breadth cannot find room to expand but in the mind of Him who is from everlasting to everlasting. Future eternity belongs to man, and is the measure of his existence. What are we? We are not those fading shadows and dying creatures that we appear to be. There is upon every one of us the stamp of immortality, there is a spirit in our possession which shall fly beyond the bounds of space and time. "The stars shall fade away, the sun himself The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds." The poet merely echoes the language of that volume which abolishes death and brings life and immortality to light: language which raises us above the dreams of imagination and the speculations of philosophy, and places us among the realities of truth, the objects of faith, and the anticipation of hope. If, then, man is to exist through eternity, through eternity there must be some character. No one can be negative there any more than here. We should entertain a presumption of this, if we only reason from analogy. Truly death separates two states, and some think it will make a considerable and radical change in the condition of the soul. But why? Death is solely a physical change, operating only as far as we know upon the material part of our nature. It is merely the pulling down of the walls of the prison to let the captive escape. Disease of itself effects no moral change, and why should death? death does no more than complete the change which disease commenced, it cannot touch the soul: the moral consciousness remains in continuous and unchanged existence. Not only do the same faculties continue, but also the same moral qualities. What reason renders probable, revelation renders certain. Every part of the sacred volume represents this world as a state of discipline and probation for the next, as bearing the same relation to a future world as boyhood and youth do to manhood. God has sent us here to acquire an eternal moral character. He gives us an opportunity to do so, and we in reality do it. Time decides for eternity: the probation ends with life, and death sets the seal not only on destiny but on character. From that moment the good are good, and the bad are bad for ever. All then pass under the sentence: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still : and he that is holy, let him be holy still." He In conclusion, let me refer you to one perfect and infallible model by which to form a character. Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, read His biography as given by the evangelists; see at once His meekness and His firmness; see at once His humility and His resolution. resisted with the most heroic courage and determination all the temptations of Satan, but He bore without resentment all the calumnies and reproaches of His enemies. He knew no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, yet He endured with the most perfect resignation all the sufferings connected with sin, and all the trials of the present life. If, then, you would form a character worthy of Christians-if you would grow in favour with God and man-if you would possess a good name that is rather to be chosen than great richesfollow Jesus. 400 The Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity. EVENING SERVICE.-His own place: Acts i. Verse 25.-"That he might go to his own place." THIS was originally spoken of Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of our Lord. The character of Judas is so notorious that we need not now enter minutely into his history. The first account recorded of him in Scripture is that he was chosen by our Saviour to be one of His twelve disciples. He commissioned him to go forth with the other eleven to preach the Gospel to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. There is no evidence whatever that his outward conduct, or his preaching, or his miracles, were in any way inferior to those of his brethren; which we may regard as a fact proving how far a person may go in the discharge of religious duties, and in the cultivation of external morals, without experiencing a change of heart, or possessing the genuineness of a sincere Christian. Jesus knew the state of his mind from the beginning, and doubtless His object in selecting him to be one of His followers was to accomplish the Divine counsels, and to fulfil Divine prophecies. His true character, however, was not made known to men until a short time before the last scenes of his Master's career upon earth. It was six days before the Passover that Christ came to Bethany and supped in the house of Simon the leper. Among the guests was Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead, whose sisters were also present. After supper Mary anointed His feet with ointment, and wiped them with her hair. Here Judas complained of the waste, and said, "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor?" The poor were a mere cloak for his covetous"This he said," St. John tells us, "not that he cared ness. for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein." Christ, we find, justified Mary's conduct, and it is thought that being provoked at this, he at once resolved to betray Him. He agreed to deliver Him into the hands of the chief priests and elders of the people for thirty pieces of silver, or 3l. 8s. 5d. of our money, which was about the price of a slave in those days. On the subject of the death of Judas there seems to be a great diversity of opinion among divines. Some, following the bare letter of the text, suppose that he actually hanged himself, and the rope breaking, he fell and burst by the fall. It is supposed by others that being filled with horror and despair, he went to the top of the house, or some other eminence, and threw himself down, and, thus falling headlong, his body was rent asunder. Others think that he died, or was suffocated through excessive grief, and that thus the term used here and in the Gospel are to be understood. The original word, which is here translated hanged himself, is the same as that employed of the swine in the country of the Gadarenes where our Saviour permitted the devils to enter into them. They rushed headlong into the sea and were choked, or suffocated. So here, when Judas saw that his master was actually in the hands of his enemies, he was seized with such violent grief as occasioned a rupture which ended in his suffocation and death. Others suppose that the language is altogether figurative. Judas having been highly exalted in being made a disciple, and even the purse-bearer to his Lord and fellow-disciples, by his treason forfeited that honour, and is represented as falling from a state of the highest dignity into the lowest state of degradation and infamy, and then dying through excessive grief. Let each adopt the opinion he may think most consistent with Holy writ. Some apologize for the conduct of Judas, thinking for various reasons that he was not so bad a man as he is represented to be, and Dr. Adam Clarke concludes that he was not placed beyond the pale of Divine mercy no more than were the Jews who both betrayed and murdered that Just One. This must be an undecided question. We know that if he had applied to that innocent blood which he betrayed, it was sufficiently efficacious to take away even his sin, deep a dye as it was. But there is a passage in St. Matthew which renders his case, if not desperate, at least extremely doubtful. "The Son of man goeth as it is written of him; but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed; it had been good for that man if he had not been born;" and the passage which we have chosen for the text seems to imply that Judas having died, went to the place appointed for the wicked, where they receive a full recompense for all their evil deeds. We must, however, leave him in the hands of a righteous Judge, who administers perfect justice to all hereafter. There are two things suggested in the text which are worthy of our consideration. First, that at death every man's character shall be reduced to its simplest element. Secondly, that this element in every man's character is formed in this world, so that when he dies he goes to his own place. I. That at death every man's character shall be reduced to its simplest element. Every man's character in this life is a compound. This may appear a singular expression; it is, nevertheless, truc. What may be said of things generally, may be said of each person individually. In this world there are contending elements at work; it is so in nature; it is so in society. We find a mixture of good and evil, of light and darkness, of pleasure and pain, of joy and sorrow, of love and hatred. The grain and the tares grow together in the same field until the harvest; the wheat and the chaff are mingled in the same thrashing floor. There may be in many instances a preponderance of evil, but that evil is counteracted by the elements of good, or it would become unbearable. It is the case with each individual; there is none so vicious but there may be traced some traits of goodness in his character, and there is none so virtuous but there may be perceived some fault in his conduct. "In many things we all offend;" never did a man live (except the man Christ Jesus) whose life was |