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There we shall be all eye-all ear-all intellect-all devotion and love. We shall see God face to face; know as we are known; dwell in him, and he in us. "I heard a voice," says Saint John, "The tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people; his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads."

The

7. Here we need the vicissitudes of day and night for labor and rest. The light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun. night, though favorable to repose, is, however, a gloomy season. The gloom we endeavor to dispel by artificial lights. But in heaven there is no need of a candle, for there is no night there; and no need of the sun, for the glory of the Lord doth lighten it, and Jesus is the light thereof.

8. Here we have our seasons of sorrow and affliction. Our joys are transient. Our bright and happy days are interrupted with dark and stormy nights. Our smiling and cheerful suns are obscured by scowling and angry clouds. Death is stalking around-we see his frightful footsteps-we hear his hollow voice. We tremble for our children and friends-we mourn the loss of brethren and companions-we have no security for our most pleasing connexions-we are doomed to suffer the anguish of their dissolution. In heaven things will be new. All friendship there will be the union of pure and immortal minds in disinterested benevolence to one another, and in supreme love to the allglorious Jehovah. Holy souls will mingle together in a manner new and ineffable. Their affections will all concentrate in the same spiritual objects, and their friendly feelings will be transfused into each other. The benevolence of each will embrace the whole system of

virtuous intelligences, and will suffer no interruption or abatement from the incursion of malevolent pas. sions; for these will be unknown there. This un

ion will never be dissolved. "God will wipe away all tears from our eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away."

While we contemplate this grand and wonderful renovation, let us remember, that, in order to our entering into the new heaven, we must experience a similar renovation here on earth. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; all things are become new." "We must put off the old man, be renewed in the spirit of our minds, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

He who sits on the throne says, "Behold, I make all things new,"

The citizens of the new Jerusalem must be new creatures. They must be made new, as well as the city which they inhabit. "Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Nothing can enter thither which defiles. They only who are pure in heart shall dwell with God. "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? He who hath clean hands and a pure heart."

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While we lament the corruptions of the world, let us look forward and rejoice in the persuasion that truth and virtue will hereafter triumph.

Let us pray for the general spread of the gospelfor the enlargement of the church-for the revival of pure religion-for the extinction of error and vice, and the subversion of the kingdom of satan in our world.

Let us attend to our own spiritual state; see that the new creature be formed in our souls; and be watchful to promote its growth, that, whatever may be the state of the world, in our day, we may be admitted hereafter into the new heaven above, and may rejoice forever in that which God creates.

SERMON XI.

ACTS viii. 39.

-And he went his way rejoicing.

THE person here spoken of is the Ethiopian eunuch, who having been instructed by Philip the Evangelist in the nature and evidences of the gospel of salvation, had received it by faith, and had testified his faith by baptism in the name of Christ. The story, as related in the latter part of this chapter, may usefully employ our present meditations.

Philip, who had been preaching in Samaria with great success, was directed by an angel to "arise and go toward the south, unto the way which goeth down from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is desert." This Gaza was a town near the country of the Philistines, and sometimes possessed by them. It lay southwest from Jerusalem, in the way toward Ethiopia, a country which is south of Egypt, and is often mentioned in scripture. Philip, by travelling south from Samaria, would naturally cross the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. A A part of the country between Jerusalem and Gaza is called a desert. Philip, in

obedience to the heavenly command, arose and went. At this time, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch, or officer under Candace, the then reigning queen of Ethiopia-one who had the charge of all her treasures, and who had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning to his own country, and riding in his

chariot.

: God's wisdom orders the times and circumstances of men's conduct in such a manner, as will best accomplish the purposes of his goodness. Philip must set out on his journey at such a moment, as to fall in with this officer on the road, and communicate to him those instructions which concerned his salvation. Neither Philip, nor the officer contemplated the interview which took place, nor probably had any knowledge of each other. The interview and its consequences were ordered by divine providence, not by human contrivance. God sends us blessings, which we never sought, and sends them in ways, which we should never have devised. The first awakening, and the consequent conversion of sinners may be owing to some circumstance in the course of divine dispensations, which never entered into their thoughts. True religion in their hearts is wrought by the word of truth, which word is accompanied with the energies of the Holy Spirit : But their opportunity to hear a pertinent instruction or admonition, and their disposition to regard and apply what they hear, may be owing to a providential occurrence, or internal influence, which was not of their seeking. Some pious book may be put into their hands, some judicious advice may be given in their hearing, or some affliction may fall upon them, which awakens their attention, and brings them to a real amendment.. Philip had cause to bless God for making him, without a previous design of his own, an instrument of eternal good to