beast, and the false prophet; for their reign of tyranny and lies shall be over, and the reign of truth and righteousness begun, under the sceptre of Him "who shall come, will come, and will not tarry"-when He shall take to Him "his great power and reign from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earthwhen all nations shall bow before Him, and His enemies lick the dust."

But what has his Church to fear-why should she stop her ear, when she is told that the Lord is at hand? Why should the bride tremble at the coming of the Bridegroom, or try to believe that His coming is all a fable, all a delusion? Why should the Lamb's wife turn away her eye from the face of her beloved? O but you say, "She does not : she looks for His spiritual coming." His spiritual coming! What? Is Ichabod written on her door? Has the Lord's Spirit departed from her? Has he left her, to whom when He ascended He gave the assurance, "Lo I am with you alway, even to the end of the world?" Has He broken his word? Has He, indeed, departed in spirit, as well as in person-that she is looking for Him thus to return to her? His spiritual coming! Who can have taught her thus to tamper with, thus to nullify her hope? Not the Lord Himself—not the apostles-not the angels who stood by to comfort the widowed and sorrowing Church, who, as the cloud received her Lord out of her sight, thus consoled her,"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who is now taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Did He go spiritually? Then spiritually He will return. Did He go personally and bodily? Then personally and bodily will He re

turn. Who mocks the sorrow, and taunts the hope of the loving wife, by telling her that her absent husband will return to her spiritually? And where is the loving wife whom such mockery would persuade to quit her watch-tower, or her accustomed evening walk, that she may look out for and welcome the return of the beloved of her heart?

But I hear it asked, as I often have, "Where is the difference whether we go to Him or He comes to us?" I reply, Simply this:-that the departure of the individual believer's spirit to the bosom of the Lord is one thing, but not the thing of which we are speaking. The coming of the Lord is another thing. I know well that the individual believer is taught to concentrate all his hopes in the article of death, when the spirit ascends to God who gave it, and when he is told that he shall receive his crown of glory. But as I know that St. Paul is still waiting for his, for that crown which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give him at that day, the day of His appearing, and not to him only, but to all those who love that appearing, I know that such teaching is not only unscriptural, but that it turns the eye the Church, and of each individual member of it, from the one great object of hope-the coming of the Lord to raise his sleeping saints, and to change His living ones, clothing them all with His own image and likeness. It puts out of sight-far out of sight-the resurrection of the body; and not out of sight only, but out of the reach of all practical influential belief. This was not the teaching of the apostles who preached Jesus and the resurrection, not Jesus and death-as the hope of the Church. Resurrection, not as an object to be contemplated at the close, but at the commencement of the millennial kingdom. It was the resurrection of the

of

body which inspired them with hope, and which made them look with such eager desire for the coming of the Lord. "If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead!" exclaims one who well knew what he was panting and striving after,-a body fashioned like unto the glorious body of his beloved Lord. No wonder the early Christians were continually exclaiming, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." And when the last of the holy penmen heard the words, "Surely I come quickly," no wonder that he breathed out his soul in the last words of inspiration, "Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus." And no wonder, now that the Church has been taught to put death in the place of the resurrection, that she cares not how long the Lord may tarry, or how slow his chariot-wheels may be in coming. And why this difference, this contrast between the hopes and expectations of the primitive and the modern Church? Your Jubilee Hymn' explains it all. The world must be converted before the Lord can come. This conversion may, and probably will, take thousands of years to accomplish; and when accomplished, it is to enjoy a thousand years of blessedness and glory, which may mean, as I have heard from the pulpit, a thousand years, each day for a year, or 365,000 years; and then the Lord will come to destroy it; and then the saints shall have their resurrection-bodies. What wonder then that the Church has fallen in love with the king of terrors, and taken refuge in the blessedness of the disembodied spirit, clothing it in all the glory of the re-embodied state? What wonder that books are written by learned divines to prove that there is no resurrection of the body, but that all the change takes place at death? What wonder that a version of the Bible should have appeared with

20,000 emendations (?), and among them the substitution of the future state for the resurrection, and the introduction of that state for the resurrection's synonym? But wonder it is, that such things do not startle the Church from its dream; will nothing do so but the midnight cry, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him!" Can we wonder that the churchtaught world goes on in its mad career, and, laughing, exclaims, "Where is the promise of His coming? when the Church herself, whose only hope is bound up in it, joins the world in the cry as far as she dare, and says, "The Lord delayeth his coming."

Decision of character and conduct is one effect produced by the consciousness of the Lord's speedy advent. Who will halt between two opinions, or pursue a lukewarm course, if he believes that the Judge is standing at the door? No man, under the full impression that Christ is indeed at hand, that in the term of his own natural life he probably may behold Him,-no man, under these impressions, can be undecided in his conduct. The habit of his mind being, to contemplate an absent Saviour, as presently coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, he acts with firmness and resolution in the service of Christ, regulates the whole tenor of his life by this influential object of expectation, being careful only that when his Lord appears, he may stand before Him with joy.Rev. M. Brock.

THE HOUSE OF REST.

THE House of Rest! And did this world afford
The houseless one a shelter for his head ?

Was there a spot where man's rejected Lord,
Might ask and have his lodgment and his bread?

Yes, there was one serene, sequestered place
Where Jesus oft reposed his wearied frame,
Which welcomed in at eve the Lord of grace;
The House of Rest! lone "Bethany " its name.

Nigh to the city, but beyond its din,

Nigh to the haunts of tumult, strife and care; Nigh to the palaces of pride and sin

The temple scenes of merchandize and prayer.

Here oft he came, as oft a welcome found,
A humble board, a lowly couch prepared,
A balmy kindness breathing all around,
The gifts of mercy with the Giver shared.

He loved the host; he loved the gentle pair,

Who watched the coming of their heavenly guest, He took their welcome-deigned their gifts to share, And breathe his Spirit on this "House of Rest."