he has redeemed with his blood, he will do for us. The child of God is already so changed from what he was, that he hardly knows his former self. What then will he be, when he shall have exchanged this earthly clog for a body nimble as the light and glorious as the sun; and when, for successive ages, his views shall have been enlarging, his heart expanding, and his understanding brightening?

Christians are to be glorified :*-the glory of Christ is to be given them. They ought to live on earth, therefore, as those who expect to live and reign with Christ forever in heaven. They who are to be kings and priests with God should keep the world under their feet. They should soar like the eagle, and look at the sun. They should anticipate something worthy of God to bestow upon his children. Then God will not be ashamed to own them. It was because those illustrious saints, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, did thus, that God was not ashamed to be called their God. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. They desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city.”+

With such an inheritance in prospect, Christians should keep themselves "unspotted from the world." They should be submissive under trials, patient in adversity, and receive the corrections of their heavenly Father with gratitude. They should set their affections on things above, make no calculations for a portion here, maintain a firm repose of soul in the divine promise, and wait with earnest expectation for the manifestation of the sons of God. If the earth refuses to herald their names in the registers of her honored sons, it is enough for them to know, that they are recorded in the Book of Life; if accompanied by no splendid train of menials, that guardian angels minister to them; if, like Abraham and like Jesus himself, neither home nor honor owns them here, that they are hereafter to dwell in palaces not made with hands, and to wear diadems of glory that shall never fade.

3. We have here an object for boundless wonder. A love of the marvellous is an element of our nature. Like all our other faculties, it is greatly perverted by sin; but it is an essential principle of our original nature, and can never be annihilated. God implanted it within us, because he has a use for it. It pertains to angels, as well as to men. They, too," sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty."* And the object which Christ sets forth, pre-eminently, for our marvel, is the very work at which angels marvel. "And he will show

* Rev. xv. 3.

him greater works than these," said Christ, "that ye may marvel." He had just raised the sick to health, and absolved them from sin. The greater work which he was to do, at which they were to marvel, was to perfect redemption, and set his redeemed as manifested sors of God in heaven. And hence the apostle says, "Behold"-wonder-marvel-" what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." Here then is something worthy of our wonder-the thing above all others, for which our power of wondering was given us. You cannot wonder too much here. The dying Evarts began to see things as they are, when he exclaimed, "Wonderful-wonderful-wonderful!" How amazing the transformation!-From an earth-worm to an angel-from an heir of wrath to a child of God-from corruption and the grave, to a shining immortality! Should you see the stones of the street rising up and brightening into stars; should you see the very clod that covers the Christian's grave ascend and take its place in the firmament, and shine like the sun in his meridian splendor, the transformation would not be more wonderful.

But see to it, that your wonder does not give place to incredulity. Say not, this is too much to believe. Is any thing too hard for the Almighty? Is this too hard for him, who formed this earth, and kindled that sun, and lit up yon starry heavens? Is it too much to expect from him, who gave the Son of his own bosom

to die for you upon the cross, that he might make you, through him, his adopted sons? Hearken to this divine logic. "He that spared not his own Son, but freely gave him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"* That he should bestow this glory upon you, is wonderful indeed; but it is not too much for him to do; and he will do it, that ye MAY MARVEL.

Nor is the time distant. You are standing right on the verge of these amazing realities. A few days, and the curtain will rise, and the wonderful scene open. O, the glorious discoveries that will flash on your vision, as you enter the eternal world! Then will you see, as in a moment, what it is to be sons of God. What no human eloquence can portray, what even the Bible itself is unable to set forth, the visions of eternity will soon reveal.

*Rom. viii. 32.

CHAPTER XIII.

PERSEVERANCE.

Do Christians ever fall fatally from grace? This is a question between evangelical and Arminian theology, of no ordinary interest. The question is no less than this, Whether any of those whom God has elected, regenerated, adopted, and sealed heirs of glory, do actually drop from his hand and perish? We think not. We believe the Father's will, that of all which he hath given to Christ, he should lose nothing,* will be accomplished.

The doctrine now to be considered, is that of the perseverance of the saints. This doctrine is, that once a Christian always a Christian. Every individual who has been renewed, justified, adopted, will through digrace infallibly persevere unto eternal life. I shall now proceed to prove this doctrine from the following

vine

sources.

1. THE ANTECEDENCE OF GRACE. The Christian did not move first, in the matter of his salvation. The

* John vi. 39.