one outwardly professing Christ, as to another that altogether disowns him, to contemplate often and closely that momentous period when the body must descend to the dust, and the gate of death be for ever past through. But if we be indeed risen with Christ, we shall love the exhortation that calls on us to "seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right-hand of God;" and then, the character of our minds being changed, we shall be alike enabled and privileged to meditate calmly and sweetly on that change of our bodies also which must be undergone by all, in the dark domains of the grave. So sincerely, yet so patiently, shall we "long to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better," that we shall each for himself respond in real single-mindedness to the apostle's declaration," the things that were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord;" with such joyful interest too shall we individually dwell on our final blessed inheritance with him, as to feel assured that "henceforth there is laid up for me a crown, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them that love his appearing ;" and we shall enjoy such pure delight in the prospect of being for ever with the Lord, as to find that, through mercy, the bitterness of

death is past with us, and the preparation for death, equally the business and the solace of our remaining days!

Those of the children of God among you who are spared to old age, will feel the consolations of vital truth then, if never before, fully made out to you; and when the senses become palled, and the zest of life leaves you, and the faculties of mind waste away, and the limbs lose all their vigour, and the pleasures of science or literature charm no more, and the refuges of kindred society fail you, and the sick bed witnesses your feebleness and departing strength, and every object you behold wears a sombre hue, and every sound is as death's alarum, then,-when earth nor friends, nor wealth nor honours, nor mind, nor achievements in arts or arms, can restore the faded bloom of life, or arrest your summons to the dust, then is there discovered one solid joy, one only true delight remaining unmoved in the believer's bosom, which one only language also portrays, and that language was used by David, when he said, "God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." Oh! may we all, as we hope to pass a blessed eternity with the glorified Captain of our salvation, consider to what he has called us by his resurrection from the grave, to what holiness and self-denial, to what weaning of the heart from this world, and to what preparation for that matchless and eternal

one above, in which we all hope to participate. Let us reflect more often and deeply than hitherto on the love for us which brought the Saviour down from heaven,-that precious and unparalleled love which induced him first to lay down his life for us,-afterwards, as on this day, to "take it up again," and which now, at the right hand of God, intercedes for us with the Father. Let us be much in prayer, that we may have the eye of our soul fixed on that triumphant mastery over the grave by our dear and risen Lord we now commemorate, that it may not be with us a mere dry, barren, unedifying point of history; but, under the divine teaching and strength, a principle of increasing watchfulness and fidelity, and an incentive to the sedulous culture of those divine affections which the apostle so emphatically urged and enforced, when he said, "Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working, whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself."

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SERMON XXII.

THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST.

ST. LUKE xxiv. 50-53.

And he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.

In celebrating at this time the Ascension of our glorified Redeemer, the Church commemorates that event, which put, as it were, the finishing stone to the fabric of our salvation. When he stooped to the ignominy and endured the sufferings of the cross, he worked out our rescue from spiritual thraldom and ruin, and when he arose from the dead, triumphant over sin and the grave, he proved that the acceptance of his vicarious

The history of the ascen

sacrifice for sin, had taken place, and was completed with the Father; but when he ascended up on high, and took his seat at the right hand of God, he not only resumed the glory he had had from eternity, but he laid at the foot of the Almighty throne the claim he had bought for ransomed man to admission and to happiness near and around it for ever. sion is stated in three different parts of the Evangelists' writings with a plain and striking brevity, altogether free from the slightest approach to that parade and display, so common to profane historians, though the events they relate, however important or remarkable, are of infinitely less consequence even in this world. The statements in those three places are, in no leading feature, dissimilar or conflicting. In the Acts of the Apostles it is said, that "when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up: and a cloud received him out of their sight and while they looked stedfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, which said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." In the last chapter of St. Mark thus, more briefly: "So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right