66

are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord." The nearest relationship and resemblance to God himself is always spoken of, as promised to those who are called to his eternal glory. They are called his children and his heirs, members of the body of his Son, and one with him who dwells in the bosom of the Father, according to these remarkable words of the blessed Redeemer himself, "I pray for them, which shall believe on me, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee; that they all may be one in us. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me;" John xvii. 21–23. Such, in one word, is the glory which is provided as a consolation for all your present evils. It is the same glory which the Son of God himself enjoys; and that to which you are called is, to "see him as he is,” to be like him," to "be for ever with him," to "share his glory," and to 'sit with him on his throne." To this we are called, but how shall we reach it? What can we do to become worthy of it? What can we do to be made meet for it? You may call a child to a throne, but what could he make of it? You may call fallen man to eternal glory, but what is there in his nature suitable to such an exaltation? All this difficulty, however, is fully provided for by the way in which you are called-viz, "by Christ Jesus, who is made unto you of God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." For his sake it is that you receive, and by his help it is that you may attain, the prize of your high calling. He who hath called you is here described as • the God of all grace;" and his mercies are as free as they are infinite, and as sure as they are free. He hath not made a mock of your weakness and misery by proposing to your view a blessing beyond your reach—– "a glory," to be beheld at an inaccessible height, exciting your desires, but sinking your hopes. "Faithful is he that hath called you, who also will do it." "This is the promise which he hath given us, even eternal life," and he hath provided every thing requisite to make the promise good. He hath called you by Christ Jesus, and he requires you only to follow Christ Jesus. Your part chiefly is, really to desire to partake of his eternal glory, and humbly to give yourselves to his heavenly guidance. By the light of his word and by the power of his spirit, if you will only seek them aright, you shall be led in the way to life, and nothing shall be able to separate you from his love, except your own absolute refusal of it. On the contrary, while you really desire to love God, and to be loved by him, all things shall work together for your good; and even your present afflictions, for which so great a consolation

is provided, shall only be made the means of working out for you far more exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory."

"a

The great effect

II. The course through which you must pass, "after that ye have suffered a while." Men have sometimes made it an objection against the goodness of God, that there is so much suffering in this world. This they might do with more reason if they could shew that men are innocent in this world, and deserve no correction, or even that they are willing to be prepared for the happiness of another world, and need no such calls to serious consideration; but, in the present sinful state of fallen man, the very goodness of God requires that there should be suffering. That suffering is indeed, in justice, the punishment for sin, but, at the same time, it is, in mercy, the corrective of our wanderings. of our original corruption is to turn us away from the cternal Creator to the perishing creature, to make us forgetful of heaven, and to fix our hearts to the earth. The sufferings of this life, therefore, are as messengers of kindness, sent after us in this our vain and perverse pursuit, to rouse our souls from the idle dream, and to recall our thoughts to our real destination. "God hath called us to his eternal glory;" but how little do men naturally care even for eternal glory, so long as they can find their pleasure elsewhere? The very bounties of their Creator unhappily rather drive them to a greater distance from him, instead of drawing them nearer. They take these bounties as their gods, not as gifts from their God; and are willing to rest in them, as all that they wish for here, rather than to be refreshed by them in their journey to a better portion, He needs to wither these comforts, or to interrupt our enjoyment of them. before we can see their insufficiency, and remember the better blessings awaiting us. It is generally, in short, only after we have "suffered a while," that we think of "the eternal glory" to which God hath called Even they who do not altogether forget God and his eternal glory, require thus to suffer a while, and should lay their account with doing so, as a part of their necessary preparation for the blessedness of the heavenly state. It is not possible for man's nature to be duly mindful of the eternal glory, or at least to be duly impressed with a sense of its excellence, as long as he sees nothing but sunshine in his present path. However much he may be persuaded from reflection of its absolute value, he cannot fully feel its power as a consolation, till he has suffered under some form of sorrow. As well might you think of enjoying rest without any previous weariness, or of relishing food without experiencing the sensation of hunger, or of rejoicing in the light without having ever been in darkness. It is in suffering also that many of your best spiritual graces can be called forth and kept in exercise; and they only who have suffered

us.

a while can know rightly what it is to sympathize with others who are in adversity, or to submit to God in his dealings with themselves. Patience and resignation, fortitude and self-denial, courage and hope, faith and trust, the raising of the thoughts and affections to things above-these are the proper fruits of affliction, and in no other soil can they be brought to perfection. Such was the Apostle's view of the matter when he said, 'We glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed."

You cannot indeed be supposed to wish for afflictions, or to welcome them as your choice. None of them, the Apostle allows, "for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless," he adds, "these very afflictions, which are not joyous, but grievous, yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby." This is always your best consolation under them, that they are neither sent idly nor borne uselessly. They not only serve to shew you more clearly the true value of the eternal glory which awaiteth you, but also to prepare your souls the better for its enjoyment. In this view they bring a blessing which compensates for their evil; and when they are thus improved, they are in fact to be regarded properly as means (it may be indeed toilsome and trying means, but still as precious means), of attaining the promised blessing; and so are nothing different from the voluntary sufferings and hardships, which men often undergo in order to gain some present advantage. You may naturally wish to do without them, or at least with as few of them as may be; but, when they do come in your lot, then, as you know the wisdom and goodness of the hand which sends them, your great concern should be to derive from them all the benefit in your power. Were you laid on a bed of sickness or pain, and placed as patients under a physician's care, you would indeed naturally wish to regain your health with as few bitter draughts and painful probings as may be; but still, if truly bent upon your full recovery, and confident in your physician's skill, you would rather welcome than reject what he did decide upon as best and as requisite for your case. So, when convinced that your Father in heaven careth for you, and that he afflicteth, not willingly or causelessly, the children of men, you are called in all reason to consider what he does send, as for your profit, and to strive to turn it to your good. Such is clearly the most salutary as well as consoling view of present suffering, that it may yield an endless benefit. This view falls in with your strongest natural wishes for your own interest. You are grieving, let us suppose, under some loss, calamity, or affliction. You have then not only the general consolation which the gospel proposes in that eternal glory, to which God hath called you, but you have also the satisfaction to think

that some gain or benefit may be drawn from your suffering. It needs not be all pure loss or pain. It may be made to yield some fruit, and that the best of all fruit, by forwarding your fitness for a heavenly inheritance. It has possibly thrown you back in some thing which you hoped for here, but it may be made to carry you forward in your great aim as to what awaits you hereafter. It is against you as to this world, it may be for you as to the next. Balance the matter well. It may be more gain than loss; and you may have just cause to say with the Psalmist, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes." Consider, then, this view of your suffering here a while— viz., that you are not only to be comforted under that suffering by the blessed hope of that eternal glory, to which you are called in Christ Jesus; but also, that you are to draw from that very suffering such spiritual good, as may render it even a present benefit. Such is

III. The effect to be produced both by your consolations and sufferings as Christians-viz. that you may be "made perfect, stablished, strengthened, settled." This, you observe, is the Apostle's prayer for those whom he here addresses, as the result of all their sufferings, that they might so remember that eternal glory to which they were called, and so bear the suffering to which they were appointed for a while, as at length, by the grace of God, to be "made perfect, stablished, strengthened, settled." The full particular meaning of these different expressions may be sought from other passages of Scripture in which they are used thus you read of "standing perfect and complete in all the will of God,”—you read of "the heart being established in grace,”—you read of being "strengthened with all might by the spirit in the inner man," -you read of being "grounded and settled in the faith." We may thus understand the Apostle as praying for these believers, that they might be perfected in every Christian principle and disposition-that they might be established in every good and holy purpose-that they might be strengthened for the fulfilment of every duty-that they might be settled or founded, steadfast and immoveable, in the faith and obedience of the gospel. His general meaning at least is clearly this, that they might be complete in every grace which belonged to the Christian character, so as to be fitted for the discharge of every duty in their earthly course, and prepared for the enjoyment of that eternal glory to which they were called. The import of the whole petition is similar to these prayers of the Apostle Paul for other believers," The God of peace make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ." "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and preserve your whole spirit, and

soul, and body, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is your completeness as Christians, or what the Apostle calls "presenting every man perfect in Christ Jesus," which he here makes the subject of a prayer, and which he thus recommends as your own great object in every stage of your present progress,-in every endurance of present suffering-in every experience of present consolation. Whether you rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, or suffer according to the will of God, this is to be your constant aim, and endeavour, and supplication, that, both by such consolations and by such trials, your hearts may be made better, and your spirits made more "meet for the inheritance of the saints in light." To this end the hope of eternal glory is revealed, that you may raise your thoughts to that heavenly blessedness, and become the more desirous to have your souls purified for its enjoyments. To this end you are appointed to suffer, that you may turn the more gladly to that rest which remaineth, and strive the more earnestly to be purged from every stain of that malignant moral evil which hath made this world the scene of so much misery.

When you think at all, then, of that eternal glory to which you are called, remember what is its nature-viz. that it is the glory which God himself possesses, and that, therefore, to possess it you must become partakers of a divine nature. When you feel the weight of present sufferings, think always what is their use-viz. to wean you from every thing which draws your souls from God; and that, therefore, to derive any future benefit from them, you must here, by their means, be brought nearer to the love of God and of his righteousness. Your hope of glory avails nothing, if it does not give you a more heavenly mind: your suffering here avails nothing, if it does not help to detach you farther from every thing sinful. You must estimate your interest both in God's consolations and corrections by enquiring into their influence in completing your character as Christians, by striving and praying through his grace that they may all contribute to "perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you."

See, then, brethren, the true and leading object to which your aims and supplications should be permanently directed as Christians. It is not what you hope for, it is not what you suffer; but it is what these hopes and these sufferings are making you desire to be, and actually leading you to be. Ask yourselves, indeed, what you know and what you think of the everlasting consolation provided for suffering men in Christ Jesus your calling to God's eternal glory; for this is the means of raising your souls above the mere movements and motives of this mortal life, and it is most essential to your peace that you have this heavenly hope laid up in your hearts. Ask yourselves, also, what you