check the presumption of some, who, not in a spirit of laudable curiosity and modest research, but in a tone of petulant complaint and censure, are constantly asking, in reference to God's works of creation, Cui bono? What is the use of this or the other production in nature? Even if it never should appear that many of those productions were of any direct or immediate use to man, yet it would be somewhat too arrogant for worms like us to conclude that they have been therefore made in vain. Were it only that by their endless variety they display and glorify the skill and power of God, that would be a sufficient end of their creation, and might be improved by us to our own benefit. All God's works would praise him, if men devoutly saw, as they should, God in them all. This, too, is the final end of the dispensations of his providence ; which are all directed or overruled to the accomplishment of his righteous purposes, and the honor of his excellent name. Even the wrath of man shall in the end praise God, and then the remainder of wrath he shall restrain. His glory is the grand object, and will be the highest result, of his works of redemption. Did God give his dear Son to be incarnate in our nature? It was that we might behold in him the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. It was that he might do, not his own will, but the will of him that sent him. It was that he might be qualified to say, at the termination of his earthly course, "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." Has he bought us with a price, not of corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ? It was that we might be enabled and constrained to "glorify him in our bodies, and in our spirits, which are his." Has he predestinated, as St. Paul tells the Ephesians, all believers to the adoption of sons? It was, the same apostle informs us, "to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." Did he, "for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, quicken us together with Christ, and raise us up together, and make us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus?" The end of this also, we are assured, was "that in the ages to come he

might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Shall the Lord, at the consummation of all things, judge the world in righteousness? It is that he may be "glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe."

Thus, as all things are by him, so all things are for him. His glory is the end of all his works of nature, providence, and grace; and it ought to be the end of all our actions. "Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

These introductory observations on the title here assigned to God will, I hope, be further illustrated, while I proceed to remark on the other important particulars which my text contains. It informs us of three things which well deserve our consideration:

I. That this great and glorious Being has undertaken a business of the utmost magnitude and importance: he is engaged in the benevolent task of bringing many sons to glory.

II. The method which he has adopted for accomplishing this glorious purpose: he has appointed Jesus Christ to be the captain of our salvation, and has made him perfect through sufferings.

III. The suitableness of this method to his own character and perfections. It is a method worthy of his infinite majesty, and calculated to advance the honor of his various attributes. "It became him, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."

The discussion of these three points will serve more fully to exemplify, in the particular instance of redemption, the general assertion that for him are all things, and by him are all things. Let us consider,

I. The blessed work in which the almighty God is here said to be engaged. He has undertaken to bring many sons to glory.

From his works of creation Jehovah has long since rested.

They were finished at the close of the sixth day from their commencement. But he is now occupied in other work, not less worthy of him-that of introducing a new moral creation.

1. Glory here, as in many other parts of Scripture, denotes the enjoyments of the heavenly world; of that world where God especially dwells, and manifests the splendors of his unvailed presence. For this glory man was originally created, and created in a state of purity, which, if he had stood fast in it, would have rendered him meet for the celestial inheritance. God made him, like himself, glorious in holiness. But from this pure and happy condition Adam fell, involving his posterity in his ruin. Now, therefore, all have sinned; and, as sinners, come short of the glory of God. They have neither a title to heaven nor a fitness for it. Hence arose the necessity of a new scheme of mercy for restoring sinners to the forfeited inheritance, and bringing them to glory. This plan originated in the sovereign and unmerited love of God our Father. He pitied man in his low estate. He saw with compassion the wretched and degraded condition of his once pure and happy creature; now no longer pure, no longer happy; as to his body, deeply tainted with the poison of mortality, doomed to return to the dust from which he was taken; as to his soul, stripped of the moral image of God, in which his chief good and his highest glory had consisted. But, when all his original greatness thus lay in ruins, God determined to provide the means of restoring it. This restoration he in part effects for all penitent believers even in this life, by the renovating influences of his Spirit. But he will more perfectly accomplish the benevolent task in the future and better world, where he will bring to complete and final glory "all who fit for glory are." The children of God shall there be fully like their Lord; for they shall see him as he is. Even their vile bodies, the bodies of their humiliation, he will, in the morning of the resurrection, change and fashion like unto his glorious body; and both their bodies and their souls shall then be forever with the Lord. Thus the wise shall inherit glory. They shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. They shall dwell in

the constant and direct vision of that God of glory, in whose presence there is fullness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

2. But, in order that we may thus be brought to glory, it is essentially requisite that we should become sons. God will not, in this sense, give the children's bread to dogs-to strangers. He is a God of order, and even in his most gracious dispensations will not violate moral fitness. Now, as we are not his children by nature, it is needful that we should be made such by adoption; should, through faith, obtain pardon, and admission into his family. This is preliminary both to present holiness and to final fruition.

3. When all God's sons are brought to glory they will be many. This work of God is not only benevolent in its object -the bringing men to glory; and holy in its details-including their recovery to present sonship and holiness, as well as to final happiness; but also magnificent in its extent. God "will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." And though many resist his will, and reject his counsel, to their own eventual perdition, yet it is a revealed truth that the redeeming plan shall finally be successful to a very great and glorious extent. Many sons will be brought to glory. We can easily account for this revelation of the fact, without allowing that God so works as to destroy any man's free agency, I know it has been said that, without supposing that some are saved by an irresistible power of divine grace, there could be no security that the plans of God's mercy would not be universally defeated; and thus Christ would have died in vain. But this is a fallacy. We believe in the divine prescience, as extending even to the exercises and results of man's free agency; as forseeing with certainty, though it does not necessitate, what the conduct of every man will be with reference to the offers and provisions of grace. Had Almighty God foreseen that none would be saved on the plan revealed in the Gospel, that plan, we may fairly presume, had never been adopted. But he who sees the end from the beginning, in a way which we cannot explain or even comprehend, foreknew that the plan would be, though

not universally, yet very extensively, successful; and that many would, by accepting it, be brought to glory. The exist ence of the plan is a strong proof of its great efficiency. And he who actually foresaw the fact has added the revelation of it, to confirm our reasonable presumption, and convert it into knowledge. We now know, therefore, that God's redeeming work will be, in regard to a vast multitude, finally successful. Viewed, indeed, at any particular period, and compared with the vast bulk of mankind, Christ's flock is a little flock. The way is narrow, and the gate strait; and, as few enter in at the latter, few, of course, travel the former. Yet the collective number of God's sons is already very great. Righteous Abel was the first of the sons brought to glory; and since his decease the number has been greatly enlarged, and is every day increasing. And when, at the close of time, all the Lord's redeemed shall stand on Mount Zion; when, throughout a happy eternity, God's sons, who have come from the ends of the earth, shall all sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven-it will be seen that he has succeeded, to a great and glorious extent, in the work in which the text tells us he is engaged, and has actually brought, not a few particular favorites merely, but many, very many sons to glory. "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." (Revelation vii, 9, 10.)

II. We now come to consider the method which it has pleased God to adopt for accomplishing this great work. 1. He has appointed Jesus Christ to be the captain of our salvation.

The word here rendered "captain" (dpxnyòs) is applied to Christ in several other passages. It is used in Acts iii, 15, and v, 31, and there translated "prince." It also occurs in Hebrews xii, 2, and is there rendered "author." In the text it is translated "captain," but may, without impropriety, be