earnest cries, they should beseech the Lord to pour out the Spirit of love upon His people, to enable them to see the truth more clearly, to exercise forbearance one toward another with greater readiness, and thus remove those obstacles which have hitherto proved as "gates of brass and "bars of iron."

If there be anything, which, next to prayer to God, can produce this effect, it is the frequent contemplation of that blessed Day, when all who love the name of the Saviour shall "know as "they are known;" when they shall behold Him who gave Himself for them, "face to face;" when their bliss will be heightened by the perfect knowledge, each of the other; and all, through the countless ages of eternity, will ever increase in peace, and joy, and love, and holiness.

May the Lord grant, that, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, this Lecture may have this sanctifying tendency: so that we may be led more habitually to meditate upon that glorious Day, and so partaking more abundantly of that love "which suffereth long and is kind, seeketh "not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh "no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth "in the truth," to hasten forward the time

"When free from envy, scorn, and pride,

Their wishes all above,

Each can his brother's failings hide,

And share a brother's love.

"When love, in one delightful stream,
Through every bosom flows:

When union sweet and kind esteem
In every action glows.

"Come, then, and crown thy work of grace,

Immortal heavenly Dove!

All envy from our hearts erase,

And teach our souls to love."

Now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, &c., &c.

LECTURE X.

DIFFERENT DEGREES OF GLORY.

BY THE REV. C. J. GOODHART, M. A.,

MINISTER OF ST. MARY'S CHAPEL, READING.

MATTHEW XVI. 27.

"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works."

OUR subject on the present occasion is the difference of degrees in glory; and very high and very blessed is the privileged position in which it leads us to feel we are placed. Creatures such as we are, might have thought ourselves favoured indeed, if we could look out from the bars of our prison-house, and feel any well-grounded hope of future life and salvation or of eternal happiness being, under any circumstances, and in the lowest degree, within our reach. But it is no

limited hope of this kind we are permitted to indulge in at this time. We stand already on the sure ground of salvation promised and life secured, and the subject of our present contemplation is the amount of that salvation, and the practicability of obtaining the largest measure of that life. We are not now engaged on the question of salvation or no salvation, of glory or no glory; we venture to take our place as those that have been redeemed and adopted into the family of God, and made new creatures in Christ Jesus; to whom an inheritance of glory has been made over by the inward sealing of the Holy Ghost, and with whom, therefore, the advanced step of their anxiety is, to know how much they can possibly attain to of the promised blessing, and whether more abundant future enjoyment has been, in any way, made dependant upon the use of present circumstances, and the regulation of present conduct. We meet, therefore, as those who know whom they have believed; as those who possess a good hope through grace; as those who, assured of their interest in Christ's precious salvation, rejoice in the confidence of their coming glory; and who, thus relieved from doubt and uncertainty as to their attaining it at all, can examine, in the spirit of holy and lawful inquiry, the charter and title-deeds of their

promised inheritance, and ascertain how, through present painstaking, it may yield in the future fuller satisfaction, and richer and more plenteous fruit.

I. Our first statement, then, is that reward is promised.

The word "reward" occurs expressly over and over again in the Word of God. "Verily there is a reward for the righteous." (Ps. lviii. 11.) "Great is your reward." (Matt. v. 12.) "He shall in no wise lose his reward." (Matt. x. 42.) "His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." (Isa. xl. 10; lxii. 11.) Now, the word here in these and similar passages, in Greek as well as in Hebrew, is one which distinctly conveys the idea of wages and reward for work done, and not of a gift presented.

Moreover, it is specially marked in Scripture as the exclusive prerogative of God to search the heart and to try the ways, so as to be able to pass an exact judgment, and thus to render to each his reward accordingly.

"I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." (Jer. xvii. 10.)

"Great in counsel and mighty in work for Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the