156 THE IIIDDEN LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN. ever, sins and sorrows, and perplexities; farewel, temptations of the alluring, and the affrightingkind; neither the vanities, nor the terrors of this world, shall reach me any more ; for I shall from this moment for ever dwell where my joy, my life is. All my springs are in God, and I shall be Tor ever with him."And when the morning of the resurrection dawnsuporl the world, and the day of judgment appears, the body of a christian shall be called out of the dust, and shall bid farewel for ever to death and darkness ; todisease and pain, to all the fruits of sin, and all the effects of the curse. Christ, who is the resurrection and the life, stands up a complete conqueror over all the powers of the grave : He bids the sacred dust, arise and live ; the dust obeys, and revives ; the whole saint appears exulting in life; the date of his immortality then begins, and his life shall run on to ever- lastingages. Methinks such lively views of death should inclineus rather to desire to depart from the body, that we may dwell with Christ. Death is but a flight òf the soul where its divine life is. Why shouldwe make it a matter of fear then, to be absent from the body, if we are immediatelypresent with the Lord ! Methinks, under the influence of such meditations of the resurrection, faith shouldbreathe, and long for the last appearance of Christ, and rejoice in the language of holy Job : I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that heshall standat the latter day upon theearth ; Job xix. 25. Achristian should sendhis hopes and his wishes for.. ward to meet the chariot-wheels of our Lord Jesus the Judge ; for the day of his appearance is but the display of our life, and the perfection of our blessedness. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glo17/; Col. iii. 4. My thoughts kindle at the sound of that blessed promise, and I long to let contemplation loose on a theme so divinely glorious. If ever the pomp of language be indulged, and the magnificence of words, it must be to display this bright solemnity, this illustri- ous appearance, which outshines all the pomp of words, and the utmost magnificenceof language. Come, my friends, let us me- ditate the 'sacred conformity of the saints to Christ, first, in their hidden, and then in their glorious life ; as he was on earth, so are they ; both hated of the world, both unknown in it. The disci- ples must be trained up for public honours, as their Master was, ill this hideous and howling wilderness, in caves of darkness, or rather in a den of savages. They must follow the Captain of their salvation through a thousand dangers and sufferings; and they shall receive their crown too, and a. glory like that whichar- rays their divine leader. O may I never think it hard to trace the footsteps of my Lord, though it he in a miry, or a thorny way! Maylnever repine
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