I shall be glad if any word that I have spoken upon this truth shall strike and stick and abide in your hearts, and make those think who have been most thoughtless concerning the world to come. Years ago a gentlewoman had been spending an afternoon at cards, and the evening at a ball, and such-like amusements: she came home very late, and found that her maid-servant, who was sitting up waiting for her, was reading a book. "Ah," said she, "are you still poring over your dull books? They make you moping and melancholy." The lady retired to her chamber, but she slept not. In the night she was troubled, and fell a-weeping. Sleep forsook her. She tossed to and fro; and at length she called her maid. She said, "Madam, what ails you? I thought I left you very merry and well.” "Oh," said she, "but I looked over your book, and I only saw one word, but that word stings me: I cannot sleep; I cannot bear it." "What word was it, madam?" "It was that word 'ETERNITY.' Oh, maid," said she, "it is very well for me to sport and play, and waste my time as I have done, but oh, eternity, eternity, eternity! How can I face eternity?" And so that night was turned to weeping and to prayer. I could wish the like might happen now to many of you. The Judge is at the door. Jesus comes to judge you: will you have him now to be your Saviour? If not, his coming will cause you to weep and wail, and that throughout eternity. Remember that word,-ETERNITY. God bless you all. Amen.

66

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-Acts x. 24-48.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"-346, 410, 364.

Just published, handsomely bound in Cloth, Demy 8vo., 88 pages.
Price One Shilling.

HE MEMORIAL VOLUME, containing the Sermons and Addresses de

the PRESENTATION OF A TESTIMONIAL to PASTOR C. H. SPURGEON, upon the completion of THE TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF HIS PASTORATE, with Music sung on the occasion. An interesting record of a rare event.

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JESUS ADMIRED IN THEM THAT BELIEVE.

A $ermon

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 1ST, 1879, BY
C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day."2 Thessalonians i. 10.

WHAT a difference between the first and second comings of our Lord! When he shall come a second time it will be to be glorified and admired, but when he came the first time it was to be despised and rejected of men. He comes a second time to reign with unexampled splendour, but the first time he came to die in circumstances of shame and sorrow. Lift up your eyes, ye sons of light, and anticipate the change, which will be as great for you as for your Lord; for now ye are hidden even as he was hidden, and misunderstood even as he was misunderstood when he walked among the sons of men. "We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." His manifestation will be our manifestation, and in the day in which he is revealed in glory then shall his saints be glorified with him.

Observe that our Lord is spoken of as coming in his glory, and as at the same time taking vengeance in flaming fire on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel. This is a note of great terror to all those who are ignorant of God, and wickedly unbelieving concerning his Christ. Let them take heed, for the Lord will gain glory by the overthrow of his enemies, and those who would not bow before him cheerfully shall be compelled to bow before him abjectly: they shall crouch at his feet, they shall lick the dust in terror, and at the glance of his eyes they shall utterly wither away, as it is written, they "shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." But this is not the main object for which Christ will come, nor is this the matter in which he findeth his chiefest glory, for, observe, he does this as it were by the way, when he comes for another purpose. To destroy the wicked is a matter of necessity in which his spirit takes no delight, for he doth this, according to the text, not so much when he cometh to do it as when he shall come with another object, namely, "To be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in them that believe."

No. 1,477.

The crowning honour of Christ will be seen in his people, and this is the design with which he will return to this earth in the latter days, that he may be illustrious in his saints and exceedingly magnified in them. Even now his saints glorify him. When they walk in holiness they do, as it were, reflect his light; their holy deeds are beams from him who is the Sun of righteousness. When they believe in him they also glorify him, for there is no grace which pays lowlier homage at the throne of Jesus than the grace of faith whereby we trust him, and so confess him to be our all in all. We do glorify our gracious Lord, but, beloved brethren, we must all confess that we do not this as we could desire, for, alas, too often we dishonour him, and grieve his Holy Spirit. By our want of zeal and by our many sins we are guilty of discrediting his gospel and dishonouring his name. Happy, happy, happy day when this shall no more be possible, when we shall be rid of the inward corruption which now worketh itself into outward sin, and shall never dishonour Christ again, but shall shine with a clear, pure radiance, like the moon on the Passover night, when it looketh the sun full in the face, and then shines upon the earth at her best. To-day we are like vessels on the wheel, but half fashioned, yet even now somewhat of his divine skill is seen in us as his handiwork. Still the unformed clay is in part seen, and much remains to be done; how much more of the great Potter's creating wisdom and sanctifying power will be displayed when we shall be the perfect products of his hand! In the bud and germ our new nature brings honour to its Author; it will do far more when its perfection manifests the Finisher. Then shall Jesus be glorified and admired in every one of us when the days of the new creation are ended and God shall usher in the eternal Sabbath by pronouncing his grace-work to be very good.

This morning, as God shall help me, I shall speak first of the special glorification of Christ here intended: and, secondly, I shall conclude the sermon by calling your attention to the special considerations which this grand truth suggests.

I. Let us consider carefully THE SPECIAL GLORIFICATION HERE

INTENDED.

And the first point to note is the time. The text saith "When he shall come to be glorified in his saints." The full glorification of Christ in his saints will be when he shall come a second time, according to the sure word of prophecy. He is glorified in them now, for he saith, "All mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them"; but as yet that glory is perceptible to himself rather than to the outer world. The lamps are being trimmed, they will shine ere long. These are the days of preparation before that Sabbath which is in an infinite sense a high day. As it was said of Esther, that for so many months she prepared herself with myrrh and sweet odours before she entered the king's palace, to be espoused of him, even so are we now being purified and made ready for that august day when the perfected church shall be presented unto Christ as a bride unto her husband. John saith of her that she shall be "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." This is our night, wherein we must watch, but behold the morning cometh, a morning without clouds, and then shall we walk in a seven-fold light because our Well-beloved hath come. That second advent of his will be

his revelation: he was under a cloud here, and men perceived him not, save only a few who beheld his glory; but when he comes a second time all veils will be removed and every eye shall see the glory of his countenance. For this he waits and his church waits with him. We know not when the set time shall arrive, but every hour is bringing it nearer to us, therefore let us stand with loins girt, awaiting it.

Note, secondly, in whom this glorification of Christ is to be found. The text does not say he will be glorified "by" his saints, but "in his saints." There is a shade of difference, yea, more than a shade, between the two terms. We endeavour to glorify him now by our actions, but then he will be glorified in our own persons, and character, and condition. He is glorified by what we do, but he is at the last to be glorified in what we are. Who are these in whom Jesus is to be glorified and admired? They are spoken of under two descriptions: "in his saints," and "in all them that believe."

In "his saints" first. All those in whom Christ will be glorified are described as holy ones or saints: men and women who have been sanctified, and made pure, whose gracious lives show that they have been under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, whose obedient actions prove that they are disciples of a Holy Master, even of him who was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." But, inasmuch as these saints are also said to be believers, I gather that the holiness which will honour Christ at last is a holiness based on faith in him, a holiness of which this was the root,-that they first trusted in Christ, and then, being saved, they loved their Lord and obeyed him. Their faith wrought by love and purified their souls, and so cleansed their lives. It is an inner as well as an outer purity, arising out of the living and operative principle of faith. If any think that they can attain to holiness apart from faith in Christ they are as much mistaken as he who should hope to reap a harvest without casting seed into the furrows. Faith is the bulb, and saintship is the delightfully fragrant flower which cometh of it when planted in the soil of a renewed heart. Beware, I pray you, of any pretence to a holiness arising out of yourselves, and maintained by the energy of your own unaided wills; as well look to gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. True saintship must spring from confidence in the Saviour of sinners, and if it doth not it is lacking in the first elements of truth. How can that be a perfect character which finds its basis in self-esteem? How could Christ be glorified by saints who refuse to trust in him?

I would call your attention once again to the second description, "All them that believe." This is enlarged by the hint that they are believers in a certain testimony, according to the bracketed sentence-" because our testimony among you was believed." Now, the testimony of the apostles was concerning Christ. They saw him in the body, and they bore witness that he was " God manifest in the flesh "; they saw his holy life, and they bore witness to it; they saw his death of grief, and they witnessed that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself"; they saw him risen from the dead, and they said, "We are witnesses of his resurrection"; they saw him rise into heaven, and they bore witness that God had taken him up to his right hand. Now, all that believe this witness are saved. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord

Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." All who with a simple faith come and cast themselves upon the incarnate God, living and dying for men, and ever sitting at the right hand of God to make intercession for them,these are the people in whem Christ will be glorified and admired at the last great day. But inasmuch as they are first said to be saints, be it never forgotten that this faith must be a living faith, a faith which produces a hatred of sin, a faith which renews the character and shapes the life after the noble model of Christ, thus turning sinners into saints. The two descriptions must not be violently rent asunder; you must not say that the favoured people are sanctified without remembering that they are justified by faith, nor may you say that they are justified by faith without remembering that without holiness no man shall see the Lord, and that at the last the people in whom Christ will be admired will be those holy ones who were saved by faith in him.

So far, then, we see our way, but now a question arises: by whom will Christ be thus glorified and admired? He shines in his people, but who will see the glory? I answer first, that his people will see it. Every saint will glorify Christ in himself, and admire Christ in himself. He will say, "What a wonder that such a poor creature as I am should be thus perfected! How glorious is my Lord, who has wrought this miracle upon me!" Surely our consciousness of having been cleansed and made holy will cause us to fulfil those words of John Berridge which we sang just now:

"He cheers them with eternal smile,
They sing hosammas all the while;
Or, overwhelm'd with rapture sweet,
Sink down adoring at his feet."

This I know, that when I personally enter heaven I shall for ever admire and adore the everlasting love which brought me there. Yes, we will all glorify and admire our Saviour for what he has wrought in us by his infinite grace.

The saints will also admire Christ in one another. As I shall see you and you shall see your brethren and sisters in Christ all perfect, you will be filled with wonderment, and gratitude, and delight. You will be free from all envy there, and therefore you will rejoice in all the beauty of your fellow saints: their heaven will be a heaven to you, and what a multitude of heavens you will have as you will joy in the joy of all the redeemed! We shall as much admire the Lord's handiwork in others as in ourselves, and shall each one praise him for saving all the rest. You will see your Lord in all your brethren, and this will make you praise and adore him world without end with a perpetual amazement of evergrowing delight.

But that will not be all. Besides the blood-bought and ransomed of Christ there will be on that great day of his coming all the holy angels to stand by and look on and wonder. They marvelled much when first he stooped from heaven to earth, and they desired to look into those things, which then were a mystery to them. But when they shall see their beloved Prince come back with ten thousand times ten thousand of the ransomed at his feet, an of them made perfect by having washed their robes and made them white in his blood, how the principalities and