tion of our present personal life; for it is most true that "life never dies;" and next, that it is nevertheless a new life, the life of a spiritual body, the life of an unsinning perfected soul. In other words, though mortality will be swallowed up of life, we as individuals shall not be swallowed up or absorbed in the ocean of existence, but shall each of us continue to exist, each as persons who may be recognised, each with a body as well as a spirit, each with our distinct memories, each with our distinct joys and hopes. What the resurrection of the body is you have already been told, and I need not enter upon that subject now. It is a resurrection, not of the several particles of which the body was composed, for these may have contributed severally to the building up of a thousand other bodies of man, or beast, or vegetable, but it is the resurrection of a new and spiritual body, a body in which there is identity of form, though not identity of substance, with that body which is laid in the grave. Our own proper distinct personality then survives the shock of death. But, secondly, the life on which we shall then enter will be a fully developed and perfected spiritual life of which we have the foretaste and the pledge given us here. Hence it is that you will observe, that our Lord does not hesitate to speak of the life to come and the present spiritual life of believers in the same terms. He tells us that

"the righteous shall go into life everlasting ; " * He tells us that "he that believeth in God hath everlasting life." + Does not this plainly show us that everlasting life is something of which we have experience here? What is that life so far as we know it here? A new life wrought in us by the Spirit of God, a quickening of our spirits from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, a sanctification of our bodies as temples of the Holy Ghost, a knowledge of God, an active devotion to His service, a life which is hid with Christ in God, a life which is not our own, but of which it may be said in some measure, as of St. Paul, that it is Christ who liveth in us.

Now, my brethren, in this life of the Spirit here, in these facts of personal experience, we have some sure ground to go upon in attempting to form a conception of the life to come. All mere speculation, all pictures of the imagination, can only be barren of result. But to dwell in thought on the perfection of the life of God's Spirit within us, may help us to desire it more ardently, may help us to long and pray for it, may stir us up to a fuller sense of God's great love to us, and a more entire consecration of ourselves to His service.

1. Looking then at the question in this light, we are sure, in the first place, that the life everlasting will be the complete and final emancipation from *Matt. xxv. 46.

† John v. 24, cf. iii. 36; 1 John iii. 14, 15

sin and from all the evil and the misery of sin. Then sin shall not only have no dominion over us, but it shall cease to vex and harass us. I suppose none of us can yet tell what that freedom of God's redeemed will be. Here we are ever compassed about with temptation; here there is the natural infirmity of the flesh even when the spirit is willing. Here there are so many occasions of falling to be watched and prayed against; here, alas, so many falls to be mourned over, so much lost ground to be recovered, so much effort, and so little apparent progress; here there is so much need to go day by day afresh to the Fountain open for sin and uncleanness; here so much defilement clinging to our best works, to our truest sacrifices, even to the prayers we utter, that we can hardly conceive of what a life will be in which all this conflict shall be at an end—a life in which there will be no tempter to tempt, no predisposition to evil in ourselves, no examples of evil about us, no world to allure, no flesh to weaken and ensnare, no devil to solicit and to triumph in our overthrow. And yet, brethren, is it not true that this life is begun in us here? Is not victory over sin the promise of the Gospel now? Is it not true even now of all that believe in Christ that they are set free from the thraldom and the dominion of sin? Is not the power given them to break its yoke and cast away its cords

you

from them? Is it not true, as St. Paul says, that they have "now their fruit unto holiness" ?* St. John is very bold, and says, "He that is born of God sinneth not, for his seed remaineth in him, neither can he sin, because he is born of God." The new nature, the regenerate nature, cannot sin, because it is born of God. Do you believe that? Do you believe that the Divine life in every one of you who partakes of it is a life that cannot sin, and that sin is an alien power, that when you sin it is not you, not your proper self, so that say with the Apostle, "For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." I say, if that is our experience, if we find on the one hand the law of sin working in our members, if we find on the other hand the life of God within us, if we find that life unsinning itself, triumphing over sin, gaining, as years go on, more and more of the mastery over sin, if we find that there is a growth in holiness, an advance in the spiritual life, a more assured grasp of things unseen, a deeper love of God, more real conformity to Christ, then, my brethren, does not this help us to understand what we mean when we speak of everlasting life? Can we not understand how

*Rom. vi. 22.

true it is now that "he that hath the Son of God hath everlasting life," how certainly it is the same life to which we are to look forward hereafter, though a perfection, a completion, a realisation of that which is begun here? Can we not understand how it is that if we have our fruit unto holiness now, "the end" must be "everlasting life"?

2. But another element of that life will be the immediate knowledge of God. "This is life eternal," says our Lord, "that they may know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." * That contemplation is now the loftiest occupation and the most blessed employment of the greatest intellects. But here our best confession is that of the Apostle, "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and His ways past finding out!"† Here we are perpetually baffled and perplexed when we seek with reverence and humility to track his footsteps. We know in part. We see as in a mirror images faint, confused, broken. We read as in a riddle. Hereafter " we shall know even as we are known." What will that knowledge be? Will it be knowledge on every conceivable subject which can engage the intellect of man? Will it be a revelation of all the mysteries of nature, of all the problems of science, of all the depths and intricacies of theological speculation? + Rom. xi. 33. I Cor. xiii. 12.

* John xvii. 3.