horses, but with music; for so had they felt that the power which truly wins must be a spiritual one, an appeal to the latent harmonies in every man—that in a kingdom of heaven law must be swallowed up in love,-not repealed, but glorified and transfigured, its hard outline scarcely visible any more in the blaze of light with which it is surrounded.

It was a large fellowship-larger than the largest which the heart of man had conceived; for it should leave out none, it should trample upon none: He that was its Head should "be favourable to the simple and needy, and preserve the souls of the poor." Nay, it should be larger than this, for it should embrace heaven and earth. That whereof the great Italian sage had caught a glimpse, that pixia, that amity of all things, whether they be things in heaven or things on earth, had found its fulfilment. Henceforward heaven and earth, angels and men, constituted one kingdom, "his body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."

It was a righteous fellowship. If ought of unrighteousness was within it, it was there only as a contradiction to the law of that kingdom, and presently to be separated off: even as all of unrighteous that was against it was in due time to be taken out of the way; for it in its weakness was yet stronger than the strongest. It was only weak as the staff

of Moses was weak; which being one, and an implement of peace, did yet break in pieces all weapons of war, the ten thousand spears of Pharaoh and his armies.

And being this righteous kingdom, it was also an eternal kingdom, having in it no seeds of decay, a kingdom not to be moved, which should endure as long as the sun and moon endureth, of the increase of which there should be no end.

To this city, brethren, ye are come-the city of which such glorious things are spoken, the city of our God. Not only prophet and king of Israel, but sage and seer of every land, have desired to see the things which we see, and have not seen them-so truly are they the best things which man can conceive, or God can give. And what do they require of us but a walk corresponding? Citizens of no mean city, whose citizenship is in heaven, we must not shew ourselves unworthy of so high an honour. It is the very aggravation of the sinner's sin that he deals frowardly in the land of uprightness; and because he does so it is declared that he shall not see the majesty of the Lord. (Isai. xxvi. 10.) We baptized men are in this "land of uprightness," in this kingdom of the truth. For it is not that we shall come, but in the sure word of Scripture,

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we are come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to all the glorious company which is there.

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And surely the apostle's argument which he drew from this ought to stand strong for us, his exhortation to find place in our hearts; Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." (Heb. xii. 28).

LECTURE VIII.

CONCLUDING LECTURE.

1 THESSALONIANS, V. 21.

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

IT needs not, I trust, to remind you, brethren, that in these lectures which are now concluding, we have been engaged in the seeking to discern the prophecy of Christianity, which has run through all history; I have traced in them, so far as under the conditions and limitations of such discourses I might, the manner in which the old world was in many ways blindly struggling to be that better thing which yet it never could truly be, except by the free grace and gift of God,—to come to that new birth, which yet it could not reach, until power for this mighty change was given it from on high. We have asked ourselves whether we could not discern an evident tending of men's thoughts and feelings and desires in one direction, and that direction the cross of Christ,-a great spiritual current, which has been strongly and constantly setting that way; so that his bringing

forth of his kingdom into open manifestation, if in one sense a beginning, was in another, and in as true a sense, a crowning end.

And it has cohered intimately with the purpose of these lectures, which, according to the purpose of their founder, should assume more or less of a defensive character, to urge the apology for our Christian faith which is here. It has been to me an argument for the truth and dignity of his mission who was its author, to find that in Him all fulness dwelt, all lines concentered, all hopes of the world were accomplished. For surely the King of Glory shews to us more glorious yet, when we are able to contemplate Him not merely as the Prophet and Priest and King of the Covenant, but as the satisfier of vaguer, though not less real, aspirations, of more undefined longings, of more wide spread hopes-when looking at Him, we take note with the inspired seer, that on his head are many crowns,-and looking at his doctrine, that not Israel only, but the isles had waited for his law.

This my subject I have now brought to a close; or at least I dare not, at this latest moment, open it upon another side. I may perhaps more profitably dedicate the present opportunity to the considering of some ways in which our recognition of the intimate relation between all that went before, and all that now