The first living thoughts on the subject of religion which grow up in the soul, green and vigorous, from well-supplied heavenly knowledge, are the leaves of this tree. The leaves of the spiritual tree are charming, and they are for medicine (Rev. xxii.). The flowers, are the still higher beauties of spiritual thought; the spiritual sense of the Word affords abundance of heavenly flowers, and the fruits are all the virtues of an upright life, duties done, integrity maintained, every rightful claim of position and employment cheerfully adopted and obeyed. When religion has developed itself to become such a tree, then society flourishes in blessed security, then an individual so circumstanced will be prosperous and happy. The beasts of the field, the natural affections, the fowls of heaven, all soaring rational thoughts, will dwell under its principles, like grand boughs covering and protecting everything, and there is spiritual food for all.

But ambition is Babylonish, when it seizes these grand things, and renders them subservient to its arrogant self-seeking; substituting man and a vain-glorious hierarchy for God and true principles, seeking self-glory, self-merit, and selfish power, instead of regeneration and growth in heavenly love and wisdom. This is Babylon, and great as its influence and power may seem when it has attained its height, and enmeshed everything in its swelling pride, at the summit of its power the Divine Judge provides for its overthrow. The stroke on the bell of Providence soon sounds when blasphemy is full. So was it with Nebuchadnezzar. In the hour of his haughtiest self-inflation the fiat of judgment came. "The king spake and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have made for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty. While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; the kingdom is departed from thee" (ver. 30, 31).

When Christian Babylon attained its most audacious state of arrogancy, which had been swelling with pride for three hundred years, from the time of Hildebrand to that of Boniface VIII., whose time was almost wholly taken up with virulent quarrels for supremacy with the most powerful government of his epoch; just after he had made the most monstrous assertion of his power over kings and governments, he was seized and imprisoned by the objects of his wrath, and was so stung with the violence of his passion that he lost his reason, and died by his own violence.

It was the divine decree, hew down the tree

and cut off his branches. When Leo X. again imagined the time had come to make the grandest building in the world, as the magnificent symbol of papal greatness, then came the REFORMATION, and the strongest portions of Christendom were lost to Christian Babylon; again, the decree went forth, "Hew down the tree and cut off its branches; shake off his leaves and scatter his flower, let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from its branches."

Again, in our own time, we have seen the same preposterous claims to stop the progress of science, to arrest the diffusion of the Bible, and to claim personal infallibility for the head of Christian Babylon, but no sooner was this done than the temporal power and state for which there had been so much cursing and excommunications, and so much slaughter, was entirely lost. It was again the decree going forth, "Hew down the tree and cut off its branches; shake off his leaves, and scatter his flower." But a great system, which has been diffused through many ages and interwoven with the entire life of many kingdoms and myriads of people, cannot at one stroke be altogether destroyed and removed. It has spread, and it has lived by an accommodation to the weaknesses, the errors, the prejudices, and the barbarism of the times, and was itself a semibarbarism. It must continue, though with greatly reduced power, and only gradually die away. It has also much good, much piety, and much charity and virtue enclosed within it, though chiefly among its humbler members. For their sakes it must live on and even to some extent revive again, though with humbler claims, and purified through suffering.

Hence, we read, "Leave the stump of his roots in the earth ;" that is, let the Babylonish persuasion remain in the Church, there are vast numbers who yet cannot bear to have it altogether rooted up. Let it be made firm "with a band of iron and brass.' Iron is the symbol of the truth of the letter of the Word, and brass or copper of a good life in the external virtues of religion. This binding and strengthening by the inculcation of the duties of a pious life, is the same as Moses pronounced respecting Asher "Let Asher be blessed with children: let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deut. xxxiii. 24, 25). The shoes are of iron and brass when the rule of life is true and good. Divine Mercy watches over such, in whatever church they may be, and as their days, whether stormy or fair, cold or warm, so their

strength shall be. They shall be shod with the gospel of the preparation of peace (Eph. vi. 15). Let it be comforted "in the tender grass of the field," and be wet with the dew of heaven.

The tender grass of the field corresponds to the tender promises and comforts of religion. The obedient servant of the Lord can feed in the rich meadows of the Holy Word, and be cheered and strengthened by the tender grass of the field. The dew of heaven too will come quietly down upon such. Calm, holy meditations will diffuse peaceful wisdom throughout their minds, "their heavens will drop down dew." The Lord Himself will be a dew

to them, as He said, "I will be as a dew unto Israel, and he shall grow as the lily" (Hosea xiv. 5). They cannot have a man's heart, for that is a heart that freely learns and rationally investigates, freely weighs, and freely follows the truth. This cannot be given in Babylon, but an obedient heart can, like that of an ox that knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib (Isa. i. 3). Let this spirit of obedience be given him, until he is fully weaned from the insanities of spiritual pride, and he has learned that all power and all merit belong to the Most High, and man in himself is utter evil, and a mass of corruption. When trials and reflection have brought about this conviction, and made it lasting, their work has been accomplished, seven times will have passed over the man who has gone through this tribulation, his reason will be restored, and he will be well. All this happened to king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he sent out his decree proclaiming the result in the memorable words, “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise, and extol, and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase." All this has happened to the spiritual Babylon, which has been crushed, and then again restored, and done useful works among those portions of society who are not firm-minded enough to rise above superstition, and walk by the light of clear heavenly truth rationally understood. The Most High is ruling among the children of men, and giving the kingdom to whomsoever He will, for His will is perfect goodness, guided by perfect wisdom. Let us never forget also, that every Christian needs to guard himself against the spirit of Babylon. There are many little popes, in pulpit and in pew, who cannot bear with others or suffer their infallibility to be questioned, without bitter anger being excited. This is also the essence of Babylon. "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

SERMON LI.

BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST AND DEATH.

"Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines, might drink therein."-DAN. V. I, 2.

WHEN We attempt to realize the gorgeous and infatuated scene at Babylon, on the fatal night to which this chapter of the Divine Word relates, we cannot but be amazed at the extent to which human folly will go.

We learn from ancient historians, that the Babylonian host had been defeated by the Medes and Persians, under the virtuous Cyrus and his uncle Darius, and retreated into Babylon; by the defence of whose strong walls, and the succour of the magazines of the city, they hoped to be enabled to defy the army by which they were pursued and beleaguered

Had the people been virtuous, and the monarch a true king of men, they would probably have been secure, and ultimately victorious, but the nation had long been seduced by wealth and luxury, it was effeminate and corrupt; the king, a weak, profligate, luxurious and vain tyrant, dainty in his guilt, seeking curious modes of mocking heaven, and parading his contempt for virtue. They were thus a mass of gilded rottenness; an impious band of satyrs, dancing on a volcano. On the other hand, the armies around the city were led by chiefs, modest, sober, assiduous, skilful in war, and ready to take advantage of any negligence in the disorderly host they had driven into the city, and held in what had been intended for safety, but which had become a huge net, which they were not strong enough to defend, and from which they could not escape.

The city, as is well known, was built on the two shores of the Euphrates. The river, two hundred yards wide, flowed through the midst of it. There were immense walls along the sides of the river, with huge gates of brass, similar to the de

fences on the land sides, and so strong, that with proper care and watchfulness, no armed boats could endanger its safety. But Cyrus, who had continued the siege of the city for many months, had caused to be dug a canal, from a bend above the city to a place below, that he might divert the river, and so leave its bed fordable. All was ready, so that advantage could be taken of an approaching festival to be kept in Babylon, when the revels would be continued all night, and riotous indulgence make the defenders careless, and besotted, exposed to be attacked and surprised, and little able to resist.

All was in reality prepared for taking the city that very night; and on that very night, the debauched king bethought him of the sacred vessels, brought by his ancestor Nebuchadnezzar from the captured Jerusalem, and he conceived it would be something unusually delightful to his polluted mind, to insult the Jews, and the God of heaven, by profaning the sacred vessels.

The banquet was at its height, the music, the lights, the liberal flow of wine, the uproar of a thousand nobles, imparted a wild madness to the scene, and caused the enemy outside to `be forgotten, and even the brazen gates, the security of the city from the river, were left carelessly open, so completely had insane recklessness taken possession of monarch and people. But the end was near. No sooner had the haughty and besotted king carried out his profanity, and passed the sacred vessels, already desecrated by himself, to his princes, his wives, and his concubines, and they had also profaned them, than a mysterious hand appeared busy on the wall. The king saw it, and saw it had left a strange writing there. He felt he had gone too far, and a painful dread of something awful to come, changed his countenance, made his whole frame shake with terror, and he cried out wildly for his astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers, to be brought in to explain these dread characters. He promised great rewards to those who could read the writing, and dissipate his fears. His wise men were appealed to in vain. His nobles shared his terrors, but could

render no assistance.

The alarming reports of this terrible occurrence had filled the palace, and reached the queen-mother, who hastened to her son. She remembered the extraordinary things which had happened in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, her husband's father, in which Daniel had so worthily figured. Perhaps she was still a protectress of Daniel, and familiar with him, although it was the custom in Babylon, when a monarch died, to dismiss his wise