ribing the very qualities and attributes
of faith, that he who cometh to God must _believe that He is, and that
He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him_, and saying of one
of the first and brightest examples of faith, that _he had respect
unto the recompence of reward_.

So, then, these holy dead who have died in the Lord will in that
judgment have each his reward allotted him according to his service
and according to his measure. Then the good that has been done in
secret will all come to light. All mere profession, all that has been
artificial and put on, will drop off as though it had never been; and
the real kernel of the character, the fair dealing and charity and
love of the inner soul, will be made manifest before men and angels.
Then, not even the least work done for God and for good will be
forgotten.

How such an estimate of all holy men will be or can be made and
published, utterly surpasses our present powers to imagine. We have no
faculties now whereby to deal thus truly and fairly with all men: our
organs of sense in this present state, and the minds themselves to
which those organs convey impressions, are too feeble and limited for
the effort required to apprehend all respecting all, as we shall then
apprehend it. But this need not form any difficulty in our way to
believe that such a thing shall be. The power to understand it and the
power to receive it surely do not dwell farther off from our matured
powers now, than the full powers of a grownup man from the faculties
and conceptions of a child. In all such matters, we are children now.
Think we then of the blessed dead at that day of the resurrection, as
rising sure of bliss and of their perfection in Him to whom they were
united; being as though there were no judgment, seeing that they have
One who shall answer for them at the tribunal: judged notwithstanding
before the bar of God, and passing not to condemnation, but to their
exceeding great and eternal reward.

One more thing only now is left us: to ask what we know of that last
and perfected state of man--that highest development and dignity of
our race, when body, soul, and spirit, freed from sin and sorrow,
shall reign with Christ in light.

With that question, and its answer, we hope to conclude this course of
sermons next Sunday.

IV.

WE are to speak to-day of the final state of bliss of those who have
died in the Lord. Their state of waiting has ended; the resurrection