That is

the consequence? "hath everlasting life." the present thing. What does Christ say the feeblest believer has got? Eternal life! Dear trusting soul, your heart may rejoice in it, you have eternal life. I would not dare tell you so, but the Lord Jesus tells you so. "Verily, verily," says Christ; could you doubt Him? Tell me, longdoubting heart, can you longer doubt the word of Jesus? If I have any doubts at all, rising like a dark cloud before my soul, those two words, "Verily, verily," must surely drive them all away; those words are simply ravishing to the soul who is content with the word of Christ.

And not only is there eternal life for the present, but for the future I have this, "Shall not come into condemnation," or judgment. The Lord Jesus came under judgment for you,-the Lord Jesus was condemned for you,-God, in righteousness, has condemned His beloved Son on the cross, that He may not have to condemn you. The one who believes in Jesus has eternal life as a present reality, and "shall not come into judgment" as a future prospect. How can God condemn you for sins for which He has already condemned Christ? The death of the Lord Jesus has for ever settled the question of sin for those who believe. You have nothing to do but to receive Christ, and to enjoy for time and for eternity the fruit of the victory of Christ for you, tasting all the sweetness of it as a present reality.

Who shall condemn? Will Christ, who died for

us? No; He has been condemned for us, and there is "now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." For the present, then, I have everlasting life; for the future there is no terror, no condemnation; and when I look at the past, what does the Lord say?-is passed from death unto life. How does this all come about? It is the hearing His voice that produces this mighty change. Where were you, unbelieving? Among the dead: and now, believing, you are among the living. What were you?" Condemned already." What are you?— "Not condemned," and never shall come into condemnation. You have cleared the dark, deep billows of death, and your feet are planted on the shores of immortality, in resurrection-life with Christ. You have in one single moment, I say, by simple faith, cleared, and cleared for ever, the gloomy sea of death, and the pit of hell, and your feet are standing on the blooming shores of immortality, and eternal life in Christ!

Ponder again, dear reader, the Lord's emancipating words, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth in him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life." When my soul is filled with the word of Christ, what room is there for a doubt to come in? Do you ask me, "Are there no clouds in the future? Do you not shrink back from the judgment-day?" Not I! I shall be glad to be there, for I shall be with, and like, the Judge. I shall be like Christ

when I am there. I go in for the first hour. Are you going in for the second hour?-the hour of His judgment; and "the hour cometh." It has not yet come, thank God, but it "cometh." Then all that are in their graves shall come forth.

I speak not now of that bright and glorious morning, that morning without clouds, when the saints of God shall hear His voice and rise out of their graves to meet Him in the air. For all do not rise together. There is a thousand years between the resurrection of the just and the resurrection of the wicked dead. The resurrection of the just is the morning when the Lord shall come into the air, and we shall hear the voice we have known and loved, and shall rise to meet Him. All the people of God, from every land, and of every age, shall hear His voice. The sea, too, shall give up those whom it holds, and we shall rise together, to be for ever with Him; but the book of Revelation tells us, "The rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished." The saints rise-the rest of the dead are left behind for judgment.

The second hour is ushered in by the resurrection of the just dead, and ended by the resurrection of the wicked dead. Christless soul, what a future is yours if you are found among the latter! "I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God." How do they stand? They stand as on earth, body and soul reunited. Then, oh! what will that be for you, you who have rejected Christ? You stand before Him in your sins. You stand before Him in your ungod

liness. You stand before Him, having despised all His offers of mercy. You stand before Him unsaved, unwashed, unclean, unholy. You rise from the grave. Whom do you see? Whose voice has called you from the dead? The voice of the Son of Man. At whose word have you come from the dust, O wicked Christless soul? At the word of the Son of Man. "The hour of his judgment has come, and who shall be able to stand?" You rise and you see Him, the one you have despised and rejected now, whose voice you will not listen to now, and He is your Judge. Is there no pardon? you ask. None. No mercy? None, none. No way of escape. No; the door is closed, and closed for ever. There is no escape, no salvation, no pardon, no mercy, no way of escape. By your unbelief you really compel the Lord to judge and condemn you. He cannot save you then! He can only say "Depart." If you will not hear Him now, when He says "Come," you must hear Him in another hour, when He can only say "Depart." He has often said "Come." He will say "Depart" but once; for you will obey Him instantly, as you flee from His face to the lake of fire, your eternal abode. Will you risk it? Oh, tell me, tell me, will you risk it? Will you risk rising before Him with all your sins upon you, only to be eternally shut out from His presence? Oh, if you are unsaved, undecided, Christless still, let me entreat Receive Jesus-hear His words, Believe on Him now.

you. Turn, turn.

listen to His voice.

W. T. P. W.

"MUST I NOW ASK HIM TO FORGIVE ME, OR MUST I NOT THANK HIM?"

RS G

-had been much troubled in her soul for several weeks. Her anxiety came about in connection with a series of Gospel meetings, in which God manifested His saving grace by numerous conversions; and it was of so real a character that, being unusually protracted, it to a degree affected her health.

One of the conversions above referred to was that of her husband, which made her long all the more ardently for a definite knowledge of forgiveness. But, alas! like so many, she was looking within, rather than backward at Calvary and upward to the Throne, for evidence that her sins were gone.

Oh," she said, "if I could only be sure that I would not go to hell! and when I think I might be sent there at any moment, I'm overdone and must weep"-and she did weep.

In attempting to comfort her, the love of God to us, even while enemies, was appealed to; the proof of that love in giving up His beloved Son to die; the desire also of this blessed One to afford the only means, in His unspeakable sufferings, by