284 I.EAVENLY CONTEMY LAVION a new star must appear, and conduct the stranger to worship him in a manger ; heavenly hosts with their songs must celebrate his nativity; while a child he must dispute with doctors ; when he enters upon his office, he turns water into wine ; feeds thousands with a few loaves and fishes ; cleanses the lepers, heals the sick, restores the lame, gives sight to the blind, and raises the dead. How wonderful then is his celestial glory ! If there be such cutting down of boughs, and spreading of garments, and crying, Hosanna, for one that comes into Jerusalem riding on an ass; what will there be when he cornes with his angels in his glory? If they that heard him preach the gospel of the kingdom con- fess, Never man spake like this man ; they then, that behold his majesty in his kingdom, will say, "There was never glory like this glory." If, when his enemies came to apprehend him, they fell to the gronnd; if, when he is dying, the earth quakes, the wail of the temple is rent, the sun is eclipsed, the dead bodies of the saints arise, and the standers by acknowledge, Verily this was the Son of God ; O what a day will it be, when the dead must all arise and stand before him ; when he will once more shake, not the earth only, but the hea- vens also ; when this sun shall be taken out of the fir- mament, and be everlastingly darkened with his glory, and when every tongue shall confess him to be Lord and King ! If, when he rose again death and the grave, lost their power ; if angels must roll away the stone, terrify the keepers till they are as dead men, and send the tidings to his disciples ; if he ascend to heaven in their sight ; what power, dominion, and glory, is he now possessed of, and which we must for ever possess with hirn ! When he is gone, can a few poor fishermen and tent- makers cure the lame, blind, and sick, open prisons, destroy the disobedient, raise the dead, and astonish their adversaries? What a world will that be where every one can do greater works than these? If the preaching of the gospel be accompanied with such power as to discover the secrets of the heart, humble the proud sinner, and make the most obdurate tremble ;
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