not to the "laying aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us?" Nevertheless, let us see to it that we do not conclude ourselves on the high road to the celestial city, just because we have some tastes and feelings to which we expect to find there the counterpart objects. We must warn you against mistaking an intellectual for a spiritual longing, the wish to enter heaven because there "we shall know even as we are known," for the wish to enter it because God himself will there be "all in all." I am sure that many a man, in whose heart is no love of the Creator and Redeemer, might pant for a state in which he shall no longer see darkly through a glass, but have full sway over universal truth. The mind may struggle for emancipation, and crave a broader field, whilst the soul is the bondslave of Satan, and has no wish to throw away her chains. Ay, it is just as easy to dress up an intellectual paradise as a carnal, and to desire the one, as well as the other, without acquiring any meetness "for the inheritance of the saints in light." The heaven of the mohammedan is full of all that can gratify the senses, and pamper the appetites. The heaven of the philosopher may be a scene in which mind is to reach all its vigor, and science all its majesty. But neither is the heaven of the christian. The heaven for which the christian longs, is the place in which God himself shall be his "strength, and his portion for ever." The knowledge, whose increase he ardently wishes, is knowledge of him who made him, and of him who redeemed him for already hath he felt that "this is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." He may indeed exult in the thought that hard things are to be explained, and dark illuminated; but only that he may find fresh cause for praising, admiring, and adoring God. He may rejoice in the assurance that a flood of splendid light will be poured alike over creation and redemption: but his great motive to exultation is, that he can say with David to his God, "in thy light shall we see light," so that the irradiation will be from Deity, and that which makes visible be that upon which all his affections are fast ened. And you are to try yourselves by this test. You are to ask yourselves whether you desire heaven because God is there, because Christ is there; whether, in short, God and Christ would be to you heaven, if there were none but these to be beheld, none but these to be enjoyed. Unless you can answer such questions in the affirmative, you may be longing for heaven, because it is a place of repose, because departed kinsfolk are there, or because man shall there be loftily endowed; but you have none of that desire which proves a title to possession. We do not say that such reasons are to have no weight: our discourse has been mainly occupied on the setting them forth. But they are to be only secondary and subordinate: they are not to be uppermost: our prime idea of heaven should be, that it is the place where God dwells, and of its happiness, that God is "all in all." But having delivered these cautions, we may again exclaim, Glorious empire, which is promised us by God! We said, in the commencement of our discourse, that we would utter no reproaches, no threatenings, but would dwell exclusively on the hopes and privileges of christians. And we are not now about to break this resolution: unless indeed it be to break it, to express great wonder, and bitter regret, that, when men might be heirs of a world in which there is no night, of which the Lord God himself is the sun, and where there are to be glorious thrones for those faithful unto death, they give their time and thought to the acquiring some perishable good, and live, for the most part, as though they had never heard of judgment and eternity. On other occasions, we often strive to move the careless amongst you by "the terrors of the Lord;" we warn them, by falling stars, and a moon "turned into blood," and a sun "black as sackcloth of hair," that they persist not in unrighteousness. And even now we gather our incentives from a stripped firmament and extinguished luminaries. We still preach to the worldlyminded through planets which have started from their courses, and a sun which has ceased to give light. And, nevertheless, it is not by a darkened, it is by a brilliantly irradiated sky, that we summon them to repentance. The bright world of which we have spoken, it may be yours. It hath been thrown open to you by that "High Priest of our profession," who entered "by his own blood," and took possession for himself and his followers. There is not one of us who may not, if he will, secure himself a throne in this everlasting kingdom. "Yet there is room." Myriads have pressed in, myriads are pressing in, but "yet there is room." Alas, what account will have to be given at the judgment, if any of us be doomed to outer darkness, in place of passing into a world where there shall be no night? What but that we wilfully closed our eyes against "the light of the glorious Gospel," not wishing to be made aware of our danger and corruption? what but that "men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil?" SERMON XII. GOD'S WAY IN THE SANCTUARY. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God ?"-Psalm 77: 13. It may be doubtful whether, in speak-was undoubtedly longing for those reing of God's way as "in the sanctua- ligious privileges from which he was ry," the Psalmist designed to express debarred, privileges only to be enjoy. more than that God's way is "in holi- ed in the temple, or tabernacle, at Jeness." We mean that it does not seem rusalem, and of which he had there ofcertain from the original, that he in- ten and thankfully partaken. But the tended to make any such reference to original is the same as in our text: we the Jewish temple, to the holy place, may suppose, therefore, that our transor the holy of holies, as you observe lators were not without warrant when in our translation. Bishop Horsley's they represented the psalmist as sayversion is, "O God, in holiness is thy ing, "Thy way is in the sanctuary,' way: what God is great like our God?" and not "Thy way is in holiness." There does not however appear to be any positive objection against the common rendering. In the 63d Psalm, composed whilst David was in the wilderness, and therefore excluded from the public ordinances of religion, you find the words, "my soul thirsteth for thee, to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary." Here it seems almost required, by the circumstances under which the psalm appears to have been written, that we should adopt the translation, "in the sanctuary." At least, there is an appositeness in this translation which there is not in any other; for the Psalmist We own that we should be sorry to have to give up the common translation, and adopt the other which we have mentioned. There are, we think, trains of very interesting and instructive thought opened by the statement that God's way is "in the sanctuary," along which we should not be led by considering only that God's way is "in holiness." At the same time it should be observed that whatever truth is presented by the latter version is included in the former, so that we can run no risk of missing the meaning of the pas sage by adopting the more ample rendering. We wish you further to re mark, that the triumphant question with which our text concludes, is undoubtedly suggested, or warranted, by the previous statement in regard of God's way. The fact that God's way is "in the sanctuary," or "in holiness," forms evidently the argument for that greatness of God, that superiority of Jehovah to every false deity, which the consequent challenge so boldly asserts. And without at all questioning that the fact of God's way being "in holiness" would well bear out the challenge, we shall perhaps see, in the sequel, that yet stronger proofs of greatness are furnished by the fact of his way being "in the sanctuary:" if so, these reasons will themselves go to the vindicating the version which we are anxious to retain. Now it would not have been right that we should have proceeded at once to discourse to you on the common translation, without premising these few critical remarks. It is very easy to lay a stress on passages of Scripture, or to assign them a meaning, which, at first sight, may seem just, but which, on closer examination, they will be found not to bear. And he who may endeavor to interpret the Bible is required to be very honest, frankly avowing the objections which may lie against his statements; and wheresoever there may be doubt as to the precise sense of the author, not presuming to speak with any thing like certainty. We have therefore candidly shown you that there is variety of opinion as to whether there be any reference in our text to the sanctuary or temple. But we have also shown you grounds on which we seem warranted in assuming that there is such a reference and we may now proceed to discourse on this assumption, without fear of being charged with attaching undue weight to a doubtful expression. Now the psalm, in which our text occurs, describes great alternations of mind, the author appearing at one time almost in despair, and then again gathering confidence from the attributes of God. Beset with difficulties and dangers, he was tempted to think himself abandoned by God, so that he pathetically exclaims," Will the Lord cast off for ever, and will he be favorable no more?" He soon however rejects with abhorrence a thought so dishonoring to God, and ascribes his entertaining it to spiritual weakness and disease. "And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High." He calls to mind what deliverances God had wrought for his people, and concludes that they were pledges of future assistance. I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember thy wonders of old." And hence he is encouraged: he feels that God's ways may be mysterious, but that they must be good; and that it was therefore as much his privilege as his duty to "wait patiently" upon him. This appears to be the feeling which he expresses in our text he has taken the retrospect of God's dealings, and now announces in one sentence their general character, a character which displays the surpassing greatness of their author. There is no reason, then, why we should make a confined application of our text: we learn, from examining the context, that the works and wonders of the Lord suggest to the Psalmist his description of God's way, and we may therefore regard that description as applying in general to all the dealings of our Maker. We have now, then, a clear subject of discourse, a general description of the ways or dealings of God, and that description furnishing evidence of God's unequalled greatness. Let it be our endeavor to establish and illustrate both the description and the evidence; in other words, let us strive to show you, in successive instances, how true it is that God's way is in the sanctuary," and what cause there is in each for exclaiming, "Who is so great a God as our God?" १९ Now we would first observe that there was a peculiar force to a Jew in this reference to the sanctuary, and in the consequent challenge as to the greatness of God. Under the legal dispensation, every divine dealing was closely connected with the temple: in the temple were the manifestations of Deity, the signs and notices of mercies with which future days were charged. There, and there only, could God be solemnly worshipped; there, and there only, might expiatory sacrifices be offered; there, and there only, were in timations of the Divine will to be sought or obtained. In the holy of holies, on the mercy-seat, overshadowed by the wings of cherubim, dwelt the perpetual token of the presence of the invisible Creator; and the breast-plate of the high priest, glowing with mystic and oracular jewelry, gave forth, in the solitudes of the tabernacle, the messages of Jehovah. Wonderful dispensation! beneath which, in spite of all its darkness, there were burning traces of the "goings forth" of God, and in spite of its shadowy and imperfect character, there were direct and open communications with Him "that inhabiteth eternity." But of all its wonders the temple might be declared the centre or seat; for seeing that God designed, in the fulness of time, to gather all things into his Son, and to set him forth as the alone source or channel of blessing, therefore did he make the temple, which typified that Son, the home of all his operations, the focus into which were condensed, and from which diverged, the various rays of his attributes and dealings. And this suggests to us the speaking for a few moments on a point of great importance, the consistency of the several parts of revelation. We take the Bible into our hands, and examine diligently its different sections, delivered in different ages to mankind. There is a mighty growth in the discoveries of God's nature and will, as time rolls on from creation to redemption; but as knowledge is increased, and brighter light thrown on the divine purposes and dealings, there is never the point at which we are brought to a pause by the manifest contradiction of one part to another. It is the wonderful property of the Bible, though its authorship is spread over a long line of centuries, that it never withdraws any truth once advanced, and never adds new without giving fresh force to the old. In reading the Bible, we always look, as it were, on the same landscape: the only difference being, as we take in more and more of its statements, that more and more of the mist is rolled away from the horizon, so that the eye includes a broader sweep of beauty. If we hold converse with patriarchs occupying the earth whilst yet in its infancy, and then listen to Moses as he legislates for Israel, to prophets throwing open the future, and to apostles as they publish the mysteries of a new dispensation, we find the discourse always bearing, with more or less distinctness, on one and the same subject: the latter speakers, if we may use such illustration, turn towards us a larger portion than the former of the illuminated hemisphere; but, as the mighty globe revolves on its axis, we feel that the oceans and lands, which come successively into view, are but constituent parts of the same glorious world. There is the discovery of new territories; but, as fast as discovered, the territories combine to make up one planet. There is the announcement of new truths; but, as fast as announced, they take their places as parts of one immutable system. Indeed there is vast difference between the Epistles of St. Paul, and the Psalms of David, or the prophecies of Isaiah. But it is the difference, as we have just said, between the landscape whilst the morning mist yet rests on half its villages and lakes, and that same range of scenery when the noontide irradiates every spire and every rivulet. It is the difference between the moon, as she turns towards us only a thin crescent of her illuminated disk, and when, in the fulness of her beauty, she walks our firmament, and scatters our night. It is no new landscape which opens on our gaze, as the town and forest emerge from the shadow, and fill up the blanks in the noble panorama. It is no new planet which comes travelling in its majesty, as the crescent swells into the circle, and the faint thread of light gives place to the rich globe of silver. And, it is no fresh system of religion which is made known to the dwellers in this creation, as the brief notices given to patriarchs expand in the institutions of the law, and under the breathings of prophecy, till at length, in the days of Christ and his apostles, they burst into magnificence, and fill a world with redemption. It is throughout the same system, a system for the rescue of humankind by the interference of a surety. And revelation has been nothing else but the gradual developement of this system, the drawing up another fold of the vail from the landscape, the adding another stripe of light to the crescent, so that the early fathers of our race, and ourselves on whom "the ends of the world are come," look on the same arrangement for human deliverance, though to them there was nothing but a clouded expanse, with here and there a prominent landmark; whilst to us, though the horizon loses itself in the far-off eternity, every object of personal interest is exhibited in beauty and distinctness. But if we may affirm this thorough consistency of the several parts of Revelation, we may speak of the Jewish temple, with all its solemnities and ceremonies, as a focus for the rays of the divine attributes and dealings; seeing that into its services must have been mystically gathered the grand truths and facts which have been successively developed, or which have yet to be disclosed. And who shall tell us the emotions with which a devout Jew must have regarded the temple, that temple towards which, if he chanced to be a wanderer in a foreign land, he was bidden to turn, whensoever he sought in prayer the God of his fathers, as though he must imagine himself canopied by its lofty architecture, before he could gain audience of his Maker? If he had sinned, he must go up to the temple, that there his guilt might be expiated by the blood of slain beasts. If he had become ceremonially defiled, he must go up to the temple, that there, through certain figurative rites, he might be restored into fellowship with God's people. If he had mercies to acknowledge, he must go up to the temple, that he might there express his gratitude in eucharistical offerings. If he needed, in some extraordinary crisis, direction from above, he must go up to the temple, that there the priest might divine for him, by the urim and thummim, the course which it was God's will that he should take. With what deep feeling, therefore, must he have confessed, "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. And would he not, moreover, as he mused on this fact, be led to the acknowledging and admiring the greatness of the Lord? We do not know, that, at any time, or under any circumstances, God has vouchsafed more striking proofs of his greatness, than whilst he governed Israel from the tabernacle as his throne. There was something so sublime in the whole system of a theocracy; the interferences of an invisible King were so awful, because, whilst the sceptre was swayed, there was apparently no hand to hold it; the sanctities of the ark, with its symbolical riches, were so consuming and so conquering, thousands perishing through a rash glance, and idols falling prostrate; that never perhaps did the Almighty give such tokens of his supremacy, as whilst, without the intervention of any chief magistrate, he guided and ruled the twelve tribes. And even when the affairs of the Israelites were administered in a more ordinary way-as was the case when our text was composed, there being then a king in Jerusalem-we may well speak of the greatness of God as singularly exhibited through all the ordinances of religion. It is here that we have need of what has been advanced on the consistency of revelation. How great was God in all those types and emblems which figured prophetically the mysteries of redemption. How great in arranging a complicated system, whose august ceremonies, and pompous rites, might serve the purpose of keeping a fickle people from being seduced by the splendid superstitions of the heathen; and nevertheless foreshow, in their minutest particulars, the simple, beautiful facts of a religion, whose temple was to be the whole world, and whose shrine every human heart. How great in preserving a knowledge of himself, whilst darkness, gross darkness, covered the nations; and in carrying on the promise and hope of a Messiah, through age after age of almost universal apostacy. How great in ordaining sacrifices which, in all their varieties, represented one and the same victim; in commanding observances so numerous and multiform that they can hardly be recounted, but which, in every tittle, had respect to the same deliverer; in gathering all that was distant into each day, and each hour, of an introductory dispensation, crowding the scene with a thousand different shadows, but all formed by light thrown on one and the same substance. And all these demonstrations, or exhibitions, of greatness, were furnished from the sanctuary: the temple was God's palace, if you |