4. "He charged them" -with all wholesome authority; in the dignity of his office-not lording it over them, but as commissioned of God to warn, reprove, rebuke, &c. Yea, "every one of them," individually and collectively, publicly and privately-shewing no favour nor "respect of persons"-so sedulously did he pursue their salvation. At the close of this subject, let all examine themselves. Perhaps God has given you faithful pastors— -however inferior in gifts and talents to St. Paul: how have you profited by their instruction? Have you requited their affectionate solicitude, their diligence, their zeal? God himself has taught, exhorted, warned you, by his word, ordinances, Sabbaths, &c. : -what return have you made? Are you effectually called? have you obeyed the calling? Oh, lay aside the hard, impenitent heart; believe and live! Do you hope that you are indeed called to a kingdom?— -Oh, then, labour, by prayer and the use of all appointed means, to live as the heirs of a kingdom should live! Beware of false profession-hypocrisy-inconsistency! "Walk worthy of God-who hath called you!" XIX. THE SECOND ADVENT. 1 Corinthians iv. 5. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. (EPISTLE FOR THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT.) IT is remarkable, that the Church, in the portions of Scripture appointed to be read on the Advent Sundays, chiefly directs our attention to the circumstances of the Second glorious coming of Messiah, in the clouds of heaven, to judge the world: as if she feared lest the obscuration of his glory at his incarnation, and his lowly birth, should lead us to forget whence he came, and who he is, and what he will be; lest, veiled in the flesh, we should not discern his Godhead; or, absorbed in the humiliation of his first advent, we should cease to expect his second. May the subject and the season rather revive our anticipations of the coming day of his glory; and may the Lord the Spirit prepare our hearts to meet him! I. THE EVENT PREDICTED. II. THE SCRUTINY WHICH WILL THEN BE INSTITUTED. III. THE REsult. I.—The event pREDICTED :-" The coming of the Lord!" 1. Whose advent is this? 66 -Of whom speaketh the Apostle? "Of the Lord," the Lord God: he can speak of no other; for who else can search the hearts of all men? "The heart is deceitful above all things," &c. (Jer. xvii. 9, 10.) Who else can drag forth "the hidden things of darkness," or "reveal the counsels of all hearts?" It is impossible, morally, and according to revelation, impossible, that any but the great God can do this! But it is equally certain, that here and elsewhere the Apostle speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. No advent of God is predicted-it is the second advent of the Son of Man which is here foretold. Hence it follows, of necessity, that Christ is God! On the judgment-seat will sit one, a man that is God's fellow." (Zech. xiii. 7.) 2. This advent of the Lord is absolutely certain :— -so certain, and so universally expected, that the Apostle begs the Corinthians to suspend their judgment of him "until the Lord come!" True, he delays his coming : Scripture might have led us to expect his appearance sooner: "Behold, I come quickly;' Behold, I stand at the door," &c.; "Yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry." (Heb. x. 37.) The end is not yet! Earth rolls on its unwearied course; summer and winter, day and night, do not cease;" business and pleasure are pursued, all as heretofore. Wicked men say, "Where is the promise of his coming?" (2 Peter iii. 4); abusing the long-sufferance of God-"it is all a fable, he will never come-the world will always go on as it is!" &c. Even his people grow weary: "Why tarry the wheels of his chariot;" or they "slumber and sleep;" think death is much the same thing to them; losing sight of his personal approach. Still, he will come! it is true! He is only "expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.” (Heb. x. 12, 13.) "For a thousand years are as one day.”—But, 3. How will he come ? 99 66 66 "Even so as he went into heaven!" (Acts i. 10, 11); that is, "in the clouds!" (Rev. i. 7); not "meek, and sitting upon an ass;" not "bearing the sins of many," but "without sin unto salvation:" not interceding, but judging. "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout," &c. (1 Thess. iv. 16); "making the clouds his chariot, and riding upon the wings of the wind.” "In power and great glory, and all his holy angels with him." 4. But when will he come ? -At the appointed time!-here called "THE TIME!"— the fixed, ordained time: "the times of restitution of all things." (Acts iii. 21.) A time unknown by men, angels, or devils! "Of that day and that hour knoweth no man: no, not the angels; no, not the Son" (in his human character), "but the Father." Presumption and folly, not to say impiety, to attempt to fix it: it is to lift the ark of secrecy. Its revealed character is unexpectedness: "In such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh." "As the lightning's flash," "in the twinkling of an eye," as sudden as the flood on the antediluvians, and the fire in Sodom; "so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." II. THE SCRUTINY WHICH WILL THEN BE INSTITUTED : He "both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts :" This he will do "when he comes;" clearly identifying his second advent with the day of judgment contrary to the theory of the Millenarians. A TWOFOLD PROCEDURE : "There 1. He will reveal the hidden things of darkness. (a) This may be applied in a good sense to his people: is nothing covered that shall not be revealed," &c. (Matt. x. 26, 27.) The Lord's hidden ones shall be manifestedhis obscure and humble servants; their hidden prayers, sighs, tears, fastings, watchings, trials, temptations; their secret acts of love, mercy, and benevolence; their solitary conflicts with sin and corruption; God's hidden ways towards them;-all which has been concealed from human observation, shall then be proclaimed ! (b) The hidden things of darkness, in a bad sense, shall also be exposed; "of which it is a shame to speak"-deeds of darkness, sin, impurity, fornication, adultery, theft, fraudevery dark speech, every calumnious whisper, scandal, backbiting! Every hidden iniquity, buried in the dust of ages, shall be raked up, exposed, proclaimed, to the confusion of all who died impenitent and unbelieving. 2. The counsels of all hearts shall be made manifest! Not only deeds and words, but thoughts, motives, and springs of action. (a) This is capable of a good sense with respect to his own people. They are now misunderstood and misrepresented; false and base motives are imputed to them; all shall then be explained and vindicated. Their hidden counsels shall be revealed; their communings with God-their appeals to him-how they prayed to him, sought his guidance, fled from sin. How they took counsel together, conferred, and plotted, and united, to promote God's glory and the salvation of men all their designs of piety which they could not accomplish, "what it was in their heart to do;" like David, purposes accepted as if performed!—all shall then be made known to God's glory, their comfort, and the confusion of their enemies! (b) In like manner shall the counsels of the hearts of the III. THE RESULT OF THIS SCRUTINY APPEARS STRANGE: "Then shall every man have praise of God." Will, then, all men receive praise of God at that day? We know they will not! We know that too many will receive only condemnation and a bitter curse! How, then, is the Apostle to be understood? Praise will be awarded by God alone. Every man who is praised at all, will then be praised of God, and not of man: man's praise and blame will have ceased for ever, and will be utterly worthless in that day. The context proves that this is the sense of the passage. St. Paul is vindicating himself, magnifying his office, and appealing from the judgment of men to the tribunal of God (ver. 3): "With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment;" nay, he was diffident even of himself: " I judge not mine own self: ...... he that judgeth me is the Lord." Wait for his decision-"judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come: he will try the hearts and motives ;" and then shall every good and faithful "man have praise of God," when years have passed away as a vapour for ever! Therefore seek to approve yourselves to God, and you need not be uneasy about the opinions of men: seek the praise that cometh of God; realise this great scrutiny-this great disclosure of motives; prepare for it: use that prayer"Search me, O God," &c. (Psalm cxxxix. 23, 24.) Who among us is ready? Are we all watching, waiting, looking for the coming of the Son of Man? Do our lives and habits attest the sincerity of our expectations? Are we confessing ourselves strangers, shewing plainly that we seek a country? Oh, how little is this glorious Advent realized by many persons! With what sweet assurance may the true people of God commit their cause to him who will hereafter plead it! (Psalm xxxvii. 5—7; Philipp. iv. 6, 7.) XX. THE SUPREME EXCELLENCE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. Joshua xxiii. 6. Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left. THE venerable Joshua is here delivering his dying injunctions to the children of Israel. He calls to their recollection past victories and deliverances, and assures them of future conquests: he appeals to them respecting the faithfulness of their God, (ver. 14): "Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts. and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you: all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof." But when he and the elders who outlived him were silent in the grave, one thing would remain to them-God's holy word—his Scriptures; and the desire of the aged Joshua was, that they would diligently study the sacred volume, and humbly obey the commandments of God there revealed to them. "Be ye therefore very courageous," &c. (Text.) This striking exhortation is as seasonable now as it was then, and merits our deepest attention. May the Holy |