and has he done it? Oh, enter upon the

It is his prerogative to do so; Oh, enter before it is shut! favourable season, that you may enjoy the blessing! Oh, give audience to the utterance and declaration of the divine will! Oh, receive the truth into your heart! If your heart be not opened, ask him to open it. If you be burdened with sin, so that the gate of your heart refuses to open, ask him to take away your sin, and to unbar the entrance of your heart. Go to him; he is ready to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. And has he opened the door of his Church? Has he made the appointment and given the privilege of the fellowship of saints? Does he call you to enter into the communion of his Church? Oh, despise not his word! but give yourself to the Lord, and then unto his people, according to his will. Heaven! the door of heaven-those celestial gates, though for ever barred against pollution and sin-he has opened for the entrance of all them that seek to be washed, justified, and glorified through him. You know not how soon you may wish to enter there! It is he only that can give you translation. It is he only that can present you faultless. Oh, live by faith upon the Son of God! Oh, live in the exercise of faith! that, when you come to die, you may triumph in his salvation. Amen.

THE CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS,

A REWARD.

"Henceforth, there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."—2 Tım. iv. 8.

THESE are the words of an aged man, an old Christian minister; and this Christian minister was an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, called into the apostleship by Jesus Christ himself; and had by him been kept faithful unto this time. These words were spoken by that venerated saint, in the near, the certain prospect of death, within the shortest distance of that day, which we are all called to anticipate. They are spoken by this aged saint with a full assurance that the prospect of death which he had was to be realized. He says, "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand." It was not death after the usual manner that he anticipated; it was death, as the death of a martyr, for the gospel of Christ. He anticipated this martyrdom in circumstances of extreme dejection, desolation, and loneliness. He was now a prisoner held fast by a chain, kept at Rome

waiting the sentence of a monster of cruelty, the base and heartless Nero. But it was not death under the most fearful aspect that the cruel monster could inflict, that was the greatest source of apprehension to this servant of Christ. He was left alone, solitary; he says, "Thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes;" and he adds also immediately in connection, that certain individuals, having loved this present world, had forsaken him, while some others, in the faithful discharge of their duty, had gone to distant provinces to preach the gospel. Such a one as Paul, the aged, bowed down with his many sufferings, and bearing in his body the marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus, now waited the time of his departure, was now ready to be offered. It is thought, and I conceive with considerable probability, that he had some certain intimation that ere long he was to close his career. "I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." It is the last dying testimony of the sainted apostle, the martyr servant now ready to be offered up. He sent this epistle by the hand of some trustworthy friend, who yet remained; that his son in the gospel might hasten to him, in order to minister to him the last consolation in the hour of trial, in the hour of his death. "Do thy diligence to come shortly unto

me." He might apprehend that if Timothy were not with him, he had not another friend on whose presence he could calculate.

It deserves our notice, that out of these circumstances, in the midst of these sufferings, desertions, and desolations; and with this immediate prospect of that day before him, that he saith, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

Let me direct your attention, from these words, first, to the inheritance in reversion; secondly, to the Donor of this inheritance; and thirdly, to those that are heirs of it.

The inheritance in reversion is a "crown of righteousness laid up." It has no doubt an allusion to the crown usually worn by victors amongst the athletic games of Greece, whether they were wrestlers or runners, or the crown awarded to the successful hero, when he had returned from the fight. Thus far we see how it expresses public approbation; it signifies a reward answerable to the work which had been accomplished; it distinguishes such a reward as was the object of highest ambition to those who were capable of considering the subject. How did the athletic wrestler contend that he might gain the prize! How did the runner

H

strain every nerve, that he might first reach the goal and obtain the crown! How did the hero contend in the battle-field, bearing his shield high and his buckler broad, and wielding his sword. courageously against the adversary, that he might return from the field of battle with the spoil, and that he might gain the reward of his prowess!

These were things that engrossed the mind, that brought together myriads from all parts of Greece; as rewards they so occupied the combatants that the aspirants counted nothing dear to them, so that they might finish their course before their antagonists, so that they might reach the prize, so that they might obtain the reward. It was not then death or victory (and their disgrace was equal to death if they gained not the trophy of renown), which inspired them. They did it to obtain a corruptible crown, a withering garland, nothing more than an earthly jewel at the most, that should soon be profitless to those that wore it.

But the apostle sets before us a crown of righteousness, a crown laid up. Let us with all thoughtfulness contemplate this first, as it is described as righteousness; it may be considered as belonging to a person that is righteous; it may be considered as bestowed upon a person for righteousness; it may be considered as bestowed by one who acts righteously, and who rewards in justice.