Sermon 1721. Glory!

(No. 1721)

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 20, 1883,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Who has called us unto His eternal glory." 1 Peter 5:10.

A FORTNIGHT ago, when I was only able to creep to the front of this platform, I spoke to you concerning the future of ourmortal bodies-[Sermon #1719-The Tent Dissolved and the Mansion Entered]-"We know that if our earthly house of this tabernaclewere dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." On the next Sabbath, [Sermon#1720-Christ in You], we went a step further and we did not preach so much about the resurrection of the body as upon thehope of Glory for our entire nature, our text being, "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Thus we have passed through the outer court and have trod the hallowed floor of the Holy Place. And now we are the more preparedto enter within the veil and to gaze, a while, upon the glory which awaits us. We shall say a little- and oh, how little itwill be-upon that glory of which we have so sure a prospect, that glory which is prepared for us in Christ Jesus and of whichHe is the hope! I pray that our eyes may be strengthened that we may see the heavenly light and that our ears may be openedto hear sweet voices from the better land. As for me, I cannot say that I will speak of the glory, but I will try to stammerabout it-for the best language to which a man can reach concerning Glory must be a mere stammering.

Paul did but see a little of it for a short time and he confessed that he heard things that it was not lawful for a man toutter. And I doubt not that he felt utterly unable to describe what he had seen. Though a great master of language, yet foronce he was overpowered-the grandeur of his theme made him silent! As for us, what can we do, where even Paul breaks down?Pray, dear Friends that the Spirit of Glory may rest upon you, that He may open your eyes to see as much as can at presentbe seen of the heritage of the saints! We are told that "eye has not seen, neither has ear heard, neither have entered intothe heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him."

Yet the eye has seen wonderful things! There are sunrises and sunsets, Alpine glories and ocean marvels which, once seen,cling to our memories throughout life! Yet, even when Nature is at her best, she cannot give us an idea of the supernaturalGlory which God has prepared for His people! The ear has heard sweet harmonies. Have we not enjoyed music which has thrilledus? Have we not listened to speech which has seemed to make our hearts dance within us? And yet no melody of harp nor charmof oratory can ever raise us to a conception of the glory which God has laid up for them that love Him! As for the heart ofman, what strange things have entered it! Men have exhibited fair fictions, woven in the loom of fancy, which have made theeyes sparkle with their beauty and brightness-imagination has reveled and rioted in its own fantastic creations, roaming amongislands of silver and mountains of gold, or swimming in seas of wine and rivers of milk-but imagination has never been ableto open the gate of pearl which shuts in the city of our God.

No, it has not yet entered the heart of man. Yet the text goes on to say, "but He has revealed it unto us by His Spirit."So that Heaven is not an utterly unknown region, not altogether an inner brightness shut in with walls of impenetrable darkness.God has revealed joys which He has prepared for His beloved, but mark you, even though they are revealed of the Spirit, yetit is no common unveiling and the reason that it is made known at all is ascribed to the fact that "the Spirit searches allthings, yes, the deep things of God." So we see that the glory which awaits the saints is ranked among the deep things ofGod and He that would speak, thereof, after the manner of the oracles of God must have much heavenly teaching. It is easyto chatter according to human fancy, but if we would follow the sure teaching of the Word of God, we shall have need to betaught of the holy Spirit, without whose anointing the deep things of God must be hidden from us. Pray that we may be underthat teaching while we dwell upon this theme.

There are three questions which we will answer this morning. The first is, what is the destiny of the saints?- "Eternal glory,"says the text. Secondly, in which does this glory consist? I said we would answer the questions, but this is not to be answeredthis side the pearl gate. Thirdly, what should be the influence of this prospect upon our hearts? What manner of people oughtwe to be whose destiny is eternal glory? How should we live who are to live forever in the glory of the Most High?

I. First, WHAT, THEN, IS THE DESTINY OF THE SAINTS? Our text tells us that God has "called us unto His eternal glory." "Glory!"Does not the very word astound you? "Glory!" Surely that belongs to God alone! Yet the Scripture says, "glory," and gloryit must mean, for it never exaggerates. Think of glory for us who have deserved eternal shame! Glory for us poor creatureswho are often ashamed of ourselves! Yes, I look at my book, again, and it actually says, "glory"-nothing less than glory!Therefore it must be so.

Now, since this seems so amazing and astonishing a thing, I would so speak with you that not a relic of incredulity may remainin your hearts concerning it. I would ask you to follow me while we look through the Bible, not quoting every passage whichspeaks of glory, but mentioning a few of the leading ones. This glory has been promised. What said David? In the 73rd Psalmand 24th verse we meet with these remarkable words-"You shall guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory."In the original Hebrew there is a trace of David's recollection of Enoch's being translated and, though the royal Psalmistdid not expect to be caught away without dying, yet he did expect that after he had followed the guidance of the Lord herebelow, the great Father would stoop and raise up His child to be with Himself forever.

He expected to be received into Glory. Even in those dim days, when as yet the light of the Gospel was but in its dawn, thisProphet and king was able to say, "You shall afterward receive me to glory." Did he not mean the same thing when, in the 84thPsalm, verse 11, he said, "The Lord will give Grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly"?Not only no good thing under the name of Grace will God withhold from the upright, but no good thing under the head of Glory.No good of Heaven shall be kept from the saints; no reserve is even set upon the throne of the great King, for our Lord Jesushas graciously promised, "To Him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me on My throne, even as I also overcame, and amset down with My Father on His throne." "No good thing," not even among the infinitely good things of Heaven, will God "withholdfrom them that walk uprightly."

If David had this persuasion, much more may we who walk in the light of the Gospel! Since our Lord Jesus has suffered andentered into His Glory, and we know that we shall be with Him where He is, we are confident that our rest shall be glorious!Brothers and Sisters, it is to this glory that we have been called! The people of God, having been predestinated, have beencalled with an effectual calling-called so that they have obeyed the call and have run after Him who has drawn them! Now,our text says that He has, "called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus." We are called to repentance, we are calledto faith, we are called to holiness, we are called to perseverance-and all this that we may afterwards attain unto glory!

We have another Scripture of like import in 1 Thessalonians 2:12-"Who has called you unto His kingdom and glory." We are called unto His kingdom according to our Lord's words, "Fear not,little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." We are called to be kings, called to wear acrown of life that fades not away, called to reign with Christ in His Glory! If the Lord had not meant us to have the glory,He would not have called us unto it, for His calling is no mockery. He would not, by His Spirit, have fetched us out fromthe world and separated us unto Himself if He had not intended to keep us from falling and preserve us eternally. Believer,you are called to glory- do not question the certainty of that to which God has called you!

And we are not only called to it, Brothers and Sisters, but glory is especially joined with justification. Let me quote Romans 8:30-"Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified,them He also glorified." These various mercies are threaded together like pearls upon a string- there is no breaking the thread,no separating the precious things. They are put in their order by God, Himself, and they are kept there by His eternal andirreversible decree. If you are justified by the righteousness of Christ, you shall be glorified through Christ Jesus, forthus has God purposed, and so must it be! Do you not remember how salvation, itself, is linked with glory? Paul, in 2 Timothy 2:10, speaks of "the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." The

two things are riveted together and cannot be separated! The saved ones must partake of the glory of God, for this are theybeing prepared every day.

Paul, in the ninth of Romans, where he speaks about the predestinating will of God, says in the 23rd verse-"The vessels ofmercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory." This is the process which commenced in regeneration and is going on in usevery day in the work of sanctification. We cannot be glorified so long as sin remains in us-we must first be pardoned, renewedand sanctified-and then we are fitted to be glorified. By communion with our Lord Jesus we are made like He, as says the Apostlein 2 Corinthians 3:18-"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory toglory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." It is very wonderful, how, by the wisdom of God, everything is made to work thisway.

Look at the blessed text in 2 Corinthians 4:17, where Paul says, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weightof glory," where he represents that all that we can suffer, whether of body or of mind, is producing for us such a mass ofglory that he is quite unable to describe it and he uses hyperbolically language in saying, "a far more exceeding and eternalweight of glory." Oh, blessed men, whose very losses are their gains, whose sorrows produce their joys, whose griefs are bigwith Heaven! Well may we be content to suffer if so it is that all things are working together for our good and are helpingto pile up the excess of our future glory! Thus, then, it seems we are called to glory and we are being prepared for it.

Is it not, also, a sweet thought that our present fellowship with Christ is the guarantee of it? In Romans 8:17 it is said, "If so be that we suffer with Him that we may be also glorified together." Going to prison with Christ will bringus into the palace with Christ! Smarting with Christ will bring us into reigning with Christ! Being ridiculed, slandered anddespised for Christ's sake will bring us to be sharers of His honor, glory and immortality! Who would not be with Christ inHis humiliation if this is the guarantee that we shall be with Him in His Glory? Remember those dear words of the Lord Jesus,"You are they which have continued with Me in My temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father has appointedunto Me." Let us shoulder the Cross, for it leads to the crown. "No Cross, no crown"-but he that has shared the battle shallpartake in the victory.

I have not yet done, for there is a text, in Hebrews 2:10, which is well worthy of our consideration-we are to be brought to Glory. It is said of our Lord that it "became Him, forwhom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."See, Beloved, we are called to Heaven, we are being prepared for it and we shall be brought to it. We might despair of evergetting into the glory land if we had not One to bring us there, for the pilgrim's road is rough and beset with many foes-butthere is a "Captain of our salvation"-a greater than Bunyan's Great-Hearted, who is conducting the pilgrim band through allthe treacherous ways and He will bring the "many sons"-where?-"unto glory!" Nowhere short of that shall be their ultimatum.

Glory, glory shall surely follow upon Grace-for Christ the Lord, who has come into His Glory-has entered into Covenant engagementsthat He will bring all the "many sons" to be with Him. Mark this and then I will quote no more Scriptures-this glory willbe for our entire manhood-for our body as well as for our soul! You know that text in the famous Resurrection chapter in 1 Corinthians 15? Paul speaks of the body as being "sown in dishonor," but he adds, "it is raised in glory." And then, in Philippians 3:21, he says of our Divine Lord at His coming, "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His gloriousbody, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." What a wonderful change that willbe for this frail, feeble, suffering body!

In some respects it is not vile, for it is a wonderful product of Divine skill, power and goodness-but inasmuch as it hampersour spiritual nature by its appetites and infirmities-it may be called a "vile body." It is an unhandy body for a spirit-itfits a soul well enough, but a spirit needs something more ethereal, less earth-bound, more full of life than this poor fleshand blood and bone can ever be. Well, the body is to be changed. What alteration will it undergo? It will be rendered perfect.The body of a child will be fully developed and the dwarf will attain to full stature. The blind shall not be sightless inHeaven, neither shall the lame be halt, nor shall the palsied tremble. The deaf shall hear and the dumb shall sing God's praises.We shall carry none of our deficiencies or infirmities to Heaven. As good Mr. Ready-to-Halt did not carry his crutches there,neither shall any of us need a staff to lean upon!

There we shall not know an aching brow, or a weak knee, or a failing eye. "The inhabitant shall no more say, I am sick." Andit shall be an impassive body, a body that will be incapable of any kind of suffering-no palpitating heart, no

sinking spirit, no aching limbs no lethargic soul shall worry us there! No, we shall be perfectly delivered from every evilof that kind. Moreover, it shall be an immortal body. Our risen bodies shall not be capable of decay, much less of death.There are no graves in Heaven! Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for their bodies shall rise never to know deathand corruption a second time!

No smell or taint of corruption shall remain upon those whom Jesus shall call from the tomb. The risen body shall be greatlyincreased in power-it is "sown in weakness," says the Scripture-but it is "raised in power." I suppose there will be a wonderfulagility about our renovated frame. Probably it will be able to move as swiftly as the lightning flash, for so do angels passfrom place to place, and we shall in this, as in many other things, be as the angels of God. Anyway, it will be a "gloriousbody" and it will be "raised in glory," so that the whole of our manhood shall participate of that wonderful depth of blisswhich is summed up in the word-"glory." Thus I think I have set before you much of what the Word of God says upon this matter.

II. Secondly, may the Holy Spirit help me while I try very hesitatingly and stammeringly to answer the enquiry, WHEREIN DOESTHIS DESTINY CONSIST? Do you know how much I expect to do? It will be but little. You remember what the Lord did for Moseswhen the man of God prayed-"I beseech you show me Your glory!" All that the Lord, Himself, did for Moses was to say, "Youshall see My back parts; but My face shall not be seen." How little, then, can we hope to speak of this glory! Its back partsare too bright for us-as for the face of that glory, it shall not be seen by any of us here below, though, by-and-by, we shallbehold it!

I suppose if one who had been in Heaven could come straight down from there and occupy this platform, he would find that hisdiscoveries could not be communicated because of the insufficiency of language to express such a weight of meaning. The saints'destiny is glory! What is glory, Brothers and Sisters? What is it, I mean, among the sons of men? It is generally understoodto be fame, a great reputation, the sound of trumpets, the noise of applause, the sweets of approbation among the crowd andin high places. The Queen of Sheba came from afar to see the glory of Solomon. What was that glory, Brothers and Sisters?It was the glory of a rare wisdom excelling all others! It was the glory of immense riches expended upon all manner of magnificenceand splendor!

As for this last glory, the Lord says of it that a lily of the field had more of it than Solomon. At least, "Solomon in allhis glory was not arrayed like one of these." Yet that is what men mean by glory-rank, position, power, conquest- things thatmake the ears of men to tingle when they hear of them-things extraordinary and rare. All this is but a dim shadow of whatGod means by glory, yet out of the shadow we may obtain a little inkling of what the substance must be. God's people shallbe wise and even famous, for they shall "shine as the stars forever and ever." God's people shall be rich-the very streetsof their abode are paved with gold exceedingly rich and rare. God's people shall be singularly honored-there shall be an unrivalledglory about them, for they shall be known as a peculiar people, a royal priesthood, a race of beings lifted up to reveal theirMaker's Character beyond all the rest of His works.

I reckon that glory to a saint means, first of all, purified character. The brightest glory that really can come to anyoneis the glory of character. Thus God's glory among men is His goodness, His mercy, His justice, His truth. But shall such poorcreatures as we are ever have perfect characters? Yes, we shall one day be perfectly holy! God's Holy Spirit, when He hasfinished His work, will leave in us no trace of sin! No temptation shall be able to touch us! There will be in us no relicsof our past and fallen state. Oh, will not that be blessed? I was going to say it is all the glory I need-the glory of beingperfect in character, never sinning, never judging unjustly, never thinking a vain thought, never wandering away from theperfect Law of God, never vexed with sin which has so long been my worst enemy!

One day we shall be glorious because the devil, himself, will not be able to detect a fault in us-and those eyes of God whichburn like fire and read the inmost secrets of the soul will not be able to detect anything blameworthy in us! Such shall bethe character of the saints that they shall be meet to fellowship with Christ Himself! They will be fit company for that thriceHoly Being before whom angels veil their faces. This is glory!

Next, I understand by, "glory," our perfected manhood. When God made Adam, he was a far superior being to any of us. Man'splace in creation was very remarkable. The Psalmist says, "For You have made him a little lower than the angels and have crownedhim with glory and honor. You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet:all sheep and oxen, yes, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatever passes throughthe paths of the seas." No king among men in these days could rival Adam in the Gar-

den of Eden-he was, indeed, monarch of all that he surveyed, and from the lordly lion down to the tiniest insect of all, livingcreatures paid him willing homage. Can we ever rise to this last honor?

Brothers and Sisters, listen-"It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when Christ shall appear we shallbe like He, for we shall see Him as He is." Is there any limit to the growth of the mind of a man? Can we tell what he mayreach? We read of Solomon that God gave him largeness of heart as the sand of the sea! God will give to His people glory thatwill include in it more largeness of heart than Solomon ever knew! Then shall we know even as we are known by God. Now wesee, but it is, "through a glass darkly." But then we shall see "face to face." You have met with men of great intellect andyou have looked up to them, but assuredly, the smallest babe in Christ, when he shall reach Heaven, shall have a greater intellectthan the most profound philosopher who has ever astounded mankind by his discoveries!

We shall not always be as we are today, contracted and hampered because of our little knowledge, our slender faculties andour dull perceptions. Our ignorance and prejudice shall vanish. What a man will become we can scarcely tell when he is remadein the image of God, and made like unto our Divine Lord who is, "the firstborn among many brethren." Here we are but in theembryo stage-our minds are but the seeds, or the bulbs out of which shall come the flower and glory of a nobler manhood! Yourbody is to be developed into something infinitely brighter and better than the bodies of men here below. And as for the soul,we cannot guess to what an elevation it shall be raised in Christ Jesus. There is room for the largest expectation, here,as we conjecture what will be the full accomplishment of the vast intent of eternal love-an intent which has involved thesacrifice of the Only-Begotten Son of God! That can be no mean design which has been carried on at the expense of the bestthat Heaven, itself, possessed!

Further, by "glory" and, "coming to glory," I think we must understand complete victory. Dwelling in the age of the Romans,men said to themselves, as they read the Scriptures, "What does the Apostle mean by 'glory'?" And they could scarcely helpconnecting it with conquest and the return of the warrior in triumph. Men called it, "glory," in those days when valiant warriorsreturned from fields of blood with captives and spoil. Then did the heroes ride through the streets of Rome, enjoying a triumphvoted them by the senate. Then, for a while, the men of war were covered with glory and all the city was glorious becauseof them.

As Christians, we hate the word, "glory," when it is linked with wholesale murder and symbolized in garments rolled in blood.But yet there is a kind of fighting to which you and I are called, for we are soldiers of the Cross and if we fight valiantlyunder our great Captain, and rout every sin, and are found faithful even unto death-then we shall enter glory and receivethe honor which belongs to men who have fought a good fight, and have kept the faith. It will be no small glory to obtainthe crown of life which fades not away. Is not this a full glory if we only place these three things together, a purifiedcharacter, a perfected nature and a complete victory?

An invaluable ingredient in true glory is the Divine approval. "Glory" among men means approbation-it is a man's glory whenhe is honored by his Queen and she hangs a medal on his breast-or when his name is mentioned in the high court of Parliamentand he is ennobled for what he has done. If men speak of our actions with approval, it is called fame and glory. Oh, but onedrop of the approbation of God has more glory in it than a sea full of human praise! And the Lord will reward His own withthis holy favor. He will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant," and Christ, before the universe, will say, "Come, youblessed of My Father." Oh, what glory that will be! They were despised and rejected of men; they "wandered about in sheepskinsand goatskins; destitute, afflicted, tormented"-but now God approves them and they take seats among the peers of Heaven, madenoble by the approbation of the Judge of All!

This is glory with an emphasis, substantial glory! One approving glance from the eyes of Jesus; one accepting word from themouth of the Father will be glory enough for any one of us-and this we shall have if we follow the Lamb wherever He goes!But this is not all-children of God will have the glory of reflecting the glory of God. When any of God's unfallen creaturesshall wish to see the greatness of God's goodness, mercy and love, they that dwell in Heaven will point out a glorified saint.Whenever any spirit from a far off regions desires to know what is meant by faithfulness and Grace, some angel will reply,"Go and talk with those who have been redeemed from among men."

I believe that you and I will spend much of eternity in making known to principalities and powers the unsearchable richesof the Grace of God. We shall be mirrors reflecting God and in us shall His Glory be revealed. There may be myriads of racesof pure and holy beings of whom we have never heard of as yet, and these may come to the New Jerusalem as

to the great metropolis of Jehovah's universe-and when they come, there they will gaze upon the saints as the highest instancesof Divine Grace, wisdom, power and love. It will be their highest pleasure to hear how eternal mercy dealt with us unworthyones. How we shall delight to rehearse to them the fact of the Father's eternal purpose, the story of the Incarnate God-theGod that loved and died and the love of the blessed Spirit who sought us in the days of our sin, and brought us to the footof the Cross, renewing us in the spirit of our minds and making us to be sons of God!

Oh, Brothers and Sisters, this shall be our glory, that God shall shine through us to the astonishment of all! Yet I thinkglory includes somewhat more than this. In certain cases, a man's glory lies in his relationships. If any of the royal familyshould come to your houses, you would receive them with respect. Yes, and even as they went along the street they would bespied out, and passers-by would say, "That is the prince!" And they would honor the son of our good Queen. But royal descentis a poor business compared with being allied to the King of kings! Many angels are exceedingly bright, but they are onlyservants to wait upon the sons. I believe that there will be a kind of awe upon the angels at the sight of men-when they seeus in our glory, they will rejoice to know our near relation to their Lord-and to fulfill their own destiny as ministeringspirits appointed to minister to the heirs of salvation.

No pride will be possible to the perfected, but we shall then realize the exalted position to which, by our new birth, andthe Divine adoption we have been raised. "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be calledthe sons of God." Sons of God! Sons of the Lord God Almighty! Oh what glory this will be! Then there will be connected withthis the fact that we shall be connected with Jesus in everything. For do not you see, Brothers and Sisters, it was becauseof our fall that Christ came here to save men? When He worked out a perfect righteousness, it was all for us. When He died,it was all for us. And when He rose again, it was all for us!

And what is more, we lived in Christ, we died in Him, we were buried in Him and rose in Him-and we shall ascend into Heavento reign with Him! All our glory is by Christ Jesus and in all the glory of Christ Jesus we have a share. We are members ofHis body. We are one with Him. I say the creatures that God has made, when they shall come to worship in the New Jerusalem,will stand and gaze at glorified men and with bated breath will say one, to another "These are the beings whose nature theSon of God assumed! These are the chosen creatures whom the Prince of Heaven bought with His own blood." They will stand astonishedat the Divine Glory which will be manifested in beings emancipated from sin and Hell and made heirs of God, joint-heirs withJesus Christ!

Will not even angels be surprised and awed as they look on the Church and say to one another, "This is the bride, the Lamb'swife!" They will marvel how the Lord of Glory should come to this poor earth to seek a spouse and that He should enter intoeternal union with such a people! Glory, glory dwells in Immanuel's land! Now we are getting near to the center of it. I feelinclined, like Moses, to take off my shoes, for the place where we stand is holy ground, now that we are getting to see poorbushes like ourselves aglow with the indwelling God and changed from glory unto glory! And yet this is not all, for therein Heaven we shall dwell in the immediate Presence of God. We shall dwell with Him in nearest and dearest fellowship! Allthe felicity of the Most High will be our felicity. The blessedness of the Triune Jehovah shall be our blessedness foreverand ever.

Did you notice that our text says, "He has called us unto His glory"? This outshines everything-the glory which the saintswill have is the same glory which God possesses and such as He, alone, can bestow! Listen to this text-"Whom He justifiedthem He also glorified." He glorifies them! I know what it is to glorify God, and so do you, but when we poor creatures glorifyGod it is in a poor way, for we cannot add anything to Him. But what must it be for God, Himself, to glorify a man! The glorywhich you are to have forever, my dear believing Brothers and Sisters, is a glory which God Himself will put upon you!

Peter, as a Hebrew, perhaps uses a Hebraism when he says, "His glory." It may be that he means the best of glory that canbe, even as the Jews were apt to say-"The trees of God"-when they meant the greatest trees, or, "the mountains of God," whenthey intended the highest mountains. So, by the glory of God, Peter may mean the richest, fullest glory that can be. In theoriginal, the word, "glory," has about it the idea of, "weight," at which the Apostle Paul hints when he speaks of a "weightof glory." This is the only glory that has weight in it, all else is light as a feather. Take all the glories of this worldand they are outweighed by the small dust of the balance. Place them here in the hollow of my hand, all of them-a child mayblow them away as thistledown!

God's glory has weight! It is solid, true, real-and he that gets it possesses no mere name, or dream, or tinsel-he has thatwhich will abide the rust of ages and the fire of judgment. The glory of God! How shall I describe it? I must set before youa strange Scriptural picture. Mordecai must be made glorious for his fidelity to his king and singular is the honor whichhis monarch ordains for him. This was the royal order. "Let the royal apparel be brought which the king uses to wear, andthe horse that the king rides upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head: and let this apparel and horse be deliveredto the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man with whom the king delights to honor, andbring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, 'Thus shall it be done to the man whom theking delights to honor.'"

Can you not imagine the surprise of the Jew when robe and ring were put upon him, and when he found himself placed upon theking's horse? This may serve as a figure of that which will happen to us-we shall be glorified with the Glory of God! Thebest robe, the best of Heaven's array shall be appointed unto us and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever! Highestof all our glory will be the enjoyment of God Himself. He will be our exceeding joy-this bliss will swallow up every other-theblessedness of God. "The Lord is my portion," says my soul. "Whom have I in Heaven but You? And there is none upon earth thatI desire beside You." Our God shall be our glory! Yet bear with me, I have left out a word again-the text has it, "Unto Hiseternal glory." Yes, but that is the gem of the ring. The glory which God has in reserve for His chosen will never come toan end-it will stay with us and we shall stay with it forever!

It will always be glory, too. Its brightness will never become dim. We shall never be tired of it, or sated with it. Afterten thousand thousand millions of years in Heaven, our happiness shall be as fresh as when it first began! Those are no fadinglaurels which surround immortal brows. Eternal glory knows no diminution. Can you imagine a man being born at the same timethat Adam was created and living all these thousands of years as a king like Solomon, having all he could desire? His wouldseem to be a glorious life. But, if at the end of 7,000 years that man must necessarily die, what has it profited him? Hisglory is all over, now-its fires have died out in ashes.

But you and I, when we once enter Glory, shall receive what we can neither lose nor leave. Eternity! Eternity! This is thesweetness of all our future bliss! Rejoice, you saintly ones! Take your harps down from the willows, any of you who are mourning-andif you never sang before, yet sing this morning, "God has called us unto His eternal glory," and this is to be our portionworld without end!

III. I can only find time for a few words upon the concluding head, which is-WHAT INFLUENCE SHOULD ALL THIS HAVE UPON OURHEARTS? I think, first, it ought to excite desire in many here present that they might attain unto glory by Christ Jesus.Satan, when he took our blessed Lord to the top of an exceedingly high mountain, tempted Him to worship him by offering Himthe kingdoms of the world and all the glories thereof. Satan is very clever and I will, at this time, take a leaf out of hisbook. Will you not fall down and worship the Lord Jesus when He can give you the Kingdom of God and all the glory thereof,and all this, not in pretense, but in reality?

If there was any force in the temptation to worship Satan for the sake of the glory of this world, how much more reason isthere for urging you to worship the Son of God that you may obtain His salvation with eternal glory! I pray the Holy Spiritto drop a hot desire into many a poor sinner's breast, this morning, that he may cry, "If this glory is to be had, I willhave it, and I will have it in God's way, for I will believe in Jesus! I will repent, I will come to God and so obtain Hispromise."

Secondly, this ought to move us to the feeling of fear. If there is such a glory as this, let us tremble lest by any meanswe should come short of it! Oh, my dear Hearers-especially you that are my fellow members, brother Church officers and workersassociated with me-what a dreadful thing it will be if any one of us should come short of this glory! Oh, if there were noHell, it would be Hell enough to miss Heaven! What if there were no Pit that is bottomless, nor undying worm, nor unquenchablefire? It would be boundless misery to have a shadow of a fear of not reaching to God's eternal glory! Let us, therefore, passthe time of our sojourning here in fear, and let us watch unto prayer and strive to enter in at the strait gate. God grantwe may be found of Him, at last, to praise and honor!

If we are right, how this ought to move us to gratitude! Think of this-we are to enjoy "His eternal glory!" What a contrastto our deserts! Shame and everlasting contempt are our righteous due apart from Christ. If we were to receive according toour merits, we should be driven from His Presence and from the glory of His power. Verily, He has not

dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities, for, after all our transgressions, He has stillreserved us for glory, and reserved Glory for us! What love and zeal should burn in our bosoms because of this!

Last of all, it should move us to a dauntless courage. If this glory is to be had, do we not feel like the heroes in Bun-yan'spicture? Before the dreamer there stood a fair palace and he saw persons walking upon the top of it, clad in light, and singing.Around the door stood armed men to keep back those who would enter. Then a brave man came up to one who had a writer's inkhornby his side and said, "Set down my name." And straightway the warrior drew his sword and fought with all his might until hehad cut his way to the door. And then he entered and they within were heard to sing-

"Come in, come in, Eternal glory you shall win."

Will you not draw your swords this morning and fight against sin till you have overcome it? Do you not desire to win Christand to be found in Him? Oh, let us now begin to feel a passion for eternal glory and then, in the strength of the Spirit,and in the name of Jesus, let us press forward till we reach it! Even on earth we may taste enough of this glory to fill uswith delight!

The glory which I have described to you dawns on earth though it only comes to its noontide in Heaven-the glory of sanctifiedcharacter, the glory of victory over sin, the glory of relationship to God, the glory of union with Christ- these are allto be tasted in a measure here below. These glories send their beams down even to these valleys and lowlands. Oh, to enjoythem, today, and thus to have earnests and foretastes of Glory! If we have them, let us go singing on until we reach the placewhere God's eternal glory shall surround us. Amen.