that death is the eternal end; and the other is, that should there be a future life, it may be an existence of darkness and misery without end. These suspicions are connected with sin. Had there been no sin, man would have had no doubt whatever, not only as to a future life, but as to a future life of blessedness. He would have known that to die was to enter into a higher life of unending blessedness. Now, if such things as these are brought by sin into connexion with man's dissolution, we can appreciate in some measure the emphasis of the text-dying, thou shalt die; thy death shall be a terrible reality.

Another suggestion furnished by the text, which goes to show that man's death as a sinner consists, either in something more than dissolution of his body, or the departure of his soul to eternity, is

"In the day."

II. THE TIME SPECIFIED IN THE TEXT. There is no authority whatever for taking "the day" in a figurative sense. There is nothing whatever metaphoric in the language. "The day" means literally the day. Now, if the death meant mere dissolution of the body, or the departure of the soul, God did not fulfil His word. Adam did eat of the forbidden fruit, and in the sense of dissolution he did not die. He lived to the age of eight hundred years. He became the father of a numerous family, the head of an immense and ever-multiplying race. Had death here meant mere dissolution, and had the Divine threat been fulfilled on the commission of the sin, there never would have been but one man. It would have been a fact that he lived, that he sinned, that he died, and that would have been the sum of all human history. To hold that death here means mere dissolution of the body, is to imply that God disregarded His own word in this case; for Adam did sin, and he died not on that day. But if you take the word "death" as meaning a speciality-a something over and above dissolution, some elements that the sin would bring to it, giving it a new significance and a terrible reality-then the fact harmonizes with

Adam did die the day he sinned.

the truth of God. Such a change took place, not merely in his physical condition, but in his mind and heart-so much remorse and foreboding, so many dark thoughts about his dissolution—that he died; his innocency died, his hopes died, his peace died. The word "death," then, I take, when used in connexion with sinful men, as meaning not merely physical dissolution, but meaning curse, misery, wretchedness, &c. Thus we might read, as one remarks, " In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely be cursed." "By one man sin entered into the world, and the curse by sin," &c. This view of the subject serves several important purposes.

First Serves to reconcile science and revelation on the subject. Science shows that death reigned in the world before man was created; that man, by the constitution of his nature, is doomed to dissolution; and that, therefore, if death meant merely physical death, it is not true that death came as the consequence of sin, and thus revelation is contradicted which teaches that" as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." But take the word "death" as meaning, when applied to the sinner, all that we have said as associated with it as meaning, in one word, "curse"-and science and revelation are one on the subject. This view

serves

Secondly: To explain many ambiguous passages. Such, for instance, as "the wages of sin is death." If death there mcant only physical dissolution, the wages are both inadequate, and, generally, very tardily paid. Again :-" To be carnally minded is death." All ungodly men are carnally minted, and there is not physical death in that state of mind. Again :-We read that "Christ hath abolished death," &c. Now if death, in these cases, means physical dissolution, there is scarcely truth in it, for that goes on. Men die as regularly since His advent, eighteen centuries ago, as they did before. Death is as great a conqueror as ever. But if it mean curse, or misery, then it is true that Christ hath destroyed and abolished all that in the experience of

His disciples. The fear is removed, the sting is gone. This view serves to show

Thirdly: The value of the Gospel. The Gospel takes away from those that receive it, all that is terrible in physical dissolution. It not only assures its disciples that death is not the end of existence, but only a transition in its mode, and that there is a future life of blessedness, but it gives the delightful assurance that that future blessedness is for them. Hence they come to hail death as a friend, rather than dread him as an enemy. They know that when "the earthly house is dissolved," &c. They feel, as Milton has it, that then death

will only be

"A gentle wafting to immortal life."

SUBJECT:-Spiritual Beauty.

"The beauty of the Lord."-Psalm xc. 17.

Inalysis of Homily the Six Hundie) and Thirty-rebenth.

THE beauty here referred to is not the beauty of God

His people. It resembles the beauty of the starry sky reflected in the placid lake, the beauty of the sun mirrored in the dew-drops of the morning, the beauty of the rainbow on the dark ground of the sky, the beauty of the moon clothed in the mild splendor of the sun. It is "the beauty of the Lord our God upon us."

I. This beauty is VARIED. It is the beauty of faith as seen in Abraham, the beauty of patience as seen in Job, the beauty of purity as seen in Joseph, the beauty of meekness as seen in Moses, the beauty of boldness as seen in Elijah, the beauty of thankfulness as seen in David, the beauty of faithfulness as seen in Daniel, the beauty of earnestness as seen in Paul, the beauty of love as seen in John, the beauty

of them all as seen in Jesus. This beauty, therefore, is many tinted, richly varied.

II. This beauty is GROWING. Its growth is like the growth of corn: first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear; it is like the growth of trees, first the seedling, then the young tree fenced round, then the large tree fully developed, with its beautiful arch reflecting perfectly the great arch of the majestic sky overhead. It resembles the progress of light; first the twilight, then the silver dawn gradually growing into the golden splendors of noon. Faith, humility, patience, gentleness, meekness, love, are some of the features of this beauty; and these, in the model Christian, shine like the sun "with growing brightness."

III. This beauty is UNFADING. Earthly beauty grows until it reaches full bloom, and then it begins to fade. But not so with the beauty of God. It grows brighter and brighter, for ever and ever. Just as the sun sets in hues more golden than those in which he rises, so the man who leaves this world, with the beauty of God upon him, leaves it lovelier than when he first entered it. For that beauty is ever growing and never fading. It is a beauty that shall defy all the ravages of time, care, disease, and death. Time cannot write its wrinkles; care cannot plough its furrows; disease cannot impress its marks upon any of the features of this beauty; death cannot breathe upon its fadeless bloom.

IV. This beauty is ATTRACTING. Josephus informs us that the babe, Moses, was so remarkable for beauty, that "it happened frequently that those that met him, as he was carried along the road, were obliged to turn again upon seeing the child; that they left what they were about and stood still a great while to look on him." Thus the perfect beauty of childhood is attracting, and in this it is a lovely symbol of spiritual beauty. The beauty of God upon the primitive Church drew the eyes of the heathen toward her, and forced

from them the exclamation, "Behold these Christians, how they love one another." The beauty of God upon the disciples caused the people around to wonder, and take “knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus." The beauty of God upon Peter and the rest, attracted to "the king of beauty," three thousand souls on the day of Pentecost. The beauty of God upon the members of the Church, has been drawing and assimilating men of all tribes and all ages. And

in proportion as her members have this beauty upon them, are they successful in making others lovely. Our daily prayer therefore, should be, "God be merciful unto us and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. Let the beauty of the Lord, our God, be upon us and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."

V. This beauty is UNCONSCIOUS. Whilst salvation to the believing sinner is generally a reality of consciousness, the beauty that results from salvation, when perfect, may be designated an unconscious beauty. The soul of man, invested with the beauty of God in perfection, is unconscious both of the existence of that beauty and the admiration it excites in the minds of those who gaze upon it. A dutiful daughter, let us suppose, watches by the bedside of her dying mother. She anticipates her every wish, meets her every want; she serves her by day and by night, till the fire has left her eye, and the bloom gone from her cheek. She would not take a throne, and leave her sick mother. How beautiful she is, but she does not know it. She is too absorbed, too beautiful, to be conscious either of its existence, or the admiration it excites in those who behold it. So it is with spiritual beauty. It is said that Moses, when he came down from the mount of communion, "wist not that his face shone." And we have in Matthew's description of the last judgment a revelation, on the one hand of unconscious spiritual deformity, and a manifestation, on the other, of unconscious spiritual beauty.