gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not" (Luke xiii. 33). The death of the seventy thousand men from pestilence represented the destruction in the Jewish Church of all the holy principles of interior religion from the desire of merit and spiritual pride.

The pestilence was the blast of presumptuous eagerness to rule over all in the pride of self glory stimulated by evil spirits. This scorches up all innocence, all true virtue, and begins a spiritual death that may be palliated and stayed for a time, but goes on like a fatal disease until all is ruined.

David's giving way to this represented the tainting of conscience, so that the Divine Itself in them was clouded, and in their corruption the idea of God was perverted, and they imagined that the Lord Himself favoured their presumption and designed to lift them above all other nations, and gratify their lust of glory. The misery this induced led to repentance for a time, and the plague was stayed, but only to resume its ravages after a while, until the ruin of the nation was consummated. So is it with individuals who give way to the same spirit of presumption.

The number seventy, like seven, is used when the idea of sacredness and fulness are intended to be conveyed. The seventy elders who went up Mount Horeb with Moses and Aaron, and the seventy who were sent out by the Lord to heal the sick and to preach the gospel, are instances of the use of this number to denote the Lord's operations in His Church and in the human mind by the sacred affections of interior good, by innocence, by the love of peace and the love of wisdom. On the other hand, the destruction of these principles by the lust of merit and the profanity of self-righteousness was indicated by the seventy years' captivity of Israel in Babylon, the seventy weeks mentioned in Daniel, when it is said the Messiah should be cut off, and here the destruction of the seventy thousand from Dan to Beersheba.

As the Lord is Wisdom itself and Order itself, He cannot interpose and stay the plague until the impression of the solemn warning which will lead to repentance and reformation has been made. Then Mercy interferes and the plague is stayed. The Divine Love is full of pity and tenderness while the suffering is going on, and removes it at the earliest possible moment.

Let us learn then to avoid sins, especially the sins of self-conceit, self-merit, and the lust of power, for thus only can we avoid the destruction of the interior virtues within us, and ulti mately the entire loss of our souls.

SERMON XXVII.

DAVID'S DEATH AND SOLOMON'S REIGN.

"And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.

"Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was established greatly."-1 KINGS i. 11, 12.

"CHRIST in you, the hope of glory" (Col. i. 27), said the apostle, when speaking of the governing and saving power of the Lord in the soul. And again, "God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (2 Cor. vi. 16).

The kingdom of earthly Israel was the sketch and portraiture of Israel in the soul and in the Church. Only when the Lord Jesus becomes King of kings and Lord of lords in us, can the kingdom of the soul, the little universe within, be brought into true order, real harmony, and interior peace.

This government of the Lord, however, is different at different stages of the regenerate life. It is at first the discipline of the outer man, the government of obedience, directed almost entirely to our words and actions. This is like the government of Saul. In due time our religion becomes deeper, and enters into more interior states. It is much engaged in the search for intelligence and truth. It has many conflicts, and it struggles hard for self-conquest. There are hard struggles within for purity of thought and feeling, of which the world takes no note, but which are inexpressibly real and terrible to one who desires to realize the kingdom of God. This is like the government of David. The spirit is striving against the flesh. The love of mind is increasing, and the love of the world decreasing. It is the spiritual state of man. The celestial state follows. The clashings of thought are over. The aim is only to be good, to seek peace and pursue it. In this state there is but little relish for argument; but a great

concern for love, for charity, for justice, for duty, and for rest in God. A yearning for content, for quiet, and for perfection, distinguishes this stage of the Christian life. This is represented by the government of Solomon, the peaceful king, whose name signifies peace. David's reign was a very warlike one, yet it was a very necessary one. It prepared the way for that of Solomon.

The human mind, when deep thought has been awakened, and somewhat of Divine light has penetrated, discovers a host of views, sentiments, and prejudices in itself, which need to be corrected. This entails trial, sometimes severe distress of soul. "Think not that I am come to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword" (Matt. x. 34), the Lord Jesus said; and so He ever says to the regenerating man. who makes no change, makes no improvement.

He

The period of spiritual conflict was represented by the reign of David, which it is said in the text continued forty years. Forty is used in the Word when a full state of temptation is intended to be represented. The rain that caused the flood is said to have descended forty days and forty nights. The Israelites were in the wilderness forty years. Our Lord was in the desert tempted of the devil forty days. So David's reign lasted forty years, to represent the many and varied conflicts of mind and heart, before the kingdom within is thoroughly brought under the steady government of Divine Truth. David's reign was divided into two epochs. He reigned seven years in Hebron, and thirty and three years in Jerusalem.

The seven years' reign in Hebron, the name of which signifies Friendship, represented the spiritual man as to Love to the brethren, without which we have no real inner spiritual life. It is charity within, and in act, which really gives heavenly life to the Christian. "Above all things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness" (Col. iii. 14). "By this we know that we have passed from death to life, BECAUSE WE LOVE THE BRETHREN" (1 John iii. 14). "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John xiii. 35). To come into a state of charity, of real love for the good of others, is spiritually to reign in Hebron; and to do this for seven years means to have this state of heart completed, perfected, and made thoroughly our own. The number seven indicates the sacredness and completeness of charity. The thirty and three years' reign in Jerusalem represented the advance and completion of heavenly truth in the mind. The

name Jerusalem means the sight of peace: the number three representing completeness as to truth; and eleven times three, or thirty-three, indicates completeness, nearly to the celestial state; twelve representing that which is full and complete in all respects.

That David's warlike reign would represent that part of the Christian life which is a warfare, will be easily admitted. He knows as yet but little of himself or of true religion, who does not know that, besides the conversion of a person at first by repentance to the side of religion, which takes place when he ceases to live a thoughtless, an indifferent, or an openly sinful life, there must be a conversion in thought, sentiments, and principle in the mind itself, before the soul is fitted for heaven. With a profession of religion, so far as to avoid sins which are not respectable, to observe the requirements of public worship, to read good books, and to contribute to the cause of spreading the doctrines of religion, we may often be pained to observe pride, vanity, self-seeking, covetousness, haughtiness, or impatience of temper, an unwillingness to make any effort for the good of others, a determination to do as far as possible what is just to our own honour, a concentration of the whole mind upon self, as if it was not a divine declaration which asserts, "Ye must be born again."

Yet, to fight against these inner evils, to struggle for victory over spiritual wickednesses, is what is represented to us by the whole life of David in its spiritual sense, and in its application to the individual Christian. In its grandest application, David's life and character represented the Lord Jesus as our Redeemer from the powers of darkness. For although His outward life had little appearance of violent strife until its close, yet the Gospels contain sufficient indications of terrible struggles in the spiritual world, against the powers of darkness, during His whole career, to warrant the strong language of the Psalms and the Prophets, and to show how the earthly David in his wars could be the type of the Divine David in His awful combats with, and victories over, the world's spiritual foes :

The redemption of the world, and the necessity of Jehovah

Himself coming into the world to be our Redeemer, are little understood, unless we are aware how closely the spiritual world is connected with ours, and how the two worlds act and react upon one another.

When the Church is corrupt, and a dispensation.has become dark with falsity and ignorance, souls flock by death into the inner world, and cannot enter heaven. As the evening state of mankind becomes darker, the number of dark souls in the world of spirits increases greatly, and a stupefying atmosphere presses upon human minds receiving influences from the spirit-world, indisposing them to search for truth, to examine, to discuss, to think, to progress. "Darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people." Century after century passes on, and mankind live in a fog ever denser: they grope for the wall like the blind, the night of thought deepens, the captivity of soul becomes more rigid; and although there are never wanting a few pious and noble souls who cry out against the wickedness of the age, and the blindness and the supineness of the teachers, yet one after another the lights go out, and darkness and error are over all.

"Then error reigns, and earth complains."

At the fulness of time,

There is, however, no help in man. the Lord Himself descends into the world of spirits as the Redeemer, and judges and clears that world. He pours from Himself an influx of glowing love and wisdom, which like a stream of fire opens all minds, called in Scripture opening the books. The simple good welcome and hail it as glorious truth, for which they have been waiting. The evil hate it, and resist it, but in vain. They are compelled to fly before it. The masses of those who love darkness rather than light oppose it, but are overthrown as David overthrew the Philistines, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and all the foes of Israel. Redemption is effected, and a new Church and a new era are begun. Daniel describes the operation of a judgment in the world of spirits when he says, "I beheld till the thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garments were white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool. His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued, and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened" (Dan. vii. 9, 10).