with a shout, and the voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God, to take to himself the kingdom of this world, and to reign for ever and ever. I do most earnestly pray, that all who hear me this day, who have received the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, who have laid hold on the hope set before them in the gospel, may be found as those who wait for His coming, and have an abundant entrance administered in the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. II. THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, AND GLORY THE THAT SHOULD BY THE HON. AND REV. G. T. NOEL, M.A. 1 PET. i. 10, 11, 12. "Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into." THE history of man, as far as it can be hitherto traced, is a history of deep, but mournful interest-of bitter interest; in THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, ETC. 19 volving a degradation, which He has in vain attempted to elevate; a misery, which He has in vain attempted to console. Injustice to his fellows, and dishonour to his God, have been hitherto the characteristics of human conduct. Violence from without, and passion from within, have given a dark colouring to his whole history. Civilization and philosophy amidst pagan nations, may tell of high capacity, and of anxious craving after a loftier destiny; but these have done little for his practical escape from the moral as well as physical ruin which each successive generation exhibits; while amidst nations, who profess to receive a revelation from God, the condition of men has ill accorded with the advantages which they might have been supposed to derive from such possession of divine truth. The annals of these nations exhibit the same, if not a sterner struggle of ambition, violence, and scorn of right; of gifts neglected, and of blessings abused. If, for a bright moment after the resurrection of Christ, the Church displayed a virtue, and marked forth a charity, new to the aspect of our fallen world,—that brief and bright moment was soon obscured; and, as the profession of the Cross enlarged, its moral influence diminished; God's truth became overlaid by man's error, and the presence of an external revelation was soon found to be powerless, to quell the turbulence of selfish and of sensual appetite. Human hope, however, is not a fiction; God has deigned to take up a title from the reality of that hope. He is, to his Church, emphatically called, "the God of hope," and this because the hope His promise excites, is a hope "that maketh not ashamed"; a hope which is the direct work of the Holy Spirit in the human soul; a radiance which the combined efforts of earth and hell shall never prevail to quench. Man was placed by his Maker at the head of this part of creation, and he shall one day rejoice in the reality of this dominion. The crown has fallen from his brow, and the curse has gathered about his habitation; but his restoration to honour and peace and holiness, is the subject of strict and true prophecy. The record which attests his triumph, is no day-dream of the credulous, but is the record of God. Man will owe this triumph to no inherent energy, which shall at last grapple successfully with his vices, and give to his reason a victory over his passion. He shall owe this triumph rather to the pure favour of his God. It shall flow to him, through his connection with a Mediatorthrough his Head and Representative, Jesus Christ; by whose power and grace his nature shall be purified, and his enemies be overthrown. Ruined in the first paradise by his cruel foe, Satan, he shall stand in the second paradise restored and happy, through the might and sovereignty of his divine Saviour, Jesus Christ. The revelation of this plan of mercy is the whole design of all those communications which God has seen fit to make to mankind since the fall of Adam. This glad assurance cheered our first parent in the first hours of his misery, and has been the single light which has gleamed upon the human soul in the progress of succeeding years. Of this salvation, the apostle Peter speaks with joyous confidence to those strangers in his day, who were scattered through many a weary land. The outburst of this his assurance, is full of peace and gladness:-"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye |