February 23

I came at the fourth watch of the night, and immediately the ship was at the land whither ye went. And when I sent you forth without purse, and scrip, and shoes, you had many anxieties and fears; but lacked ye any thing? In every want I will provide. The latest watch shall find me near. Every storm shall bring me in its bosom—Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world."

But how could this be? Did they live alway? Did they not all leave the world more than seventeen hundred years ago? He spake to them, not so much personally, as relatively and representatively. Had he intended themselves only, it would have been enough to say, I am with you alway, even to the end of life; but as he intended the Church whom he addressed in them, he says, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world. There is nothing unusual in such a mode of address. Speaking as Englishmen, we say, things have been so and so with us, ever since the Reformation or Revolution. No river has the selfsame particles of water it had a year or an hour ago; yet because it flows in the same banks, and from the same sources, we always call it by the same name. The Church of Christ is one community, and the unity is not affected by the variety of parts, or succession of time. We look backward to the days of his flesh, and say, "We beheld his glory:" we look forward to his coming again, and say, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed."

There is a world, the Lord prepare us for it! that will never terminate: but "this present world" is not only seen, but temporal—It will have an "end;" and we know it. We know not indeed when it shall take place; but we know that "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up." Then "time shall be no longer." But O delightful assurance! we know that till then, Jesus will be—must be—with his people. Yet how is the assurance to be understood? How can he be with them alway, even to the end of the world? O, say they who only counsel to cast him down from his excellency; by his word, and ordinances, and ministers. But he speaks of his own presence: and he does not say, I shall be, but I am with you. Yet it could not be as to his bodily presence: for he said, "the poor ye have always with you; but me ye have not always." "Now I am no more in the world:" and no more will he be corporeally in the world, till he shall appear a second time without sin unto salvation. It is impossible to explain these things consistently, without the admission of his divinity. It is absurd to suppose that a mere creature could be always with millions of persons at the same time. A man, an angel, cannot be in two places at the same moment. Yet, even allowing his divinity, some distinction is necessary. His omnipresence is an essential attribute by which he fills heaven and earth, and thus he is as near to the wicked as to the righteous. When his presence is spoken of in a way of privilege, it must be distinguished from a perfection of his nature, and refer to the agency of his grace, or the influence of his Spirit. So he had explained himself to his disciples: "I will give you another Comforter, that he may abide

VOL. I.