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1. The entire removal of evil-2. The full possession of good-3. The delightful occupation-4. The beatific vision-5. The perpetual glory enjoyed.

The two former of these we have already explained. We procced to consider,

III. THE DELIGHTFUL OCCUPATION.

"His servants shall serve him."

Notice THE GLORIOUS BEING WHO IS SERVED. The King of Kings: the ever-living God. It is not clear whether the sacred writer designed to refer to the Father or the Son; nor is it at all material. There is a perfect unity. "He that honoreth the Son, honoreth the Father also." The Being served is he to whom all service alone is due. Created by his power, redeemed by his blood, sanctified by his Spirit, shall they not for ever consecrate every power to him whose they are, and to whom all they can render is infinitely due! According to the rank of the master, is the elevation of the servant; to be in the immediate service of the King, is thought a high office; what is it immediately to serve the Lord God Omnipotent!

Notice next HIS SERVANTS. What were they! once vile miserable sinners, alienated from God, and his enemies by wicked works; but they heard of "the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness," and they "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." They thus, quickened by his Spirit, served him in faith, hope, and love, and learned on earth the employment of heaven, to do the will of God. These servants are redeemed sinners and glorified saints. While servants, they are children also; they dwell with their master as children with a parent, and they ever behold his face beaming with love and joy unspeakable. Once they aimed to serve him, but it was more aim than attainment. Once they prayed, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," and now that prayer is fully accomplished, and they themselves enjoy the very measures of their desires, and in heaven itself "delight to do the will of God."

Observe further THE NATURE OF THEIR SERVICE. But what mind can conceive the holy admiration with which they behold the glories of God, the joyful gratitude with which they celebrate his praises; the delightful exertions with which they fly to do his will?

But did they not serve God below? What is the difference

between their serving him here, and their serving him there? As to our service here, we are soon weary in it. Our spirits flag, we require rest: but there the mind is ever lively and awake, the body is ever active and alive, the service is unwearied. As to our service here, it is full of imperfection, our faith is weak, our hope is dull, our love is cold, our praises are feeble, all is disproportioned and imperfect; but in that blessed world, faith becomes sighthope is there enjoyment, love burns with intense ardor, and praises from the heart ever ascend; all is proportioned and perfect. In this world our service soon ceases; nearly one third of our time is lost in sleep, and of how much of the rest do worldliness and sin continually rob God! If we enjoy communion with him in prayer or praise, the service is soon past and gone; but there, our service is perpetual, and the happy employment of doing God's will shall occupy us for ever.

Once more observe THE COMMUNION there enjoyed WITH OUR FELLOW SERVANTS. The glorified saints rejoice in each others' holiness and happiness, and thus the general happiness of the whole is infinitely extended and enlarged. There are many hindrances to full communion here. Real Christians know but few real Christians; and through the many interruptions of this world, they have seldom much opportunity of fully knowing each other. Our own corruptions, and the infirmities of all God's servants here, hinder full and entire union of heart; but there will be no alloys of this kind there. No envy or jealousy at each others gifts and graces, happiness and glory. Just as the eye envies not the ear, and the hand envies not the foot; but all the members of the body are exalted in the happiness of each, so will it be there. The happiness of another will be mine in his possessing it; as the wife is exalted in the husband, and the child in the parent, so shall there be joy in the presence of the glorified servants of God, in every joy that every servant possesses. You shall be in that glorious company, where there is the full conviction that you love every individual there, and every individual loves you, and this purely, fervently, perfectly, and for ever. But let us go farther, and contemplate,

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IV. THE BLESSED SIGHT OF GOD,

Or, as it is called, The beatific vision.

They shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads."

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We have here the nature of this vision, and its efficacy.

1st. THE NATURE OF THIS VISION- -"they shall see his face." Have distinct, clear, and full views of God, as we have when we see another face to face. When Adam was innocent, he lived in the immediate presence of God, in the earthly paradise, the garded of Eden. He was, on his fall, expelled from that happy garden, and lost the sight of God. The Gospel is a process for man's recovering more than Adam lost. In order to this recovery, God gives his people the grace of faith, "the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen." We walk by faith, and in the exercise of faith have communion with God, but it is with many interruptions, and with much obscurity.

God is indeed every where throughout his infinite universe; higher than the heavens, deeper than hell, wider than the East from the West, or the North from the South, incomprehensibly perfect, indivisibly immense and eternal.

But in what the Scriptures call the third heavens, he peculiarly manifests himself to his happy creatures. There are the first heavens, the regions of the air; the second heavens, which is the starry firmament; and the third heavens, the special residence of God. O, how glorious that heavenly Jerusalem which is above! With allusion to the brightest things here below, it is said to have a wall of jasper, buildings of gold, a foundation of precious stones, and gates of pearls; being clear as crystal, shining like unto glass, and transparent in brightness:' and if the gates be of pearl, and the streets be of gold, what are the inner rooms?

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But the chief glory is this, there God manifests his immediate presence. To see God perfectly, is often described as the special happiness of his people hereafter. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to facewe shall see him as he is." This sight of God includes an intimate knowledge, of which we can now have but little conception; and a satisfying conviction of his love to us.

It was the privilege of many saints on earth, to have such communion with God, that they have been said to see him "face to face." Thus Jacob, when he wrestled with the angel: Thus Moses when" the Lord spake to him face to face," and he tells the Israelites, "the Lord talked with you face to face." All these, however, were very limited views of God. When Moses would

behold his glory, he was told, "Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live;" and it was only in a cleft of the rock, that he was allowed, and that for a moment, to see some distant rays of his glory.

But now, in heaven, they behold that glory shining in its strength: not visibly with the eye, nor sensibly with the ear-for God is a Spirit; but by immediate manifestation of it, they behold him as "the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty." This glorious object of vision will engage every eye, eclipse every other light, and fill the whole circuit of the heavenly regions with its own brightness. Adored and magnified in his true glory as the One Lord, and loved with inexpressible love, he will be the joy and the portion of the heavenly inhabitants for ever.

THE TRANSFORMING EFFECT OF THIS SIGHT must also be observed. "And his name is on their foreheads."

That is, they become manifestly and obviously like the glorious God. The sight of God's glory, as discovered in the Gospel, is assimilating and transforming. "We all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." When Moses had been with God in the mount, his face shone, so that the Israelites could not behold him without a veil. But in heaven we may well suppose this effect is more immediate and complete. Then will "the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us."

The name or character of God is even now visibly stamped on Christians. They "put on the new man, which after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness;" but, through manifold infirmities, it is often difficult to discern, either in ourselves or in others, this name or Divine impress.

But in heaven the name of God will be distinct and legible. His servants will be pure "as he is pure, holy as he is holy," and "merciful as he is merciful." O, what a blessed state of soul, when there is entire goodness and perfect love—not one jarring note of discord, not one imagination of evil!

Nay, the glorified body even will attain some resemblance of the glorious God; for it will be immortal, incorruptible, powerful,

and spiritual. "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory. The righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the Father." And who can realize all the glory of that scene, when every body of every saint reflects the glory of its Divine Creator?

V. THE PERPETUAL GLORY ENJOYED.

"They shall reign for ever and ever."

Here notice, their glory, and its perpetuity.

THEIR GLORY "They shall reign." The glory of heaven is often described as a kingdom, and Christians as kings reigning in that kingdom. Our Saviour says to his people, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;" and they forever sing, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion."

Even in this life, Christians are called "a Royal Priesthood," as the sure expectants of a "crown of life, a crown of righteousness," and a "crown of glory." But here they are only heirs, training up for their future glorious elevation.

But why are they called kings? Because a kingdom is the highest pinnacle of human elevation, and therefore best serves to illustrate those incomparable heights of bliss and glory to which we shall be raised hereafter.

I say incomparable, because our heavenly bliss is infinitely beyond that of the most favored earthly monarch. In all earthly kings, their royalty and power soon terminate; at the latest in death, and sometimes before; but, at best, their glory is unsolid and brittle. They often do not begin to reign till half a life is gone by. And then much of their time, though kings, must be spent as other men's lives are; they are subject to the same infirmities as other men; nor even is their dominion free from a bondage: to maintain dominion requires no little sacrifice and slavery.

Now take the contrary of all these defects: a royalty never lost, enduring through eternity, without the smallest restraint or sacrifice, and something may be conceived of the glory of God's elect in his own kingdom.

And further, it has this peculiarity; it is a kingdom possessed by an infinity of kings of such a character, that the glory and happiness of each adds to the glory and happiness of all. The stars in