the harp will I praise thee, O God my God."-Ps. xliii. 3, 4. We now, with a holier higher meaning than the dying philosopher yearningly exclaim, Light, Lord, more light. In thy light we shall see light." "With thee is the fountain of light." "Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart."

When we have reached this degree of progress, and our spiritual appetites have been fully awaked, we are prepared to feel the inestimable power and worth of TRUTH.

We come to know that by truth, our faith is formed and strengthened. By truths, we come into higher love for our Lord, and fuller regard for our neighbour. By truths, come intelligence and wisdom; and by truths regeneration is effected. By truths, we are prepared for temptations, and we conquer when we are tempted. By truths, we detect what is evil or false in our own minds, and we obtain purification. By truths, the Church exists, and by them also heaven exists: "by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made." By truths, our minds grow in order, our habits become more thoroughly those which conform to a heavenly standard. By truths, our conscience is awakened and perfected. By truths, our souls are enriched by things of beauty: we exchange the spirit of heaviness for the garments of praise; we obtain the oil of joy for mourning. By truths, the spirit itself becomes more beautiful; the eye gleams with hope, the heart is blest with confidence, and fear gives place to peace. By truths, the Word becomes more dear to us: its spirit and life open like fresh fountains from hill and valley: the birds of heaven sing for us, the flowers of paradise bloom, and the little hills rejoice on every side. By truths, death loses its terrors, and is known to be a messenger sent by our Lord to touch the shackles which bind us to earth, and while they sink away, we are led by angelic guides to a better, brighter home. By truths, we become familiar with the glories of heaven. To enter into the spiritual state in which these sacred privileges are enjoyed, is to enter into the holy place, the middle apartment of the tabernacle, where the golden candlestick is on the south or right hand, and the altar of shewbread, on the north.

How much is it to be lamented, that to a very large extent Christians are deprived of the blessings, which truths afford, by being told to be content with a simple reliance on mysterious dogmas, which they cannot understand now, but which will be made plain after death. Come to church and worship, say some, and that will be enough. Do not trouble yourself about light,

mysterious darkness is better, and so the blind lead the blind and both fall into the ditch.

The same holy place which contained the candlestick, and the altar of shewbread, contained the altar of incense; but the incense never ascended without the candlestick being first lighted. O Lord of the worlds of light, kindle in our hearts an ever increasing love of thy Truths, which are the light of heaven.

The "HANGING" at the door of the holy place, represents the principles by which we may enter into the inner state of heavenly light. The "Hanging" was made of similar material to the vail, and of similar colours with one notable exception, there was no golden thread, forming cherubim.

The Holy of holies represents the highest degree of Christianity, and the highest heaven, where love is supreme; the golden thread the symbol of this highest, this celestial love, intersected every part both within and on the vail. But the holy place representing a state and a heaven not so holy, everything else is there, but the cherubim formed of the golden thread are wanting. The fine twined linen, wrought with needlework was there, the blue, the purple and the scarlet, these things in the spiritual sense, representing the sacred principles within. They represent the same great essentials of religion which prevail in the highest heaven, but received not so much from the highest love, as from the intellect chiefly, and the heart secondarily.

The blue, beautiful and deep but somewhat cold, represents the things of the spirit of the Word, which like the vast regions of the upper sky are peaceful, lovely, and serene, but lie not near us. They are interior truths. To get them we must pierce through the clouds of the letter and realize the glory beyond. The ephod, the inner robe of the high priest was blue. Ex. xxxix. 22.* The two colours derived from red, the colour of fire, that is, the purple and the scarlet, represent the two essential affections of all religion, love to the Lord, the purple; and love to our neighbour, the scarlet. In a good sense these two colours represent heavenly virtues, in the opposite sense, vices. "Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

The " HANGING," then, was of the three colours, to teach us that the three great principles of religion, faith in the truth, love to the Lord, and love to our neighbour, are essential to all

* The fringe of the robe, to remind the Israelites of the commandments, was blue.

spiritual progress, whether we enter the spiritual or celestial states. In the one, however, we receive them from an intellectual ground, and in the other, with our highest affection.

The "Hanging" was the work of the needle, because the work of the needle represents the labours of the intellect. The subtle operation of intellectual effort, combining truths together and associating them in firm and beautiful order, is spiritual needlework. To collect, and combine, and weave together the lines of heavenly wisdom which have been given us from time to time, and make them into a beautiful system, is a spiritual work of the highest importance. When the Church is described as the king's daughter, all glorious within: with her raiment of wrought gold, it is written, "She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needle-work."-Ps. xlv. 14. The Divine Will is, that the intellect as well as the heart shall be engaged in forming the robe of righteousness. Too many neglect this spiritual weaving, and never get a heavenly robe that will truly adorn and shield them in their journey of spiritual life.

The wicked weave the spider's web.-Isa. lix. 5. They busily form their meshes and oftentimes catch the unwary in their toils. Surely, then the good should be equally diligent in making their best robes, their wedding garment for heaven, and that curtain also of heavenly truth which manifests in the blue, purple, and scarlet, the solemn religious conviction by which they live. This is to arrange them by needle-work, and thus let their spirit and their principles be seen and read of all men.

The Curtain was to be hung on five pillars, on which it should be hooked with golden hooks. The bases of these pillars were to be formed of brass.

The pillars of shittim-wood overlaid with gold represent, as we have shewn on other occasions, righteousness from the Lord Jesus Christ, its true and only source. The pillars supporting the Curtain represent the strength of full conviction, supporting what we believe to be right, with firm and steady principle, derived from the Lord. The cedar wood of shittim, formed the only wood used in the tabernacle, to teach us that all our righteousness is derived from the Glorified Humanity of our Lord. His spirit received into us makes the Church in us, and constitutes a heaven within. "If any man has not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his."-Rom. viii. 9.

The pillars were five, because that number is used to denote what is sufficient in relation to truth. The five wise virgins, and five foolish, represented all those of both characters, who had truth

sufficient for their spiritual journey. The five barley loaves by which the five thousand were fed by the Lord, had the same spiritual signification. It represented a sufficient supply of instruction and strength.

The last circumstance to which we would draw your attention is that of these pillars resting on bases of brass. We are told that the pillars which supported the vail rested on silver. Here the pillars rest, and terminate on brass.

The reason of this variety will suggest many instructive lessons if we remember the correspondence or symbolism of the metals. The gold of celestial love, the fine gold which our Lord desires we should buy of Him (Rev. iii. 18), suggests and gives rise to the bright lessons of inward truth of which silver is the corresponding figure. But the truth of the spiritual degree of the mind, represented by the holy place and its furniture, suggests and terminate sin outward goodness, represented by brass, the good of being useful to our neighbour. Because of this spiritual use of the metals the Lord said by the prophet, "For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron."-Isa. lx. 17.

Our Redeemer is always seeking to advance us higher, and to make our states fuller. He takes us upwards that we may receive heavenly gold and silver. When we are thus enriched by being inwardly united to the highest good, He then makes that good, fruitful, and full. To the gold He adjoins silver in the inner regions of the soul, and brass in the lower portion of our minds. This is represented by the bases of silver under the vail, and the bases of brass (or copper) under the Hanging.

Let us, then, in contemplating the divine representation of the Tabernacle, and in this instance of the middle region of it, the holy place, diligently and devoutly seek that a holy place for our Heavenly Father may be formed within us, and it may be a fulfilment of that preparation which was symbolized by making the Tabernacle according to the divine pattern, and a realization of the blessed promise: "If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him."-John xiv. 23.

SERMON XXXV.

THE LAVER FOR WASHING.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and feet thereat: when they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord. So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and his seed throughout their generations."-Exodus xxx. 17-21.

"Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well." Such is the call and the lesson of all true and sincere religion. So has it been in all ages. So will it be for ever. "O Jerusalem, WASH thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved." Jer. vi. 14. "If I WASH thee not thou hast no part with me." John xiii. 8. The germs of evil are in human nature everywhere. That nature has transmitted iniquity from father to child since men began to sin. These evils if not purged away by repentance and regeneration will grow and extend their influence over our whole nature and make it fiendish. Hence, the indispensable necessity of being born again of water and the spirit, under the new creating power of the Lord Jesus.

Truth is the spiritual water, which can alone wash away these defilements of the heart." Sanctify them through thy TRUTH: thy Word is truth."-John xvii. 17. "Now are ye clean through the Word that I have spoken unto you."-John xv. 3. "Seeing that ye have purified your souls in obeying the TRUTH, through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren."-1 Pet. i. 22.

The impure condition of our nature, such as we have it while unregenerated and the necessity for its change and regeneration by DIVINE TRUTH, are the cardinal points of all true religion. A resistance to this regeneration, openly or covertly, is the essence

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