But, if it should seem to us that our life is more busy and distracted than was the Roman officer's, let us look back to David. His we shall hardly account to have been a life of leisure; yet God has preserved to us the witness of many an hour gleaned from day and night, in the use of which he grew up, approved by his Maker, and endeared

to man.

If through belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, and His great sacrifice, we are redeemed from death, if by His gracious Spirit we have been made sons of God, why are we still living here? Is it not that we may make daily increase in dispositions suitable for heaven? Then let us resolve to answer the merciful purposes of our Creator. Let us not think that there is any infirmity of our sinful nature which we cannot amend,-any, I mean, for the conquest of which our Saviour's grace will not be extended to us. Only let us prepare against our temptations beforehand; let us put on our Christian armour, alone, and daily, and in the presence of God; and then go abroad to the trials which this world presents to us; and be confident that He will bless our advance towards the holiness which we hope for and aim

at.

364

XXVII.

LOOK FOR THE SAVIOUR.

For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be like unto His glorious body.'Philippians, iii. 20, 21.

Ημῶν γὰρ τὸ πολίτευμα . . . ὃς μετασχηματίσει τὸ σῶμα τῆς ταπεινώσεως.

WE

E must not be surprised, brethren, if the holy festival which we observe this evening has taken less hold upon the devotional habits of our fellow-Christians, than the celebration of our Lord's nativity, if Ascension Day is less thought of than Christmas.

Our own existence is that of a spirit clothed with flesh we can think of spirit embodied; we know not how to think of body glorified, though we believe and try.

Then, let us not view with impatience, some corresponding difference between the respective observation of these festivals; but let us rather rejoice that there are so many of our fellowChristians as we actually find, willing to follow

the guidance of our Church, and to glorify our Redeemer in her religious assemblies.

The Church does not ask us to strain our faculties in fanciful contemplation of things beyond their scope upon such occasions; but, like the Apostles, she bears witness to the doings of the Son of God in behalf of sinful men, and then draws a moral from that history, which is intelligible and applicable to our lives.

In the Collect for this festival, the moral in question is couched in a few simple words of supplication to God,-that our hearts may ascend to the place whither Jesus is gone before.

Let us study a short passage in the writings of St. Paul, which exhibits before us (in this particular attitude) the ideas and habits of a Christian.

It is no fanciful portrait of what men ought to be; for by the grace of God there were many such amongst the very believers whom he was writing to, the disciples at Philippi: it was their actual character at the time, in which he only wished that they might continue and grow.

For there were temptations and bad examples close at hand,-men who lived only to indulge and pamper their mortal bodies, and rather gloried in it than the contrary, talked loud about earth and its enjoyments, and their inordinate use of it; against whom he warns his

beloved friends, reminding them of their inheritance in heaven.

Long before Jesus came into the world, the teaching of His Spirit illuminated some pious minds to love the interests of the soul above those of the body. There was a holy Psalmist, surrounded by men who had their portion in this life, who prayed God that he might be delivered from their snares. Whoever he was, there shone forth into his heart a wonderful hope of some unknown world, with which he determined to content himself: As for me, I will behold Thy presence in righteousness; and when I awake up after Thy likeness, I shall be satisfied with it.'

What kings and pious men had thus a glimpse of, St. Paul sets forth to his disciples, and to all that follow them, by the brighter light of Christianity; and we, with a less effort of faith than it cost the Psalmist, may partake of his blessing.

Let me endeavour, then, to interpret a little more fully the Apostle's language.

The word which in our English version is rendered 'conversation,' means, in the original, 'rights of citizenship.'

When a foreigner, by certain legal steps, acquires the rights of an Englishman born in the land, we say that he is naturalized; when, in like manner, any one in the country is received by the corporation of a borough or city to a

share in its joint property and privileges, we say that he obtains the freedom of that city: it is this very expression in a figure of speech which St. Paul employs. It might have been rendered, 'We have the freedom of the kingdom of heaven.'

And further on, where our version says about the Lord, that He will 'change our vile body,' the original calls it, 'the body of our humiliation:' that is, the body in which we are subject to suffering, disease, tribulation, hardships, which God permits; or injuries of men; or, finally, that self-denial of earthly good things which Christians watch for and make choice of.

Let us endeavour to estimate, a little more closely, what St. Paul really means by that privilege of a believer which our translation calls 'conversation in heaven,' and which, I think, is exactly the same thing described in his Epistle to the Ephesians, where he says about God the Father, 'Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places, in Christ.'

In the ascension of Jesus, they felt confident of another world, and that man was intended for it. He who had shared the infirmities and sorrows of this lower world had already gone to it: He had fulfilled that word, 'I go to My Father;' and now they felt equally sure of His power and love to fulfil another promise, 'Because I live, ye shall live also.'