shall come from the east and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.” "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

While these and similar passages clearly demonstrate the certainty of an eternal world, and the future happiness of the righteous-the apostles and evangelists are equally explicit in asserting the future misery of the wicked. "The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God," but "shall go away into everlasting punishment.” "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and who obey not the gospel: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." "At the end of the world, the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." "The fearful, and unbelieving, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. There shall in nowise enter into the heavenly Jerusalem any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie."

The way by which happiness in the future world may be obtained, is also clearly exhibited. "Eternal life is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting

life." "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." "The God of all grace hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus."-The dispositions of those on whom this happiness will be conferred, and the train of action which prepares us for the enjoyment of eternal bliss, are likewise distinctly described. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption: but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." "To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, honour, and immortality, God will recompense eternal life." "The pure in heart shall see God." "He that doth the will of God abideth for ever." "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out." "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they might have a right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city."

The nature of the heavenly felicity, and the employments of the future world, are likewise incidentally stated and illustrated. The foundation of happiness in that state is declared to consist in perfect freedom from moral impurity, and in the attainment of moral perfection. "No one who worketh abomination can enter the gates of the New Jerusalem." "Christ Jesus gave himself for the church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it, and that he might present it to himself a glorious church, holy, and without blemish." The honour which awaits the faithful, in the heavenly world, is designated "a crown of righteousness." The inheritance to which they are

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destined is declared to be "undefiled” with moral pollution; and it is "an inheritance among them that are sanctified." "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear," says the apostle John, "we shall be like him," adorned with all the beauties of holiness which he displayed on earth as our pattern and exemplar.—The employments of that world are represented as consisting in adoration of the Creator of the universe, in the celebration of his praises, in the contemplation of his works, and in those active services, flowing from the purest love, which have a tendency to promote the harmony and felicity of the intelligent creation. "I beheld," said John, when a vision of the future world was presented to his view, "and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, clothed in white robes, crying with a loud voice, Salvation to our God that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, be ascribed to our God for ever and ever." That the contemplation of the works of God is one leading part of the exercises of the heavenly inhabitants, appears, from the scene presented to the same apostle, in another vision, where the celestial choir are represented as falling down before Him that sat on the throne, and saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created." Such sublime adorations and ascriptions of praise, are the natural results of their profound investigations of the wonderful works of God.

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accordance with the exercises of these holy intelligences, another chorus of the celestial inhabitants is exhibited as singing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways thou King of saints.”

The resurrection of the body to an immortal life, is also declared, in the plainest and most decisive language. This is one of the peculiar discoveries of Revelation; for, although the ancient sages of the Heathen world generally admitted the immortality of the soul, they seem never to have formed the most distant conception, that the bodies of men, after putrifying in the grave, would ever be reanimated; and hence, when Paul declared this doctrine to the Athenian philosophers, he was pronounced to be a babbler. This sublime and consoling truth, however, is put beyond all doubt by our Saviour and his apostles." The hour is coming," says Jesus, "when all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth: they that have done good to the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation." "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." 66 Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead ?" "We look for the Saviour, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the energy by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself." "We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and

the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."-The nature of this change, and the qualities of the resurrection-body, are likewise particularly described by Paul in the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. "It is sown," or committed to the grave," in corruption; it is raised in incorruption,"-liable no more to decay, disease and death, but immortal as its Creator."It is raised in Power "-endued with strength and vigour incapable of being weakened or exhausted, and fitted to accompany the mind in its most vigorous activities." It is raised in glory "-destined to flourish in immortal youth and beauty, and arrayed in a splendour similar to that which appeared on the body of Christ when "his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment became white and glistering."-" It is raised a spiritual body”—refined to the highest pitch of which matter is susceptible, capable of the most vigorous exertions and of the swiftest movements, endued with organs of perception of a more exquisite and sublime nature than those with which it is now furnished, and fitted to act as a suitable vehicle for the soul in all its celestial services and sublime investigations.

Such is a brief summary of the disclosures which the Christian Revelation has made respecting the eternal destiny of mankind—a subject of infinite importance to every rational being-a subject of ineffable sublimity and grandeur, which throws into the shade the most important transactions, and the most slendid pageantry, of this sublunary scene—a subject which should be interwoven with all our plans, pursuits, and social intercourses, and which ought