His disciples. The fear is removed, the sting is gone. This view serves to show

:

Thirdly The value of the Gospel. The Gospel takes away from those that receive it, all that is terrible in physical dissolution. It not only assures its disciples that death is not the end of existence, but only a transition in its mode, and that there is a future life of blessedness, but it gives the delightful assurance that that future blessedness is for them. Hence they come to hail death as a friend, rather than dread him as an enemy. They know that when "the earthly house is dissolved," &c. They feel, as Milton has it, that then death

will only be

"A gentle wafting to immortal life."

SUBJECT:-Spiritual Beauty.

"The beauty of the Lord."-Psalm xc. 17.

Analysis of Homily the Six Hundred and Thirty-seventh.

THE

CHE beauty here referred to is not the beauty of God in Himself, but the beauty of God in and upon His people. It resembles the beauty of the starry sky reflected in the placid lake, the beauty of the sun mirrored in the dew-drops of the morning, the beauty of the rainbow on the dark ground of the sky, the beauty of the moon clothed in the mild splendor of the sun. It is "the beauty of the Lord our God upon us."

I. This beauty is VARIED. It is the beauty of faith as seen in Abraham, the beauty of patience as seen in Job, the beauty of purity as seen in Joseph, the beauty of meekness as seen in Moses, the beauty of boldness as seen in Elijah, the beauty of thankfulness as seen in David, the beauty of faithfulness as seen in Daniel, the beauty of earnestness as seen in Paul, the beauty of love as seen in John, the beauty

of them all as seen in Jesus. This beauty, therefore, is many tinted, richly varied.

II. This beauty is GROWING. Its growth is like the growth of corn: first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear; it is like the growth of trees, first the seedling, then the young tree fenced round, then the large tree fully developed, with its beautiful arch reflecting perfectly the great arch of the majestic sky overhead. It resembles the progress of light; first the twilight, then the silver dawn gradually growing into the golden splendors of noon. Faith, humility, patience, gentleness, meekness, love, are some of the features of this beauty; and these, in the model Christian, shine like the sun "with growing brightness."

III. This beauty is UNFADING. Earthly beauty grows until it reaches full bloom, and then it begins to fade. But not so with the beauty of God. It grows brighter and brighter, for ever and ever. Just as the sun sets in hues more golden than those in which he rises, so the man who leaves this world, with the beauty of God upon him, leaves it lovelier than when he first entered it. For that beauty is ever grow- ́ ing and never fading. It is a beauty that shall defy all the ravages of time, care, disease, and death. Time cannot write its wrinkles; care cannot plough its furrows; disease cannot impress its marks upon any of the features of this beauty; death cannot breathe upon its fadeless bloom.

IV. This beauty is ATTRACTING. Josephus informs us that the babe, Moses, was so remarkable for beauty, that “it happened frequently that those that met him, as he was carried along the road, were obliged to turn again upon seeing the child; that they left what they were about and stood still a great while to look on him." Thus the perfect beauty of childhood is attracting, and in this it is a lovely symbol of spiritual beauty. The beauty of God upon the primitive Church drew the eyes of the heathen toward her, and forced

from them the exclamation, "Behold these Christians, how they love one another." The beauty of God upon the disciples caused the people around to wonder, and take “knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus." The beauty of God upon Peter and the rest, attracted to "the king of beauty," three thousand souls on the day of Pentecost. The beauty of God upon the members of the Church, has been drawing and assimilating men of all tribes and all ages. And in proportion as her members have this beauty upon them, are they successful in making others lovely. Our daily prayer therefore, should be, "God be merciful unto us and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. Let the beauty of the Lord, our God, be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."

Whilst salvation to the

V. This beauty is UNCONSCIOUS. believing sinner is generally a reality of consciousness, the beauty that results from salvation, when perfect, may be designated an unconscious beauty. The soul of man, invested with the beauty of God in perfection, is unconscious both of the existence of that beauty and the admiration it excites in the minds of those who gaze upon it. A dutiful daughter, let us suppose, watches by the bedside of her dying mother. She anticipates her every wish, meets her every want; she serves her by day and by night, till the fire has left her eye, and the bloom gone from her cheek. She would not take a throne, and leave her sick mother. How beautiful she is, but she does not know it. She is too absorbed, too beautiful, to be conscious either of its existence, or the admiration it excites in those who behold it. So it is with spiritual beauty. It is said that Moses, when he came down from the mount of communion, "wist not that his face shone." And we have in Matthew's description of the last judgment a revelation, on the one hand of unconscious spiritual deformity, and a manifestation, on the other, of unconscious spiritual beauty.

"Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Thus, their lives were beautiful, their faces shining in the eyes of Christ, when they were all unconscious of it. Thus, like the beauty of stars and rainbows, and flowers, and birds, and children, the beauty of God upon us, not in crescent fragments, but in fullorbed splendor, is invariably unconscious, until revealed to us by those who gaze upon it.

VI. This beauty is RARE. It is rare as a few flowers amid a garden of weeds; rare as a few pebbles gleaming up out of an ocean of sand; rare as a few star clusters shining on the dark breast of night. It is rare and yet free, rare and yet attainable. Oh, it is wonderful that this beauty should be so uncommon when it is so free! It is universally attainable, for "it is unto all and upon all them that believe." Fellow immortal! "only believe," and you shall have the soul and face of an angel, you shall have a spirit and a countenance beaming with intelligence, beaming with purity, beaming with love, and beaming with joy.

JOHN DUNLOP.

SUBJECT:-The Good Man's Present and Future House.

"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heaven. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit."-2 Cor. v. 1—5.

Analysis of Homily the Six Hundred and Thirty-eighth.

TELL is it for Christians sometimes, to survey their

present and their future habitation. The survey will keep them from becoming weary in well-doing, and even render them more diligent in their labor of love; yea, it will buoy them up under troubles, raise them above the influence of temporal things, and fill their minds while living and dying, with the most joyful and glorious anticipations.

It is his physical

Holy Writ often

I. THE GOOD MAN'S PRESENT HOUSE. structure. The mind occupies the body. speaks of the body as the soul's residence.

less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?”

'

"In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows are darkened, and the doors shall be shut in the streets." The figurative expressions in these passages refer to the human frame.

This house is earthly. It is formed from the earth, and drags the spirit, its tenant, down to the earth. From the body returning to the earth, we see that it is composed of the same material. By the inclination we feel to the things of sense, we perceive that our body draws our spirit down to sublunary objects. "And the Lord God formed.

VOL. XIV.

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