ness of God," his way of making sinners righteous. So says St. John : "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

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When a man becomes righteous, doing good immediately follows. Therefore the righteous are called, immediately after, "MERCIFUL MEN. God is their Father and their Life: Therefore they are righteous. And they are merciful too. They have this particular resemblance of their Father, as well as that which is more general. They put on, as the elect of God, bowels of mercies." They see the misery of man : They see him "lying in the wicked one." Hence they strive to "save souls from death, and so to hide a multitude of sins." And they feel the misery of the body too. They feel another's woe, and learn the luxury of doing good. "They know God loveth a cheerful" and plenteous "giver:" Therefore they are merciful, not in a Jewish proportion of their gains, as the manner of some is; (for which there is no authority in the New Testament;) but as their merciful God has bidden them. They are "merciful after their power." Yea, they are" merciful, as their Father who is in heaven is merciful. They are willing to communicate, glad to distribute, laying up for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold of eternal life.”

"

And yet these "PERISH," says the Prophet. He does not seem to have had in view the violent death of any good man. He does not seem, in all the context, to speak of those who are sometimes called to "resist unto blood, striving against sin; but merely their failing from the earth, called, immediately after, their being "taken away," while many of the ungodly were spared: So that he was in danger, as Elijah said, of being left alone. "The righteous," says he, "perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart."

"NO MAN," that is, no man comparatively. The world are laying to heart that which strikes the senses. The wonders of faith do not this. That which claims the attention of all heaven, whether it be the conversion of a sinner, or the death of a member of Christ, is lightly esteemed by those whose life is "earthly, sensual, or devilish.” While, on the contrary, "what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God."

"MERCIFUL MEN ARE TAKEN AWAY." Not their souls required of them, as the rich fool in the gospel; or proscribed, as Belshazzar. They are taken away by God, their Father, "from the evil to come."

Sometimes this is national. God then removes many of his children from it, especially those of a tender spirit. But this evil is more commonly personal. They are removed from sorrow and pain.

1. FROM PAIN. This is an evil, notwithstanding what proud and brutal Stoics have said of it. It is unnatural, and never designed of God for man; and never would have been permitted but for sin, which brought it into the world Now the righteous are often exercised with pain. But God," after they have suffered for a while," takes them away to the "house eternal in the heavens," where pain shall never come.

2. The merciful man is also taken away FROM SORROW. He found abundant cause for this here below. Such are often in "heaviness, through manifold temptations," on account of the world, the Church, their own family, themselves. The mercy of God is great to them, especially in death. They are taken away just when it is best for those who depart, and for those who remain.

" HE SHALL ENTER INTO PEACE: THEY SHALL REST IN THEIR BEDS." The latter clause is generally understood to refer to the body. This shall rest in its clay-cold bed, till the morning of the resurrection: Meantime, "in his book are all their members written." The grave may be called the bed of the body, as the death of good men in Scripture is called sleep. So of Stephen we are told, that he, having prayed for his murderers, whom he had just before so plainly reproved, added, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit !" "And

having said this," says St. Luke," he fell asleep."

The body sinks; but the believer cries out, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!" So the eyes are closed: But who can tell how they are opened in eternity? There all is God! Made meet for the inheritance, the immortal spirit

Claps the glad wing, and towers away,
And mingles with the blaze of day.

No sleep to the soul! That wretched notion of some, who are wedded to "philosophy and vain deceit No: "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." (2 Cor. v. 8.) And the rich man, Lazarus, and the dying thief, are demonstrations of this truth. (Luke xvi. 25; xxiii. 43.)

" HE SHALL ENTER INTO PEACE." In this world "many are the afflictions of the righteous." But how different the house of God!

No horrid alarum of war

Shall break his eternal repose.

There

So says the voice from heaven: "Blessed are the dead, that die in the Lord. Yea, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours, and their works follow them." (Rev. xiv. 13.)

They have not laboured in vain, as every man of the world has. If he has gained the whole world,” all that is called good and great, what does it now profit him? He is come to the fearful brink! What is behind? A moment! What is before? Eternity! But they do not agree. The

moment was given to the world. His time was occupied in the "desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life." Before him is the world of spirits. God is there! And "vanities are vain no more!" In his presence nothing can come that "worketh an abomination, or maketh a lie.”

How different the prospect of the righteous man! He also sees a moment behind, and eternity before. But they agree. The moment was given to God, and now he goes to God. Faith has prepared him for sight, and hope for enjoyment. His reason, his senses fail: But they had failed before. "Faith, the evidence of things not seen, had brought them into captivity unto the obedience of Christ." By this faith,

The things unknown to feeble sense,
Unseen by reason's glimmering ray,
With strong commanding evidence

Their heavenly origin display.

And now the holy to the holiest leads. He is "meet for the inheritance among the saints in light. There the wicked cease from troubling, there the weary are at rest." And not only so: "In his presence is fulness of joy, and at his right hand pleasures for evermore."

"EACH ONE WALKING IN HIS UPRIGHTNESS." In the glory, which is the gracious reward of his uprightness." All," who ascend into that holy place, walk in the "robe washed and made white