4. And ye who do trust in Christ for salvation, forget not that in all things he is to have the pre-eminence. "For it hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell." It is not, therefore, enough that you rely on him for the pardon of your sins; your application to him must be for every blessing of which your souls stand in need. Do you want wisdom, strength, or grace? He "of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." The life of a true disciple of Christ is a continual exercise of faith in him; or rather, it is he who lives and works in the believer. "Christ dwells" in "his heart by faith." "I am crucified with Christ," he exclaims with the Apostle: I am in myself dead and powerless, like the body of Christ when hanging lifeless on the cross: "nevertheless I live, yet not 1, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." O blessed union of the disciples to their Divine Master! By this precious faith they become one with him, and he with them: they thus dwell in him, and he in them.

[This union is abundantly manifested by the holy emblems of the Lord's death which are now set before you. On this point I need not enlarge. As our bodies are strengthened by the food which we eat, so are our souls nourished by faith in the body and blood of Christ given for us. God grant that, being united to him by a living faith, our souls may indeed be refreshed and strengthened by our participating in this most holy service!]

Yet, while I indulge that hope on behalf of each of you, my brethren, I must not forget that there are many nominal Christians, who, either from indifference respecting their salvation or from a vain confidence in their own imperfect righteousness, do not address themselves to Christ as their Saviour, have no communion with him, and are even jealous of the honour rendered to him by others. Let such reflect that they are sin

ners; and that if their sins are pardoned, it must be in the way which God has appointed. If they do not believe the Scriptures, they incur a tremendous responsibility; they are exposing their souls to eternal and inevitable perdition, unless that volume is false which others most assuredly believe to be a Divine revelation. But if they profess to believe in the word of God, then there is a strange inconsistency in their conduct. What infatuation has possessed you? Do not these Scriptures testify of Christ as the only hope for lost sinners? Do they not continually set him forth as the son of God; sent to be the Saviour of the world? Is not He the illustrious person to whom all the Prophets as well as Apostles bear witness, that there is salvation in no other; that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we can be saved? Shall we, then, at once believe this testimony, and neglect Him concerning whom it has been given? Shall we cast contempt upon God's appointment, by treating it as unimportant or unnecessary. Let us not, my brethren, incur this danger to our immortal souls. Christ is "the way, the truth, and the life; and no man cometh unto the Father but by him."-God grant that we may all draw near to God through Jesus Christ, and thus attain grace in this world, and in the world to come life everlasting!

SERMON X.

ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.

(PREACHED ON EASTER-DAY,)

Phil. iii. 21.

Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

THE mind is naturally desirous of inquiring into the changes we are likely to undergo in the different stages of our existence; and, indeed, it even becomes a duty to pursue such inquiries, since the hope of those changes is held out to us, that we may learn to submit with cheerfulness to exertions and self-denial; to bear the hardships of life without murmuring; to trample under foot, the vanities of this world, and to fix our affections on things above.

On this day, dedicated to the remembrance of our blessed Saviour's resurrection from the dead, the pledge and earnest of our own, I feel justified, there

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fore, in offering to your consideration a few reflections on that wonderful change which will take place, when "this corruptible" shall have "put on incorruption, and this mortal" shall have "put on immortality." On entering into such an inquiry, it is necessary to caution ourselves against indulging the vain wanderings of a fanciful imagination, instead of adhering to the written declarations of the word of God, the only source from which any knowledge, on subjects relating to the eternal world, can really be derived. It is also a salutary counsel, that in all such researches, we should lift up our hearts to the great Fountain of Wisdom, the Lord of heaven and earth, beseeching him to bless our feeble efforts to comprehend his goodness, and the glories of the kingdom which he has prepared for them that love him. So will those endeavours promote a higher love to his name, and a more fervent desire to please him in all holy obedience.

In considering the nature of this change in the human body, in the successive stages of its existence, we may first remark, that every thing in this fallen world carries within itself the principle of its own dissolution. All things degenerate and perish in the course of time. The spreading oak loses at length its luxuriant honours: the trunk decays, the branches wither, and it exists the outline only of its former greatness. Such also is the gradual destruction of the human body. Each succeeding year robs it of some beauty, and impresses upon it some mark of mournful decay. The strength fails, the health sinks, the knees totter, the spirits flag, the courage droops, the fire is quenched, the vigour gone. But, on the other hand, we may observe, that the power of God is continually exerted to renovate his material creation. He recals the sun; and the world, long buried in the grave of winter, is revived— and spring, in all the freshness of youth, fills every heart with joy. After the dreary darkness of night, he restores to us the light of morning, to rekindle the painted landscape; and the gilded scene glitters with

brightness, and all nature awakes to life and animation. If we examine the animal world, we may have there also the continual operation of the same renovating power. We see the almost lifeless egg transformed into a creeping insect, and endued with perceptions and faculties, which, after a short season, appear to be extinguished by death. But from this state of seeming annihilation we again behold it: no longer crawling upon the ground, but soaring in the air, with increased beauty and renovated srength. From the analogies of nature we might, therefore, conclude that if God revives at all the lifeless body of man, a glorious improvement in its state would be effected, and his Divine agency manifested in a splendid transformation from death to life, from weakness to power, from dishonour to glory. And revelation confirms this natural anticipation. "He shall change our vile body," says the Apostle, "that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body." What expressions are these! What sublime views do they open! What glory do they reveal! "Like unto his glorious body. Like to the glorified body of the Son of God, in which he appears to the blessed angels; in which he sits exalted on the throne of Heaven, at the right hand of God! This body, when St. John beheld it, was bright with light, like the sun shining in unclouded splendour, a body worthy of the person and the place,-like his own Divine nature, incapable of suffering, not exposed to decay, clothed with effulgence, so that even heaven itself is illumined by its splendour! That "city" has "no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it: for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof!"-Other kings and potentates anxiously appropriate all external grandeur to mark the distinction between their subjects and themselves: they array themselves in gorgeous apparel and costly magnificence, and endeavour to awe and dazzle the rest of mankind by outward splendour: but the King of kings and Lord of lords, high in that essential glory which no exterior