude. But when the king arose early in the morning, "behold they were all dead corpses!"

"For the Angel of death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still.

And there lay the warrior distorted and pale,

With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,

The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown."

But if

That was an errand of justice; but how often, since the foundation of the world, they have winged their way to it on errands of love. And still they encamp around the good at night, and bear them up in their hands by day, and wait on them continually. "Millions of spiritual beings walk the earth" and throng the air. And all are invisible as the wind, and swift and silent as the sunbeams. you ask me how those ethereal spirits live, and how they move so swiftly, I cannot tell you. Perhaps the ease with which your thought moves about may best explain it. You know we can send our thought to the most distant part of the world. Our thought can travel about like an Angel. It can go a thousand miles in an instant. It can sail across seas and oceans without fear of shipwreck. It can fly over deserts and forests where the foot of man cannot tread. Stone walls offer no impediment to its progress; it can get into palaces and prisons, and climb up the steep mountain-side without danger.

We will Before us

Let us try.-Let our thought take a flight or two. imagine ourselves, hundreds of years ago, in Canaan. lies a plain with clusters of palm trees. On this plain there are flocks and herds and camels, and many servants busied in tending them. In the midst are tents; and within the door of one of them, to shade himself from the heat of the day, sits a mild and venerable man, called Abraham. While we admire this lovely scene, behold three men draw near; and Abraham makes haste, and bows himself to the ground, and invites them to eat with him. And soon Abraham finds out that in entertaining these strangers, he has "entertained Angels unawares." One of the three is the Lord Jesus, the Uncreated ANGEL. And after their repast, the Lord, giving the two Angels, His attendants, their orders, and telling them to go forward to Sodom, stays behind with Abraham and talks with him.

But what can the good Angels be sent to that riotous and wicked town for? Let us go after them, and see what their business is. It is evening when they get to Sodom, and going in at the gate they are seen by Lot, who hastens to salute them and entreats them to tarry all night at his house. They appear to be strangers, but they know more of the town than Lot does, and they tell him more than he knew before;-That the cry of the wicked people had gone up to God; and that they were sent to deliver him, and burn the place and the people. So they urge him to arise and call all his sons and daughters, and get ready to depart. And at the early dawn those kind Angels hasten him; and while he lingers they lay hold on him, and bring him forth, and his wife and his daughters. And they say, "Escape for thy life! Make haste! for we cannot do anything till thou art safe." And so Lot hurried away, and as the sun arose he entered Zoar. And when Lot was safe, a horrible tempest of fire and brimstone came down on the guilty place he had left behind, and burned it up.

But now let our thought go elsewhere. Let it go to Babylon, that far-famed city with its hundred gates of brass, and its walls whose broad tops were like wide streets. We stand by the palace of the king. The shadows of night are just breaking away. The gate of the palace suddenly opens and forth issues Darius the king. Let us follow him. He quickens his steps. He makes his way to the place of execution. And now he stops close beside the dens where the lions are kept which devour the condemned. Listen! He calls with a lamentable voice, as to some one at the bottom of the den among the beasts. "O Daniel! servant of the living God! is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?" At once a cheerful voice from within answers, "O king, live for ever! My God hath sent His Angel, and he hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me."

If you are not tired we will take another journey. We will fly over deserts and mountains, and scale the walls of the prison at Jerusalem. Within a gloomy dungeon, chained up, is a captive. Beside him sit two grim-looking Roman soldiers. Observe the prisoner! How peaceful are his slumbers! A smile lights up his countenance as though he were dreaming about heaven. But suddenly the dark cell is filled with a dazzling light! An angel stands over him, and, causing his chains to fall off, tells him to "gird himself, put on his garments, and follow him." Like one in a trance he follows his shining leader; while the iron gates of the prison one after the other fly open before them of their own accord. They reach the street, and then the Angel disappears, leaving Peter scarcely yet certain that it was not a dream. But presently he comes to himself and says, "Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent His Angel and hath delivered me out of the hands of Herod."

But we must return.-You see what Angels are and what they do. They are the guards and guides of God's people, and minister