SEA ii. 19.

Everlasting Espousals.

How wondrous and varied are the figures which Jesus employs to express
the tenderness of His covenant love! My soul! thy Saviour-God hath
"married thee!" Wouldst thou know the hour of thy betrothment? Go back
into the depths of a by-past eternity, before the world was; then and
there, thine espousals were contracted: "I have loved thee with an
everlasting love." Soon shall the bridal-hour arrive, when thine absent
Lord shall come to welcome His betrothed bride into His royal palace.
"The Bridegroom tarrieth;" but see that thou dost not slumber and sleep!
Surely there is much all around demanding the girded loins and the
burning lamps. At "midnight!" (the hour when He is least expected) the
cry _may_ be--_shall_ be heard,--"Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!" My
soul! has this mystic union been formed between thee and thy Lord? Canst
thou say, in humble assurance of thine affiance in Him, "My beloved is
mine, and I am His!" If so, great, unspeakably great, are the glories
which await thee! Thy dowry, as the bride of Christ, is all that
Omnipotence can bestow, and all that a feeble creature can receive. In
the prospect of those glorious nuptials, thou needest dread no pang of
widowhood. What God has joined together, no created power can take
asunder; He betroths thee, and it is "for ever!"

"REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON
WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!"

28TH DAY.

"He is Faithful that Promised."

"This corruptible must put on incorruption."--1 COR. xv. 53.

A Joyful Resurrection.

Marvel of marvels? The sleeping ashes of the sepulchre starting at the
tones of the archangel's trumpet!--the dishonoured dust, rising a
glorified body, like its risen Lord's? At death, the soul's bliss is
perfect in kind; but this bliss is not complete in degree, until
reunited to the tabernacle it has left behind to mingle with the sods of
the valley. But tread lightly on that grave, it contains precious,
because ransomed dust! My body, as well as my spirit, was included in
the redemption price of Calvary; and "them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with Him." Oh! blessed Jubilee-day of creation, when
Christ's "dead men shall arise;"--when, together with His dead body,
they shall come; and the summons shall sound forth, "Awake, and sing, ye
that dwell in the dust!" All the joys of that resurrection morn we
cannot tell; but its chief glory we _do_ k