memory. Hell consists in impotent and unmingled rage against the Almighty Creator. Men blaspheme the name of God, who hath power over their plagues. Hell consists in the enforced association with the arch-enemy of God and man, and with his lost and wicked legions. The place is that prepared for the Devil and his angels. Hell consists, lastly, and above all, in the terrible outpouring of the wrath of Almighty God, into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fall.

Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God. Surely there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, where men shall seek for death, and it shall flee from them. Surely all this constitutes a state of anguish fitly portrayed in Scripture under the figure of a lake that burneth with fire. Who among us shall dwell with these everlasting burnings? Good were it for that man if he had never been born!

Brethren, Jesus Christ is that heavenly Wisdom who spoke by the mouth of Solomon, "Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. For he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death." And remember, "though heaven and earth shall pass away, his words shall not pass away."

But let us now consider the last branch of our subject, namely, the blessed effects of keeping the words of Christ. It is a more pleasing one; it is one well calculated to make the heart of those rejoice who seek the Lord. To enter fully into the subject within reasonable, or indeed within any, limits, is impossible. It is a theme not only inexhaustible, but one which lies in a great measure beyond the range of our present faculties. The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. The things which he hath prepared for them that love him, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they so much as entered into the heart of man. We may nevertheless trace that outline which God has delineated, for while the secret things belong to the Lord our God, those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children.

As our God is a God of judgment, so he is a God of mercy. As his threatenings declare the one, so his promises attest the other. And as the evil is the portion of the unbelieving and ungodly, so the good is the inheritance of such as keep his covenant. Have you ever observed how large a proportion of the Scripture is taken up with solemn threatenings on the one hand,-and on the other, with rich and glorious promises? These

latter belong to you, if you are keeping the words of Him whom God hath sent. The God of comfort and consolation, when he calls you to his kingdom and glory, knows well the trials, conflicts, and hindrances you shall meet with in the way. He knows you have a daily cross to take up in following Christ, and that in the world you shall have tribulation. The Shepherd who keeps Israel has provided these green pastures for his flock, and thus leads them forth beside the waters of comfort. If you are one of Christ's sheep, hearing his voice and abiding in his word, see what a table the Lord has prepared for you even in the midst of your enemies. Eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

This food from heaven is intended for you to feed upon. God has not revealed these things without a purpose: they have an essentially prac tical tendency. They are not written to gratify idle curiosity; but that you, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Would you obtain a more complete and easier victory over the world? Then set your affection on these things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Would you purify yourself, as he is pure? Then hold fast, and feed upon, the hope that you shall be with him where he is, and shall be like him,

when you shall behold his glory.

Would you see light through all the sufferings of this present time? Then lift up your eyes by faith to the glory that shall be revealed in you. Surely if you are Christ's, you have meat to eat which the world knows not of. You have peculiar trials, but you have also peculiar joys. If you have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before you, there is a strong consolation at your hand; and if your citizenship is in heaven, the world itself is beneath your feet.

Is it a small matter that you shall be exempt from those things which are coming upon the world of the ungodly ?-that when others perish in a final deluge, you are in an ark of safety, and in time of great waters, they shall not come nigh thee? Is it nothing that when others go down quick into the pit, God has set you up upon a rock, and underneath you are the everlasting arms? Is it nothing that while others are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose false security has been surprised by sudden and everlasting destruction,-is it nothing that you have entered for ever into the rest which remaineth for the people of God?-a rest from every agitating and disturbing element, a rest from every moral and physical evil,-a rest from sin, the fountain

head of all,- a rest from sorrow, pain, and death. For the former things have passed away; no violence is heard within that land; nor wasting or destruction within those borders. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself. For the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

All this is guaranteed to you by those words which shall remain when heaven and earth shall pass away. But is there not more than this? To the Lord indeed it seemed small matter that his redeemed should be exempt from evil. Who can tell how great is the goodness which he has laid up for them that fear him? He has designed not merely to raise them from the dust, but to set them among princes, to make them inherit the throne of glory, and to invest them with a kingdom which cannot be shaken,--not only to lift the needy from the dunghill, but to make them an eternal excellency. Glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city of God.

Brethren, if you are built on Christ, you are built for a habitation of the Most High God. God shall dwell in the midst of you. Hath such a thing as this entered into the heart of man,that as the Father is in Christ, so shall Christ be