presence, but that carefully minds, and diligently goes about, his master's business."

One active Christian, my brethren, is worth a thousand mere admirers of the gospel. It is the working servant that earns wages; it is the fighting soldier that has, for his reward, a triumph and a crown. Religious actions must, indeed, have their origin in religious affections. But what are those feelings worth which have no influence on the disposition and conduct? We can never be too earnest, then, in watching our treacherous hearts, and bringing all their workings to that simple standard of the gospel, "By their fruits ye shall know them." We can never be too earnest in our endeavours to resemble Him who " went about doing good," and in striving to bring forth much fruit to the glory of God.

Go your way, then, you who, like these women, rejoice in a living Jesus; go your way, you who, like Peter, know what it is to mourn for sin, and to receive pardon and comfort from a compassionate Saviour; go your way, and bind up the broken heart, and speak peace to the troubled soul; go and comfort others with the comforts wherewith you yourselves have been comforted of God; go and publish to a world of sinners, by all the means which a bountiful Providence has placed within your power, those joyful tidings which have been sent to you. Go and send this gospel round a perishing world, that "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners: that whosoever cometh to Him shall in no wise be cast out: "that all who are weary and heavy-laden with the burden of their sins and sorrows, may come to Him and find sweetest rest for their troubled souls.

XVIII.

(SEPTUAGESIM A.)

The Angels Rejoicing at the Creation.

"The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."—JOB Xxxviii. 7.

HERE is something that took place when our world was created, but not in our world. Heaven was the scene of it; and it is told us in order to carry up our thoughts to Heaven, and make us better acquainted with it.

There are three points in the text to be attended to: First, those of whom it speaks; then, what they are said to have done; and then, the occasion of their doing it.

I. We must look at those it speaks of.

They are called "the morning stars" and "the sons of God;" and there is no doubt but that the same beings are meant in both these expressions. "The morning stars" are not literally any of the shining orbs that adorn the firmament, but those who are immediately afterwards designated "the sons of God." And these, we conclude, must be the angels, for we know of no other creatures in existence at this time. We must see, then, why these heavenly beings are called by the two names here applied to them.

1. With a star we connect the ideas of brightness

and beauty; and with a morning star, peculiar brightness and peculiar beauty. When, therefore, any one is said to be a star, we understand at once that he shines out above others, that there is something excellent and eminent in him; and if he were called a morning star, we should understand that this eminence above others was visible and great. "I am the Bright and Morning Star," says our Lord of Himself, and He means, we say immediately, that He is transcendently fair and glorious. And so here "My angels," God might say to us," are morning stars. There is nothing in your world bright enough for Me to compare them with. Look upwards. Behold those worlds of light that are glittering far away above you. My angels are like them; and like the brightest of them-—that beautiful Morning Star."

What a glorious world, then, must Heaven be! It is inhabited by creatures that not only receive light from it, but reflect back and around them that light wherever they go. Well may it be called "the inheritance of the saints in light." It is a world of stars and suns, and millions of them, and each one of them brighter than earthly eye can bear to gaze on. Think of St. John. Twice over in his mysterious vision he saw one of these splendid beings, and fell down, he says, to worship him. So glorious was he, that he felt as though he saw his God.

2. And then the angels are called, also, "the sons of God." They are not His sons as the everlasting Saviour is; not His own proper sons, of the same divine nature as His own, and part, as it were, of Himself. They are called His sons by mere grace and favour. The Lord, having first given life to them,

M

and then loving them as His children and treating them as His children, says of them at last, "They are My children, My sons." The name shows the abundance of His love towards them, and the greatness of His condescension in His intercourse with them. It gives us also an idea of heaven as a place of holy affection and endearment. It represents the great God as manifesting the tenderness of His love there. He is a father in Heaven, it says, with a father's feelings, and speaking a father's language. Heaven is His home, and all who are in it are there as His children. And exactly thus our Lord describes it. He speaks of it as a child would speak of his paternal home. "It is My Father's house," He says. And St. Paul, too, had the same idea of it. He tells us of "the whole family in Heaven."

We may say then, here, what a happy as well as glorious world is Heaven! Its brightness will not confound us; no, nor the brightness of Him who is the great light and glory of it. We shall feel at home in it, for at last we shall really be at home. "Now are we the sons of God;" but now we are sons far away from our Father's house, strangers in a strange land, often doubtful whether we belong to God or not; in Heaven we shall be where our Father is; we shall see Him and dwell with Him, and be acknowledged by Him as His. "They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."

II. Let us come, now, to what these angels are said to have done. They "sang;" they all "sang together;" they “shouted for joy.”

1. They "sang." Now, singing, when natural, is the language always of feeling, and generally of happy feeling. In this case it certainly is so. It intimates that these angels were happy, and very happy; and more, that in Heaven happiness is expressed as well as felt. It is a humble world, the humblest in the universe; reverence and godly fear reigns everywhere in it and every moment; but it is not an awe-struck world. They who dwell in it give utterance to their feelings. Their joy comes out. They indulge and express it, and know that they may do so. The Lord is well pleased with their joy. There is liberty in Heaven, glorious liberty, the liberty of the children of God.

2. They "sang together." Here comes in the idea of union and harmony, a oneness of feeling and joy among these morning stars. Every one of them sang, and sang at the same time, and for the same reason, and they sang the same song. There was one heart only in Heaven and one voice. They all sang together.

And we may trace this same thing in other parts of Scripture. An angel comes down, rejoicing, to the shepherds at Bethlehem. "Behold," he says, "I bring you good tidings of great joy; for unto you is born this day a Saviour;" and what follows? He is immediately joined by a whole choir from Heaven. "Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God." And again, in Rev. xix. "I heard," says the apostle, "the voice of much people in Heaven, saying, 'Alleluia;"" and then others are described as taking up the song, and crying, " Alleluia ; " and at last comes in the full chorus of Heaven; all