shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." Luke xxi. 34-36.

But this subject will be farther noticed in the concluding reflections.

THE RIGHT STATE OF MIND, and the way in which we should speak of these things RESPECTING OTHERS, is also of considerable importance. It is beautifully set before us in two striking examples, both previous to judgments upon corrupt and fallen churches.

The first example is that of JEREMIAH. Search through his prophecies and his book of Lamentations, and observe his faithfulness, his tenderness, his sympathy, his diligent attention to his office, and his spirit of prayer and zeal for the good of his country, and his triumphant faith in a happy ultimate issue. You cannot read his prophecies without seeing his FAITHFULNESS, in distinctly announcing the divine judgments, amidst the opposition of his own kindred and neighbours, (Jer. xi. 21,) according to the commission given him, (Jer. i. 17—19.) How expressive his feelings of TENDERNESS! "Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughters of my people!" Jer. ix. 1. "Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow. Jer. xiv. 17.

How strong are his expressions of SYMPATHY! "My [257] bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried." Jer. iv. 19. How earnest are his EXPOSTULATIONS with those who refused to repent and turn to God! "Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears. Jer. xiii. 15-17. His diligent ATTENTION TO HIS OFFICE, and desire to turn off, if possible, the impending ruin in the midst of all his expectations of judgment, is very striking. "As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee; neither have I desired the woeful day, thou knowest." Jer. xvii. 16. (See also chapters xxxviii. xlii. &c.) His SPIRIT OF PRAYER for his country is quite affecting. "O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy

name's sake.... Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save. We are called by thy name, leave us not." Jer. xiv. 7, 9. Equally marked was his ZEAL FOR HIS COUNTRY'S GOOD. Always ready to help them, he preferred to abide with the remnant in their sufferings, to an honourable station in Babylon (Jer. xl.); and sought the best good of that remnant amidst all their ill usage and ingratitude. Oh how certainly will a true knowledge of God's purposes, produce in a mind under the teachings of his grace, a patriotic as well as a holy course of conduct! To pray and labour to [258] the very last for the good of all around us, is the spirit of the true servant of God.

Then, observe his joyful anticipation of future times of triumph, as set before us in chapters xxx. to xxxiii. in the midst. of which we have that rich expression of God's purposes of love: "I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul;" with its effect on the mind of Jeremiah: "upon this I awaked, and beheld, and my sleep was sweet unto me." Jer. xxxi. 25, 26.

Now this is the spirit which I pray God largely to give to all, who from his scriptures anticipate future judgments before the day of millennial glory. Oh how contrary to this is that spirit of bitterness which is exhibited, on the one hand, in receiving the statement of faults of our dissenting brethren, with feelings of amusement and pleasure; or, on the other hand, in delighting to expose the opposite faults of ministers in our establishment; or in speaking bitter things against millenarians, as enthusiastic and wild, or anti-millenarians, as infidel and apostate! The faults of others are the true Christian's grief and burden. We must "not rejoice in iniquity, but in the truth," 1 Cor. xiii. 6; and God eminently distinguishes those, not who bring railing accusations against others, nor who are interested and amused by the detail of the faults of those who differ from them, but who "sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst of our land," Ezek. ix. 4.

It must, however, be admitted, that there was a sad mixture of human infirmity even in Jeremiah himself. Heavily tried, opposed, and persecuted, human corruption breaks forth, (see Jer. xv. 10; xx. 14-18,) in irritable, angry, and impatient expressions. [259] It is true that the ingenuousness with which he lays open his own feelings is exemplary, and the very badness of those feelings is profitable and humbling. Let not any despise God's truth because of the infirmities of his servants announcing that truth. Let not any despair of themselves because of inward corruptions. Let us all give the glory to God for the graces which he gave to Jeremiah; and let us learn les

sons of humility and human corruption, in the outbreakings of nature amidst his excellencies.

There is ANOTHER EXAMPLE in the scripture full also of holy instruction. It is not that of the apostle Paul as set before us in Rom. ix., x., xi., or in the Epistle to the Hebrews; nor the plain practical faithfulness of the apostle James as set before us in his Epistle; but it is one without fault; that of OUR DIVINE LORD himself. What a spirit was his! What peculiar and unequalled faithfulness in reproving sin! Matt. xxiii. What tenderness in his feelings towards the sinner! "When he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it." Luke xix. 41-44. Again and again in the spirit of ardent love to his people, he would have gathered the children of Jerusalem together under his wings, but they would not. Matt. xxiii. 37. When the women bewailed and lamented him on his way to crucifixion, his sympathizing heart turned at once from his own sufferings to the sorrows coming upon them; (Luke xxiii. 28,) and his prayer when nailed to the tree, was for his murderers: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Luke xxiii. 34. In short he made himself one entire offering and sacrifice for the sins of others, that he might procure for those who rejected and crucified him everlasting salvation. Oh unequalled [260] love! Oh glorious example! Blessed Jesus! give to all thy disciples grace to tread in thy steps, and with thy faithfulness, sympathy, love and self-sacrifice, to look at all thy purposes towards thy church. But it was not merely in the dark prospect of judgment that our Saviour furnishes such a lesson for us in these days-but also in the bright prospect of glory yet to come, he bids us lift up our heads. How sweet and rich the promises which open his sermon on the mount! How enlarged the spirit of prayer which he taught us daily to use-hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven! How often did he present the richest glories of that kingdom as an animating object of hope! Matt. v. 2-10; xiii. 43; xix. 28; Luke xxii. 28-30. And when he arose again and was seen of his apostles forty days, the subject of his intercourse during that period was the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Acts i. 3. Oh may we never despise, or slight, or neglect that glorious hope which occupied the mind and engaged the converse of our divine Lord and his apostles, during that most interesting period which intervened between his resurrection and ascension!

Our prevailing views as Christians should be cheerful, hopeful, and joyful:-"Lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke xxi. 28. The present state of the world is full of sin and full of misery, "the whole world lieth in

wickedness," [or in the wicked one,] (v) 1 John v. 19, "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain until now;" Rom. viii. 22, but this state shall not long continue; the word of God leads us to anticipate, after the throes and pains of these last days, "the manifestation [261] of the sons of God:" and "the creation itself delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God," ver. 19, 21. While, then, we sigh over the sins which we witness, and with all earnestness, pity, and sympathy, like Noah of old, testify to the worldly and the wicked their danger, and the aggravated condemnation of those who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Rom. i. 18. we cannot but rejoice in the conviction that the time is short; 1 Cor. vii. 29. soon the Saviour returns, and though it be first to punish the wicked, yet, beyond that dark scene, all is light and love, glory and blessednesss, to the church of the living God, and ultimately to the whole world.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE HARVEST OF THE CHURCH.

[262] The present state of the Christian church is, in many respects, peculiar. We see two apparently quite opposite things taking place, much open and daring wickedness, and yet wide diffusion of the truth. With many affecting features of that wickedness which marks the last days: we see on the other hand a remarkable profession of truth, and extension of zeal in the same country and in the same place. Just as, before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, the Jewish state was ripening for judgment (1 Thess. ii. 16,) at the very same time the Christian Jewish church was in its full activity and diffusiveness.

This state of things was to be expected from the plain declarations of prophecy; and it may be profitable to consider it more particularly as an animating motive for increased watchfulness and zeal, and furnishing many encouragements to God's servants. Two harvests are before us, a harvest of tares for the burning, and a harvest of wheat for the garner. Two reapings mark the great day of tribulation, the [263] harvest for the Son of Man to gather to his glory, the vintage for the Son of Man to tread in his wrath. Rev. xiv. 19. The painful part of the subject we have already sufficiently noticed. Blessed be

God there is in our world another work going on; and to be perfected in the day of tribulation.

THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IS also RIPENING FOR ITS GLORY. From age to age God has been gathering and completing the number of his elect. There has manifestly been in the churches of Christ, at large, in our day, in Britain, America, and in some degree in Germany, Switzerland, Holland, &c., a blessed revival of the church and an enlargement of exertion, that have filled the hearts of believers with thankfulness; and though these may not have the depth of other periods, and the nature and extent of this revival and God's design in it may have been misunderstood, it is a subject of richest hope and joy. God is ripening his church for its full glory. He has been scattering the seed for 1800 years, and especially in our days, and preparing all the materials for a future harvest to be gathered in.

We have an account in the 7th of Revelation of the 144,000 sealed and preserved from the last judgments; and in the 14th we have the same company in their holy character set before us. They were with the Lamb-they have his Father's name on their forehead—they are undefiled by antichristian pollutions, being virgins—they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth-in their mouth is found no guile-they are without fault before the throne of God. Here is a people prepared for the Lord. The following verses connect with them the very works which we now see accomplishing, of the diffusion of the gospel, and the [264] testimony of Babylon's fall, and the danger of receiving her mark. These are those fully prepared for the Lord's coming.

It appears from Ezekiel ix. compared with Revelation vii. that this sealed class are preserved from those judgments which come upon false professors.

In several of the parables we have a similar distinction. In that of the ten virgins, the wise virgins, having oil in their vessels, and ready for their Lord, enter in with him to the marriage. In that of the servants waiting, the faithful and wise servant, giving meat to the household in due season, is pronounced blessed, and rewarded; the wise, turning many to righteousness, are to shine as the brightness of the firmament; and our Lord will appear the second time without sin unto salvation, to those who love his appearing. These form the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb. They will be completely delivered from all the evil of the days of the great tribulation, (Isaiah xxvi. 20; Matt. xxv. 10.) and preserved in that season of temptation which shall come upon all the world, (Rev. iii. 10.) though we may not be able to tell the mode of their preservation.

Among professors of religion there are, however, vast

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