can be enjoyed on earth, will appear, if you consider,

1. The grandeur of the object set before us in the hope of the gospel.

This, according to the emphatic announcement of the oracles of truth, is salvation; it is glory: it is the union of the one with the other; it is "salvation by Christ Jesus, with eternal glory." 2 Tim. ii. 10. It is a crown of glory that fadeth not away: it is a crown connected with an inheritance worthy of the children and heirs of Him who can multiply worlds at pleasure.

In that inheritance there will be a perfect. adaptation to impart delight. All which could disturb or annoy shall be excluded. There shall be no curse, no sin, no tempter, no fear, no sorrow, no pain, no night, no death! All which can conduce to happiness shall be enjoyed. The place prepared for the residence of the redeemed, shall be more than paradise regained. Its society shall be the pure, the wise, the benignant. To "the spirits of just men made perfect," shall be added the society of spirits that never sinned, even "an innumerable company of angels." Heb. xii. 22, 23. And this shall be only a subordinate source of heaven's felicity; for "behold, the tabernacle of God shall be with men; and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.", Rev, xxi. 3.

In that world there shall be a perfect fitness of character for the enjoyment of

delight. When they see, as he is, Him, whom now, unseen, they love, they shall be like him; they shall be holy as he is holy. There shall be heaven and glory and perfection within, as well as heaven and perfection and glory around them. The elements of their character shall be light, and life, and love. The image of God shall be gloriously resplendent in every redeemed spirit, and every redeemed spirit shall animate a glorified body, bearing resemblance to the transcendent glory of Him who sitteth on the throne. We are looking then "for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;". "who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Tit. ii. 13; Phil. iii. 21. If, then, such be the prospect of futurity, well may the apostle invite us to be ever "rejoicing in hope," Rom. xii. 12, rejoicing "in hope of the glory of God." Rom. v. 2. When hope anticipates an object of supreme desire, and of surpassing value; when that object is well defined, and rendered vividly apparent to the eye of the mind; when it is seen to be not more desirable than it is attainable; then hope rises into joy, and joy into exultation! Consider,

2. The solidity of the foundation on which this hope is built.

Hope has been often eulogized for the pleasures it affords, even in its delusive visions of

imaginary bliss, and its flattering expectations of joys never to be realized. "Hope," says a philosophical writer of no mean name, "is our flatterer and comforter in boyhood, and our flatterer and comforter in years which need still more to be flattered and comforted; and while we laugh in advanced age at the easy confidence of our youth, in wishes which seem incapable of deceiving us now, we are still, as to other objects of desire, the same credulous confiding beings whom it was then so easy to make happy. On the bed of sickness, how ready is the victim of disease to form those flattering presages which others cannot form, and to form plans of many future years, perhaps in that very hour which is to be the last hour of earthly existence." In all this we see, according to this writer, "the omnipotence of the principle of hope, and the benevolence of Him who has fixed that principle in our minds." Such is not the hope which it is my object to exhibit to your regard, and to urge you to attain. I would not be the advocate of a hope visionary and delusive, inspiriting for a moment the child of sorrow, but vanishing, to his confusion, at the instant when its promises should be realized. On the contrary, the hope which is set before us in the gospel, is a hope which will never make us ashamed. Of this you may be firmly convinced, if you take into view these two considerations:

(1.) It is founded on the testimony of the God of truth.

"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Heb. xi. 3. Through faith, we have a confident persuasion that there is a world of supreme felicity, which God has prepared for them that love him. "It is true," may the Christian say, "I have no intimation of that world by the medium of my senses. I cannot demonstrate its existence by any principles of reason; but I have evidence which ought to be, and which is as satisfactory to my mind as though, like the apostle of the Gentiles, I had been 'caught up to the third heaven.' 2 Cor. xii. 2. I ask for no stronger evidence, I desire no stronger evidence, while I continue an inhabitant of earth, than that which is contained in the volume of explicit revelation." Life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel. 2 Tim. i. 10. Eternal life is the promise of God that cannot lie. "In my Father's house," said the Lord Jesus, " are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." John xiv. 2. In employing language like this, our blessed Lord seems to say in effect, "I would not have called you to be my disciples, or to suffer in my cause, unless I had in reserve for you a felicity worthy of my character. Had I been even silent on the subject of your prospects for the future, still you would have been authorized to confide in my love and in my power." If then the very silence of the

Saviour might justly have received a favourable interpretation, how glorious are the hopes which we may securely build on his word of most faithful promise. You rely on the veracity of many a traveller who reports to you the existence and the productions of far distant countries which you have never seen; will you hesitate to rely on the testimony of Him whose appropriate designation is "the faithful and true Witness," who came from heaven to tell us of heavenly things, and who is himself the Proprietor and Ruler of all those immeasurable, regions of vitality and glory?

(2.) This hope is founded on the mediation of the Son of God.

It would be idle, it would be delusive, it would be presumptuous for man to entertain the hope of future felicity, were not the hope of the gospel a hope adapted to the sinner. Man is fallen; man is ruined by his iniquity; he is convicted of the most unnatural alienation of heart from the God of love, and the most daring rebellion against his authority; he stands exposed to all the appalling consequences of the sentence of condemnation. Has then the gospel encouragement to present to him, even under circumstances such as these? Assuredly; decidedly. It is even said of the beginning, as well as of the progress of salvation, "We are saved by hope." Rom. viii. 24. The doctrine of the gospel is the doctrine of a reconciled God, of an accepted propitiation, of a beseeching Saviour, of a sanctifying Spirit. Its glad tidings are an