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BUILDING THE TOMBS OF THE PROPHETS.

[LECT.

eous, proudly thinking, whilst they recorded the sin of their fathers, that themselves were too pure to reject and ill-use a messenger of God. And therefore when the messenger arose in their land, they did worse than their fathers, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. may be that if, on the contrary, whilst they reared the monument, and pronounced a just judgment on their ancestors, they had confessed the heart to be "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked," and had added to the confession prayer for strength against temptation, they would never have been left to commit the vast enormity, for which they yet labour under the malediction of Heaven.

Let us be warned, men and brethren, by instances like these. We have only to be confident in ourselves, and there is no wickedness which we may not ultimately commit. Remember David, and "let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." I do not say that we are not to build the tombs of the Prophets. I do not say, that is, that we are not to mark our sense, and signify our abhorrence, of the sins of our fellow-men, whether our ancestors, or our contemporaries. It was not in this that the Scribes and the Pharisees were wrong: crime is to be reprobated, and the more public the reprobation the better. But we are to be careful that we do not acquit ourselves, whilst condemning others. The sin was the sin of men; and what men have done, men may do. Build then the tomb, garnish the sepulchre: but, all the while, say, "O Lord, we have the same evil heart as our fathers: restrain thou then us by the power of thy Spirit; otherwise shall we, in like manner, bequeath to our children tombs to build, and sepulchres to garnish."

LECTURE XII.

Manifestation of the Sons of God.

ROMANS viii. 19.

For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons

of God.

In this and the following verses, St. Paul gives a remarkable description of the present state of the visible creation. He represents it as in the agonies of travail, and as intently expecting the manifestation of the sons of God. The creature itself, he tells us, has been made subject to vanity-referring, we may believe, to that universal prostitution of the works and gifts of God, which, in different degrees, has subsisted ever since the fall. There is scarcely the object, whether in the animate or the inanimate creation, which has not been abused by man to the purposes of vanity. Indeed, whatsoever God hath made has been worshipped as God; so that idolatry, which is emphatically vanity, has turned the universe into its storehouse of deities. But there shall come an end to this subjection of the creature; and, as though the material system were conscious alike of its thraldom and its deliverance, St. Paul represents it as groaning, and yet anticipating a

glorious emancipation. "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."

We learn, from the bold imagery thus used by the Apostle, that times of refreshing have to break on this oppressed and disordered creation; and that, when righteousness shall receive its final and public approval, the world itself will spring into liberty, and walk the heavens in renovated beauty. It was the world, with all its tenantry, that Christ redeemed from the bondage of corruption; though, as yet, there has been no open assertion of a conquest which included whatever was affected by human apostacy. And we are taught, by many portions of Scripture, as well as by that which is now under notice, that the application of Redemption shall be finally coextensive with the consequences of the fall, so that whatever withered beneath the curse will bloom again through the influence of the Atonement. For a long season indeed evil is permitted to retain its dominion; and therefore may the creation be depicted as groaning and travailing in pain. But a day is determined, on which Christ will appear to assert his victory, and exterminate pollution; and therefore it is said that the creature is "subjected in hope."

St. Paul then goes on to declare, that a sense of burden, not to be overcome by the certainty of deliverance, was not confined to the inanimate, or irrational creation. It was not merely the visible world, with its profaned and misused productions, which groaned and heaved beneath the pressure imposed by transgression. "Ourselves also,"

saith the Apostle, " which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves." Was it to be thought that the creation suffered thus acutely, because there were no beginnings of relief, no foretastes of the yet distant rest? Nay, argues the Apostle, we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, and yet take part with the creation in signs of pain and distress. And thus the greatness of the oppression is strikingly displayed-to know deliverance certain, and yet to groan; to receive earnests of peace, and still to be in agony. We forget the groans of the inanimate system, and of irrational or irreligious creatures, when we hear those of believers in Christ. Shall not they who feel themselves redeemed, who already enjoy the foretastes of everlasting bless, be free from that suffering which seems the heritage of the fallen? Shall not they, at least, find such present gladness and rest, that they will not be engaged, like the creatures around them, in longing for a promised deliverance? The Apostle answers these questions decidedly in the negative. "Not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." You will observe what it was for which the true Christian waited and longed-" the redemption of the body"-for this will help us to understand "the manifestation of the sons of God," which is mentioned in our text. They are evidently, if not the same thing, yet things which should occur at the same time: the redemption of the body, that is, its final resurrection, is to constitute, or to occur with, the manifestation of the sons of God. The sons of God are to be manifested, gloriously owned and displayed in the face of

the universe, when the grave shall give up its deposit, and soul and body be admitted into Heaven. Here will be a point deserving very close attention-an interest, an importance, is attached to the resurrection of the body, which may place that great article of our faith under a new point of view. At the same time, you should carefully observe, that, by pursuing the context of the passage on which we discourse, we have found that "the earnest expectation of the creature," an expectation which is indicated by tokens of agony and distress, is shared by true believers; for they too are described as "groaning within themselves." Let us follow out the trains of thought which are hereby suggested here is the whole creation, the true Christian as well as every other being, groaning in pain: here is the resurrection, or redemption, of the body represented as the thing longed for in this universal distress: when we have carefully looked into all these facts, we may, by God's help, understand something of the force of the remarkable saying, "The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God."

Now, we would first observe that no passages of Scripture can be more valuable to the Christian than those which open to him the experience of the most eminent saints. If he can prove that the conflicts in which he is involved, and the sorrows by which he is oppressed, are just those which engaged and weighed down God's people of old, he has no right to think his own condition strange, nor to use his experience as an argument against his security. There are many who distress themselves with suspicions that they are not true believers, because they feel their love of God to be cold, and they are painfully con