waters cover the sea. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. And the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.

As sure as Christ is the second Adam, and the seed of Abraham, and the Son of God, just so sure will He establish his kingdom on the earth, and possess it with all his saints for ever and ever. God has never revealed any other plan, or intimated that Christ and the redeemed were to have any other inheritance. The world was made to be possessed by holy beings, and filled with God's glory, and so it will be. The wicked are only probationers, and when his present gospel age ends, time and probation will end with them-they will be slain, and Christ and his saints take possession. It will be so renovated and cleansed by fire, and newly created, that it will become incorruptable, undefiled, and that which will not fade away.

The hope of the gospel, and of the Christian, embraces this earth thus fitted up, wherein dwelleth righteousness, and where no mortal foot can tread, or pain and sorrow be felt, or death enter. Since the fall of Adam, the saints have had no rest; no continuing city, or abiding place; the wicked have usurped the authority and held the sway through every successive generation; but the righteous have sought one to come, and not without the strongest hope and confident expectation of obtaining it. It is pledged by the Almighty, and heaven and earth will sooner perish than his word fail. It is God's good pleasure to give the saints the kingdom and establish their reign on the earth. Hence, the hope of the gospel has been like an anchor to the pious soul, sure and steadfast, and reaching beyond the vail of mortality, to those things

enduring as the eternal. The saints are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. They may be poor as to this world's goods, but they are princes, and children of a King, and shall inherit all things. The hope of the gospel has inspired them with moral courage, and sustained them in the midst of persecution, imprisonment, banishment, torture, and death. Hence, it is called a good hope, a lively hope, and a blessed hope, and one that maketh not ashamed.

Let every professed Christian understand the true gospel hope, and know what it embraces, that he may have an intelligent hope and faith, and not run as uncertain, and be looking and expecting for something that God has never promised, and that he will never realize. It is because the hope of the gospel is so little understood, that I have thought it important to give it a distinct notice in this work. All its items are embraced in the great plan of redemption, and have been previously discussed, but not arranged under this form, and for this definite object.

You hear persons talk about possessing a hope, and about the gospel hope, but you come to interrogate them on the subject, and they are as ignorant of its real nature, and what it embraces, as the most stupid heathen. They have no knowledge of the real importance of the resurrection, and of its connection with the Christian's hope, and of immortality, and of their personal union with Christ, their freedom from sin and sinners, and their inheriting the earth. They have no idea that these great and glorious blessings make up the hope of the gospel. They hoped that God would take them to heaven when they died, and that they should obtain something, and see something nice and glorious, but what it would be, they had no concep

tion.

Let such ignorance pass. Be instructed, and know that God has plainly revealed everything for which we are to

look, hope, and desire, of future good in the gospel, and unless we embrace this hope as it is there proclaimed, we are living without God, and without hope in the world.

How amazing the love, compassion, and condescension of our Heavenly Father towards the human race! How wonderful and glorious the plan of our redemption! Man is prisoner of hope. However wayward and fallen, the voice of a merciful Redeemer calls after him. However

dark and ignorant, wisdom invites him to listen to her instruction, and attend to know understanding. However burdened and weary, the Saviour says, Come unto me and I will give you rest. However distressed by sin and condemnation, Christ's name is worthy of all acceptation, being able to save to the utmost, all them that believe and obey the gospel. Hope then in God, and you shall be brought to praise Him and enjoy his glorious presence for

ever.

CHAPTER IX.

CLOSING REMARKS.

We might extend our remarks and swell this volume to double its size, but it is not in our province at present to do so. We have brought forward the doctrines of the Christian faith, which it was our original design to present, and after a few considerations on the importance of truth, and the inconsistency and sinfulness of error, we shall take leave of the subject.

If we would be wise for ourselves, and enjoy an intelligent faith, we must come to the fountain head, and search the Scriptures daily, with a zeal and determination to understand them. They are either of vast and eternal importance to us, or they are of no account whatever. They are a chart and guide that points out correctly our path, that leads to a high, holy, and happy destiny, or they are a splendid fiction.

But who can pronounce the Bible false? Who can say that it does not bear internally the marks of its own divinity, and upon its sacred pages the impress of the Godhead?

The scoffing jeer of infidels at some unimportant discrepancy in the historical accounts, dates, names, and numbers, does not meet the point. What is the religion and morality of the Bible; its doctrines and precepts? Are they consistent with the character and attributes of a righteous moral Governor, and with man's moral condition? This is the point. And who is prepared to disprove the sublime doctrines, precepts, and morality of the Bible, and say they are not rational and divine? Where can you find a better code of moral law, or one better adapted to man's moral nature, or consistent with the Divine administration, than is contained in the Bible?

The world has stood at least six thousand years, and where human genius and philosophy have departed from the Bible, they have as yet failed to give us any thing that is worthy of a comparison with its pure principles and holy injunctions. It must be left to speak for itself, untrammeled by human philosophy and tradition, otherwise there is no divinity in it. Here lies the secret of infidelity. It is man's work with the Bible that makes infidels, and not the Bible itself. And infidelity will be fostered and perpetuated as long as the different sects in the Christian world enforce their peculiar interpretations and traditions along with the Bible.

The Roman Catholic Church will allow you, in this country, to read the Bible, but you must read and believe with her interpretations, or be anathematized as a heretic, and cast out of her communion. So the Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, and almost every sect in Christendom act upon the same principle. The writer is a living witness to this truth, and is associated with hundreds of others that have been condemned and turned out of the church, for no earthly reason only because they have dared to read the Scriptures for themselves, and fail