ten thousand times ten thousand minister | tain tha angels are always present not unto him? Their lively interest in all merely as spectators, but as most active that concerns us, a race of creatures infi- messengers of Christ. It is difficult to nitely every way inferior to them, save speak of the state in which a disembodied only through the high exaltation of our spirit finds itself, on launching into eternature by its union with Deity in the per-nity: it is one of those things which every son of Christ, and the heavenly privileges one is certain to know by experience, but thereby secured to his believing people, is which none can foreknow by any effort matter of wonder; and whether they swell either of wisdom or knowledge, or the the chorus of praise over the ruins of the most vivid imagination. The separate great harlot city, Rome, or spread the existence of souls, of every soul of every joyous tidings that Jerusalem is rebuilt, human being, from Adam to the last of his and again inhabited by her long lost chil-posterity who shall taste death, is not dren; or hover round the heavenly city even questionable by any who believe in itself, the abode of those who have at- the revelation of God; and that all who tained to the resurrection from the dead, have already lived and died, are now in with that song of angelic sympathy, "Let companionship either with angels or devils, us be glad and rejoice, for the marriage awaiting the resurrection of the body, of the Lamb is come," we shall be obliged either to life or damnation, is also very to confess that they, respecting whom we plainly set forth in Scripture. To Abrahave been accustomed to think so little; ham's bosom, to the rest and happiness who have been watching the progress of enjoyed by faithful Abraham, the angels all that regards us with unwearied dili- bore Lazarus; while the rich man, we are gence, and unfailing care, and whose distinctly told, went to hell; and what is loudest song of praise to their eternal most remarkable, the angel who showed King hails him the Lamb that was slain John the wonderful things related in the -slain for our redemption,-have such a Apocalypse, so identified himself with the claim on our love and gratitude, as can prophets, and other obedient servants of never be properly estimated, until, seeing Christ, as almost to do away the distincour Lord as He is, we also see them as tion between an angel and a glorified they are, and remember how incessantly, saint. Nor is this a solitary instance: how willingly, they ministered to us, our Lord, speaking of the claim that little through the long years of our unsteady, children have on the tenderness and care perverse, inconsistent course; contending of Christians, says, I say unto you, that with our foes, keeping guard over our in heaven their angels do always behold steps, and finally thronging to welcome us the face of my Father which is in heaven." to a full participation in all the glories of Matt. xviii. 10. And when the damsel their own heavenly home. who went to hearken at the gate affirmed This refers to the final period of the that she had seen Peter there, the other present dispensation, when we expect that disciples, assured that he was either imHe who is gone to receive for himself a prisoned in fetters or slaughtered, exkingdom will return to establish it on plained it, saying, "It is his angel." Many earth. There has, however, been a spir-ingenious theories have been started on itual coming of the Lord Jesus to his people from the beginning, while the call to enter into the eternal world has successively reached them. When a believer departs to be with Christ, he becomes a resident in the celestial Jerusalem, entering into the peaceful rest of heaven, where Christ also sitteth at the right hand of the Majesty on high, there to abide, until with all the other saints, he is summoned to attend his Lord, and to be re-united to the body which he once left below. In this transition of the departing soul, it is cer

this ground; but when all has been said that man can say, we are authorized only to receive what bears upon it the infallible and indelible stamp of truth, "Thus saith the Lord."

That in heaven the spirits of justified men abide with angels, is quite indubitable on Scripture ground; but we are also warranted to believe that they enjoy, occasionally at least, the angelic privilege of visiting earth, or of beholding clearly what goes on in the militant church. Otherwise, how could the souls under the

altar know that their blood was not yet avenged on them that dwell on the earth? And why, if forever divorced from all the ties of mortality, should they express impatience for the arrival of that time? Assuredly not from any vengeful feeling: such is forbidden in just men in the flesh, and cannot reside in the spirits of just men made perfect. Besides, the generation on whom their blood was to be avenged, was probably not the same as the generation who shed it. We can only understand it as expressing a fervent desire for the speedy arrival of that day of vengeance which we know synchronizes with the year of the redeemed. Those souls beheld and mourned over the desolate state of the Lord's still persecuted Church; the devoted little flock to which they also belonged; and knowing that He would at once put all enemies under his feet, and exalt his Church to glory and everlasting peace, they pleaded for the hastening of that promised day.

This may seem somewhat irrelevant to the precise matter before us; but the connexion is very intimate. To every individua' among the great multitude before the throne, have the angels of God been ministering spirits; and seeing that the privilege of believers in the life to come is to be made like unto the angels, to be equal wtih the angels, and that "those also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him," when "the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, and of the holy angels," we are sure the departed saints shall with the angels bear a very conspicuous part in the proceedings of that day; but we have a striking indication that they will not descend to earth as strangers long divorced from all its concerns, but as those who have like the ministering angels, with keen interest watched the progress of the church below toward the final consummation of all its hopes.

The apostle Paul, after enumerating many of those who by faith obtained the Another instance, of which it cannot be heavenly inheritance, includes in the same said that it was figurative, as may be ob- company all who had borne testimony jected to the foregoing, is the appearance during their lives to the truth, and staid of Moses and Elias on the mount with our themselves on the promises of God. He Lord, in glorified bodies. Elias, indeed, then shows that they had not yet obtained did not die; he took his own body with the promises to which all looked forward, him; but Moses died and was buried, but were kept waiting for us; that is for though of his sepulchre no man knoweth the whole multitude of them which shall to this day. Whether the body in which be saved. He speaks of them in their he then appeared was his own, raised present state as a great cloud of witnesses again from death and the grave for a encompassing us; and points to the cirspecial purpose, or whether it was what cumstance as calculated to quicken us in the disciples meant when they talked of "the race set before us," the same race Peter's "angel," we cannot possibly tell. wherein they also strove, and succeeded. This we know, the person was Moses, who As too often happens, the force of this had been dead for many generations, and beautiful passage is greatly weakened by he talked with our Lord, as also did Elias, the injudicious division into chapters of concerning his decease, which he should what was written continuously: but a litaccomplish in Jerusalem. They spoke of tle attention bestowed on these two chapa coming event; of the locality assigned ters without any regard paid to such arto it in the purposes of God; and, eminent bitrary disjointing, will present in a very as were these two lights of the Old Testa-glorious light the perfect union and uninment church, we have no pretence for sup-terrupted communion of the whole body posing that what was clearly revealed to, of the elect, from the time of Abel to the and perfectly understood by them, in the state of blessedness to which they had attained, was concealed from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; from Noah, Daniel, and Job; or from any who had, by the like precious faith, entered the presence of God; with whom is no respect of persons, and who often maketh the first last, and the last first.

last period-the removing of those things that may be shaken, and the final establishment of the kingdom that cannot be moved. It is very remarkable, that he does not say to believers still in the flesh. Ye shall come, but, "Ye ARE come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to

SECTION X.

ANGELIC TRIUMPH.

We have now to survey what is made known on the subject of angelic triumph, when the final overthrow of all that impeded the universal extention of Christ's kingdom on earth, shall have terminated this dispensation; and here indeed we trace the beautiful union once before displayed in their heavenly chorus, of "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men!" The twentyfourth Psalm contains a sublime foretaste of what we look for, while describing that glorious scene, the ascension of the Lord Jesus on high, leading captivity captive. There, the heralding angels cry, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." Those from within the gates inquire, "Who is this King of glory?" Not that they needed to be told; no, they knew the Babe of Bethlehem, who from his lowly birth had been " seen of angels," of all the angels of God, and well were they prepared to celebrate his return to the glory which he had with the Father before the world was: but they loved to draw forth the answering shout, ascriptive of praise to their God, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle."

an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel." Heb. xii. 22-24. By faith the child of God enters into this community, embracing all that is of God, both in heaven and on earth; and when he puts off his tabernacle of flesh, it is not to lose sight of what he has hitherto beheld, and to open his eyes on a different scene, but to take in all that before he saw not, in addition to that which he has already seen. Having passed the waves of this troublesome world, and obtained a sure footing on the heavenly shore, he does not in selfish contentment turn his back upon his former companions, still struggling through the surge, but with deep interest contemplate their painful progress, and if so the Lord permit, joyfully unite with the ministering spirits who are commissioned to render such help as divine wisdom sees good, by their instrumentality to impart. This, carried a little way beyond what revelation sanctions, leads to perilous idolatry; and so we find it was, even in the apostles' days; but what then? If some of the unlearned and unstable wrest certain Scriptures to their own destruction, are we, therefore, to shrink from receiving the whole word of God? There is no doctrine so whole- And again the summons is sounded some, so pure, so essentially necessary to from those majestic and resplendent lebe believed, that by overstepping its pre-gions, advancing as they sing, "Lift up scribed bounds it may not be wrested to a fearful error, and some who will not entertain this exceedingly important and unspeakably encouraging subject of angelic ministry, and the communion of saints, lest it lead them into unsafe paths, will dogmatize on the origin of evil, free-will, and the secret counsels of the Most High, until they totter on the extreme verge of most presumptuous sin. John's mistake is recorded for our warning, and the angel's gentle rebuke for our instruction; and with these before him, what has the humble worshipper of God to fear from an attentive, thankful investigation of this lovely portion of the divine economy of grace?

your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in." The shining mul- . titude, the seraphim, the cherubim, who throng around those eternal gates, and perchance the spirits of the faithful resting there, once more demand, "Who is this King of glory?" and once more the thundering song peals out, "The Lord of Hosts, he is the King of glory." It is wonderful how habit familiarizes the human mind to what is calculated to overpower it. The grandeur of this passage, the imagery that it teems with is such, that man's lip might well falter in appropriating the lofty strain, and his knee bow in unpremeditated adoration of the ascended King of glory; but we hear it until

This sympathy will never cease; and with what delight God's angels contemplate the approaching triumph of their glorious King, we are told in many ways. That magnificent strain of holy exultation, descriptive of the final ruin of the great harlot city of Rome, is repeated as being uttered by a voice from heaven; probably of an angel also, for it is called another voice from heaven, immediately following that of an angel having great power, and lightening the earth with his glory, who cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen." It was an angel also, one of the seven who had poured forth the seven last plagues on the earth, who showed to John the heavenly city, guarded at its twelve gates, by the same number of angels.

we can scarcely bestow a thought on its | uttered by the Church, it awakes an echo surpassing splendour; and yet in the pride throughout the untold legions of heaven. of our cold, unthankful hearts, affect to look down upon the glowing creatures who cease not day or night audibly to pour forth the ardent devotion of theirs before the throne, as though their rank were somewhat below ours. But the proudest heart will be humbled, and the coldest kindled into flame, when that awful hour arrives for the seventh angel to sound, and great voices in heaven proclaim, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever:" when the Church in glory, that so long awaited the day of vengeance, the year of the redeemed, takes up the strain and says in prostrate adoration, "We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned." When a voice shall come out of the throne, saying, "Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great," and the call shall be responded to by the myriads of the holy angels, the innumerable multitude" Jerusalem which now is, and is in bonof ransomed souls, the whole company of that rejoicing heaven and renovated earth, bursting forth, "the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Allelujah: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth."

That hour will come: and in the body, or out of the body, every soul of man shall witness its coming. How near it may be, we know not, but far distant it cannot be. A veil, the veil of our own darkened understandings, as yet conceals from us the glory that shall be revealed: and neither angel nor devil shall longer be invisible to our awe-struck gaze. The latter will pass into their fiery prison, and Satan will be cast fettered into his dungeon, and while heaven pours forth its dazzling legions, earth will be purified from all things that offend.

When John saw the multitude arrayed in white robes, with palms in their hands, standing before the throne, and heard them loudly ascribe salvation to God and to the Lamb, he saw all the angels fall upon their faces, and worship God, as their God. Wherever a note of praise is

Here we may pause, to consider for a moment what is meant by this mysterious city! It is often named in Scripture, as a place actually existing, but not on earth. Paul speaks of it to the Galatians, in direct contradistinction from the earthly Zion;

dage with her children ;" and "Jerusalem which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all." Gal. iv. 25, 26. It is difficult to conceive how, while one is indisputably a real, and existing, a material city, the other should be a visionary thing, a mere name; or, that while Hagar is represented as the figure of a reality, Mount Sinai in Arabia, and that again of another reality, Jerusalem in Palestine, Sarah should only be the figure of a figure which has no substantial antitype. Again, in Heb. xii., he names it the city of the living God; the heavenly Jerusalem: and John, in Rev. xxi. says the angel "carried me away in the Spirit, to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God." Our Lord also distinctly mentions it: "I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God." Rev. iii. 12. Though not so plainly named, this Jerusalem is clearly intended also by Paul, when he says, Abraham "looked for a city which hath foundations, whose

hath seen fit to reveal to all. We must remember that our Lord Jesus Christ took to himself a body which saw no corruption; that, in the same body with which he arose from the dead, and the identity of which he proved to Thomas, he ascended into heaven, and shall come again to judgment. Two of his people, Enoch and Elijah, also went to that unseen place in their material bodies; and at the crucifixion of our Lord "the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of their graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." Matt. xxvii. 51-53. Now it is perfectly natural and allowable to ask, where are all these bodies? Changed, no doubt; their corruption having put on incorruption, and their mortal immortality, and made glorious, as was seen in Moses and Elias on the Mount; but still the same bodies that they wore when on earth. And if in the Bible we find a satisfactory answer to that question, by being told of a glorious place, a city, a habitation, prepared and reserved for God's children, and in due time to be revealed, not only to them, but to all others, though no others shall ever find entrance into it, surely we may be allowed to take, in a more literal sense, the declarations so often repeated than that which good men have been in the habit of connecting with them.

builder and maker is God." Heb. xi. 10. | sin, examine, each for himself, what God And again, "God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city." Heb. xi. 16. In the beautiful discourse addressed by the Lord Jesus to his disciples, immediately before his betrayal, he says, "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you: and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John xiv. 2, 3. Paul too says, We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with har ls, eternal in the heavens: for in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." 2 Cor. v. 1, 2. Is not this the "holy Jerusalem" which John saw? The name imports "peace;" or rather, it imports "where peace is seen:" and there is no question, among spiritual people, as to the fact of this new Jerusalem being the heavenly home of God's people; but one very great discrepancy seems to exist between God's revelation and man's expecta tion: the latter expects to bid an eternal farewell to earth, and to go to a place called heaven, somewhere in a vastly remote space, where all that he shall find will be totally dissimilar from aught that he has ever seen or heard of; where he will be an etherealized, unsubstantial creature among beings and things equally removed from all with which we are now conversant. Revelation, on the contrary, tells us of "a city," of "mansions," of foundations, walls, and gates, indescribably rich, bright, and glorious indeed, but still answerable in some measure to what we are accustomed to; and it invariably speaks of this heavenly abode as coming down, at the appointed time, to the region of our earth. Paul speaks of being "clothed upon with an house which is from," not in "heaven:" our Lord says, "I will come, and receive you unto myself;" and the more minutely we inspect the Scriptures that bear upon the subject, the more we shall be struck by their harmonious bearing on the point.

It is a point in which every individual is personally concerned; and we may, without committing any presumptuous

In all humility, then, we proclaim our belief, founded on many passages in the Bible, that a place, a real locality exists, far beyond the present scope of our vision, but not necessarily invisible to mortal eye; that to this place the glowing description given by John in the twenty-first chapter of the Revelation belongs: that it is the present abode of the Lord Jesus Christ, in his human body, and of those named in a passage more than once already quoted, an innumerable company of angels, the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, the spirits of just men made perfect, and the bodies of such as have heretofore, for some special purpose, been raised from the dead.

We believe that into this abode flesh and blood, in its unchanged state, shall