real Christian feeling is no more staggered | We see at once that in the world they have or puzzled by such a scripture as this, left, they could never have been indulging than you are by any other. He sees in it themselves in self-complacency; they not human merit, but divine condescension; could never have thought highly of their not the justification of his guilty soul by own righteousness, much less have expectany petty acts of earthly kindness that he ed heaven on the ground of it. We see can perform, but the amazing grace of his that they are men who must have been exalted Saviour in taking notice of those making God's free mercy their hope, and acts of kindness. It is wonderful to him are ready now to make that mercy their that he will think of him on his throne, song. They will go from that judgmentbut more wonderful that he will think and seat to a world of glory, not elated with speak on that throne of any thing he has the scene through which they have passed, done. You could no more make such a not speaking one to another of their own man believe that his charities will open excellencies, but wondering at the grace heaven to him, than you could make him which has been shown them, and breaking believe his hand could move the world. forth into fervent and adoring thanksgiv'But self-righteous men," you may say, ings to him who has shown it them. "Worwill look at this scripture and draw from thy is the Lamb that was slain," will be it food for their self-righteousness." And no strange song in their lips. They will so they would, put what interpretation or say in heaven, like men long accustomed misinterpretation on it you please; or blot to say it, "Salvation to our God which it out altogether from God's word, they will sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." find food for their miserable pride elsewhere. And thus does our Lord address at the They would extract the poison they want same time in this scripture two very differ from the very flowers of heaven. Yes, ent classes of men. "You that talk of place them in heaven, among prostrate my love," he says, "and yet never feel angels they would soon find some reason any love yourselves; you that hope in my why they should stand up; they would soon mingle with their Redeemer's praise, some low, jarring praise of their own worthiness. It is not altering a text or altering a sermon, that will meet their case; it is an altering, and a thorough altering by the power of God, of their hearts.

But the people addressed in the text, bear another mark on them-they think nothing of their good works. The surprise they express when they hear of them, proves this. Lord," they say, "when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick or in prison, and came unto thee ?" Here indeed is humility, rethren, and self-renunciation! This is more than a casting away of our own righteousness; it is feeling that we have no righteousness of our own to cast away. If you want to show self-righteous men heir mistake, bring them here. Here are men commended by Christ himself for heir good deeds, and yet can think of no leeds of theirs, that are worthy of commendation. The very sound of praise asonishes them. They know not what Christ means. They suspect a mistake.

mercy or pretend to hope in it, and yet
never show any mercy to your fellow-men;
you that are cold-hearted, selfish profess-
ors of my gospel-I can never take you
to heaven. It is a world of love; you
would not be happy in it. And you that
are proud and self-righteous-I cannot take
you there. It is a lowly world. Self-ex-
altation has no place in it.
God is every
thing in it, and man nothing at all. You
could not bear to be in it."

And there is yet another peculiarity in these men-they are those whom the Father has blessed.

We have just been admiring the love Christ bears his people; we have seen how he appears to delight in keeping his own doings out of sight in order to bring forward theirs. See now how he honors his Father. Again he puts himself aside. He traces all the happiness of his people to his Father's goodness. He says not, "Come, my redeemed. Come, ye whom I have so much loved and so dearly purchased; ye whom I have so gloriously saved." No. "Come ye," he says, "whom my Father has loved, whom my Father has saved, to whom it is my Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom."

There is a King in it, and there are laws in it, and suberdination in it. No anarchy, no struggling— we shall be all "willing and obedient" there.

And it forms one empire only. Countless millions are the inhabitants of it, but they are all linked together in one society; the same King rules over all. "One Lord. one faith," on earth; one Head, one king. dom, in heaven.

And still more is contained in this word. The saints themselves are said to reign in

There was once, brethren, a curse on It is a world that is governed. these men, and a heavy one. It involved in it a sentence of everlasting banishment from God's presence, the same fearful sentence that is pronounced by Christ in this chapter on the men at his left hand. There was no admission for them into heaven. It would have been useless to say to them, "Come." But Christ takes on him their nature; bears in that nature the punishment of their sin; redeems them from the curse that rested on them, by making himself a curse for them; and now, their sen-heaven. Heaven seems to be called a tence being cancelled, heaven lies open to kingdom principally with a reference to them; now he can say to them, "Come;" their glorious condition in it. It is a world and now they are blessed, for he has pur- of kings. They shall live there as kings, chased blessings innumerable for them, and in magnificence, and liberty, and power. he has blessed them. But all this, observe, None shall rule over them but God, and he he here buries in silence. Others may shall so reign over them, that their royal speak of it, but he will not. It was God greatness never shall be infringed on, or the Father, who sent him down to be their their liberty curtailed, or their power fetSaviour; it was God the Father, who tered. His service there shall be indeed made him a propitiation for their sins; he was only doing his Father's work, when he gave himself for them. It was the Father's grace that chose them, and the Father's mercy that pardoned them, and the Father's power that kept them, and the Father's love and pity that from beginning to end redeemed them. Passing over therefore all his own sufferings and doings in their behalf, he says, "Come, ye blessed of my Father." Losing sight of the channels through which their blessings have come, he sees only the fountain and spring of them. O wonderful self-annihilation! Thus does he verify his own declaration to Observe here again the mercifulness of the Jews, "I do honor my Father." Thus God's nature. Hell was not prepared for does he prostrate his human nature before man. Christ speaks here as though, in his divine. In the day of his triumph, on building his universe, the Lord never conthe throne of his glory, this Son of Man templated man's banishment from him. He declares his manhood to be of small ac-builds no place to receive him when bancount; God must be all in all. And the ished. And now he must be banished, he lofty-minded Paul could enter into this will build none. He sends him away to a feeling. He expresses it. "Ye blessed world already in existence, "prepared for of my Father," says Christ. "Blessed," the devil and his angels." When he has says Paul, "be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."

IV. We may look now at the kingdom to which Christ calls his redeemed.

"perfect freedom." The very same chapter in the Revelation of St. John, that tells us "his servants shall serve him," tells us immediately afterwards that "they shall reign for ever and ever." They shall be as so many crowned kings in heaven. And their crowns shall sit easy on them; there shall be no thorns in them. All the splendor of royalty shall be theirs, without its cares or burdens.

And this kingdom is said to be a prepared kingdom-prepared for this happy people, and long ago prepared for them, even "from the foundation of the world."

to punish, it seems as though any thing would do; it is easy for him to satisfy his anger; but what can satisfy his love! No world in his creation is good enough. He founds a special kingdom for his redeemed. He creates for them a special Observe, it is really a kingdom. This residence, and adorns it with a specia! word means something. It is often used glory. Or rather he says of his own heav to describe heaven, so often that it must enly kingdom, "Henceforth it shall be calldescribe it with peculiar force. We get ed theirs. I will make it over to them; I from it an idea of order and rule in heaven. I will accommodate it to their natures; I will

furnish it for their happiness; I will order all things throughout it with a reference to their abode in it. When they come to it, they shall find it a world made ready for them. Here at last, they shall say, is our rest and home. We expected to find this world of glory, a world strange to us; but no strangeness do we feel in it. We are rather like men who have been for years in a foreign country, and find themselves all at once breathing their native air in their own land." Thus the scripture speaks elsewhere of the things we shall enjoy in heaven, as "things that God has prepared for us;" of the city we shall walk in there, as "a city that God has prepared;" of the place we shall occupy in it, as a place "given to those for whom the Father has prepared it."

you are come. He feels towards you as a father feels towards the children he loves. It is his pleasure, it gratifies him, to give you the kingdom.'

Hence we see that our possession of heaven will be free. We have not earned or purchased it. It is ours simply because in receiving Christ, we have received "power to become the sons of God." God in his abounding, sovereign mercy, has given us in Christ" the adoption of sons,' " and all a son's privileges and claims.

And our possession of heaven will be full. Were we to be merely servants in it, happy we might be, but we might have but a low place in it, and a scanty measure of its happiness. Going there, however, as children and heirs, all that is in it is ours and ours forever. We shall have a full and perpetual enjoyment of it.

And yet once again-we are to inherit this kingdom with Christ our Lord.

There is one word in this invitation, which gives new sweetness to all the rest. It is the word that begins it, "Come." Were our blessed Master when he calls us to heaven, about to take his own departure to some other world, who would not say,

And all this work of preparation, the text says, was done long ago. Our thoughts, brethren, take a narrow range. Days and years, mere fragments of time, are their boundaries. We are evermore showing our littleness by the prominence we are giving in our thoughts to present moments. Not so Christ. Eternity was the world he had lived in. When he came here, in eternity still his thoughts moved, and of eternity" O let me follow him! I will joyfully he still spake. As he invites his ransomed give up that splendid inheritance and all ones to the kingdom appointed them, the my brethren and companions there, so that I hour when he created that kingdom for may go and be with him." Happy to some them, is present to his mind; he sees his of us are the moments we spend now in design in creating it about to be accom- his presence. The wondering Jacob could plished, and he tells them of that design; talk at Bethel of "the house of God and he tells them how long his love for them the gate of heaven," and cannot we do the had been in existence and action. "I same, brethren, wherever we are, when loved you," he says, "before the light we feel that Christ is near us? If we beamed forth or the earth was. I have really love him, our heart's first desire is to loved you with an everlasting love. Come, see him and be with him. And this he inherit the kingdom I prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

And again—this kingdom is one which we are to inherit; that is, we are to enter on and enjoy it as the heirs of it.

And from our Lord's lips, how natural, we may say again, is this language! Heaven is his Father's kingdom. He is at this moment addressing his saints as his brethren; he doubtless feels himself their brother. Therefore he makes use of this word "inherit." Therefore he says to them, "Come, inherit the kingdom. The God who is the owner of it, is my Father and yours. You have this day been manifested to be his ons. He will now receive you to himself as he receives me, without asking you why

He

knows. The first word we shall hear from
him on his throne, will tell us that he knows
it. He will say to us, "Come." And it
will be from the fulness of his own heart,
that he will say it. No one in that multi-
tude will so long to draw near to Christ, as
Christ will long to have him near.
will lead his redeemed to their glory with
greater joy than they will follow him there.
He go to one world and send them to.
another? No; he would mar his own hap-
piness as well as theirs, if he did. He will
go with them to the kingdom prepared for
them, and there as he sits down on his
throne, he will say, "I will never leave
you again. I told you that I would come
again and receive you unto myself; and