mediation of Christ. But their joy is damped by the reflection that there is so much hypocrisy and self-deception in the world. They know too, that however carefully they guard the doctrines of grace, there will be some who will be wicked and foolish enough to "continue in sin that grace may abound," and many more who will reject the truth because others abuse it. But in heaven all these drawbacks will be taken off. None of those who are "clothed in white raiment" will stand in doubt of his fellow. They will see their Father's name written on each other's "foreheads," their own delighted consciousness of acceptance through the blood of the Lamb will be heightened by the consideration that it is known and felt by others as clearly and deeply as by themselves, and their own experience again will enable them to enter fully into the joys and triumphs of others. The song of the redeemed is an united song; there is nothing selfish in their triumph; none makes men

tion of himself alone, but all unite in the hymn of praise for Christ's love to all.

Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood." And they have no fear now lest their language should be mistaken. They may "make heaven's eternal arches ring with that beloved name," and there shall be none within hearing to pervert or mistake their meaning.

Again-Those who stand before the throne are said to have "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," because their sanctification is complete. Justification is the reckoning a sinner righteous for Christ's merit sake. Sanctification is the making a sinner holy by transforming him into the likeness of Christ. This is the work of the Spirit as the agent; but it is owing to "the blood of the Lamb," both as the cause and the means. It is the cause, for till sin was atoned for, the way was not opened for the Spirit to descend and work upon the heart of man; it is the means, for there is no

instrument so powerful in turning men from sin to holiness as the cross of Christ. Nothing shews the hatefulness of sin so strongly as God's punishment of it in the person of his own dear Son. Nothing so softens the heart as the contemplation of Christ's dying love. Nothing purifies the heart like faith in Christ. Nothing moves the heart like love to Christ. Nothing LIKE, did I say? Nothing BUT. But if justification in this world is relatively imperfect, sanctification is absolutely so. The conflict between the flesh and the spirit is carried on to the last, so that the image of Christ, in the holiest of men, is never clearly and fully reflected. The Christian is " renewed in the spirit of his mind," and learns to "delight in the law of God after the inward man ;" but, to the latest hour of his existence, he "finds another law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which is in his members."*

* Rom. vii. 23.

His progressive sanctification consists in the growing power of the new man over the old, mortifying sin, purifying the affections, softening the temper, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Yet still he is sometimes constrained to cry out, "Oh! wretched man, that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And though he is enabled joyfully to exclaim, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord;" his triumph falls infinitely short of theirs who "stand before the throne," ""the spirits of just men made perfect." He fears to proclaim to others the fulness of his experience, lest he should seem to countenance selfrighteousness; he hardly dares to dwell on it with confidence himself, lest the "root of" pride "should spring up and trouble him;" but when he takes his place before the throne, he may triumph in the work of the Spirit upon him without measure and without fear. He may glory in the purity of his motives without the intrusion of one

self-exulting thought; he may rejoice in the whiteness of his garments without fear of ever defiling them again. He has all his life long been occupied in washing them by faith in "the blood of the Lamb,” and now the work is ended, he is "saved to sin no more." Oh! what a day will that be when God shall have "completed the number of his elect;"* when "the Lamb shall stand on mount Sion, and with him an hundred and forty and four thousand having their Father's name written on their foreheads!" And what a song will that be which the beloved disciple thus describes, "I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers, harping with their harps; and they sung, as it were, a new song before the throne;" but mark what follows," and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thou

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*

Prayer in the office for the Burial of the Dead.