moreover, to be observed that our Lord Himself attaches the idea of perfection, even as His Father was perfect, to the spiritual observance of the perfect law of love as explained and inculcated in that sermon, concluding that unrivalled exhortation with the memorable words-" Be ye THEREFORE perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

Now, it is very worthy of observation, that whilst all the discourses of our Lord, as contained in the Gospels, describe only the attitude of those who shall be watching for the Lord's approach, and, by inference, those who will be changed in the day of His appearing; yet, that He plainly refers to the spiritual condition and attainments of those who shall escape that fearful day of tribulation in his epistle to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia, and distinctly announces, BECAUSE those who shall be living in the day immediately preceding the final hour of temptation to the Church have kept the word of His patience, that they shall be kept from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth; from which we learn that it is those, and those only, who individually are thus perfected by the trial of their faith, who are deemed worthy to escape those things which are coming upon the earth, and

to stand before the Son of Man: those, in fact, who, being spiritually exercised by aiming at this high standard of Christian perfection, are thus prepared and purified for the presence of the Lord Himself, without enduring that fiery trial which shall come upon the rest of the Church to purge away their dross.*

*We fear there is a notion too prevalent that it is only needful for a man to hold an orthodox faith, and to acknowledge the doctrine of the Lord's second advent, to ensure to himself, as a matter of course, the high distinction of a translation into the heavenly state at the appearance of Jesus Christthan which, we believe, there cannot be a more fatal delusion. No man's faith could be sounder than St. Paul's, as to the expectation of the Lord's personal appearance again upon this earth, or in His 'subsequent Millenial reign; and yet he speaks of the hope of attaining to the resurrection from amongst the dead (Phil. iii. 10, et. seq.) as a thing he had yet to AGONIze for, and of which inestimable prize he was by no means then certain he should obtain; for he expressly declares he did not count himself to have then apprehended that high distinction of a resurrection out from amongst the dead; but was then pressing forward toward the mark for the prize of that high calling; if, by ANY MEANS, at ANY COST and SACRIFICE, he might attain to it -counting all other things as dung, so that he might thus win Christ for no one will contend St. Paul was, in that epistle, merely alluding to the personal salvation of his soul; but, on the contrary, that this strong language indicated his fervent aspirations after the pre-eminent distinction of the first resurrection on the instant of the Lord's appearing. With the example of such a man as St. Paul before us, and then casting our eyes within our own hearts and upon all around us in the Church, we confess we are filled with the deepest awe, and are

:

It is this mark of patienee and love which is stamped upon the foreheads of the hundred and forty and four thousand, which seals them from the ensuing judgments, and, indeed, places them in the condition of its inflictors. The doctrinal truth is, that God will have a Church reflecting the image of His own well-beloved Son, and those who, by previous spiritual discipline, are thus perfected by love, will escape the ordeal of fire; whereas, those who will not, but hold Christ with one hand and the world with the other, must be purified by fiery judgments.

Nor does the supposition of the present per

"

ready to exclaim, with the prophet of old-" But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? We cannot but marvel and feel awe-struck at the fearful contrast exhibited between St. Paul and ourselves-the agonizing energy of the apostle, when compared with the hasty assumption, not to say unholy facility, with which some of us place ourselves among that distinguished company of glorified saints; whilst, alas! too many of us, with the words of this bright and glorious hope on our lips, have but little of the spirit of Christ in our hearts, or manifest it in our lives; and whilst, by all our acts and demeanour, we plainly manifest ourselves to be lovers of the world. We fear too many, in the agony of their disappointment, will in that day exclaim-" Lord, Lord! have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils?" -to whom the Lord Himself will reply" I never knew you." This will prove to be one of the many evil fruits of substituting the doctrines of a creed-the visible ordinances of the Church and mere outward consistency-for the spiritual reality itself.

fectibility of individuals, or the future perfectibility of the Church, even remotely imply any despite to the blood of Christ, which can alone cleanse the soul in the sight of God; or to the doctrine of imputed righteousness; but, on the contrary, it brings out into reality the full truth which is contained in the atonement, inasmuch as it supposes that THEREBY a man is placed in the condition of yielding to God a holy life; and this doctrine, therefore, exhibits the blood of Christ as possessing a two-fold virtue: the one, the cleansing of the soul from the past guilt and defilement of sin; and the other, deliverance from its future power: and the fulness of this truth will be made manifest in that period of the history of the Church when, as the apostle John declares, the brethren shall overcome Satan and the beast by the blood of the Lamb, not loving their lives unto the death (Rev. xii. 11). It will scarcely be needful to add that he who receives the one side of the truth without the other had better never have heard of the blood of Christ at all.

Now, if our conceptions of the spiritual standing of the Church be true, there is, to say the least, a very singular coincidence between her present condition and this (otherwise unaccountable) substitution of the face of the man for the

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face of the ox already alluded to as being so prevalent; for we must not forget that even the errors of man are sometimes made subservient to the expression of great truths;* and if, as some

* There can scarcely exist a stronger illustration of the truth of this remark than that supplied us by the modern seceders to the Papal Church; for, looking above and beyond the mere outward fact of their apostasy to an irreclaimably corrupt Church, when viewed as an ecclesiastical hierarchy, it is not difficult to discern in the movement a sign to all Christendom that a witness from a purer Church is about to penetrate her bosom, and enlighten that gross darkness in which she is now so deeply involved. The rod of God's strength shall yet proceed from the British Zion; though, perhaps, not in accordance with our own preconceived notions. Even granting the pretensions of the most extreme and rigid Protestantism, we contend that the Romish Church is still a Church; and, moreover, responsible to God for Church covenants, and, THEREFORE, entitled to a warning voice before God's final judgments are brought upon her: and which, we believe, if we may judge by the analogy of God's dealings with all mankind ever since the creation of the world, she will most assuredly receive. Wherefore should one of the ten kingdoms receive a note of the coming of the Lord and of approaching judgment, and not all? Britain has received that warning, not only by act, but by the preaching of the ministers in her Church, now for nearly a quarter of a century; and is not every baptised man who is in covenant with God entitled to the same act of grace? "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" Let us, therefore, hope that these secessions into the visible Church in Christendom is the sign that health shall yet proceed from the more sanitary part of the Catholic body, if not for the healing of the whole, yet for the deliverance of multitudes within the outer circle;