this: Let every heavenly affection be kept in vigour until it has made a base for itself in clear thought.

Often do we find heavenly emotions rising within us, tending to virtues and excellences of inestimable worth. We are pleased and edified and blessed for a time, but we let them pass away and never give them a proper basis in clear views and welldefined convictions. Our pillars are not based on silver. Let us be careful to follow the divine plan. The Lord is said to sit

as a refiner and purifier of silver, and to purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness,—Mal. iii. 3.

Holy love is golden, thought is silvery. Let both be conjoined together and a perfection will be produced which neither

has alone.

The little golden hooks by which the Vail was attached to the pillars, will represent the minor affections by which the character is bound together. When we are truly heavenly we have little golden hooks in every direction, strengthening us by countless little ministries of good, in our own minds, and in our circle of action. One of our great poets recommends us to bind our true and tried friends to us with hooks of steel; permit me to recommend these hooks of gold,—these attachments of heavenly affections, they will be all-powerful to keep away the storm; they will not rust, and they will last for ever..

Finally, my beloved hearers, let me ask, have we yet made this Holy of holies and its Vail the dwelling-place of the Most High within our souls?

Once make a Most Holy Place by inmost adoring love for Him our Father and Saviour, our all in all, and He will meet and bless you at the Mercy Seat. "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.'

The Lord thus enthroned within, goes wherever we go, dwells wherever we dwell. In our combats He fights for us; in our sorrows gives us peace. He is our refuge and defence, a very present help in the time of trouble, and an unfailing and infinite reward. Where He is, there is light, life, joy and heaven.

Let us, then, pray that the Lord Jesus may dwell in our hearts by faith, that being rooted and grounded in love, we may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth all understanding, and to be filled with the fulness of God.

SERMON XXXIV.

THE HANGING FOR THE DOOR OF THE TENT.

"And thou shalt make a hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework. And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them."-Exodus xxvi. 36, 37.

"In my Father's house are many mansions." When we recollect the numerous differences in human character, we cannot but accept with gratitude that utterance of our merciful Lord. The man of little reflection is satisfied with thinking of the great simple distinction of the good and the bad, of heaven and hell. But those who think more deeply, see, that the Divine Creator has exhibited His infinity in the varieties of the human mimd, as well as in the variety of human faces.

Perfection consists not in sameness, but in the harmony of varied yet conforming parts. These make a grand whole, infinitely richer than could possibly exist from a repetition of similar objects. All nature is therefore a graduated scale, ever differing but ever uniting. So in God's grander kingdom of the inner spiritual world, variety must reign. There are three grand degrees, three vast kingdoms in the heavenly world; for Paul says he knew a man who was caught up into the third heaven, who heard unspeakable words, 2 Cor. xii. 2-4. There are angels of love, angels of light, and angels of obedience.

We know it is so in the Church, the Lord's heaven on earth. Its great divisions, and its varying parts are truly likened by the Apostle to a human body, which has three great portions, the head, the trunk, and the legs. "Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."-1 Cor. xii. 27. "If they were all one member where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand,

I have no need of thee; nor, again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble, are necessary."-1 Cor. xii. 19—22.

Now, as the Lord of the Church below has so constituted it, that variety in harmony makes its glory and perfection, and as here the Church in order is like one grand human body, so in the heavenly world, where all is in order, the vast and innumerable societies must to the Divine King, whose spirit fills them all with angelic excellence and angelic joy, be as one grand angel.

Thus we can see the reason why the three-fold arrangement should exist there, and there should be the heaven of heavens, and why this should be represented in the tabernacle, by the holy of holies. And thus, too, we may perceive the meaning of the holy place, where the candlestick was the most prominent object, and at the entrance to which was the hanging which we have now more particularly to consider.

The holy place represented the spiritual heaven,-the heaven of those to whom spiritual light has been the most glorious object, and who adore the Lord chiefly as the Father of lights. These are pure and blessed, but their states are not so exalted as are those who have humbled themselves to a profounder degree, and have been exalted by the Lord to regions where He is adored more tenderly as the God of unutterable love.

We are informed in the verse before the text, that in the holy place outside of the vail, the candlestick was on the side of the tabernacle towards the south, while the table of shewbread was placed on the north side.

The light was placed on the side most distinguished, the south being the sun's place when he gives his greatest light, at midday. The north, the place for the table of shewbread, represents dimness, or comparative obscurity. They, therefore, whose states are represented by the holy place, are those who prize truth and goodness, represented by the light and the bread, for all true Christians and all angels must receive both; but those who form the Lord's middle kingdom in the heavens, regard the splendours of truth as chief; the candlestick is on the south side, the bread of goodness on the north.

Nor is this holy state represented by the holy place, one of low attainment. Few, probably, at the present day attain a state so high. The crying defect of Christians at the present day is indifference to the inner truths of religion, the spirit of the Word of God. A very few things continually repeated, form the stock of religious thought both in the pulpit and among the hearers.

Adam's transgression, the death on the Cross, and our faith, form nearly all that is known by an immense number of professing Christians. They are diligent about earthly science, particularly what relates to their worldly prospects. They enter into all the minutiae of their profession or calling, dwell upon it from morning till night, are skilled in its depths and applications, read books upon the subject, and deem no labour or study too great to secure an abundance of knowledge that may be brought to bear upon the success at which they aim. But in religion they assume it must be very simple, they have not much time to attend to it; they take it for granted that the ministers know all about it, and they pay them to attend to it, and for themselves they have no taste except for their earthly possessions, or the desire of becoming great. Anything but a few simple matters from the letter of the Bible they shrink away from as mystical or spiritual; and if it is introduced to them in conversation, as speedily as possible they glide off and begin to talk about the weather, or the state of trade. The things the angels desire to look into, have no interest for them. They go to a place of worship perhaps, and conduct themselves properly during service, and notice a very few things of the most palpable character, and so satisfy slightly their religious instincts, and conclude they have done their duty and all is right. What, they think, can anybody want with more?

But this is not "hungring and thirsting after righteousness." This is not being "heavenly merchantmen, seeking goodly pearls." This is not "tasting and seeing that the Lord is good." This is not "laying up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust can corrupt." This is not labouring, agonizing, "for the meat which endureth to everlasting life." The treasures of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, are passed by with such minds as hardly worth a care, though they are the very glory of the angels of heaven.

The true disciple of the Lord is first obedient to the divine commands, as given in the letter of the Word. His struggle for a time, is to quit sin in word and deed, and exercise true repentance. For a time, he has serious difficulties in this respect: old habits which came upon him like cobwebs, he finds have the strength of chains; but he prays to the Lord, and perseveres. If he fails now and then from weakness, he rises after each fall, and being faithful he finds the truth of the divine promise, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast

down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand."---Ps. xxxvii. 23, 24. After awhile that which was hard in obedience becomes easy. He can walk in the divine commandments, and he finds that the commandments are not grievous.

The very low state of those who embrace religion simply as commands from an all-powerful God, which they must obey to obtain heaven as a reward, or to avoid the pains of everlasting punishment, is indicated by their being called hired servants.

The penitent prodigal said, "How many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare!" and so it is. The Lord bounteously supplies with blessing even the lowest of His servants-the hired servants; but those who have a purer love for heavenly things can receive more, and they enjoy more. "Open thy mouth wide, "the Lord says, "and I will fill it."Ps, lxxxiii. 10. The truths of heaven are of inestimable value for their own sake. The man who by obedience has found the religion of life become easy to him, has a new state opened within him. He pants after the water-brooks. He delights in truth for truth's sake. The Word becomes unspeakably dear to him. He regards it with wonder and delight. He finds the truth makes him free: the truth sanctifies him: the truth fills him with strength, satisfaction, and delight. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."-Is. xl. 31.

The Christian who is little concerned about truth, is always weak in faith, always inclined to complain, always in danger of being led astray. There is a lack of true manhood in the religion of such an one. "Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem," said the Lord, "and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a MAN, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the TRUTH; and I will pardon it."-Jer. v. 1. The love of truth grows as our real regeneration proceeds, and instead of needing to guard our outward walk, we feel that that part of the campaign of life has been victoriously ended. We could not sin in open breach of the commandments, the habit of a virtuous religious life has been fully established with us, and we find in doing the divine commandments there is great reward.

Now, however, our delight is in the beauty and harmony of spiritual truth. "Send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me to thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon