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felicity of the venerable founders of the Jewish church, a branch only of "the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven!" The like precious faith which exalted the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to a place in the kingdom of God, was to be diffused in every direction, and to raise men "of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," to the "inheritance of a kingdom prepared," for all the faithful, "from the foundation of the world." The Jews, on the other hand, valued themselves on their exclusive privileges. They scorned to have any dealings with even their neighbours and brethren the Samaritans. They held themselves contaminated by coming into contact with the impure heathen; they appropriated to themselves a right to the favour of God. To persons labouring under such prejudices, which had been instilled into them with their mother's milk, what an awful denunciation was it, that not only should the Gentile nations be received within the pale of the church, but received to their own exclusion? "Behold," exclaims the apostle, in contemplating this very object, "Behold the goodness and severity of God."-"Of a truth we perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that! feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." But the singular imagery, and the very language by which this view of the Redeemer's kingdom is conveyed, deserve a particular consideration. May they be deeply impressed upon our hearts and minds.

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Many shall come," says Christ, as he surveyed the gradual progress, and the unlimited extent of his empire. The narrow spirit of Judaism is not peculiar to that people. It seems to be a general character of human nature. Abraham and Lot were under the necessity of separating, because "the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together." How often has a well of water kindled a flame among brethren! Whence come pride and envy? whence come fraud and cunning? whence come wars and fightings! whence come monopolies and exclusions, but from the selfishness of an individual, or of a few, to appropriate to themselves what belongs to many! Were the operation of this spirit confined to the things of time, it might be accounted for. The desires of the human mind are unbounded, and the objects of pursuits are few and small. What another acquires seems to be so much taken away from me. Though in truth there is provision sufficiently ample for all; bread enough and to spare, room enough and to spare, were the real wants and the reasonable wishes of nature to settle the distribution. But that the kingdom of heaven should be subjected to a monopoly; that its keys should be seized by the bold hand of an usurping individual or of an arrogant party, would exceed belief, did not the history even of the Christian Church establish the fact. The disciples of Christ themselves brought into his school all the contractedness of their Jewish education. Even the mild and affectionate John was tainted with it. "Master," said he, "we saw one casting out devils in thy name and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us." They are for calling down fire from heaven to consume a whole village of Samaritans, in resentment of a mere piece of incivility. They must have the highest places when their Master should come to the throne. The kingdom must be restored to Israel, whatever might become of the rest of the world. This spirit, though frequently and severely reprobated by their benevolent Master, has unhappily been transmitted, and mutual anathemas and excommunications have been thundered by furious sectaries, who have one after another desolated the earth, to secure to themselves the undivided possession of a heaven which they are incapable of enjoying. If the Saviour of men says, " many shall come,' ," who dares to limit the holy One of Israel, and to say, "fo shall be saved?”

Many shall come from the east and west." The other two cardinal points

are specified in a corresponding passage of the gospel according to St. Luke, chap. xiii. 29. The import of the expression is obvious. It denotes the attractive influence of Christianity over men of every region under heaven, and the universal paternal care and love of Him who "hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth." The day of Pentecost exhibited the first-fruits of this glorious harvest. When the apostles, "filled with the Holy Ghost, spake with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance," "there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now, when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed, and marvelled, saying one to another, behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? and how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and Proselytes" and the same day there was added unto them about three thousand souls." Since that period what have been the triumphs of the Prince of Peace! What myriads are now prostrate before Him who sitteth upon the throne, and before the Lamb, adoring the wonders of redeeming grace, looking, with angels, into the great mystery of godliness, if haply they may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge!" And what still more glorious triumphs remain to be displayed, when "the fulness of the Gentiles shall be come in, and all Israel shall be saved," when "great voices in heaven" shall say "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever!"

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Those

The multitudes who shall thus flock to the Saviour, as doves to their windows, from the east and from the west, from the south and from the north, as they are partakers of the faith of the patriarchs, so they shall at length be made partakers of their joy; "they shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God." What an assemblage of delicious images! What prospects has the Gospel opened to the children of men! travellers into a far country have returned to their Father's house. They pursued various tracks, but all led homeward. They were strangers to each other in a strange land, but the prevailing family likeness now lets them see that they are brothers. They sometimes fell out by the way, but now there is perfect love. They had heard of the names of their venerable ancestors and respectable kindred, now they see, and know, and rejoice in them. Their pilgrimage is ended, their "warfare is accomplished."

"They shall sit down." They were laid in the grave, they fell asleep, they saw corruption. Now they are children of the resurrection; refreshed by the sleep of death, they have acquired immortal vigour, they have put on incorruption. Sitting is the posture assumed for the enjoyment of social intercourse, and that is the idea here conveyed. The family is assembled, the banquet is prepared, perfect harmony reigns. When men return to the bosom of their friends from tedious and painful journeys, from perilous voyages, from destructive warfare, affection suggests many an inquiry, many a communication. Alas, how often do we fondly anticipate the communications of distant friends who are never to return! But of the expected guests, of the innumerable company invited to "the marriage of the Lamb," not one shall be missing, no bitter recollection shall intrude, no painful apprehension shall arise. And with what subjects of conversation are they eternally supplied! With what enlarged views, of those subjects do they discourse! The glories

of nature are contemplated with new eyes, and excite emotions before unfelt. The mystery of Providence, once so intricate and inscrutable, is unravelled; the mighty plan, the minute parts, the universal and the individual interest are found in perfect unison. The wonders of redeeming love, intermingling with the glories of creation and the mystery of Providence, communicating to them all their beauty, all their importance. What a theme for the whole company of the redeemed, for interchange of personal experience, for mutual congratulation and delight! What exalted employment, what inexhaustible source of joy for the endless days of eternity!

"They shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob." There is a natural desire in man to be in the company of the eminently great, and wise, and good. But this desire is tempered by a consciousness of our own inferi ority. We shrink from the penetrating eye of wisdom, we feel "how awful goodness is," we blush inwardly at the thought of our own littleness. But those ingathered outcasts from the east and west feel no uneasy apprehen sions on being introduced to society so dignified, for "there is no fear in lore." They indeed feel their inferiority, but it excites no mortification. They are in their proper place, and they have their proper measure of glory. While time was they pronounced those venerable names with awe, they accounted those persons happy who could claim kindred to men so highly distinguished, admission to the court of the Gentiles terminated their ambition, birth had excluded them forever from the commonwealth of Israel. Now they find that they are the real posterity of Abraham, "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." If any man hath not the spirit of Abraham, he is none of his. By the spirit they are related to the father of the faithful, and he joyfully acknowledges them as his children, and heirs with him of the promises.

"They shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the king dom of heaven." This implies a participation of all the privileges of saints on earth, communion and fellowship with one another, as members together of that body whereof Christ is the head, and joint "fellowship with the fath er, and with the son Jesus Christ." Such is the kingdom of God in this world, and such the preparation for the inheritance of saints in light, for the kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us not presume to "darken counsel by words without knowledge." Let us not presume to draw aside the veil which separates a material world from the world of spirits, which interposes between time and eternity. Scripture itself, after exhausting every image, every idea of negative and of positive glory and felicity, as descriptive of "the kingdom of heaven," refers us to a future revelation of that glory. Paul, "caught up to the third heaven, caught up into paradise," admitted to the intercouse of celestial beings, and sent back to earth, finds himself incapable of describing the heavenly vision. The words which he heard were unspeakable, which it is not lawful, which it is not possible for In this blessed, undefined, undescribed state we leave it: "It is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." The contrast is dreadful: "But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." By "the children of the kingdom," our Lord undoubtedly means to denote the posterity of Abraham after the flesh, the original heirs of the promises, the depositaries of the covenants, who, with all the advantages of birth, of edu cation, of a revelation which they acknowledged to be divine, and they made their boast, obstinately rejected the promised Messiah, their prophets give witness; who, valuing themselves upon, and ing in a mere natural descent from illustrious ancestors, with

a man to utter.

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tention to the apostle, followed his advice, and spared the rest of the prisoners that he might preserve Paul's life. And upon their arrival at Rome, when this generous officer delivered over the rest of his charge to the captain of the guard, he had sufficient credit and ability to express his friendship for our apostle, by procuring for him a greater enlargement of liberty: "Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him."

From this interesting story let us learn,

1. To despise no man's person, feelings, opinions, profession or country. His person is what God made it, and he makes nothing that is in itself contemptible. You are bound in equity to respect the feelings of another, for you wish that your own should not be handled rudely. It ill becomes one who has himself formed so many erroneous opinions, and veered about so frequently with the flitting gale, to prescribe a standard of opinion to other men. Unless a profession be radically, and in its own nature sinful, those who follow it ought not to be condemned in the lump: if it expose to peculiar temptations to act amiss, he who resists the temptation and overcomes himself is the more estimable. Over the place of his birth a mau had no more power than over the height of his stature, or the colour of his skin. It is an object of neither praise nor blame. The apostle Peter received a severe and just rebuke on this head by a vision from heaven. He was prepared, and he needed to be prepared, for the exercise of his ministry at Cesarea, and to the family and friends of the excellent Roman centurion already mentioned, and whom his Jewish pride had taught him to hold in contempt, by a thrice re peated mandate which he dared not to disobey: "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." Let us consider it as addressed to ourselves. Why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgement-seat of Christ."

2. The fearful doom denounced against unbelieving Jews ought to operate as a warning to still more highly privileged Christians, lest any man "fall after the same example of unbelief." "For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him." We sometimes express contempt for the pagan world, sometimes affect to pity the blinded nations, and without hesitation presume to pass a sentence of final condemnation upon them. The unhappy tribes of Africa, in particular, Christian Europe calmly reduces to the condi tion of beasts of burthen in this world, with hardly an effort to ameliorate it in the next. And yet they are men, they possess many virtues which ought to put their tyrants to the blush, and which will one day rise up in judgement against them. We despise the miserable Jews, and stigmatize them as infidels, as if all those who bear the name of Christ actually believed in him. "Boast not against the broken-off branches ;"-thou wilt say: The "branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief, they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee." I conclude with the solemn denunciation of Christ himself, respect ing the men of his generation, and which is still in equal force. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgement with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgement with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here."

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