us; to praise Him with our whole being. A holy tenderness comes over us, a gush of love, a perception of ever-increasing splendour in our communion with the Lord. His face shines as the sun shining in its strength; and His garments are white as the light. The old shades are dying away, the new splendours are ever brightening. "The house of Saul is becoming weaker and weaker, the house of David waxing stronger and stronger." This dying and rising again was strongly exemplified in the case of Paul. "I die," he said, "daily." He was also rising daily. Yet, though he wrote his epistle to the Romans 25 years after his conversion, he still describes the struggle within him of two classes of feelings and sentiments, "I find then," he says, "a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. . . . So then with the (higher) mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh (the lower mind) the law of sin" (Rom. vii. 21-23). This is precisely the war between Saul and David. Four years later, when he wrote to the Philippians, we find still the same struggle not yet completed. "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. . . . Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (iv. 8-14). Here we have not only a description of the same struggle, and by struggle, progress; but also an intimation of the real cause of it. The interiors of the soul are in harmony and communion with heaven; the exterior or body of the soul, is a vile body, all tangled and disordered by sin, ugly and evil, full of "wounds and bruises and putrifying sores" (Isaiah i. 6). It is the change of this spiritual body-a change as great, or we may

even say far greater, than the change of a natural body full of disease, saturated with leprous ulcers, into a renovated and lovely form, all joyous and beautiful, radiant with health and joy, which correctly illustrates the transformation which religion has to effect. Die unto sin, live unto righteousness. Glorious words! Change priceless, unspeakably great! By little and little the defilement disappears, and by little and little the angelic nature discloses its glorious beauty. The old man dies, and dies hard. His deeds, his dreams, and his lusts, by the wonderworking power of the Lord Jesus working within us, are subdued and removed; while the new man is put on, which after God and from God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. iv. 22-24).

What, then, are the heavenly lessons we may gather from the teachings of our text concerning the long war of the house of Saul and the house of David? Are they not these? Firstly, The work of regeneration is vast, complicated, and momentous. It involves toils and triumphs, it requires faithfulness and perseverance; but the Lord is our Great Saviour and Helper; and if we are humble and obedient, He will transform us into the image of Himself. We may begin more or less suddenly, and having set out, we are on His side, and so far all safe. But only by walking on, and working steadily, do we enter into our grand inheritance thoroughly, and realize the heights and depths and blessings of the inner spiritual life. Secondly, Let us not be surprised if our progress occasionally appears slow. We know not the depth and the number of the ulcers in our spiritual being which need to be probed and healed. Through changes like the chilly days and the warm bright days of spring, through storm and sunshine, through pain and peace, the Divine work in us is achieved, and he who was blind and lame and leprous, is brought to the feet of Jesus, healed and lovely and in his right mind, a child of the King of kings, clothed with the garments of salvation. Lastly, Let us never tire, or lack faith and loving trust in the Lord Jesus. Confide in Him. He will finish His work. The fears and weaknesses of your early states, the dim gropings of your early days, and the shades of the letter of the Word, so needful to you then, may cling to you long; but the house of Saul will become weaker and weaker, and the house of David will become stronger and stronger, until He altogether reigns over you who said, "I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the Bright and the Morning Star." Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

SERMON XIX.

THE STRONGHOLD OF THE JEBUSITES AT JERUSALEM TAKEN, AND TURNED INTO THE CITY OF DAVID.

"And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land; which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither thinking, David cannot come in hither. Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion: the same is the city of David.

"And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house."-2 SAM. v. 6, 7, 8.

As soon as the conviction that there is a correspondence between the world of matter and the world of mind has been fully established in the soul, the universe around has acquired a new value, and the Word of the Lord a new and living glory. Every object is instructive as a symbol as well as a fact. The incidents of human life are tokens and illustrations of the workings of the world within us, and teem with wisdom. The changes of everyday life, the movements of the seasons, all the events which form history, reflect before the eyes of mankind important truths associated with our mental progress, and flash light from time to time over heart and home.

The historical parts of the Word are divinely arranged as illustrations of this grand principle. Of all of them we may truly say with the apostle, "Which things are an allegory" (Gal. iv. 24): and of none more clearly than of the striking circumstances related in our text: the taking of Jebus, and transforming it into the city of David. David had been king at Hebron, the chief city of the tribe of Judah, and the ancient capital of Canaan, for seven years and six months (ver. 5). He had reigned over the noblest of the tribes peacefully and happily, but the remainder of the land still rejected his sway. The Jebusites were so strongly posted, so firmly entrenched and fortified, that they treated with disdain the idea of David's being able to take possession of their city: they posted

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blind and lame men as defenders, and defied him to remove them. For seven years and a half David was not strong enough to make the attempt, but at length the time came when he could safely undertake the arduous work, and obtain the triumph reported in the words before us.

The partial conquest of Canaan represented the partial regeneration of the soul. Hebron was the ancient capital of the country; it had been the seat and centre of a former religion, and its name signified "amity" or "friendship." It was the type of that brotherly love or charity which is the very essence of religion. "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren." For a person to become spiritually-minded, and of the Lord's church at all, he must open his heart to this spirit of charity. And thus David comes to reign at Hebron. An inner state of spiritual life is developed and held sacred as a holy thing within. Sacred sentiments are experienced and enjoyed, delight in worship is felt again and again; we feel an assurance that we have the Lord's blessing, and really love the divine will and the things of heaven. This state of heart becomes matured and perfected, and thus attains to the condition signified by seven years, and capable of making further advancement, signified by the halfyear or six months.

When internal religion gets a footing in the soul, the gladdened heart hails it, welcomes it, and rejoices in it. For a while it looks but little beyond this great attainment: it knows there are conditions of family or business or social position that are not exactly what they ought to be, but these are little thought of. They are regarded as things which cannot be set right, and must be endured. They are our stronghold of the Jebusites, and we say David cannot come in hither. With some the stronghold of the Jebusites will be the fiery faults of temper, which are supposed to have been born with them, and must remain with them to their grave. With some it is a particular position in life which entails habits which religion cannot approve, and which they do not see their way to alter. By some a trade is pursued or a calling exercised which conscience condemns, but which is too lucrative to be set aside; on which they seem almost exclusively to depend, and without which, their future seems to be doubtful. These and many other phases of life, where change entails difficulties which seem to the anxious Christian to be insurmountable, are strongholds which it is thought cannot be overcome, and of which we say, "David cannot come in hither."

The Jebusites were so satisfied of the strength of their fortress, that they exhibited and paraded their weakness so far as to shew that many of their defenders were blind and lame. In ordinary cases, commanders rather make a show of strength greater than they possess, to deter and dishearten their assaillants by the appearance of great numbers or great ability in the defenders. The Jebusite troops were many of them blind and many lame, but David was challenged to get at them, and overcome them if he could. And it is said, these blind and lame were hated of David's soul. David represented the spirit of the Lord Jesus in us, disclosing our evils of various kinds, and resolutely inducing us to overcome them.

That David was a type of the Lord Jesus is very evident from the prophets, from the gospels, and from the teaching of the apostles. In Ezekiel, for instance, we read, "I will set up one shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even my servant David; He shall feed them, and He shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God; and my servant David a prince among them" (Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24). Those who regard the Lord Jesus as the One Grand Shepherd of His whole spiritual flock, will have no difficulty in accepting Him as represented here under the type of David. His Humanity is David, His interior Divinity is Jehovah, who would still be their God.

The words, "They pierced my hands and my feet;” again, "They parted my garments among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots ;" and the cry of bitter suffering on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me," are taken from the twenty-second Psalm. It is difficult to see how they could be applied to David himself, but to the Lord Jesus they are expressly applied in the Gospel, and in Him they were manifestly fulfilled. The apostle Peter quotes other Psalms, and especially a great portion of the sixteenth. After citing, among others, the words, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (hades), neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption," he says expressly, "Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He would raise up CHRIST to sit upon his throne; he, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of CHRIST, that his soul was not left in hades, neither his flesh did see corrup