on.

The Israelites, no doubt, expected to enter the promised land immediately after their leaving Egypt; but though they passed forty years in the wilderness, they nevertheless were put in the full possession of it when that time of their probation was expired; so that we read, Josh. XXI. 43. The Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he swore to give unto their fathers. There failed not one of the good things which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel: all came to pass. In like manner, no doubt, we shall all have occasion to say the same in due time, when our eyes, and every eye, shall see Christ coming in the clouds of heaven, be the distance of that time from the present ever so great. Let us, therefore, live as if it was near at hand. With this prospect before us, what manner of per sons, as the apostle Peter says, ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness.

But, as individuals, we have no occasion to enter into any speculations about the time of this greatest of all events, in which we are so much interested. To each of us it must be very near. For since we have no perception of time during à profound sleep, we shall have none while we are in the grave. The sleep of Adam will appear to him to have been as short as that of those who shall die the day before

the

the second coming of Christ. In both cases, alike, it will be as a moment; so that our resurrection will seem immediately to succeed the closing of our eyes on this world. What a sublime and interesting consideration is this. For what is our life, but, as the apostle says, like a vapour, which appears for a little time and then vanishes away; and immediately after this the great scene opens upon us. May we all be so prepared for it, that when our Lord shall return, and take account of his ser, vants, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

DS.

ON

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ON

THE CHANGE WHICH TOOK PLACE IN THE CHARACTER OF THE APOSTLES AF

TER THE RESURRECTION OF

JESUS CHRIST.
[PART I.]

And when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled, and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. ACTS IV. 13.

THERE HERE is nothing in all history, and certainly nothing within the compass of our own observation and experience, that shows so great a change in the views and characters of men, as we find to have taken place in the apostles after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, or rather after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. They appear to have always been honest, virtuous, and pious men; but having imbibed the prejudices of their nation, they expected a temporal prince in their Messiah; and supposing their master to be

that

that Messiah, and being in favour with him, they, with the ambition that seems to be natural to all men, hoped to be advanced to the first places in his kingdom, and, seemingly, without consider ing whether they were qualified to fill them or not.

With these views, and no higher, they attached themselves to Jesus, after being convinced by his miracles that he was a true prophet; and conceiv ed the idea, though without its having been suggested by himself, that he was the Messiah they were looking for. They had frequent disputes among themselves on this subject; and two of them were so impatient, and presumed so much on their superior merit, that, without regarding the offence it would necessarily give to the other apostles, they actually applied to Jesus for the distinction of sit ting the one on his right hand and the other on his left, when he should be in the possession of his kingdom.

Though Jesus never failed to repress these ambitious views, and never gave the least encouragement to them in any of the apostles, not even in Peter, whose pretensions seem to have been the best founded, they all retained this idea till the time of his death. This event so contrary to their expecta

D 4.

expectations, disconcerted and confounded them, and necessarily obliged them to give up all their fond expectations of worldly preferment. But after his resurrection their ambition revived, and they could not forbear to ask him (Acts I. 6.) if he would then restore the kingdom to Israel, expecting, no doubt, to share in the honours and emoluments of it.

That he was destined to be a king, and they were to partake of the honours of his kingdom, he had never denied. Nay he had given them positive assurance of it, saying (Matt. XIX. 28.) that "when he should sit upon the throne of his glory,

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they should also sit upon twelve thrones, judg

ing the twelve tribes of Israel." But at the same time he gave them sufficient intimation that his kingdom was not to resemble the kingdoms of this world, in which the great mass of the people were subservient to the gratification of a few. For that, on the contrary, the persons the most distinguished in his kingdom would be those who should be the most assiduous to promote the happiness of others, or that they would be in fact in the capacity of ser vants, as he himself in reality was.

Whether they clearly understood his meaning

does