IL THl!I BIIATil"IED, " Blessed are they that wash their robet!, tbat they mAy have the right to come to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the oity." Wherciin does the true blessedness of man consist? Not in his professions, or theories, or ceremonies, but. in bis "deeds." "Show me thy faith by thy works.'' Who are the men that are going constantly into eternal life ? Those that do the works of the Father, "Inasmuch iw ye have done it unto the least of these," etc. The" deeds» of a man are not formal or OC(lj_lSional.accidents, but the fruit of his life-the exu~iian and fruition of his whole life. Herein, then, is the beatification of our whole natu~ ke,eping the commandments, Mark this beatifying-keeping the commandments. Working out the will of God involves our moral cleansing (" was their robes"); the high, moral right to the highest life as a right to _come to the tree of life aud to enter 1ntq the gates. "Blessed are they who do his commandments ~-the oommandments of Christ-that the authority may _hereaCt.er be continuously over the "tree of life, that they ma.y .have the rigbL given them to eat for ever the tree of life, and that they who have entered in may, once for all, enter in by means of the gate-towers; that is, openly and without. challenge, not surreptitiously or by climbing up some other ·way into the city. Not all.shall possess this knowledge" (Vaughan). Ill. THE EXECRABLE. "Without are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fomicato~ and the murderers, and the idolater!,!, an,d every one that loveth and maketh a lie." All 110uls who are outside this truly beatified state-this state of practical obedienee to $he Divine will-are truly eucrcwle. For outside that blessed realm of experience are ." dogs "-the unclean and ravenous appendages of Eastern cities, types of all that is rapacious jn human nature. And "sorcerers "-those who practise imposiure in arts -and, religions, and trade on the credulity of ignorant men. And "fornieatora "-the dissolute and immoral. And "murderers "-private atisassins, hireling soldiers, ~nd ,malignant spirits. And " idolaters "-those who bow down before the empty faahions of vanity. the para.de of wealth, and all the pomp and glitter of titled fool11, Whatso- l!lver in the human mind rules the so)ll is idolat~y. There is but one true God and on11 ,true wprship. The true God is the one supreme Object of worship. Oh, the aw_ful .,world Ul8t lies outsil;l.e the real,m of the good 1-D. T. · , " . . ,
• .. Ve.r~ 16.-.The. 'lll/-P.ec1ared titles <!I aur Lord Jesu,. "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things for the Churches. I am the ~oot and the Ofi'spring of David, the Bright, the Morning Star." Homiletica.lly, we employ these words in fastening attention upon twq subjects of thought., : L HE CALLS BllfSELi' THE "ROOT AND OFF8Pli1NG OF DAVID." What d9es thw .mean? Js it to be taken \n a lineal sense? We are told that he came from the line of David. He was the" Son of Davi<l." He.came from the same ancestral line.(Luke -ii. 4; iii. 31). lie W38 the "Son of David." Or is it to be taken in an official seruie? David by the permission of Jehovah became ·a king. We are told that he :w:as a "maa after God's own heart." A misunderstood passage, I trow, meaning only. that he was so from Divine permiSBion. In kingly office Christ may be said to have sprung. from David. But whilst limally and o.fficiallg Christ may be represeuW as the " Root and Ofli;pring of David," the. supposition that he sprang from him muraUy, or in respect to character, is an idea that must be repudiated with abhorrence. Morally, David waa oonfuwiedly a very_ corrupt man. Christ was holy and Divine, and "separate from sinners." . II. H111 OAL;LB BI118ELF THE "BarGRT AND MORNING STAR." This is the· "light that lightetb every man that cometh into the world," reflecting all the rays of him who is the Light, and in whom is no darkness at all. 'l'his is a Star whose orbit encircles the moral universe, whose revolutions are without paUBe or cessation, and whose beams no clouds can obscure, no time can quench. "Christ was th~ BrightneBS uf his Father's glory."-D. T. Ver. 17.-:-God's mercy towards a aoul-tlilrsting toorlcl. "And the Spirit and the L:.de say, Come," etc. Men's souls everywhere burn with a thirst for a good they have not. " Who will show us any good?" God has attended to the cry, and in doing so we discover his wonderful memy-:- 1. IN TJIE PROVISION HE HAS KADE FOB JT, "The water of life." 1. The prtr on. .x:xu. 1-21.J THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. 679