earth be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. The Divine truth once spoken by Christ and His apostles has rolled onwards to our remote age and distant land; and it shall still continue to flow forward from age to age, and from shore to shore, until the end of time. Even now it is a blessed and sublime employment for the thoughts on the return of God's own day, to remember what multitudes (as countless as yonder waves) are engaged in all parts of the world in the same work of praise and adoration; how the law proclaimed on Sinai is re-echoed from ten thousand altars in our own happy land, which at our Saviour's birth was debased by the darkest superstition; and how "the faith once delivered to the saints" is confessed in every quarter of the world! And as we believe that this will be far more realized, so we know also that, as the sound of many waters," there shall hereafter be heard one song in heaven; "Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honour to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready." "Let the sea roar," said the psalmist," and the fulness thereof." The voice of these countless waters ascending up to God as in one universal chorus, is the emblem of that heavenly worship for which Almighty God created us, and for which the services of His earthly courts are a continual preparation. How shall we be fit for that heavenly worship, if we love not His earthly service, and if we are careless whether or not it be shared by all our fellow-creatures?

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But if it be so blessed, even here below, to join with the great congregation in the work of prayer and praise, when voice joins with voice and heart with heart, and the feelings of the whole assembly swell upwards in one sacred hymn, what will it be in those heavenly courts, where the melody of the heart will be without one jarring note, and the adoration of God will be unmixed with one unworthy thought or feeling?

Still let our feet be duly found in God's earthly courts. Still let us strive to spread abroad in all lands the knowledge of the crucified Redeemer; and pray that that knowledge may cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

"The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Isa. lvii. 20, 21.-See also Jude 13.

THE sea in its boundless unity, and in the countlessness of its waves, is an image of the glory of the Church, and the prevalence of true religion in all parts of the world. But when we see a tempestuous sea, which cannot rest, "whose waters cast up mire and dirt," we have before us a scriptural similitude of the wicked. "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."

As the blessedness of heaven is often called "rest," and is spoken of as "a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb;" so the wicked are said to be raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. The restlessness of a stormy sea which casts up only mire and dirt upon the shore, is inexpressibly painful to such as long for the green fields and peaceful valleys of some quiet home. And thus intolerable is the tumult in the heart of every wicked man, from the strife of ungoverned lusts and passions, and from the reproaches of conscience, which sooner or later make themselves heard. See how pride and envy disturbed Haman in the midst of his greatness;2 or think of Ahab restlessly tossing on his royal couch, because he coveted Naboth's vineyard; or consider 3 1 Kings xxi. 4.

1 Rev. xxii. 1.

2 Esth. v. 11-13.

the dismay of Joseph's brethren at the first reverse which came upon them, and the terrible accusations of conscience which it served to awaken against them ;1 and you have before you what, sooner or later, will be the state of every heart not subdued to the obedience of faith. Such a heart casts up only what is evil and defiling; and there is a hell in it already, even without the infliction of positive punishment. What torment can be conceived more fearful than a perpetual gnawing of ungoverned and unsatisfied passions in a heart that is for ever given up only to the accusations of conscience?

Let not my soul be like the dark and turbid waves, which we see indeed to be laden with dirt and mire, but of which we cannot see the bottom! Let it be clear and still. Grant me, O Lord, the peace of regulated desires and mastered passions; even that peace, of which it is written, "Great peace have they which love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them."2

XXXVIII.

-THE SOLEMN JUDGMENT-SEAT.

"We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." Rom. xiv. 10. See also Matt. v. 25. Acts x. 42. 2 Tim. iv. 1.

WHEN I see the solemnities of a court of judgment, or hear of some searching trial, by which the guilt of a criminal is brought to light, and the majesty of the law is vindicated by a dreadful sentence; give me grace, O Lord, to reflect on that tremendous day when I shall stand before Thee to be judged with respect to all that I have said, or thought, or done, in the time of this mortal life. I read in Thy holy word,3 that the holy apostle, in the vision vouchsafed to him, saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, before whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.

1 Gen. xlii. 21.

2 Ps. cxix. 165.

3 Rev. xx. 11.

And he saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man according to his works, And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire.

1

How truly can I use the words of that prophet, who is a warning against the sins of covetousness and unfaithfulness, "Alas! who shall live when God doeth this?" or those words of the holy Malachi, "Who may abide the day of His coming, or who shall stand when He appeareth?" Thy word declares to me,3 that Thou hast set all my secret sins in the light of Thy countenance; and my conscience tells me, that I cannot answer Thee one charge of a thousand. All poor excuses, and vain prevarications, and self-deceiving pleas, whether for retaining what Thou hast commanded me to renounce, or for neglecting what Thou hast commanded me to perform, will then be swept away, and I shall stand forth before men and angels to undergo the searching trial. Those books, out of which I shall be judged, will be an infallible proof; and the secret sins which I may perhaps long since have forgotten, will all be set in order before me."

Thou hast been pleased of Thy sovereign mercy to write my name in the book of life. O grant that it be not blotted out by all my manifold transgressions. Blot out the record of my sins in those awful books with my Saviour's precious blood, and let them not be brought before me on that day. May I henceforth live under the continual influence of what Thou hast made known to me concerning things to come and as Thou hast taught me that Thou wilt

1 Numb. xxiv. 23.

4 Job ix. 3.

2 Mal. iii. 2.
5 Ps. 1. 21.

3 Ps. xc. 8.

part the righteous from the wicked,' as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, grant that I may be delivered from the extreme malediction which shall light on those who shall be set on the left hand; and that I may be set on the right hand, and receive Thy gracious benediction, commanding me to take possession of Thy glorious Kingdom. Grant this, for Thine infinite mercy, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

"Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established." Prov. iv. 26.-See also Ps. xvii. 4. Prov. iii. 17. Jer. vi. 16. Matt. vii. 13, 14.

A LIFE of virtue and religion is likened to a path in Holy Scripture, to remind us that if we would come to the right end, we must not live according to our own devices and fancies, but must frame our conduct by the rules and precepts which are laid down or marked out for us in the word of God. There is, as it were, a prescribed way to the right end, and no other will bring us to it. And as our inclinations, which are naturally bad, make it hard for us at first to follow these rules and precepts, we are said to enter into life by a "strait gate." It is hard at first to find, and difficult to walk in; and we must all meet with many crosses and obstacles in pursuing it. A life of holiness does not gratify our sensual passions, nor give free scope to our carnal will, and is therefore unpleasing to flesh and blood: nor can we take it without keeping under the flesh, with its affections and lusts, and bringing it into subjection.

This way of life goes straight to the eternal city; it does not allow of deviations for the sake of what seems pleasant on the right hand or the left; but the rule 2 1 Cor. ix. 27. Gal. v. 24.

1 Matt. xxv.