"saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, which is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage-supper of the Lamb."

It is also added, she "hath made herself ready." What is meant by this? The command was, "Be ye ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh." She heard the summons, and is ready. The warning was, "Prepare to meet thy God." She heard the warning cry, and she prepared to meet him;. but she has done so, not in her own strength, but having heard that God "makes us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light,” she has opened her heart to the reception of that which she has heard, for his Spirit to sanctify it; and that Holy Spirit has made her meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. And thus the Bride has not only a bridal dress, which is her title-like the wedding-robe that we read of in the parable-but she has also her bridal spirit, which is fitness for the kingdom of heaven. The first thing required is a righteousness which is perfect, and without us; the second is that fitness which is progressive, and within The distinction is this: Christ's work is an act-once done, incapable of addition. The Spirit's work is a process, that goes on from grace to glory. The first is perfect righteousness, the second is imperfect. The first is without us, the second is within us. The first is Christ's act, the second is the Spirit's work. The first is imputed, the second is imparted. The one is our title, the other is our fitness.

us.

The bride has received the title, and the fitness too, for she "hath made herself ready;" and hence it is pronounced, "Blessed are they that are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb;" not "Blessed shall they be," but "Blessed are they." Blessed are you if you respond to his call. Blessed are you that hope for that hour. Blessed are you that are united to Jesus. Blessed are you, for you shall sit at the marriage-supper of the Lamb. Often bridal feasts upon earth are followed by bitter days; but that bridal feast shall only be the prelibation of richer

and intenser joy than eye hath seen or man's heart hath conceived. The best and noblest festivals below have alloy in them. The sharp sword suspended by the single hair hangs over more feasts than that of the flatterer in ancient story; but at that great, that glorious festival, there shall be no sense of peril, no apprehension of a dark and disastrous close to it; but a deep and universal feeling that it is but the morning dawn of a light that shall advance until it is perfected in everlasting and blessed noon. Blessed are they that are invited, for they have the earnest and the foretaste of it. Blessed are they that are invited, for they have the hope of it. Blessed are they that are invited, for they shall be made possessors of it. Blessed are they that are invited, for they know that all things, prosperous and adverse, past, and present, and future, are only wafting them the more speedily to the marriage-supper of the Lamb. And, dear brethren, next Sabbath we approach a festival that commemorates a sacrifice that is finished, and which is to us the tapering finger that points into the future, and tells us of the marriage festival of the bride and of the Lamb. I do not conceive that that man's mind is right, or that man's trust where it should be, or that man's character as Christianity demands that it should be, who overlooks, or despises, or turns away from this festival below, which is a faint foretaste of that more blessed and glorious festival that is to come. "Do this in remembrance of me," says our Saviour, for I-bare your cross, and bequeathed to you "the fine linen, white and clean, which is the righteousness of saints." Do this till I come, "for I will not leave you orphans: I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am there you may may be also." The Lord's supper seems to me like a beauteous rainbow, one end of which rests upon the cross, and, after spanning the mighty flood between them, the other end rests upon the crown-binding in one bond of peace, and love, and harmony, and union, things that are past, with all their pains, and things that are to come, with all their joys; and teaching us, while drawing our title from the first, to draw our hopes from the second; when we shall rejoice, and feel that the marriage-feast of the Lamb is come, and we, too, have made ourselves ready.

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LECTURE XXXVI.

THE NEW SONG.

"And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth."-Revelation xiv. 3.

THIS is the evening of the first Sabbath of a new year, (1849.) A new song becomes a new year; and he who has entered on its responsibilities with the truest heart, and has reflected on the mercies of the past with the greatest gratitude, will be the readiest to sing a new song, which, sung imperfectly below, shall be rendered in all its force, its fulness, and its harmony above. We read in Scripture of many songs that were sung on many a glorious occasion. One of the earliest that we read of is contained in the book of Exodus-a song alluded to in the book of Revelation-where we are told that Moses and the children of Israel sung this song, "Sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea." A song of sublime poetry was this, sung, I have no doubt, with no less sublime music, when, standing on the opposite coast, the children of Israel looked back upon the passage they had made -a passage for the children of Israel, a sepulchre for all the hosts and the captains of Pharaoh. We have another instance of a song sung on the occasion of a kindred victory, in the book of Judges, v. 12, where we read, "Awake, awake Deborah; awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam. Then he made him that remaineth have dominion over the nobles among the people: the Lord made me have dominion over the mighty," &c. Judges v. 12-31. Another very beautiful song, and one worthy of your careful perusal at your leisure, we have in the book of Psalms, (Ps. xcvi.,) in which we are called upon to "sing unto the Lord

a new song; sing unto the Lord, all the earth; show forth his praise from day to day." And the song that is to be sung in Psalm xcvi., which is called a new song, is declared to be sung upon the eve of the manifestation of the Lord of glory; for it concludes with this chorus: "Let the earth be glad, and all that is therein; then shall the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord; for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth; he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth." We have also in Isa. xlii. 10, another new and beautiful song: "Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof." In the former case the song was sung on the prostration of all the enemies of God; and in the latter cases which I have quoted, the songs were sung on the sound of the returning footsteps of Him who is to take the reins into his hand, and guide the earth in its ancient orbit of holiness, of beauty, and of peace.

cross.

Now, the new song which is sung here, which is stated in the text to be sung "before the throne," is one which originated from the glorious and impressive spectacle of a Lamb seated on Mount Zion; that Lamb the symbol of suffering, crucifixion, atonement, death, and yet seated on Mount Zion, the symbol of glory, of honour, supremacy, dominion; the cross and the crown blended into one; the garland of thorns that was around the bleeding brow, and the many crowns that are upon the triumphant head, woven into one; it being impossible in heaven to see Christ upon his throne without the reminiscence of Christ upon his The shadow of the atonement evermore flits before the eyes of the worshippers, and is visible there; a Lamb as if he had. just been slain constantly is prominent before the redeemed, in order to teach us, or rather lest it should be forgotten, that there is not a pulse of joy in one heart of the redeemed hosts, that comes not from Him who was nailed to the cross for us; and there is not a branch of palm in one ransomed hand, that derives not its greenness from that tree of suffering; that there is not one bright sunbeam on the face, nor one realized joy in the bosoms of the blessed, which may not be traced to atoning blood and expiatory suffering; and thus Calvary never shall be for

gotten, and the sufferings of Jesus shall be recollected while heaven lasts and the currents of eternity flow. These were the greatest phenomena that angels ever saw, or history ever ennobled; and those sufferings shall suggest the noblest poetry, and inspire the sublimest minstrelsy, while there are happy hearts around the throne to recollect and sing them. "I saw a Lamb upon the throne, and with him one hundred and forty and four thousand, with his Father's name written in their foreheads, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world." "His Father's name!" how strange it is that those names, which are with us so musical, in heaven are so utterly forgotten! In the Apocalyptic drama, those distinctions about which men fight, those quarrels which agitate visible churches, are never mooted, nor mentioned, nor recollected; there are no Churchmen in heaven; there are no Dissenters in heaven; no Independents, no Wesleyans; none but Christians are there; and it is in vain that one is able to pronounce with the most exquisite beauty the shibboleth of the sect, if one has not written upon one's forehead the name of our Father who is in heaven.

I have explained to you before, who these hundred forty and four thousand are. They are the twelve times twelve thousand, the visible Israel, the type of the true Israel. They are the whole company of the people of God. "And I heard a voice from heaven"-here is a description of the song, its fulness, its majesty, its glorious and its mighty swell-"I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps." These are not the harpers by the glassy sea who celebrated the triumph of the redeemed church at the revolution of 1792, but evidently harpers belonging to a different epoch in the Apocalyptic history, and a subsequent epoch; for it is said, "they sang a new song before the throne of God and of the Lamb." They are those that follow the Lamb, that are redeemed from among men, in whose mouths is no guile, who are without fault before the throne of God.

Now, why is this song called a new song? Briefly I have touched upon this before: let me now explain why I think it is a new song. It is so, I conceive, because it celebrates a subject