what this is; but we are told it for our belief and blessing.

O then, let us all take heed, and watch, and strive by every means, that our body, and our flesh, and our bones, may be committed unto Him to be sanctified and salted for eternity! (St. Mark, ix. 49.)

Let us not think slightly of that one holy Ordinance, in which our bodies, as well as our spirits, partake of Him; let us not fail to consecrate ourselves by communion with Him, in that Holy Supper of which we may truly believe what He said to St. Peter on a like occasion: 'What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.'

So, by His mercy upon our true repentance of past iniquities, may the foul scars of our unconverted life be purged away, and, through our faith, may His consecrating Presence continue with us henceforth, that we may not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

To every one of us, our good Creator hath, by His providence, extended the opportunity of rising, beside Job, to a state of bliss and glory.

To-day, let us hear His voice: 'There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit."' (Rom. viii. 1.) Oh, let us follow that Spirit, even though, sometimes, we fall. Let us rise

again, by penitence and prayer, to walk more earnestly.

เ

'For, if we live after the flesh, we shall die' (though our Redeemer liveth), but if we, by the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, we shall,' indeed, live for ever, (Rom. viii. 13;) and, even here, shall rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.' (Rom. v. 2.)

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XXIII.

THE RENDING OF THE VAIL.

'And in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things. . . . And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory.-Isa. xxv. 6–8.

THE

HE mysterious writings of Isaiah (although there is a holy solemnity and beauty of images about them, enough to kindle the devotion of very simple hearers) were surely never intended to be held up before the thoughts of Christian worshippers without interpretation.

Our Church has not bidden us, in Advent. piously to heed this inspired book, with the idea that its ministers should leave the young and unlearned listening, as it were, to music, which, indeed, they could feel, but fail to understand.

From the beginning, God's Holy Spirit has both preserved these Scriptures for us, and instructed men to disclose the meaning of them; at least, so far as shall make them nourishment for souls.

The chapter which you have heard this morning, mysterious as it is, contains matter so manifestly akin to the sad, solemn feelings which we all have brought here, thanksgivings and holy promises, so exactly suited to our wants, that they seem like a gleam of mercy specially directed by God, to those who are bowing under His visitation.

And, doubtless, if, for a little while, we simply follow the revelations of this chapter, according to the ordinary methods applicable to Holy Writ, we shall meet with the very thoughts which we desire; we shall be, by God's help, in a better frame to weep with them that weep, and we shall see how Divine mercy has made provision for all humble believers, to turn, at last, that sorrow into joy. Let us, for a little space, give our minds to the unravelling of this mysterious lesson.

I will endeavour to set it before you; first, as it offered itself to any pious Jew in the days of Isaiah, and, then, as, in a more spiritual meaning, far wider but more remote from the immediate circumstances of the Prophet and his countrymen, it discloses God's great work, and the glories of our salvation, to the belief and consolation of Christians.

If

you separate the book of Isaiah into such

* This sermon was written for the 3rd Sunday in Advent, 1879.

portions as naturally seem to belong to different occasions, it would appear that, in the reign of King Ahaz, Isaiah had been inspired by God to publish a number of warnings to Judæa and several other nations (specified by name), with whom and their sins the Jewish nation was more or less concerned.

But, at the twenty-fourth chapter, he seems to quit contemplation of particular nations, and to see a fresh vision of the Divine dealings with mankind at large.

In that chapter, twenty-four, it is a terrible and gloomy picture which is first disclosed. It shows a state in which all human hopes totter and fail; no earthly refuge to be turned to, far or near; and, yet, a few chosen souls, whose courage and comfort rise in meek reliance upon their Maker. Amidst these calamities they find themselves untouched and protected: when there is nothing else, their God Jehovah still appears unchangeable and at hand.

And they are told that, if the state of the whole earth, the universal prospects of mankind, be utterly dissolved, if every other desire of man's heart should fail, and when it shall fail, in Jerusalem, on that very hill where Isaiah stood and prophesied, there should the world's Deliverer (Jehovah) again be seen.

Having uttered this promise of a Deliverer,