deep; and because they believe that everything they give or do, every sacrifice they make, every work they perform, will be a contribution to this end. If these same disciples of the Saviour could but see their Master as the Lord of both the living and the dead, as the Lord of this world and the next- as one whose power is from everlasting to everlasting, and whose dominion is unbounded, there would be no end to their benevolent efforts, no thought in their minds of a time to come when God's mercy shall cease, and Christ no longer stretch forth his arm to save.

The Saviour should be seen now by all his followers, by all who take his name upon their lips or wear his image in their hearts, as the Lord of all—as one whose power extends over all the divisions of this planet, and also over the spirits of our race in the world of shadows. Beholding him as risen from the tomb, with the power to talk with men on earth, or to hold converse with the angels in heaven, we ought to understand that there can be no limits of space nor time to circumscribe his power, or to stop the operations of his benevolent spirit.

If all who belong to the church of Christ would but walk in the light of the largest truth, and see the character and extent of the Saviour's influence, how the reforming power of the Christian Church would be increased, how her means would be multiplied, and how wisely and grandly they would be employed.

We see in the light of the cross, and in the light of the risen Saviour, that our Lord is the Lord of all

the Lord of this world, and the world to come; and that it is the will of the Father that he should work in all dominions, and in all ages for the redemption and salvation of the family of man. In this broad light we attain noble views, moral health, strength, courage and peace. In this light, nothing daunts us, nothing cuts off our hope, nothing cools our ardor. In this light we are confident that the day will come when all the souls of men will behold the excellency of Christ, when his holy and omnipotent power will be everywhere felt and acknowledged, when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father — when all that are in the earth and in the heavens shall know and feel that the moral universe is in harmony, that God, who is Love, is all in all, and shall sing in their songs of praise: "Blessing and honor, and glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever."

I repeat to you some of the great lessons suggested by my subject, because I feel that they are needed, and should be pondered. It must be acknowledged, that we cannot consider these lessons intelligently and understandingly. - that Christ is now and forever our Lord, and the Lord of all, and that our high relations with him will continue through time and into eternity, without attaining more and more of moral greatness and dignity, and lifting ourselves far above the plane of low pursuits and mean devices. It must be owned that we cannot accept them as the food and nourish

ment of our faith and hope the guiding lights of our inquiring minds, our aspiring and praying hearts, without becoming healthier, stronger and livelier in our course, or finding the illumined path which leads to the loftiest and happiest condition. May it be our chief, our perpetual concern, to keep in this heavenly road to advance in this bright ascending way of the wise and good-the way of those who live and walk with God.

DISCOURSE VIII.

REUNION AND RECOGNITION.

JOHN XII. 23.

JESUS SAID UNTO HER, THY BROTHER SHALL RISE AGAIN.

The Saviour labored to bring men to a consciousness of their connection with the spiritual world. He taught them, not only that they belonged to this world, and were here under God's government, bound to obey his laws, and answer the purposes of the present life, but, that they at the same time dwelt in the immortal world, not less under God's power nor less bound to obey his laws, and to enter into the employments and pleasures of his spiritual dominion. He labored to deliver them from the hardened condition of materialism, -to induce them to rise above, and to be independent of outward circumstances,to lead them into the light of heaven. Moving among his countrymen who were devoting all their energies for the accumulation of perishable things, and who entertained only the most vague and unsatisfactory views of their destiny, he proclaimed with unusual confidence and positiveness, and with manifest impres

`sive authority, his character and mission and the nature of the condition towards which he should lead mankind. His words were: "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."

This was a strain of music from a new stop in the grand organ of revelation—a discourse of eloquence from God's highest minister which the world had never heard. It was a proclamation which the old prophets had longed in vain to hear. In their day, they had dim conceptions of the spiritual and heavenly kingdom, and of the immortal and everlasting life, and they sang of these in their sublime songs, in their lofty psalms. But no Son of God like Jesus came to them from heaven to tell them plainly of the life of heaven; no messenger approached them through the misty cloud hanging between them and the world of spirits, to teach them that they were so near the heavenly dominion, and that even while they toiled in the fields of the earth, they might hold communion with, and be engaged in the employments of heaven. No light ascended their sky, sending forth its beams so far in all directions as to enable them to see that the real, the pure life of this world, and the spiritual life of the next, were one and the same, and that the good of all worlds, of all regions of space, belonged to God's holy and eternal dominion. They had been told that the day of Christian glory would come, and for that day they waited: but they died without the sight. It had been fore-appointed that the glorious