spirit, it should seem, becomes more buoyant, and quits its earthly clog to converse with the invisible world. Thus it is, that the more this earthly vessel becomes purified by faith and prayer, the more fitted it is to receive the higher communications of the Spirit. And to souls thus exercised, thus purified, have in all ages of the Church, from Moses on the mount of God, to St. John in the Apocalyptic vision, been vouchsafed the sublime mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

Would you then, my Christian brethren, realise the glories and know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,-imitate the faith and patience of Job in his various states, and complicated trials.

"I know," says he, "that my Redeemer liveth:" as if he had said, 'although I am accused of ignorance, or vain knowledge, yet this one thing I know, I feel, and am confidently assured of, that my Redeemer liveth: who shall save my life from the power of the grave, who shall fully vindicate my innocence in the presence of men and angels, who hath in his own person vanquished the powers of hell and the grave, and that He ever liveth to make intercession for me. I know that He shall stand at the latter, the great, the judgment day, upon the earth, when

time shall be no more, and the former things, the things of this transient sublunary state, are passed away, and about to be swallowed up in the boundless ocean of eternity: I know, that although by the divine irrevocable decree passed upon every son of Adam, I must lay aside these fretted garments of mortality, the earthly house of this tabernacle, yet that in my flesh, my very identical body, I shall stand before God. I shall see him with my material and bodily eyes: "my own eyes shall behold him:" the same Redeemer, the same Almighty God and Father, who first breathed into my nostrils the breath of life, who created this goodly fabric from the dust of the earth, who shall level it in the dust of death, and finally shall raise, re-edify, and transform it by the power of his resurrection.' St. Paul uses nearly the same language: "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded, that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.' "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again!"

Such, my brethren, is the creed of Job; the creed of the Apostle, St. Paul, of "the goodly fellowship of the prophets;" of "the noble army of martyrs ;" and as the great Head of the

Church is the same yesterday, to day, and for ever;” it is still the creed of every Christian, the measure and rule of our faith, the guide and standard of all our actions. Have we not all been baptised unto Jesus Christ in the laver of regeneration? Have we not all and each of us, been brought nigh unto, and reconciled I trust, to God, by the blood of his cross? Do we not all and each of us, in the blessed sacrament, eat the same spiritual meat, and drink the same spiritual drink? Do we not there behold Christ "manifestly set forth and crucified among us,' to the end that the world might be daily crucified to us, and we to the world? And in the last awful period, when death has closed our eyes on this world for ever, and we are passing through the grave and gate of death, to our joyful resurrection, is not every pious follower of Christ, said by the Apostle to "fall asleep” in the arms of this adorable Redeemer? And in the very last act of all, are not our remains conse-. crated and embalmed by the sublime service of our Church, and especially by those soul-reviving words of our Redeemer himself, "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die ?"

The

Believe ye this, my dearly beloved brethren? I know that ye believe it; for why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead? But belief is not sufficient. devils themselves believe and tremble. Once more, therefore, to revert to our subject; the text shows us, that our interest in the Redeemer is a point that may be known and ascertained, (I know, says Job, that my Redeemer liveth;) and where it is known, may be triumphed in, as infinitely more than sufficient to balance all our griefs. And how may we ascertain that we know Christ? The Apostle gives us a plain and simple rule, "if any man be in Christ he is a new creature." And St. John is even more explicit: "hereby do we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in him."

Let us, therefore, comfort ourselves and one another, with the animating and heart-cheering assurance, that "we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins." That "he ever liveth to make intercession for us." That "in our father's house are many mansions. And that because He liveth, we shall live also."