To be naked before God, that is enough. He is sure to see it, and the dreadful horrors of such a position far exceed any power of human imagination. You remember how St. Paul spoke of it in 2 Cor. v. 3: ‘If so be that being clothed’ (clothed, _i.e._, with the resurrection body) ‘we shall not be found naked.’ Clothed, but yet naked. Risen, but not covered. Alive with all the realities of the body, and all the faculties of the mind, memory, and conscience; but with the poor soul naked, without a claim, without an excuse, without an atonement, without a plea, without a Saviour, without any hope for all eternity of either concealment or forgiveness. The thought is too dreadful to be borne. Oh, may God in mercy grant that not one of us, and not one whom we love, may be found naked in that day! And oh! what an inexpressible joy it is for the child of God, however weak, however unworthy, however unable to cope with all the seductions of those wicked spirits, to fall back on the sure promise of his blessed Saviour: ‘They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.’ He can keep us, and we may be sure He will. Let us throw ourselves then into His hand to be clothed, to be kept, to be watched over, to be held fast, that so, preserved in Christ Jesus, and clothed in His spotless robe, we may never be found naked, but may when He comes be presented ‘faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.’ V. THE ADVENT. I trust there are many amongst us who are able to say, from the very depths of their longing hearts, ‘I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait.’ The long-expected coming of the Lord is the blessed hope on which their hearts rest in eager and earnest expectation, and they can add their unqualified ‘Amen’ to the last prayer of Scripture, ‘Even so, come, Lord Jesus.’