"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." When it is said that Christ is the first fruits of them that sleep, it is not intended of all that will be raised from the dead, but that his resurrection is the first fruits of the great harvest of believers that will finally follow. Wicked men will be raised by the power and providence of God, in order to set forth his justice at the last judgment; they will not be raised in consequence of the mediation of Christ. "Marvel not, therefore, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." The Psalmist speaks of the resurrection as awaking out of sleep: “I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.” The death of believers is most usually spoken of in the scriptures as a sleep: "After Stephen had kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, he fell asleep." "And many bodies of the saints who slept arose, and came out of the graves," after the resurrection of Christ. The death of saints is peaceable and quiet, like one falling into a refreshing slumber; it is gentle, because they rest in hope of a joyful resurrection; and it is as easy for Christ to raise them from death as it is for us to awaken one out of sleep; and therefore there is a fitness and an appropriateness in comparing the resurrection of believers to awaking out of sleep. Job, as well as David, viewed death and the resurrection in the same light: "So man lieth down, and riseth not till the heavens be no more; they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." From the resurrection of Christ, and the whole tenor of scripture promises, we may draw a certainty of assurance of the resurrection of believers to glory and immortality. When the Lord Jesus told his disciples, "Because I live, ye shall live also," did he not declare the important truth? Did he not, in effect, say, that although the body must die because of sin, yet the immortal principle should still abide, and that at the resurrection they should be again reunited, and their happiness be consummated? The order of the resurrection. "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up." This is expressive of the suddenness in which the day called the day of the Lord will burst upon all ranks of mankind, while pursuing the ordinary occupations of life: "For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah 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." "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first." Those who are living at that period will not die, but will all be changed; they will put off mortality, and will put on immortality; their bodies will instantly be changed to spiritual bodies, at the sound of the archangel's voice; and then those who are alive P and remaining upon the earth will be caught up, together with those who have risen from the long sleep of death, to meet the Lord in the air. This will be a startling change to millions; all secular pursuits for ever finished, the tradesman's ledger closed, the warrior's weapons laid aside, the student's books forsaken, the gaieties of life will then give place to deep portentous feeling, and then the solemnities of eternal things will supersede the common-place of time. This is the order of the resurrection prior to the general judgment, and this is the period to which the psalmist alludes, and which he joyfully anticipates : "I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.” And this presents a happy prospect to all true believers, and we may notice the beatific vision, "I shall behold thy face in righteousness." The vision of God's face is a privilege denied to the saints in this life, and was withheld from those of old, who otherwise were the most highly favoured; and it implies imperfection in the present state; we can attain to only very incomplete notions of the heavenly vision. The most exalted saints, who aspire after the most consummate knowledge of the glorious presence of Jehovah, see but through a glass darkly; they know but in part, and that the least; but when this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall they know as even also they are known. For the present, therefore, they must be content with the joyful anticipation: "As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness," notwithstanding all the contumely and reproach that my enemies have heaped upon me without cause; notwithstanding the buffetings of Satan, and the lowering clouds of tempests with which he has been permitted to darken my horizon; notwithstanding the rolling surges of tribulation that have at times dismantled the gilding of my favourite bark, and swept away the cheering prospects of my earthly voyage; "yet, as for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness." I shall behold thy face, O God of my salvation, O God of all my long protracted hopes; thou, who hast created the heavens, and all the host of them; thou, who hast formed my body after thine own image, and who hast stamped upon my soul thy likeness; thou, who hast redeemed me from all evil, thee shall I behold with the comfort of a good conscience, with boldness shall I stand in thy presence, and delight myself in thy smiles, for my heart hast thou sprinkled from an evil conscience, and my body hast thou washed with pure water. The soul satisfying prospect. David in reflecting upon the portion, the hopes and the enjoyments of his enemies, who were in full possession of all the delights of the present life, yea, who had more than enough to gratify every desire of their hearts, contrasts his own case with theirs; not envying them their wealth and possessions, for he deemed his own prospects, pleasures, and delights, to be of a far superior order; they did not run in the same channel, they were widely different in their nature, and they had reference to a period that would give them all the superiority which eternity could confer: "As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness." This was a soul satisfying prospect, which we ought not to reflect upon with apathy; for in these words is expressed all that a believer can desire, and which he will surely enjoy. Is it nothing then for us to be able to apply the language of David to ourselves? Are we indifferent to such a heavenly prospect? Can we conceive what it is to behold the face of God in righteousness? Do we know what the feelings of a redeemed soul will be who has part in the first resurrection-the body of sin changed for a body fashioned after the likeness of the nature of the Lord Jesus- every evil propensity banished, holiness perfected, habited in the garments of salvation, being come unto Mount Sion, into the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant? Do we know what the sight of the dazzling splendour of the upper world will beam into the soul? I answer, no: "It cannot enter into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." But although we cannot in the present state know the extent of the heavenly glory, yet we do know something of it, we know enough to desire it, we know enough to induce us to strive for it, we know enough, I mean, the reflecting believer knows enough, to put every worldly enjoyment into the shade, the reflecting believer knows enough of the heavenly glory to make him reconcile afflictions, and tribulations, and persecutions, and reproaches, for Jesus' sake. He knows that he shall be satisfied when he awakes with the image of God stamped upon his soul. But if we have no desire after the soul satisfy. ing prospect, what think we of the prospect, the heartrending prospect, of a damned soul? Can we conceive of a hundredth part of the torments of eternal death? Can our most acute thought penetrate to a knowledge of the agonies occasioned by the gnawing worm and the quenchless fires of hell? Oh, that I knew how to use language that would touch every |