man his influence.

And where high Christian love has made its home in the heart, there is an aura of goodness, purity, meekness, and wisdom surrounding it, felt, if not seen. This is the golden border round the Ark. It is a lamb-like atmosphere, which goes where the Christian goes and is ever suggestive of

heaven.

The golden circles placed round the heads of the saints by the old painters, no doubt was intended to picture this sphere of love round the celestial Christian; and could our spirit's sight be opened, we might possibly discern around those beloved ones who glowingly love the Lord, a golden atmosphere just as St. John beheld the angel with the rainbow round his head, (Rev. x. 1) and this would be the extension of the border round their ark: "a crown of righteousness and glory about them which fadeth not away."-2 Peter v. 4.

To the Ark there were rings and staves; the staves of shittim wood, and the rings of gold. The staves were the means of moving the Ark about, and represent the power of applying interior religion to all the purposes of life; the rings represent minor affections.

The Ark was the director of the whole progression of Israel. When they were to move, the Ark went before; when they were to stay, the Ark rested. So should it be with us. Where religion cannot lead us, there we should never go where it directs the way, there we should fearlessly follow.

There is no department of life which would not be blessed by a true and loving-a golden religion; there is no undertaking that is not sure to become a snare if true religious motive for it be wanting. Even our pleasures, if innocent and moderate, the relaxation of the bow that it may be more firmly strung again, though but a playful leisure, are holy too. "These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you," said our Lord, "and that your joy may be full."—John xv. 11.

Let us never forget to take the ark about with us. And whether we are in work, or rest, or play, whether in the intercourse of friendship, the serious concerns of political life, or the wide-spread engagements of commerce, still let us have the golden Ark of God with us, and all will be well.

It has been suggested, by those who hesitate about divine revelation, that the Egyptians used an ark in their sacred and symbolical worship, long before the Israelites went to Egypt, and that this, and many other portions of the ceremonials of the Jews were simply borrowed from the Egyptians.

It is true that the ancient Egyptians used an ark, true that many of their sacred observances were very similar to what was afterwards enjoined upon the Jews. True, also, that their religion in its earlier and more glorious days, was the worship of one God, the Sun of Heaven, and there is much reason to believe under the name of Jehovah or its equivalent in the Egyptian language. But what does that prove? It proves this, which, in fact, the ancient remains of all the great nations prove; and that is taught by the Word of God. That there had been a great church spreading over the then known earth having the same great truths which have always been the truths of Revelation. These great truths respecting the One God of Love, the Sun of Heaven, respecting His kingdom and the regeneration of man, they not only delighted to meditate upon, but to paint them in symbols, to express them in their temples and their statues, and hence, in India, in China, in Egypt, in Canaan, throughout Asia, and in Europe even, there are hoary remnants of these eternal truths presented in stones, in mythologies, in hieroglyphics, and the graceful fables of Greece, all beautiful and weighty when spiritually understood. Thus it was that the ark was among the Egyptians, orginally meaning the very same thing as we have shewn it to mean among the Israelites. But among the Egyptians at the time when Israel left, the truth had been perverted and degraded, the symbols had lost their meaning and been turned to idolatry. The Lord, by Moses, revealed the truth afresh, accurately arranged the sacrifices, and by divine wisdom anew unfolded that law of the Lord which converts the soul, purifies the heart, and leads the mind and life to that obedience to Him which constitutes a man; not an Israelite outwardly, but one inwardly, and makes the servant of the Lord an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile.

There were three things placed in the Ark. First, the two tables of the commandments; second, the pot of manna; and third, Aaron's rod that budded.

These three things in the Ark, represented the three things which are ever contained in the celestial heart and the celestial heaven, the Holy of holies on the small scale and on the great. First, above all and within all, are the two tables, the laws of love to God and charity to man. Next, the pot of manna, the recollection of mercies past, ever saying in the heart, Salvation has been of the Lord; hitherto the Lord hath helped us. Thirdly, Aaron's rod that budded, that is the spirit of obedience to the Lord's government; the determination to trust, in all the future progress in the regenerate life, on Him alone.

The two tables in the ark, represented the supreme government, in the affections, of the divine law; and this must ever exist to direct the whole mind in purity and order. Of the truly good man it is said, "The law of his God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide." Ps. xxxvii. 31. It will ever be his loving confession, as it is that of the angels, "Thy word have I hid within my heart, that I might not sin against thee."-Ps. cxix. 11. This law of heavenly love in the heart is not a constraint, it is what St. James calls "The perfect law of liberty."-i. 25. Outward law exercises constraint, but inward law implanted in the very centre of the affections gives perfect freedom. It disposes the whole being into harmony with the Lord, who is order itself, with heaven and all its spheres of order and beauty, and with the world around as the outbirth of the world within. The desires, hopes, wishes, determinations, thoughts, sentiments, and works of one whose delighted affections enclose the Word, like the golden Ark around the tables of law, are, in order, and the universe pours its joys around and upon him. His soul, like a multiform Eolian harp, gathers music from all the auras of heaven. Such a one is blessed in his inmost motives, blessed in his conceptions and meditations, and he is blessed in his deeds. His whole inner state is golden, and he takes it everywhere.

The pot of manna also placed in the Ark, (Ex. xvi. 33; Heb. ix. 4), has also its counterpart in the Christian's inmost heart. He never forgets the way the Lord has brought him, and the wondrous mercies which have attended him in days gone by. By the grace of God, he says, I am what I am. He has pre

served me so many times that I will never for a moment cease to trust Him. There is written on the highest mountain of my inmost love, "The Lord will provide." I have a pot of manna laid up before the Lord for all generations.

And the rod of Aaron, of the house of Levi, indicative of the government of love and wisdom in the future, for Levi in Hebrew means conjunction, while its budding, having blossoms, and bearing the fruits of the almond tree, the earliest of the fruit-bearing trees of Canaan, implies that promptitude of obedience which comes from perfect love.

All these things are contained in the inmost of a true Christian. The little heaven within him ever governed by the divine will, ever grateful for divine mercies, ever running with delight to bow to the sceptre of divine government, is a living Ark in which the Lord dwells, and fulfils His gracious promise, "There I will meet thee, and I will commune with thee."

SERMON XXVIII.

THE MERCY SEAT.

"And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubim of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubim on the two ends thereof. And the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; towards the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel."-Exodus xxv. 17-22.

The mercy seat, what a beautiful name! Who does not feel his need of mercy! The highest angels know best the unutterable. greatness, goodness, and purity of the Lord, and how much He humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven."Ps. cxiii. 6. Before him no finite being is pure. The heavens are not clean in his sight. He only is absolutely holy.—Rev. xv. 4. Whosoever, therefore, is saved, from the sublimest seraph to the poorest sinner, is so, because "the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works" (Ps. cxiv. 9); and the whole redeemed universe will ever respond to the gracious words, "O give thanks to the God of heaven, for his mercy endureth for ever."-Ps. cxxxvi. 26. There will never be any merit in any creature to purchase or to deserve salvation. Every redeeming act is of mercy; all our regeneration is of mercy; the gift of the Holy Word is of mercy; the grace of the Holy Spirit is of mercy. We are spared of mercy; we are blest of mercy; we are comforted of mercy; we are purified of mercy; and we shall be admitted to heaven at last of the purest mercy.

This grand and consolatory truth became greatly obscured by those, who, unhappily, had been taught to think the Scriptures taught that the Divine Being was in three divine persons. They attributed

what they called strict and inflexible justice to the first person. He, said they, cannot pardon without the fullest penalty of sin being paid. Except some one pays the infinite punishment incurred by sin against infinite purity, no mortal can escape everlasting perdition. The second person is represented as All-Merciful, and not only has no demand for punishment to make, but also is willing to suffer in man's stead, and thus pay in full the demands of the first. Thus, not only is the mercy of the first divine person obscured by such a system for a time, but if it were true, it would be blotted out of our idea of the divine perfections for ever. For certainly he who takes payment in full can never be said to be shewing mercy. As, according to this scheme, the first person in the Deity is paid in full for every ransomed sinner, and spares no mortal for whom He was not paid, it is difficult to see how any one with such a view can really have a clear conception of the divine mercy of the first person at all.

But this difficulty does not exist in the scriptural character of the Lord. He is one Divine Person. His nature is LOVE: His mercy is infinite. "I even I, am he," the Lord says, "that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and I will not remember thy sins."-Isa. xliii. 25. He proclaimed Himself before Moses "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty."-Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7. There was, then, a Mercy Seat under the old dispensation. There was not such an inexorable Deity as some have painted. There is a Mercy Seat now for the whole world in the Humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ; and there is a Mercy Seat in each individual soul, by which each one can approach his Saviour, and by which, and from which his Saviour will commune with him.

We might dwell upon each of these three aspects of the divine mercy suggested by the divinely appointed representation of it in the Mercy Seat; but we select the chief one as presented in the Humanity of our Lord, because a clear conception of that will enable us to understand its other applications, and because also that grand medium of our salvation is actually the Mercy Seat of the universe. God in His humanity, is "Emmanuel, God with us." "God was in Christ," (God is in Christ) "reconciling the world unto himself."-2 Cor. v. 19.

The Mercy Seat was of gold, because, as we have often shewn,