of sinners are built. There is a full, sufficient oblation, propitiation, and satisfaction made by his one oblation of himself, once offered for the sins of the whole world. We proclaim to every human being, redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. What a precious truth is this to be made known to all men. Repentance and remission of sins in his name, to be preached among all nations-to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. The murderers and crucifiers of the Redeemer are first of all to have this propitiation for their sins proclaimed even to them. What an illustration of

the grace of the gospel is here. O may we truly confide on it, and cleave to it with all our hearts!

2. THE WORK OF GRACE WHICH HE CARRIES ON. He redeemeth us from all iniquity, that he might purify us unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. As to the price paid, redemption was completed in the death of Jesus on the tree! as to the effect to be produced, the Redeemer is still carrying on his work, delivering us from the power of sins daily. I know, says Job, that my Redeemer liveth. Yes, he lives to give us his Holy Spirit, He is exalted as a prince and a Saviour to give repentance unto Israel, and remission of sins. He promises to his people, I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plague! O grave, I will be thy destruction! We have a glorious Redeemer, who, amidst all our infirmities, sinfulness, dangers, temptations, and enemies, proves himself mighty to save all that fly to him; and will never reject them, never forsake them, being able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him.

3. THE FINAL DELIVERANCE OF HIS PEOPLE. There is a glorious deliverance of his church fast approaching, called the manifestation of the sons of God, for which all creation is waiting: the redemption of their bodies in the day of the resurrection, as St. Paul says,

we also ourselves, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body.

But Isaiah and the apostle seem especially HERE to direct our attention to Christ; not only to his spiritual redemption, but also to his office, as the Redeemer and DELIVERER OF HIS PEOPLE ISRAEL from their present unbelief, dispersion, and degradation. This deliverance is often predicted in words that cannot be applied to any past deliverance. Thus it is said, Isa. xi. 11, 12, It shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. So glorious shall this redemption be, that the deliverance from Egypt shall be lost in its blaze of glory, and, ceasing to be referred to, it shall be said, the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all lands whither he had driven them, and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.. Jer. xvi. 15. Here indeed is a work yet to fill the whole world with admiration. The fruit of this deliverance is, the Jews are made the first pattern of a righteous nation, keeping the truth-thy people shall be all righteous; or, as Isaiah puts it, they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, and thou shalt be called, sought out, a city not forsaken. Such is the glorious title of Christ, the Redeemer of Israel.

II. THE ZION FROM WHICH HE COMES.

You will observe a striking change from the language of Isaiah in the quotation by the apostle.

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Isaiah says, the Redeemer shall come to Zion; the apostle says, he shall come out of Zion. Zuch alterations are not unfrequent in New Testament quotations from the Old. What is the key to them?

The Holy Ghost, in quoting his own words, enlarges his own instruction, and gives farther information agreeably to the varied circumstances of the church.

In the time of St. Paul, the Redeemer had been to the earthly Zion; had suffered there for us, and had gone to the heavenly Zion; and now he leads our hearts to the hope of his return.

Let us notice these things more fully.

1. THE EARTHLY ZION IS A TYPE OF THE HEAVENLY. It has all along been so designed. While the 48th Psalm, for instance, applies to the literal Zion in the first instance, it has a largeness of expression only realised in the heavenly. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion; on the sides of the north the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. Walk about Zion, and go round about her: and tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generations following, For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide unto death. The earthly Zion rejected its Lord and King when he appeared, and we have then opened more fully to us the heavenly. Thus all Christians here are described as come to the foot of this eternal and heavenly Zion. Ye are not come to the Mount that might be touched; but ye are come to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; to the general assembly and church of the first born, whose names are written in heaven. Hence St. Paul tells the Galatians, that the Jerusalem which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all. And the promise made to the overcomer in the Philadelphian church is, I will write upon him the name of the city of my God, which is

New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God. It is clear, therefore, that the earthly Zion was designed also to represent and shadow forth the heavenly Zion.

We may farther notice that OUR LORD is now IN THE HEAVENLY ZION. He was seen ascending into heaven by his apostles; they were assured by the angels that he was gone there, and there the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, was beheld by the inspired John. He is represented to us there also as having with him in the heavenly Mount, his sealed and departed saints and servants: I looked, and lo a Lamb stood on the Mount Zion, and with him an hundred and forty-four thousand, having his Father's name written on their foreheads. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and the Lamb. It is, then, clear that our Lord is now in the heavenly Zion, gathering to the paradise above his saints; all who have departed are now with Christ, in a far better state than during their abode on earth. Phil. i. 23.

We farther learn HIS FUTURE RETURN. He shall come out of Zion. This is the great hope of his church, brought before us in very many forms in the New Testament. Plainly he foretold this while he was yet on earth. Thus, on the Mount of Olives he assured the disciples, Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth shall mourn; and they shall see the Son of Man come in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. So he assured the high priest who condemned him, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. This is what the disciples were assured of first of all, on his ascension. This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. This is ever represented

by the holy apostles, as the great hope of his church. St. Paul says, Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Again he says, For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And farther he testifies, When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. St. John says, We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; and he that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. St. Peter bids us to hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. No one can have searched the New Testament without seeing that the future return of our Saviour out of the heavenly Zion is ever presented as the animating motive for all holy tempers, Christian graces, self-sacrifice, devotedness to God, and deadness to the present world.

Oh that the Lord may more and more revive this hope in his church, and preserve us from that state of mind which he so explicitly condemns, and which leads any man to think or to say, My Lord delayeth his coming! May you, like the Corinthians, come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

III. THE RESURRECTION OF HIS SAINTS AS CONNECTED WITH HIS RETURN.

The prophet Daniel has distinctly connected a resurrection to glory with the last deliverance of the people of Israel. And at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Dan. xii. 1, 2. And the prophet Ezekiel may include a literal resurrection of the believing saints,* as well as a national resurrec

* Mr. Scott observes, "the vision was evidently intended, in its pri