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persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness!" Before the bolt falls, let us flee to the Throne of Mercy, and say, "Spare us, good Lord; spare us, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, and be not angry with us for ever."

V. But let us turn, in the fifth and last place, to the PROMISES WITH WHICH THE TEXT CLOSES. "He that overcometh," it is said, "the same shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels."Consider the extent of such a promise.

1. They "shall be clothed in white garments." -There is probably an allusion to the Jewish priests, who, when acquitted of any charge, were accustomed to walk up the temple in triumphant procession, and clothed in white garments. And thus the triumphant Christian shall be "clothed in white." He shall be invested with the spotless robe of the merits of the Redeemer. He shall be adorned also with the mantle of personal sanctification and purity. His remaining guilt and infirmity shall fall from him, like the earthly garments of Elijah in his flight to heaven, and leave him "meet for the inheritance of the saints in light."

It is added," and his name will I not blot out from the book of life."- "In this," said our Lord, speaking of the gift of miracles, "rejoice not; but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. And the names so "written," if only their owners be constant in the service of the Redeemer, it is here said, shall never be "blotted out." "I am persuaded," says the Apostle, when speaking of the true disciples of

Christ," that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Delightful persuasion! Who would exchange this confidence in the love and compassion of his God for any other possession You, if indeed the humble and faithful servants of God, are" sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption." You," when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, have a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens." You have indeed no promise which is to warrant you in carelessness, or presumption, or disobedience, or neglect of any single means of grace; but you have the assurance of an ever-present Guardian and Friend-of the love of a God who says to you, "Fear not; I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward." Who will not, then, "trust in the Lord, and be doing good?" Who will not say, with the Psalmist, "In God I have put my trust: I will not fear what flesh can do unto me ?"

And finally, it is added with regard to the devout and consistent servant of the Lord, "I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." What a distinction, my brethren, is this! The name of the true Christian shall be acknowledged in the last day, in the voice which shaketh the heavens; which "shutteth, and no man openeth; which openeth, and no man shutteth." How great will be the contrast between the servants of God and the servants of the devil! that solemn moment, where will be the sounding titles of the guilty great, of the proud and empty

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professor of religion, of the self-complacent follower of the world? What master will arise to acknowledge them in the courts of heaven, and to pronounce them blessed? Who will stand forth to say, "Thou art mine: touch not my chosen, and give not mine heritage to reproach ?" But at the moment when these are sinking into the lake of fire, a voice shall proclaim the acquittal of the contrite, the titles and privileges of those lowly and devout individuals whom Jesus has "washed with his own blood," and "made priests and kings unto God for ever." "A book of remembrance," it is said, " was written before him, for them that feared the Lord; -and they shall be mine, saith the Lord, at the day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." "Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not." At that day may every one of yourselves be found among the happy number who shall be acknowledged by the Redeemer; whose names shall be written in the book of life; who shall "walk with Him in white;" who shall dwell in that presence where there is fulness of joy,” and at that right hand where there" are pleasures for ever more."

SERMON XIII.

'THE MANSION PREPARED FOR THE TRUE
CHRISTIAN.

JOHN xiv. 2, 3.

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.

THE disciples, at the moment, when the words of the text fell from the lips of the compassionate Saviour of the world, were in a state of the deepest dejection. He had just declared, that "one of them should betray him." He had warned another, of the highest pretensions among them, that "before the cock crew, he should deny him thrice." And he had addedto these warnings the melancholy declaration that, weak as these predicted offences proved them to be, they were about to lose him, who had been so long their Guide, their Strength, and never-failing Comforter: "Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own." Were not the hearts of these lowly and affectionate men likely to sink under such intelligence? But the Son of God "knoweth the adversity of his people ;" and, reading either in their countenances or their hearts the sorrows

by which they were disquieted, he addresses them in the affectionate words with which the chapter opens: "Let not your hearts be troubled ye believe in God, believe also in me." In other words, "Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe already in God, the holy Judge of the world; believe also in me, its Saviour and its Redeemer. If, conscious of the infirmities and corruptions of your nature, you shrink from the contemplation of a Being of infinite purity and justice, regard him also as the God of love,' as a God softening the severer attributes of his character by the tenderest affection, as 'God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself;' and, thus regarding him, cast away your fears." But, not satisfied with thus calling upon them, in general terms, to believe on himself, he goes on to suggest to them the other topics of encouragement noticed in the text.-In a world like this, my Christian brethren, where almost every man finds the difficulty of" well-doing," and needs encouragement to pursue the path of his pilgrimage with constancy and joy, we cannot err by endeavouring to search out the full meaning, and to cheer our minds by the tenderness, of this address of our Lord.

Let us, then, proceed to examine the words of the text in the order in which they occur. And may He who thus speaks to us be pleased to bless our endeavour to avail ourselves of his compassion and love!

1. The first assurance by which our Lord in the text encourages his true servants, is conveyed in these words: "In my Father's house are many mansions.”

He was speaking to men who had abandoned

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