disciples," "good servants," "wise stewards," "obedient children," "good soldiers;" and our prospect will be the distinct "well done" spoken by our master, the conqueror's crown placed on our head by the captain of our salvation, and the joy of the reaper at harvest-home. Then, too, the church, instead of being a scorn, shall be a wonder and a praise, and men shall say, "Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?" * * Sol. Song vi. 10. IX. GOD'S INHERITANCE IN HIS SAINTS. “And what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." EPHESIANS i. 18. A MONG men there is possession and inheritance, in beings as in things. The husband has a portion in his wife, and parents have a portion in their children. "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord.”* And according to the text God, has his inheritance in the saints. He who is the first cause of all things owns all things, and all things are his inheritance, and as part of this vast possession, living beings are God's peculiar treasure. "Whatsoever is under "For every beast of cattle upon a thousand of the mountains: and are mine. If I were That God has an inheritance in the things which he has made, is a fact asserted sometimes by himself. "All the earth is mine."+ the whole heaven is mine.' the forest is mine, and the hills. I know all the fowls the wild beasts of the field hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof."§ "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts."|| Thus * Psalm cxxvii. 3. + Exodus xix. 5. Job xli. 11. || Haggai ii. 8. does God claim his own inheritance. And others claim it for him. Thus Moses, " Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is."* And David, "In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land."+ "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof."‡ God makes this claim, and his servants make it in his name, because it is so frequently overlooked. Some hold the deistical doctrine, that God has made all things, and has left all things, retired from all things. And many, who do not hold the doctrine, cherish the sentiment which is in harmony with it. But he whose thoughts are in accordance with divine revelation, cannot but believe that God holds all things in his own hand. Any attempt on our part to ignore the established order, and to violate natural arrangements, is followed by results which declare with a mighty voice, "The sea is his, and he made it and his hands formed the dry land;"§ God made the world and all things therein."|| He who has said, "All the earth is mine," saith also, 'Behold, all souls are mine." And his servants claim this inheritance in his name. "Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture." 2* God has an inheritance in the individual, and he *Deut. x. 14. + Psalm xcv. 4, 5. * Psalm c. 3. Psalm xxiv. 1. ¶ Ezekiel xviii. 4. you, Hear him also has an inheritance in the church. say, "Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people."* Hear Moses say, "The Lord hath taken and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance." + "Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance." + "The Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance." § Now the ideas expressed in these words are not ideas suited only to the Hebrew theocracy. Hear Jesus say, "I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine."|| And mark these words, "We are the Lord's." ¶ "And ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price." But it is to the text that we specially lead your attention, "And what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." The redeemed of mankind-men, women, childrenare God's estate, his riches, his wealth. I. God's inheritance in the saints is possession of the highest kind. That which lives is superior to that which is inanimate. That which is moral and religious in its constitution is superior to that which is without moral sensibility. Beings are better than things. And the highest and best beings aret they which are most like to God, possessing his image and wearing his likeness. Moreover, that which has been redeemed is more precious than that which has never been in circumstances to require salvation. God's inheritance in the worlds upon worlds which he has * Exodus xix. 5. Deut. iv. 20. Deut. ix. 29. § Deut. xxxii. 9. ¶ Romans xiv. 8. 2* John xvii. 9. I Cor. vi. 19, 20. made is inferior to his inheritance in the saints. There is a low and dark side to our human nature, and indeed to both classes of rational beings with whose existence we have any acquaintance. Some angels have become devils, and all we men like sheep have gone astray. But the capacity to sin reveals a nature of high endowments and of lofty powers. The creatures that cannot sin are in nature farther from God than those which can and which do sin. So that in view of all that is low and little and degraded and depraved in our nature, we may still say that God's inheritance in the saints is possession of the highest kind. Is not this clearly expressed by Malachi, "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels"?* The check or restraint of which I am conscious in making this statement is supplied not so much by what human nature is, as by the queer combinations to be found in some saints. The god-like is in some cases half concealed by the toad-like and the serpent-like and the bull of Bashan-like, and you have mixtures as incongruous as any to be found in heathen mythology, or in the pictures of symbolic prophecy. But God separates the precious from the vile, and the chaff from the wheat, and the wood, hay, and stubble from the gold and silver and precious stonesseparates them when found together in the same character and life. In spite of all drawbacks, God finds his inheritance in the saints. 2. God's inheritance in the saints is his own original possession. It is underived from any ancestor. * Malachi iii. 17. |