creature-duties (as thus, even now, in prayer): Glorify thou

the Son of Man.

This supplication of our Lord began to be answered as soon as his body had lain the appointed time in Joseph's tomb. "He was crucified in weakness, but raised by the power of God." And, eo usque, he was glorified by the Spirit. For it is written: "He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead." True, the glory was but sparingly assumed or exhibited at first. For the Lord's resurrection-body must be shown by "infallible signs" to be the same identically with that which suffered the very same, alive again after his passion; and so, lest it should fail to be identified, the glory is at first very much restrained. No dazzling, blinding, brilliancy is emitted from his person like that of the Shekinah. when he was transfigured. Rather it was on this wise,"Handle me and see, a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have;" and again, "Reach hither thy finger;" and again, “Children, have ye any meat? Come and dine." And the conviction was complete; they identified their Lord. "And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord." Yet, evidently, fain would they have asked him after all; they would have questioned his identity had the evidence been less than overpowering but it was not, and they durst not refuse it. Yet it needed overpowering evidence; for there was some great change begun in Immanuel's person: the glory was begun. Accordingly he does not dwell with them now as he had been wont to do. It is a sudden appearance, and reappearance occasionally, and, as it would almost seem, arbitrarily and again, "he vanished out of their sight." There is singular emphasis and meaning in the language used in recording these transient glimpses which the apostles now had of Jesus. "He was seen;" simply "seen." "He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve; after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; after that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles." "He was seen," in brief and unexpected and miraculous glimpses rather than visits; enough for purposes of witness-bearing by the twelve: but transient, so much so that even Paul does not need to change the expression when he would describe his own view

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of Jesus in his heavenly glory: "Lastly, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time."

But, ere Paul thus saw the Lord, that Jesus whom he persecuted had been invested with all glory at the right hand of God. His last, his parting blessing had been given to the twelve; the cloud had received him out of their sight. The Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God-man, the Prince of Peace, had ascended, with the chariots of God, which are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels, the Lord among them, as in the holy place. "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive." Neither the eye of sense nor of imagination can follow Jesus beyond the cloud which curtained in the view of his disciples. We cannot figure to ourselves with what attire of heavenly, magnificent, majestic state the Man of Sorrows took his way to the throne of his victory' and reward. Nor, though we could, would the knowledge profit us. But we have a more sure word of prophecy, and from it we learn that as this triumphing Messiah entered the realms. of glory, he ascended through all the high ranks of heaven's holy hierarchy, he rose beyond angels and archangels, far above all principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named; until, all things being under his feet, he was received as a "priest upon his throne;"-how touching!in his office of priest, and all because he had loved us and given himself for us!-and the spirit of David beheld what David in Spirit had foretold in song, for "Jehovah said unto our Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool" (Ps. cx. 1).

It is not easy to explain in few words the nature of the glory thus communicated to Messiah. (1.) As to his human nature, it is crowned, or, more correctly, in it he is crowned with honour immeasurably beyond what is found in any or all creatures; filled with the everlasting fruition of Jehovah as its —rather, as in it, his-covenant God and head; at once glorified and blessed in the unparalleled prerogative of being constituted the wonderful and willing medium through which the living, co-operating, ever-blessed instrument through which the glory of the Godhead has its brightest shining; for in the Wordmade-flesh, in the Man that is God's fellow, there is beholden the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of

'In the face of Jesus Christ.

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grace and truth. In the face of Jesus Christ, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shines. (2.) As to his divine nature, it is glorified in the sense, that while hitherto it had been veiled and concealed from view in the likeness of sinful flesh, now its perfections and attributes begin to shine forth, no longer restrained and checked beneath the form of a servant, but in the person of One acknowledged to be Lord of all, before all, over all, and in all; no longer hidden in the garb and fashion of a man as in the days of his flesh, but rather declared the more clearly because in human flesh, and through his glorified humanity, with all of Divine glory that is in the nature of things visible, plainly brought to light, and all that is necessarily invisible revealed as it had never been before to spiritual wisdom. To the light of faith, his Divinity is glorified in that the most hidden glory of God is disclosed through the assumption, sacrifice, death, and exaltation of his human nature. His humanity, again, this human nature in such alliance with Deity, hath a glory unparalleled in honour and majesty, as being the real dwelling-place of God, and the perfection of beauty. And (3.) his entire person as Immanuel is glorified, in that as God-man he is the head of all the universe holding of Godhead, as being himself one of the persons thereof; holding of man, as he was himself the Elder Brother, made most blessed for evermore; made exceeding glad with the light of God's countenance; invested with all right to rule, and all power in heaven and earth to conduct his government; the representative of the Creator to the creature, and reciprocally of the creature to the Creator; the representative of God to man in all that God is pleased to do toward men, and of men toward God in all that man can need from God; the king of angels, prince of the kings of the earth; the fountain of all authority, and wellspring of all beneficence and grace; in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; the storehouse of all treasures and unsearchable riches of blessing and power; that we, under his kingly hand, may have protection unto eternal life; may have a safe and sacred place on the platform of God's holy universe in the person and fellowship of the Son, and out of his fulness may obtain grace for grace. On the God-man as much as now, as much as ever.

earth he was But then the

deep abasement of his humanity almost alone was visible: the unalterable, inalienable glory of his Godhead was retired from view. Now, his Divine claims are no longer in abeyance; but all in heaven and earth are called upon to honour the Son (in human nature) even as they honour the Father. His power is no more under restraint, as when on Calvary he was crucified through weakness; he wields the sceptre and holds the reins of universal sway over interests and governments which it would crush the feeble mind of man to have a moment's view of; and all in the interest and for the advancement of our salvation. His all-sufficiency is no longer voluntarily locked up from his own use, as when he was content in Gethsemane to receive strength from an angel; but in the midst of the throne he is seen to be the First, and the Last, and the Living One, with whom is the fountain of life and the fulness of being, and who feeds with endless life and faculty and holy joy the myriads that wait on his service and his throne.

All this glory of the Son of Man is given to him for the Church, in her name, or in her behalf. This revenue of majesty and honour, of strength and beauty, of shining, shielding power and grace and glory, Immanuel hath taken possession of, in his character or capacity as Head of the Church. All whom the Father hath given him are interested in this inheritance on which the Elder Brother hath entered, for they also are heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ, and they shall finally be brought to share in all that is his, that his love and belovedness, his joy and glory, may be fulfilled in them.

And it is the Spirit of the Father that hath given him all this glory. "He shall glorify me." He shall glorify me for the Church.

2. But, secondly, besides the glory now spoken of, there is also that glory which accrues to Christ in the Church. We have seen that in heaven he is personally glorified for the Church, glorified on behalf of his people. But, in addition to this, he is glorified in his people. To this also express and distinctive allusion is made in his intercessory prayer (John xvii. 10), "I am glorified in them."

There is a close, a vital relation between this department of Christ's glory and the former. Indeed this second glory is none other than the former, in its ever-varying measures,

'They are spirit and they are life.

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transmitted and communicated from the fountain-head, and now exhibited in the Church,-in believing souls as in its resting-place. 'Tis the glory in the Head revealed as grace in the members, and in them reflected back again as glory upon their living Head. It was in order that he might be thus glorified in the Church, both in heaven and earth, that he was glorified personally in heaven for the Church, in the Church's stead and name. The one is the designed and intended issue of the other. He was glorified for his people that he might be glorified in them: glorified in his saints, and herein most of all admired in all them that believe.

Now this also is a rich and fertile theme-the glory of Christ in his chosen, and only a little of it can be brought under review. You will have some idea, however, of what is meant if you bear in mind that the word of Christ dwells richly in his people, and by its effects in them through the Spirit-by whom alone, and always, Christ is in every light glorified,—it greatly promotes the glory of the Word made flesh. Within his people's souls his eternal and unchangeable word of grace has been lodged by the Spirit more or less plentifully and having, as it were, taken fire within them (for "is not my word a fire? saith the Lord"), it is burning up and consuming their dross and corruption, and refining them as silver is refined. Or, having as it were taken life (for Christ's words are spirit and they are life), it is working in them faith and penitence, and comfort, and joy, and holiness. It is no dead letter in their minds or consciences, but the word made alive, quickening and rousing their soul and all that is within them,powerful, lively, living, life-giving,-moving, purifying, acting, -the living word of Christ, traced to him, known and read of all men, in which he himself is directly glorified.

Nor is it enough to say merely that Christ's word is in his people, and that thus they are his representatives and witnesses to an ungodly world in the bodily absence of the Lord himself. Thus, no doubt, he is greatly glorified; and precisely those attributes of God, and that revelation of his glory, which the work of inanimate creation cannot embody, are seen more or less in the written word, as it lives and moves and has its being and free course, and operates and cannot be hid when it transforms the Church into the image of her