And then, what blessed words are these from the Lord Jesus, which we read in the book of Revelation?  ’And I will give to him that overcometh, a new name.’  A new name for him that overcometh world, flesh, and devil; that shall be our portion in the world to come.  A new name, perfect like the name of the Lord Jesus, which shall express and mean all that we are to do hereafter, and all that we have done well on earth.  A name which shall declare to us our calling and work in God’s Church triumphant, throughout all ages and worlds to come:  and yet a name which no man knoweth saving he who receiveth it.  Yes, if we may dare to guess at the meaning of those deep words, perhaps in that new name shall be recorded for each man all that went on, in the secret depths of the man’s own heart, between himself and his God, unknown and unnoticed even by the wife of his bosom.  The cup of cold water given in Christ’s name; the little private acts of love, and kindness, and self-sacrifice, of which none but God knew; the secret prayers, the secret acts of contrition, the secret hungerings and thirstings after righteousness, the secret struggles and agonies of heart, which he could not, dare not, ought not to tell to any human being.  All these, he shall find, will go to make up his character in the life to come, to determine what work he is to do for God in the world to come; as it is written, ’Be thou faithful over a few things, and I will make thee ruler over many things.’  All these, perhaps, shall be expressed and declared in that new name, the full meaning of which none will know but the man himself, because none but he knows the secret experiences and struggles which went toward the making of it; none but he and God; for God will know all, He who is the Lord and Saviour of our souls, our persons, our very selves, and can preserve them utterly to the fulness of eternal life, because He knows them thoroughly and utterly; because He judges not according to appearance, but judges righteous judgment; because He sees us not merely as we seem to others to be, not even as we seem at times to ourselves to be;—­but searches the heart, and can be touched with the feeling of its infirmities, seeing that He himself has been tempted even as we are, yet without sin; because, blessed thought!  He can pierce through the very marrow of our being, and discern the thoughts and intents of our hearts, and see what we long to be, and what we ought to be; so that we can safely and hopefully commend our spirits to His hand, day by day and hour by hour, and can trust Him to cleanse us from our secret faults, and to renew and strengthen our very selves day by day with that eternal life which He gives to all who cast themselves utterly upon Him.

SERMON V. SPONSORSHIP

1 Cor. xii. 26, 27.  Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or whether one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.  Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.