and what to live for. The Law only commanded, but Grace "teaches" and gives the ability to learn; and it

teaches us to look "for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus

Christ who gave himself for us."

If any fail to look "for that blessed hope," it is clear that they either know nothing of the Salvation which

grace brings, or that they have not learned the lessons which grace teaches.

This view of the subject lifts it completely out of the region of mere theological strife, and gives it its true

position as the Divine means for the formation of Christian character. It shows that it is quite as much a

question of piety, as it is of prophecy. And what is more, any theory or system of doctrine which has the

effect of causing those who hold it, not to look "for that blessed hope," or to "wait for God's Son from

Heaven," is thus shown to be contrary to, and subversive of, the great lesson which Grace teaches.

There are many books from which this lesson is omitted, but they are not Divine. There are many Sermons in

which you never find it, but they are neither Apostolic nor Primitive. They are the outcome of fleshly

wisdom and human learning; or the products of minds who do not believe that "all Scripture is...profitable,"

and who do not obey the injunction of our text.

Dear brethren, may we give this great subject the place it ought to occupy, in our minds, in our hearts, and

in our lives, and remember that after all it depends not so much on wisdom in the head, as on grace in the

heart. It is a heart subject. See how it is thus presented in Titus ii. 13-14 -- "Looking for that blessed hope,

and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us," &c.,

and I Thess. v. 9, 10, speaking of waking or sleeping with reference to the appearing of Jesus, the Apostle

says: "for God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for

us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with Him," and again: I Thess. i. 10, "To wait for

His Son from Heaven, who He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come."

It has been said of a vast mountain that what is transcendently great, seems constantly near. And we may

say the same of this great doctrine. Oh that this "blessed hope" may be ever great, and ever near; great in its

importance to our minds, great in its influence on our lives; and ever near in its preciousness to our hearts.