horrence of it. His worship is love and gratitude to God, for the gift of his beloved Son, and salvation through him. His prayer is the humble, sincere, unadorned confession of his weaknesses, to the searcher of hearts; and the earnest pleading of his soul for higher sanctification, for greater consistency, for greater joy and brighter hope, and for a triumphant victory over every enemy, that he may enter with joy at last into the glorious kingdom of God. So says St Paul.-" Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God. By whom also, we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." And again, "We have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father." All this freedom of access to God, has followed the visible establishment of the kingdom of our crucified Saviour, by the rending of the veil, that is to say, his flesh. The whole is a direct operation of the soul with God, a spiritual communion through the belief of the truths of the Gospel. And now, every where, and at all times, and under all eircumstances, the believing heart enjoys fellowship and communion with God, and receives continually out of the divine fulness, grace for grace. No cloud, no veil need now interpose to darken the Christian's hope. His compassionate Father and Redeemer, his unfailing friend is the God of love.

All these are results which instantly followed, in consequence of the Redeemer's death; and all of

them were intimated by the rending of the veil of the temple. It is wonderful how one small circumstance, provided for so many centuries beforehand, should so powerfully illustrate the great features of redemption; and how a small incidental circumstance, thus recorded by the evangelist, should, without the slightest attempt at a forced interpretation, convey to us such rich evangelical instruction. How exhaustless must be that mine, where the smallest fragments yield so much!

But to come to a practical conclusion from what we have heard, we should learn, first, The duty of thankfulness for the ample evidence vouchsafed to us, of the truth of the Christian system. The event recorded in the text, is one of the many incidental testimonies, on which we may rely. There is evidently a very near, though not an obvious conneetion, between the veil in the temple, and the person of the Mediator; and then, incidentally we are told, that when the Mediator died, the veil of the temple was rent. The doctrine in the Christian church is, that by "the sharpness of death, Christ hath opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers." The language of fact in the typical sanctuary was, that the way into the holiest was then made manifest. A fair mind cannot look at those two facts, without faith being confirmed; and we should be thankful that we are not left without such a wit

ness.

2dly, But we should learn thankfulness for real

spiritual privileges. How joyful to think that this atonement and reconciliation, wrought by the death of Christ, is a divine reality; and that the true Christian has access to God by faith. The separating veil of the divine displeasure is withdrawn; and heaven and earth are to real Christians one; portions of the same life ;-heaven is opened to the anticipations of faith, and earth itself a heaven begun below. Let us be truly thankful for the unspeakably rich blessing of a heavenly intercourse begun on earth. God dwells with man, and hears and answers his petition.

3dly, We should be diligent in our endeavour to realize this blessing, and to form more sensibly and manifestly, a truly devotional habit. We must not be satisfied with theoretic statements, about the possibility of drawing nigh to God, and the propriety of human prayer being efficacious with God. We must know for ourselves that it is so. We must know the accessibility of the ear of God through Christ, to the prayers of his people. We must know that "the Spirit helpeth our infirmities ;" and that "our fellowship is with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ;" and that in answer to our petitions, our God does "supply all our need out of his riches in glory by Christ Je

And then lastly, those who have been hitherto strangers to the realities of Christian worship, should see the wisdom of knowing these things for

themselves, and of feeling after the actual saving and sanctifying experience of them. Yes, brethren, you ought to know for yourselves, that the way into the holiest is opened; and that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, will hear your prayer: that if you "seek the Lord, he is near ; that if you call upon him he will be found." And let me entreat you to beware of delay, and of the hardening influence of a pertinacious unbelief. There is a fact connected with the present subject, which ought to have a powerful influence on your minds.

On the day of the Saviour's crucifixion, as the appointed priests went in their course into the holy place of the temple, at the time of the daily evening offering, think what must have been their astonishment, to see the mystic veil, on which they had long gazed with reverence, rent suddenly before their eyes, from the top to the bottom; and to see the mercy-seat standing naked and empty before them, abandoned by the divine presence, and thenceforth a useless form,-a means of worship without a God! Such an event could not but have excited the surprise of the whole priesthood, occurring as it did at the actual moment of his death, who was called the Messiah and the Son of God. Yet it produced no permanent effect. They hardened their hearts, and persisted still in denying him whom they had crucified. This should be an awful warning to the impenitent. It is possible

that you may persist in unbelief, notwithstanding your religious advantages, till your own frail body is rent by the hand of death; and the invisible world, and the throne of God in all its majesty, appear before you. But let me place this one solemn thought before you. The discovery of the reality of these things, will then come too late. That throne will be a mercy-seat no longer. God will have risen to condemn. Then the days of long-suffering will be ended, and the whole scheme of mercy, which originated in the compassion of God to your perishing soul, and which waited on you through the whole period of your life on earth, will then be ranged against you, to aggravate the severities of your condemnation.