The soul of the believer is so perfectly redeemed that if he is called away by death, he is "absent from the body and present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:6).

His body, however, is still unredeemed. It is still the same as before his soul was saved-liable as before to pain, disease, old age, and death. Sin also remains in it as before, and he has to "keep it under" to be able to use it for the Lord.

Its day of redemption is at the return of the Lord Jesus from heaven. Then " In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we (the living) shall be changed "(i Cor. 15:52).

Then, and only then, shall the people of God possess the full redemption which His grace has provided for them. And God has in His Word kept a perfectly unobstructed view between our souls and that blessed hour. Not a single event of prophecy is put by Him between us and that hope. At any moment of the day or the night it may come. Let us not spiritually sleep, but watch. Depend upon it, everything that would be put between us and that "blessed hope " which would make us say, Some time must yet occur before our Lord's return, is in- tended by the enemy of our souls to make us go to sleep.

" Bride of the Lamb, awake ! awake !
Why sleep for sorrow now?
The hope of glory, Christ is thine-
A child of glory thou."