ment day, both of the righteous, and of the wicked of the just and of the unjust.

The coming of which he spoke, therefore, was the coming to judgment; and no mode of interpretation is equal to the explanation of the passage, which limits "the coming in his kingdom," which some standing there should see before they died, to any condition of things, or event in this world, or the church, or the gospel dispensation, save only to the transfiguration, which followed some days after, and in all the narratives follows immediately after. Peter, in his second Epistle, refers to this scene in the following terms:

"We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty ;—when we were with him in the holy mount." (2 Pet. 1: 16, 18.)

I think he means by this, to say, that he had not preached a fabulous coming and kingdom of our Lord, to be manifested in the end of this world; though it may seem from the highly wrought descriptions, and from its impending interest, and yet protracted delay, to be a cunningly devised fable: for we were eye-witnesses of the glorious power and excellent majesty of his coming kingdom, when we were with him in the holy mount of transfiguration.

No interpretation of this passage will serve, which leaves out of account the last great day: and the doctrine, that the church is the kingdom of which he spoke, will not relieve the difficulty. For the remark, that there be some standing here, (it is well observed by a friend,) would lose all its point, if by the kingdom here, the church be understood. Not only some, standing there, but every one, so far as appears of record, except only Judas Iscariot, did not taste of death, until they saw the coming of his church, and its full development in action. Therefore, if the coming in his kingdom, be the erection of his church, how did some, rather than many and all, standing there, see the event before they

tasted of death? such an interpretation would destroy the point and force of the whole expression, and rob it of its deep personal interest.

If one say, then," He intended his coming to destroy Jerusalem;" I dissent, because I think it easy to explain the passages, in which it is supposed he signified his coming in that work of destruction, without the necessity of believing that his coming and kingdom, in the New Testament, means, in any place, an event and a condition of things, to occur before the end of the world. I am opposed to Janus-faced interpretations, which look before and behind, which stare in opposite directions, which are now on the forehead, and anon are behind the back. I consent to none of them, which look not straight forward, with a steady eye; and in matters of faith, with a single eye. The coming and kingdom of our Lord is an article of faith wholly, and not of sight. The preaching of it is addressed to our faith, and not to our sight. By faith through time we are pledged and exhorted to strive to enter into it, and to press into it. Once in, the strife is over; but that is not in this world, nor in the church. In the church we continue to live by faith, we walk by faith, and not by sight of the kingdom, depending on the promise of God, and not on the fine prospects of this world.

When the Lord descended from the mount of transfiguration, he found his disciples congregated about a poor lunatic, striving in vain to cast out the demon, which he effected at his coming by a word. This may be a type of the state of things at his coming again, in the end of the world, from the heavenly mount of excellent glory; when his people, his beloved disciples, will be still striving with the god of this world, to cast him out, to quell his violence, and to cure his afflicted and possessed lunatics of all nations; but "they could not." The demon would not go out for them, to their great surprise but the god of this world yields to our returning Savior.

The Lord has borne long with this "faithless and perverse generation." Long he has suffered our faithless labors, to spread the gospel, to proclaim his saving grace to the nations; and before we have gone, in our slow and unbelieving course, over the cities of the earth, the Son of Man will come. (Mat. 10: 23.) Before the church has visited, by its gospel messengers, all the cities of the earth, the Lord will probably return and come. He is able to cast out the

enemy, and to bruise him under our feet; and the promise is from the beginning, that he will do it; and from the days of the gospel, that he will do it shortly. (Rom. 16: 20.)

"BLESSED IS HE THAT COMETH IN THE NAME OF THE LORD."

In the touching appeal of the Lord to the city of Jerusalem, he declares: "Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Mat. 29: 30. Luke 13: 35.) Yet they cried out after this," Away with him, crucify him." So the passage is not easily understood of the gospel dispensation, and is by no means to be set in conflict with other plain passages, referring it to a time yet future. In any construction, the time spoken of must be future yet; for since the day he said it, his name has been held in reproach and contempt by the people of the Jews. Neither they nor their city have ever yet said: "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord Jesus."-They will say it, when every knee bows before him," who shall judge the quick and the dead, at his appearing and his kingdom." (2 Tim. 4: 1.)

"THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NOT MEAT AND DRINK; BUT RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PEACE AND JOY IN THE HOLY GHOST.'

This passage is very powerful in many excellent minds, to convince them, that the kingdom of God is come. It is not to be expected that opinions long wedded to the heart, in connection with so gracious words of holy writ, will be readily exchanged for new opinions; nor is it to be desired. Great changes in the world must be gradual, or a dangerous violence of action will overthrow both truth and error in one common ruin. Therefore, it does not dishearten me, when the wise and learned disavow this unusual doctrine; and with piety, hold fast to their old faith. They should do so yet. The mortified and dead flesh is so intimately united with the living in the healing wound of the human body, that neither surgeon, nor sufferer, can exactly tell where the separation. between the living and the dead will take place. It is necessary to wait the action of the vital energies, that they may determine with safety and accuracy the boundary between the two, and may also of their own healthful action throw off the dead parts, and cast them out of the healing wound in the body.

Much more is this necessary in the wounded faith: as we see fully exhibited in the time of the change from the Mosaic

to the gospel dispensation, under the direct admonition of Christ, and of the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and of the apostles. The apostles themselves were years in coming to a right and consistent view of the subject; and required line upon line, and precept upon precept, before they could give up the law for their Savior. And, so in the great Reformation under Luther, it is instructive to see, while the pillars of the fabric of their faith were shaken in regard to the Pope, and to images and to saints, how the public mind was still swayed by the Pope, and by the reverence of the saints, to adore them less and less, but by no means to surrender them. all at once, to the condemnation of idols, and to the reproach of sin.

But I think that any reader of the 14th chapter of Romans must have it first well settled in his mind, that the kingdom of heaven is in this world, before he would find proof of it there. The apostle is speaking of things indifferent, for which we ought not to grieve a brother, or to cause him to offend. "If thy brother be grieved with thy meat, destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Let us, therefore, follow after the things that make for peace."

The apostle would teach them how to obtain the kingdom. of heaven, by coming into the likeness of it, in righteousness of conduct, in peace and quietness of mind, and joy of heart in the Holy Ghost. In these graces, we must serve the Lord now, if we would be accepted of him, in the day of judgment, and the kingdom of heaven. To eat and drink, or not, of certain things doubtful among the weak, neither makes one better nor worse; but the heavenly temper is essential to the heir of the heavenly kingdom, and that will not permit us,. lightly and wantonly to lay a stumbling block before our bro-.