The Divine Word Opened

token of the covenant which you desire, and your heavenly Father is making with you.

The Lord sets His bow in the cloud. The time of cloud is the time of serious thought. In the giddy outflow of the natural spirits all seems sunshine and joy. The heedless mind sees no unpleasant consequences, and gaiety enlivens every scene. But that will not last for ever. Seasons of reflection will come. The aching sensation that all is not right with the highest interests of the soul will force itself upon us, and happy it is when this takes place early. In the quiet of our chamber, in the loneliness of a walk of meditation, by the sick bed of a beloved friend or relative, by the bedside of death, it may be the cloud of earnest thought comes over the soul, and everything is hidden from the spirit's observation for the time but the divine whisper, What doest thou here? A glance over our past and present life reveals its empty, aimless, and hollow, it may be its vile, character. A crowd of considerations come over us: the teachings of infancy, the stored up lessons of the Word, the sweet influences of angels press upon us, inviting us to a better life then come doubts of our acceptance, depressions, selfaccusations, condemnations, fears, sorrows, the cloud deepens, but at last hope helps us to look up, heaven is opened to us, and we see the glorious rainbow which the Divine Spirit makes upon the soul. It seems to say, All who revere love, truth, and virtue, I will receive and bless. The soul responds, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. We are enabled to lay hold of the glorious promise, and to rejoice that there is a covenant between us and our God. We realize the sacred words: "I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing."-Ezek. xxxiv. 25, 26.

We must notice, that first this covenant is between the Lord and the earth, ver. 13; and next, "between every living creature of all flesh."-Ver. 15. The earth represents the natural man, and the covenant the Lord makes with the earth is dependent for being unbroken upon the natural man being made obedient to the divine commandments. Its evils must be resisted by power from the Lord. "Know, therefore, that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations."-Deut. vii. 9. The effort to keep the

commandments in the Saviour's strength will be sure to succeed. No evil is too strong for Him. No flood can do harm when this spirit is there. "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and DOETH them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock."-Matt. vii. 24, 25. The earth, or external mind, is in all of us the seat of innumerable evils. By obedience only can these evils be subdued and extirpated. The Lord, however, will do this, if we keep His sayings. "He is a faithful God, keeping the covenant of mercy and truth with them that love Him and keep His commandments." Too many overlook this covenant with the earth. They suppose the Lord has only a covenant with the heavens, the interiors of the mind. But, no, it is quite otherwise. The earth is wrong, and therefore heaven is shut up. Earth is the battle-field. There the victory or the defeat of every soul is accomplished. And one of the subtlest of errors is that which would persuade us that there is no need to trouble about the earth; God is not concerned about it. It is there where Satan's seat is. Thence must he be cast out, if the kingdom of God must come, and His will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Behold then the hallowed arch as a divine promise that all help will be given by the Divine Saviour until your whole life will be spanned by an

EVERLASTING RAINBOW.

The covenant is next said to be with every living thing of all flesh. Every living thing is every regenerated affection. From the lowest appetite, signified by the creeping things of the earth, through the thoughts-the birds, to the nobler affections, signified by the useful animals-the oxen, sheep, and lambs, all should be filled with heavenly love. "Whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we should do it all for the glory of God." And, then, there is a covenant with every living thing of all flesh: an eternal excellency runs through them, a joy of many generations.

"The rainbow bending in the sky
Bedecked with sundry hues,

Is like the seat of God on high,
And seems to tell these news."

When we look around at the world, and remember that we are in the nineteenth century of the Christian era, the reflection is but a gloomy one. We see war making its awful ravages, yet, as if the Great Saviour had not said, "Love one another." The slave-trade even pursued by men called Christians, and murdering its thousands to bind its hundreds to hopeless ill

requited toil. The great Christian communities armed to the teeth, lest each should plunge upon the other like banditti, and gorge their lust of power with pillage and massacre. The internal condition of the Christian kingdoms is equally unsatisfactory, crime rather upon the increase than otherwise. Ignorance not vigorously combated, but those who should be drying up all its marshes, and rooting out all its weeds, quarrelling about the mode of its being done, and content rather to leave the mind a waste than run the risk of not having it all done by their sect. In the great trading operations of the world how alarming are the instances of fraud! Here and there sad discoveries appal mankind, aud these are but symptoms which reveal the workings of the diseases of avarice, profligacy, and injustice underneath. Superstition still blinds its millions. Talented thousands are still content to fatten by dealing out ancient folly, as if they believed it. The faithful few, who yearn for better things, cry out, Lord, how long! The dreary prospect saddens them. The cloud comes over them, and they would be ready to fold their arms in finished despair, but they look up and see the RAINBOW. A new dispensation of religion has been revealed, which unfolds not faith alone for men to fight about, but love, truth, and virtue; like the three colours of the rainbow, to disclose new beauty and blessing for the world, and red, the colour of love, the brightest.

The ark, again, is given for human safety; but not the ark only, the rainbow appears. Principles are given and are being received here and there by minds which will introduce order for confusion, light for darkness, justice for selfishness, beauty for ashes, joy for sorrow, heaven for hell. These principles form the triple loveliness of a divine arch, that will in time span over all the nations of the earth, and encircle them in a glorious bond of brotherhood. These principles are the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven. What relation, my beloved hearer, do you bear to them? In the rainbow every drop bears its part, and is a little crystal sphere, which is a rainbow in itself, while it contributes its share to the effect of the grand arch. You are a drop,-do your part. Let love, let truth, let virtue govern you. Carry out your salvation from evil and falsehood as if the redemption of the world depended upon it. Shine by the beauty of divine principles in the circle you fill, and you will leave the world better than you found it. And you will some day look down from a higher sphere, and join your hymn with myriads more over a fully redeemed earth, while they cry with great voices filled with love, "The kingdoms of

this world have become the kingdoms of the Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever."

"Rise crowned with light, imperial Salem rise!
Exalt thy towery head, and lift thine eyes;
See, a long race thy spacious courts adorn,
See future sons and daughters yet unborn,
In crowding ranks on every side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies."

FINIS.