Now there cannot be a better close of the subject than just this-the unspeakable importance of acting immediately on the views we have, and according to the feelings and convictions which arise in our hearts. It may seem a small point of difference that one man shall say "yes-in a little while." And another shall say "yes-and now." But in reality a larger point of difference could hardly be.

It comes to be the difference between good and evil, between life and death. If a man loves Christ he will keep his commandments. And the Father will love that man; and the Son will come unto him and take up his abode with him. If a man does not keep his commandments he does not love Christ, and that dread anathema which rests on every loveless soul rests now on him. What a stupendous difference; and yet here we seem all so much alike. You find no difference in song, we all sing alike; nor in prayer, outwardly we all bow to him alike; nor in hearing, we are all "hearers of the word." In these sabbath exercises every voice seems to say, "I go sir;" but to-morrow will tell another tale. Today there is the hearing of the word; to-morrow there will be no doing of the work. No faith, no prayer, no selfdenial, no setting of the face to heaven to-morrow. Tomorrow again there will be the downward look, and the troop of earthborn cares, and snatches of the passing pleasure, and long forgetfulness of God. Oh what a

playing at religion is this! How it degrades the very preachers of it, turning them into "sounding brass and tinkling cymbal!" "And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument, for they hear thy words but they do them not." And how vast the dishonour done to Him whose ambassadors we are, whose gospel we preach, at the gate of whose kingdom we stand to invite you in his name to enter in! To dally so long with offers which ought to be accepted at once! To postpone the discharge of a great duty, which ought never to be put beyond the setting of a sun! Think of it. What will ye say to Him when ye meet him in his kingdom and glory? Who will be your intercessor with a divine intercessor despised and neglected? Who will save you from a Saviour's judgment? Who will deliver you from the wrath of the Lamb?

Now look again I pray you at his glorious gospel, with intensity, with continuance, above all with determination to act in divine strength according to the discoveries that shall be made to you. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." Work this work of God while it is day. "Now therefore perform the doing of it." "Behold now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation."

As soon as this vital connection is formed between seeing and doing, you are in a state of salvation. Never

until then. Then certainly. That is the snapping of the chain which binds the soul to sin. That is the opening of the gates of righteousness. That is the actual uprising of the long-imprisoned soul and its forthcoming into light and liberty, while Jesus himself reads the charter of emancipation and gives it to all who thus escape. "If ye continue in my word then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

And you may be sure that nothing less will ever bring freedom indeed. We must come into the light or we never can be the children of light. We must walk forth into liberty, or we never can be free. Israel must go out of Egypt with energy, in haste, by night. The Lord will not roll them out in Pharaoh's chariots. Peter must go out of his prison, although there is an angel there who has broken iron gates, and who could easily throw down the stone walls. "Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals," said the angel; "and so he did." And so must we do the bidding of our deliverer, or we never can be free. Obeying and following him with promptitude we are "the Lord's freemen" for evermore.

From Glory to Glory.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, (even) as by the Spirit of the Lord.—2 CORINTHIANS iii. 18.

HERE is a contrast drawn by the apostle in this

THERE

chapter between the Old Covenant and the New, between the law and the gospel. The contrast is not doubtful, but clear and striking. In the qualities contrasted, there is a direct inconsistency and clear opposition-as between death and life, condemnation and righteousness, transiency and permanence. In the immediate context this contrast is drawn as between the darkness and bondage of the law, and the clearness and freedom of the gospel. No doubt the law held the gospel within itself, as an inner glory; but it was veiled like Moses' face when he spake to Israel. The gospel is the full shining out of that glory without any darkening cloud or veil (like Moses' face when he spake to the Lord), that men may clearly see, and that as they look they may be changed into the moral image and resemblance of that which they behold.

I.

The picture.-A glorious picture!

"We all with

open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord," That is the picture displayed. The glory of God in Christ, or the excellence and beauty of the divine nature and purpose as they are revealed in the gospel. That is the picture on which we are invited to gaze. It is probably the most perfect picture in the whole creation. We have reason to suppose that nowhere else in the universe is there such another. In none of yonder worlds is there such a display of the perfections of the great Maker. The dwellers there, losing sight for the time of the nearer objects in those heavenly worlds, "earnestly desire to look" into the things of the earthly redemption. The supreme question in the politics of heaven is what God is doing with man. Possibly, indeed, the interest of heaven in this world is far older than we think. Shadows of sin and lights of redemption may have been seen by the angels in long prevision, mingling awfully with the common light and shade of this world's earliest days, and imparting a mysterious interest even then to God's natural works. Those works, however, of themselves, were at one time, and for long ages, the only picture of divine manifestation in this world. "His eternal power and Godhead" shone out on the face of nature when only himself and