rending in their midst—the trump of God, long, loud, piercing the very tomb-the Son of Man, the same who of old stood before the bar of Pilate, now enthroned in cloud, descending the acknowledged and universal Judge. The earth and the sea give up their dead. The corruptible puts on the incorruptible. The angels— they who of old ministered unseen to the heirs of salvation-go from horizon to horizon upon their blessed errand, gathering the elect, welcoming, guiding, escorting, God's chosen. Alas, what shrieks issue from those they overpass! What maniacal, despairing cries!

Friends! Fathers! Brethren! Are you prepared for this dread day? Ye who press with your teeth Christ's symbolic body-who have in your hands the credit of his cause-who ought to be magnets attracting to his serviceare you prepared? Parents, who have children entrusted to your care-who, at that awful day, must bid them a long farewell, unless like in character, you both go to a like place-are you prepared? Sinners, to whom time after time

the warning has been sounded-who must give account for every slighted opportunity, every resisted conviction, every rejected messageare you prepared? Have you pleas in readiness-sufficient pleas-pleas that will sustain your cause under the charges of a broken law, an accusing conscience, a rejected Saviour, a resisted spirit? Now is the time for such inquiry. Then you will stand or fall by your previous conduct-your character in the worldwhat you have been in these, the days of your probation. If you full-no I will not-you must picture, yourself, your destiny.

Ye who in faith-with feeling-this day draw nigh to the commemorative table-remember that at the reappearing of your Master, there is to be a feast, a marriage supper, in comparison with which, all earthly festivals are tame and stupid-even this sacred solemnity shall seem but a nothing; where the glorious company of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of the Prophets, the noble army of martyrs, the holy church universal-crowned with a life

immortal-as the stars of Heaven for brilliancy and number-shall sit within the smile-bask in the radiance of the Lamb.

Who shall partake at this antitype feast? The holy: They who have washed their garments and made them white in the blood of the Lamb: They who are washed, who are justified, who are sanctified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

Communicants, whose character is suchlook forward! On earth you have many a corroding care, many a sorrow, many a temptation. You must struggle, perhaps, with poverty-you must languish, it may be, in obscurity-you must contend, it is certain, with a vile, a deceitful, a dangerous enemy within. Look forward then. Let your communion opportunity be season of anticipation. Does not the passenger on ship board, as he draws nigh the land of his home, imagine-draw pictures to himself-about that home? If he has opportunity to climb a mast, does he not stretch. forward-strain his eyes-to catch more of the speck in the horizon which marks his haven?

Do you likewise. On the sea of the world a passenger-at the communion season elevated, aloft on the mast, as it were-extend your mind, strain all your powers, anticipating, taking foretaste of, the house not made with hands-the home-the marriage supper of the Lamb!

63

LECTURE III.

MATTHEW Xxiv. 32—41.

"Now learn a parable of the fig-tree: When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not, until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,