.

brethren. For remark too, and it is deserving of remark, that the wiser and better men have become, the stronger has ever been their desire, the more passionate their longing after immortality.' Anticipating future glory, they have sometimes been able to say,- We loath being here, we would not live alway.-We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, (mere dying was not the thing they desired), but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.' -Holy men, while here, feel themselves encompassed with infirmity: often soulsickened with the incessant returns of vanity and folly; and they long for the happy time when they shall be ransomed from evil, and enjoy for ever unmingled good. The Apostle therefore uttered not merely his own, but the common language of all the saints, when he exclaimed,-'O wretch'ed man that I am! who shall deliver me ' from the body of this death.And they do not long in vain; soon shall their longings be gratified; for when the body returns to the earth as it was, the pious soul

shall return to the enjoyment of God whe gave it.

SUCH are some of the reasons for our faith in a future state. Viewed even singly, they have great strength; but when viewed conjointly, as a great whole,—all standing by and supporting one another, they form a phalanx of evidence, the force of which, upon every honest mind, seems irresistible. And what reason supports, revelation confirms. Fear not them who 'kill the body,' (says the Author and Finisher of our faith), but are not able to • kill the soul.' I am the resurrection

and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.' In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told

prepare a place for you.

you. I

go to

And if I go to

prepare a place for you, I will come again

⚫ and receive you unto myself, that where I

am, there

ye may be also.'*_And what Jesus thus declared, he gave visible de

*Matt. x, 28. John xi, 25, 26, John xiv, 2, 3.

monstration of. He recalled the departed spirit from the eternal world: he himself died, and rose again from the dead, and thus shewed himself the first fruits of them

that sleep.' He made manifest not only the future existence of the soul, but also the resurrection of the body. Well then may he be said to have abolished death,' and shed noon-day lustre on immortal life, through his glorious gospel.

LET us thank God for our ennobling prospects, and make it ever our chief aim to walk worthy of our blessed hopes. As strangers and pilgrims here, let us ab

stain from fleshly lusts,'-from every thing that would debase the nature or obscure the glory of our immortal souls. Let us therefore live in constant imitation of Jesus, and pray without ceasing that we may be accepted through Him. He will soon call us into that eternity for which we are destined; and according to what we are then, shall be our lasting, condition. My soul! awake then into action; grovel not here below: live as a son of God: have thy conversation in heaven. Nothing

earthly can fill thy vast desires: only the infinite God can fill them: only he who is blessed for ever, can bless thee with life and joy everlasting.-Life! joy everlasting! the mere hope of this, while man is here, while he is nothing more than man,—the mere hope of this, is his dearest portion. It inspires and solaces the heaven-born pilgrim: It gives health to the frame, and angel-vigour to the mind. -Like the fair summer-evening, it beams sweetness and serenity. It is man's most estimable joy it is his paradise below.

T

THE

PROSPECT OF A FUTURE STATE OPENED BY THE GOSPEL.

2 TIMOTHY i, 10.

Our Saviour Jesus Christ,-hath brought life and im mortality to light through the Gospel.

E

We all know that there are different degrees of light. How different is the opening dawn from the blaze of the meridian sun?Light, in a figurative sense, is knowledge, and of knowledge, how various the degrees! The knowledge, for instance, of a future state which the heathens had is very different from that which obtained among the Jews, and the knowledge of the Jews again very different from that which is enjoyed by Christians. The knowledge which