garden "The cherubim," i. e. the symbolical figures which Moses knew to be so familiar to the mind of every Israelite.

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Of the peculiar form of the cherubim, you will find an account in the book of Ezekiel. But what is more to our purpose, is the place which, in the Mosaic economy, they occupied, and the truths they hieroglyphically set forth.

Now, on these points we have the clear and explicit testimony of Moses himself in the twenty-fifth chapter of the book of Exodus at the seventeenth and following verses. Here was God's command to him, "Thou shalt make a mercy-seat of pure gold, and thou shalt make two cherubim of gold. And the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy-seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy-seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel."

It appears from this that the cherubim were hieroglyphic figures, with the form of which Moses was already supposed to be acquainted, as objects that had previously existed; and that they were specially and peculiarly connected with the manifestation of Deity as seated on a throne of mercy. Hence it became one of the distinctive appellations or titles of Jehovah,"The God who sits between the cherubim - the

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enthroned between the cherubim." It is a title of God which we took in our mouths when we sang a little in the 80th psalm,—

"Hear, Israel's Shepherd! like a flock

Thou that dost Joseph guide;

Shine forth, [not in wrath, but in love] O Thou

that dost between

The Cherubim abide."

ago

We may safely hold, therefore, that the display of the cherubim to our first parents, after their fall and their expulsion from Eden, was a display, not so much of terrible majesty as of tender mercy. For, just as the cherubim that overshadowed the mercy-seat, under the Mosaic dispensation, were connected with the exhibition of Jehovah as the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy and truth, so the cherubim over the gate of Paradise were connected with the exhibition of the God in covenant, and who had so recently revealed his covenanted mercy in the remarkable promise, "The woman's seed shall bruise the serpent's head."

You will not think this idea so fanciful when you recollect what is said in the next chapter of this book of Genesis, verse 14, respecting the punishment of the murderer Cain. What was it that Cain himself dwelt upon as the most dreadful part of his punishment? "Behold," said he, in bewailing his sad fate," from thy face I shall be hid;" i. e. from thy gracious presence shall I be banished. And that a local habitation and a local manifestation of the Deity was intended, appears from what is added, as if in the way of explanation," Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord," as a revealed covenant God, " and dwelt in

the land of Nod, on the east of Eden;" i. e. he was constrained to remove far away from the hallowed spot where God showed himself to be gracious to sinners by shining forth upon them from between the cherubim. And hence the trembling anxiety of the wretched outcast lest any finding him should slay him, because found beyond the precincts of the sacred territory where alone mercy seemed to be revealed. And to remove that slavish dread, God was pleased to set a mark, or rather to give some sign in token to Cain, intimating that he, even he, reprobate as he now was, but penitent as he might yet become, should not, upon his repentance, be altogether excluded from mercy.

But what are we to make next of the flaming sword that turned every way?

Light and fire, say some, were also symbols of God's merciful presence; and no doubt they were, but not in connexion with a sword, which is always, in the Bible, an emblem of God's avenging justice. And therefore to this expression we attach the meaning commonly and correctly applied to it. This revolving, glittering sword was placed there to keep the way of the tree of life, lest the banished sinner should be tempted to seek salvation in the old way of obedience, and foolishly and sinfully put forth his hand to eat of the fruit, in the vain expectation of living for ever. But while this sword of fire and flame was designed to repel all unbelieving intruders, the sight of the cherubim, or rather of the God who shone from the mercyseat which the cherubim overshadowed, was intended to set forth the love and grace of a loving and gracious God to returning penitents. That God had given, as soon as man fell, (and even before he charged home

upon him his guilt,) the kind and cheering promise, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." He had established the rites of sacrifice. He walked with Enoch and Noah in the days when men began to call themselves by the name of Jehovah. And it is therefore exceedingly natural to suppose that there would be some stated place, some chosen hallowed spot, whither the pious of those times would resort to present before God their supplications and their sacrifices; and that place, in all probability, was none other than just this east end of the garden of Eden, where he had placed the cherubim and the flaming sword to keep the way of the tree of life. Now there are two different senses in which a way may be kept; it may be kept shut, or it may be kept open. The flaming sword kept this way shut up. against all who should ever seek for pardon, acceptance, or eternal happiness, by deeds of law. But the cherubim, on the other hand, kept it open, preserved it free and unobstructed to those who should believe in the promised seed-even in Him who is the way, the truth, and the life-through whom believers have access, by one Spirit, to the Father, and who is the only medium of approach to that better tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

You may see, brethren, that, in the manifestation of the cherubim and the flaming sword to our first parents on their expulsion from Eden, we have an express exhibition of the gospel of Christ, which unfolds at one and the same moment his mercy and his justice, his holiness and his grace. The mercy-seat, overshadowed by the cherubim, is, in the New Testament, called the Propitiatory. And hence this antediluvian

manifestation was just the gospel embodied-it was a preaching to the world before the flood, of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, whom God (saith the Apostle, (in reference to this very symbol,) whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness as well as his mercy for the remission of sins, that he might be just, and yet the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus. It was like Christ himself, of whom it was the symbol-the Lamb of God, for gentleness, meekness, atoning sacrifice; and the Lion of the tribe of Judah, to execute justice upon his enemies. Seen in the flaming sword, he is the just God; seen in the mildly-beaming cherubim, he is the Saviour. You may perceive, moreover, that what God placed within the believing view of the antediluvian worshippers, was substantially the same with the tabernacle which Moses made and erected in the wilderness. There, too, he placed the cherubim, the same figures which were afterwards more permanently enshrined in the temple at Jerusalem. The tabernacle and the temple both had the very same symbols now before us-the shechinah, or gracious manifestation of Jehovah from the mercy-seat. And it was there, too, established for the same purpose as at the first, viz., to intimate to fallen man the only way of access to their offended Maker. It showed them how his anger was turned away, and how, in his love and pity, he would comfort and save them; and how, on his mercy-seat, he would meet with them and admit them to holy and blissful fellowship. Nay, in some respects, this was a more excellent tabernacle than that of Moses-a more glorious temple than that of Solomon. Aud now he shines out upon his