and the depths of the sea at the sound of the Archangel's trumpet; for, says St. Paul, "the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible." HE will look upon these nations and languages, ourselves, let us remember, among them, who will have been waiting His call for ages, and then will come the question to those who have made no preparation in the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth, "Friend, how camest thou here without a wedding garment?"

Happy and blessed those who have lived in the Kingdom of Heaven while on earth; happy those who shall stay to become the guests of Heaven for ever and ever; happy those to whom our LORD and Judge shall then say, "Come ye blessed of My FATHER, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world." They "shall come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall pass away.' Amen.

SERMON VI.

THE SEAL OF GOD.

2 TIM. ii. 19.

Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His. And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

HOLY Scripture often speaks to us of the Kingdom of GOD, under similitudes taken from building. We are here presented with one, very beautiful and impressive, and exactly fit to convey to us an idea.

The foundation then of God, that is, of the Religion of CHRIST, has this seal by which it is marked, and distinguished from all others. Now see, how instructive the doctrine is to us. "The LORD knoweth them that are His." Who are these, and what are their signs?

We may, indeed, suppose that this passage points to something beyond our reach, and declares that the LORD knows those who are His among a l those who hypocritically pretend to be His, even though their hypocrisy succeeds in deceiving us, as HE surely does; but we are only concerned to see what signs those, who are the LORD's, give of being such, not to see how those signs are counterfeited and abused. And we may, on the whole, be satisfied, that no religious hypocrisy will stand the test of time, however cunningly contrived and well supported; but that as the LORD knows who are truly His at all times, so we may usually judge of the sincerity of persons whom we have long observed ourselves.

There is a sobriety of character and life, which seems to mark the influence of something beyond the world and the things of the world. Persons seem to be less moved than their neighbours by the surprises of the occurrences of life, less lifted up by what we call prosperity, less cast down by what we call adversity.

They are not betrayed into violences, and retain the esteem of their friends while others lose it.

Now this may or may not be Christian : but it is certainly one of the signs of the Christian character. Much must be added to it. To be genuine, it must be constant, in all places, among all persons. The sobriety of character, which can be put on and off like a garment, is only a thing useful to the wearer in keeping up a decent appearance, but is no part of Christian perfection.

We must look therefore, for a constancy under trials. When we see a man of this world only, suffering any of those things which we call trials, because we believe them to be permitted by GoD for his good, to "try" him, we see that he looks on them only as hardships which he did not expect, and thinks he did not deserve. We see that he chooses rather to give any reason for his suffering than that it is God's will, and will relieve his mind of it in any way rather than by say"GOD be merciful to me a sinner."

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In short, he is not constant under his trials, whatever may have been his professions before.

We are of course to expect something very different in the persons we are contemplating. In what situation does the light of Christian character more shine before men, than under a trial sent by GOD? There are indeed no persons who do not feel a struggle in their hearts against what they suffer for the first time; but this soon passes by, and the trial is endured as becomes those who are living soberly, righteously, and Godly in this present life. Do you hear complaints? Do you hear upbraidings of the Providence of GOD? Do Do you hear comparisons with their lot and that of others? Not so. You hear words of re

signation, if any but chiefly you see in their lives and conduct what their feelings are; you see the best evidence of a constant heart, in an unmoved and constant holiness of life and conversation.

Again, we must look for a steady resistance of temptation to neglect religious