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the ministering angels, with keen interest watched the progress of the church below towards the final consummation of all its hopes.

The apostle Paul, after enumerating many of those who by faith obtained the heavenly inheritance, includes in the same company all who had borne testimony during their lives to the truth, and staid themselves on the promises of God. He then shews that they had not yet obtained the promise to which all looked forward, but were kept waiting for us; that is, for the whole multitude of them which shall be saved. He speaks of them in their present state as a great cloud of witnesses encompassing us; and points to the circumstance as calculated to quicken us in "the race set before us," the same race wherein they also strove, and succeeded. As too often happens, the force of this beautiful passage is greatly weakened by the injudicious division into chapters of what was written continuously: but a little attention bestowed on these two chapters, without any regard paid to such arbitrary disjoining, will present in a very glorious light the perfect union, and uninterrupted communion of the whole body of the elect from the time of Abel to the last period-the removing of those things that may be shaken, and the final establishment of the kingdom that cannot be moved. It is very remarkable that he does not say to believers still in the flesh, Ye shall come, but, "Ye ARE come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the

heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel." Heb. xii. 22-24. By faith the child of God enters into this community, embracing all that is of God, both in heaven and on earth; and when he puts off his tabernacle of flesh, it is not to lose sight of what he has hitherto beheld, and to open his eyes on a different scene, but to take in all that before he saw not, in addition to that which he has already seen. Having passed the waves of this troublesome world, and obtained a sure footing on the heavenly shore, he does not in selfish contentment turn his back upon his former companions, still struggling through the surge, but with deep interest contemplates their painful progress, and if so the Lord permit, joyfully unites with the ministering spirits who are commissioned to render such help as divine wisdom sees good by their instrumentality to impart. This, carried a little way beyond what revelation sanctions, leads to perilous idolatry; and so we find it was, even in the apostles' days: but what then? If some of the unlearned and unstable wrest certain scriptures to their own destruction, are we, therefore, to shrink from receiving the whole word of God? There is no doctrine so wholesome, so pure, so essentially ne

cessary to be believed, which may not, by overstepping its prescribed bounds, be wrested to a fearful error; and some who will not entertain this exceedingly important and unspeakably encouraging subject of angelic ministry, and the communion of saints, lest it lead them into unsafe paths, will dogmatize on the origin of evil, free-will, and the secret counsels of the Most High, until they totter on the extreme verge of most presumptuous sin. John's mistake is recorded for our warning, and the angel's gentle rebuke for our instruction; and with these before him, what has the humble worshipper of God to fear from an attentive, thankful investigation of this lovely portion of the divine economy of grace?

X.

ANGELIC TRIUMPH.

We have now to survey what is made known on the subject of angelic triumph, when the final overthrow of all that impeded the universal extension of Christ's kingdom on earth, shall have terminated this dispensation and here indeed we trace the beautiful union once before displayed in their heavenly chorus, of "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men!" The twenty-fourth Psalm contains a sublime foretaste of what we look for, while describing that glorious scene, the ascension of the Lord Jesus on high, leading captivity captive. There, the heralding angels cry, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." Those from within the gates enquire, "Who is this King of glory?" Not that they needed to be told; no, they knew the Babe of Bethlehem, who from his lowly birth had been "seen of angels," of all the angels of God, and well were they prepared to cele

brate his return to the glory which He had with the Father before the world was: but they loved to draw forth the answering shout, ascriptive of praise to their God, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." And again the summons is sounded from those majestic and resplendent legions, advancing as they sing, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in." The shining multitude, the seraphim, the cherubim, who throng around those eternal gates, and perchance the spirits of the faithful resting there, once more demand, "Who is this King of glory?" and once more the thundering song peals out, "The Lord of Hosts, he is the King of glory." It is wonderful how habit familiarizes the human mind to what is calculated to overpower it. The grandeur of this passage, the imagery that it teems with is such, that man's lip might well falter in appropriating the lofty strain, and his knee bow in unpremeditated adoration of the ascended King of glory; but we hear it until we can scarcely bestow a thought on its surpassing splendour; and yet in the pride of our cold unthankful hearts, affect to look down upon the glowing creatures who cease not day or night audibly to pour forth the ardent devotion of theirs before the throne; as though their rank were somewhat below ours. But the proudest heart will be humbled, and the coldest kindled into flame, when that awful hour arrives for the seventh angel to sound, and

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