an instrument, some praise without one; but all with the heart. Of these, some are Churchmen, and some are Dissenters, and some are even in the bosom of the Church of Rome not of it, yet in it. Whatever be the names by which they are distinguished on earth, they are known in the catalogues of glory only by one-the living people of the living God. It is only when a little of the light of that upper world falls upon the petty disputes of this present world, that we see how all that man calls great is crowded into a very little bulk; whilst the least that God pronounces true, assumes a size, an importance, and a magnificence, that awe and astonish us. It is thus that God's people are in all systems, in all sects and parties; and yet they have characteristics by which they are clearly and distinctly known. I do not undervalue sections of the Church. Perhaps it is God's ordinance that our ecclesiastical being should be kept pure by antagonisms and disputes; and one can see, that the distinction into the varied sects that have existed from the beginning, has been overruled to do great good. The Jews had the charge of the Old Testament: if the Jew tried to touch it, the Samaritan would have instantly corrected him; if the Pharisee had tried to alter a verse, the Sadducee would have instantly pounced upon him, and exposed him; if either had tried to alter, another sect would have noticed and proclaimed it. So in the history of the Church. If the Churchman should put in something that was not in the Bible originally, to prove his form, the Dissenter would instantly note it; and if the Dissenter were to interpolate something that would tend in his direction, the Churchman would instantly expose him. If the Baptists were to put in a word showing that adults only were to be baptized, the Pædobaptist would correct him; and if the Pædobaptist were to insert any thing in favor of his argument, the Antipædobaptist would correct him.

Thus, those divisions which are the evidence of the weakness of man, are overruled by the wisdom and goodness of God, to keep our Christianity alive, and our Bibles pure and uncorrupted, even to the end. Let us hate sectarianism; let us pray for and love all that love the Lord Jesus Christ. Each church may be likened to a tree; each tree grows in its own congenial and native clime: its roots grow best in its own soil, but all the branches of all the trees wave in the unsectarian air; the fruits of all ripen in the beams of one catholic sun; and the fibres of all are connected with the fibres of the tree of life by roots running underground, invisible to us, but real and lasting, the planting of the Lord.

But while it is thus true that God's people are found in all denominations, it is no less true that these people for whom the rest is provided, have clear, and sharp, and definite characteristics. However beautiful the rest may be, I beseech you, my readers, to think less of the rest, with its coming beauty; and think each for a moment more intently-"Have I the characteristics of those for whom that rest is being made ready?"

First, then, the people of God have this grand characteristic in common that they receive and cleave to the Bible, in its integrity and purity, as the only rule of faith. In religious matters, the Bible, without a clasp nay, without a comment. - is their only and conclusive directory; so that these people of God care very little what is man's opinion of the Bible, but care very much what is the Bible's opinion of man. Their creed, in short, is, not what the best men say, nor what the most men say, but it is simply what God has said; and they accept as truth, not that which has majorities behind it, or splendor, pomp, and grandeur embosoming it, but that which has prefixed to it, "Thus saith the Lord." Here is the very first stage in our

Christianity: we must accept this book, on evidence that is satisfactory to us, as from God; and ever as this book speaks, we must see an end to all discussion; whatever it says plainly, clearly, and unequivocally, it is our highest duty, our purest happiness, heartily to receive, embrace, and act upon.

The second feature of the people of God is, that they take as their title to the "rest that remaineth for the people of God," the righteousness and the sacrifice of Christ alone: they may be the most moral, the most upright, the most excellent, the most virtuous; but yet, if they are the people of God, their language is this: "There is none other name given among men whereby we can be saved, but the name of Jesus." Hence, a Christian does not look to any thing he has suffered, as an expiation for his sin, or to any thing he has done, as a title to happiness; he puts his good deeds and his bad deeds at the foot of the cross; he begs forgiveness, through the blood of Jesus, for both; and, resting upon the finished righteousness and perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of God, justified by faith, he has peace with God. This beautiful text is the epitome of his title, "He that knew no sin was made sin for me." How was Christ made sin for me? By my sin being imputed to Him. Well, just in the same manner, says the apostle, "that I might be made the righteousness of God by Him." How am I made the righteousness of God by Him? By His righteousness being imputed to me. So that Christ was the spotless Lamb in the tainted fleece of my transgressions; and I am the tainted, but forgiven sheep, in the glorious fleece of the Redeemer's righteousness. And as it was just in God that Jesus should suffer because of my sins lying upon Him, God is only faithful and just to acquit me because of Jesus' righteousness lying upon me. There is my foundation; there is my trust that which Paul

proclaimed, that which Martin Luther excavated from the rubbish in which it was buried, that which shines from every page of the Bible, and ought to sound in every sermon-free, instant, glorious forgiveness by faith alone, through the precious sacrifice of Jesus, for which the Church is built, for which a ministry is continued, and the renunciation of which is the renunciation of its essential and noblest offices and functions.

In the next place, the people of God have not only this title to the rest, but they have a fitness for it. Now, what is this fitness? It is the work of the Holy Spirit within them. Are you aware that it needs, not only Christ's finished work without you to be your title to heaven, but it needs also the Spirit's progressive work within you to be your fitness for heaven? It is as necessary that I should be made fit for this rest, as it is that I should be entitled to it. Now, what will make me fit? Baptism may cleanse the flesh; it cannot regenerate the heart. Baptism, pre

cious in its place, as an admission into the outward and the visible Church, has no magic power, no exorcising virtue to alter, transform, and renew the heart that is dead in sin. It needs the same omnipotent power that opened the grave of Jesus, to open my heart, and make it live again. "Except a man" - it does not matter who he is, rich or poor, high or low- "be born again of the Spirit of God, he cannot see the kingdom of God;" and unless that change take place in us now, we shall never know what rest is in Jesus, nor enter into rest hereafter.

But I may notice that there is one word here which conveys an idea of the character of those who enter into this rest; it is in the word translated "rest." It is said that there remaineth a Zaßßariouos for the people of God; literally translated, "a Sabbath-keeping," as if there were something so holy, beautiful, and sweet in the earthly

Sabbath, that a Christian, by the enjoyment of his Sabbaths upon earth, anticipates and covets as his dearest joy an everlasting Sabbath, when time shall be no more. And it is very much by what you feel of pleasure in the Sabbath now, that you may estimate your fitness for the everlasting Sabbath. The man to whom the Sabbaths upon earth have no beauty, to whose ear the chimes of Sabbath bells have no music, and to whose heart the exercises of the Sabbath sanctuary come home with no stirring eloquence and influential force, gives but poor evidence that he is ripening for that everlasting “Sabbathkeeping" that remaineth for the people of God. The Sabbath upon earth is a fragment of heaven, set like a gem in the brow of this world; it is, as it were, an island struck off from the continent of eternity, cast down into the roaring torrents of human life, standing upon which we can see the sunshine of the better land, hear the chimes of its jubilee, and, by our experience of the sweetness of our Sabbath here, rejoice that there will one day be a Sabbath which shall never be disturbed by the sound of the railwaywhistle, or darkened by the cloud of the manufactory smoke, or disturbed by our sins, or clouded by our prejudices, or interrupted by our infirmities; where necessity and mercy, which are now just pleas upon earth, shall be no pleas, because not needed at all, for ever. Reader, do you enjoy the Sabbath - not as a penance, but as a festival, after the weary week is done? Are you thankful for the Sabbath light? Is it to you the brightest day of the seven, the day that you most enjoy, which you would not give up for all the days of all the week besides?

Lastly, the people of God love and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. "These are they that follow the Lamb:

"He