chosen from between the cherubim in the sanctuary which is above, and communes with them from the mercy-seat which is in heaven.

Endeavouring now to realise the gracious character and presence of Him that dwelleth between the cherubim, be this your united question-be this your harmonious resolve,-What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me? I shall take the cup of salvation-I shall call upon the name of the Lord-I shall pay my vows unto the Lord now, in the presence of all his people.

SERMON II.

"There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the Tabernacles of the Most High."— Ps. xlvi. 4.

THE visions of the happiness of gospel times which were vouchsafed to holy men of old, while they fix the devout contemplation of the pious by their own intrinsic interest, invite our fancy to linger amid the enchanting scenes they unfold, by the variety and aptness of the imagery employed to describe them. As the subjects of prediction were remote, and more or less obscure even to the mind's eye of the gifted seers themselves, they seek to illustrate them to us, "for whom they wrote," by exhibiting them under every pleasing form and delightful aspect, and with all that. vividness and splendour of colouring which the imagination delights to paint. In truth, brethren, the conceptions with which prophets and psalmists were inspired-conceptions so spiritual and sublime—could not have been expressed in the common phraseology of every-day life. They felt the utter inadequacy of ordinary language to do justice to the exalted themes with which their souls were swelling as if ready to burst; and, therefore, lighting up at the hallowed flame of prophecy, the torch of divine poesy, with it do they illumine the long vista of the future. Constrained

by the very nature of their office to allow their fancy a boundless range, they seize on the liveliest figures— they have recourse to the boldest metaphors—and in their search after these they almost have exhausted the world of nature around them, rich as it was in the wonders of their God.

But the prophets of Israel were not, like the poets of other countries, limited to the grand and beautiful in natural scenery, as a source of illustration and embellishment. There was ever near them—and they failed not to use it with effect-another source of poetical combinations, fresh, copious, interesting; there was ever before them another kind of imagery which was familiar to their minds, as associated with their holiest services and their dearest recollections, and which bore peculiarly on the one grand subject of their predictions, the fate and fortunes of the kingdom of the Messiah. For these men, be it observed, were not mere citizens of the world—they were natives of the beloved land; their opinions, their habits, their attachments, their very prejudices were all Jewish ; and well was it so ordered for our advantage, since this circumstance gives to their pictures a character of definiteness and individuality, and consequently of distinctness, which they would not otherwise have possessed. The nation to which they belonged was the great type of the church of Christ; and hence you find that whenever they speak of the future destinies of that church, their desires as saints, and their anticipations as prophets are beautifully and most affectingly combined with their feelings as Israelites. Do they mourn over Zion's desolations? Never are their strains more plaintive,-never is their pathos more

touching. Rapt into future times, do they exult in Zion's glories? That more than other theme kindles them into sacred ecstasy, warming them at once with all the glow of patriotism, and all the ardour of devotion.

Now, my friends, both these kinds of poetical imagery,-viz. that which is drawn from natural scenery, and that taken from the national institutions of the Jews (which national institutions were, you know, identified with their religious ordinances) both these kinds of illustration are employed in the exquisitely-beautiful passage before us, and they are employed for the wonted purpose of shadowing forth to us the happiness of the church of Christ,-a a happiness which is, in a measure, enjoyed by the church on earth-a happiness which is enjoyed to the full by the church in heaven. "There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High."

I request your attention to the successive consideration of the two chief points that are obviously embraced by the text. It contains a figurative or emblematical delineation, first, of the church of Christ,

and, secondly, of the gladness or blessedness of those who are its true members. We have here, in the first place, an emblematical representation of the church of Christ-well adapted to the comprehension of an Israelite. It is "the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High."

It is "the city of God." Do you ask, to what city is there here a primary allusion? Look at the next psalm but one-the 48th psalm, at the beginning and you have this description of it: "Great is Jehovah, and

greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King"- the very name given by our Lord Jesus to Jerusalem generally, and elsewhere applied more specially to the most important quarter of Jerusalem,-viz. that which was built on Mount Zion, and which, including the citadel on the south side, and the temple on the "sides of the north," was called "the city of Zion."

The people of every nation are commonly proud of their metropolis. It is in general the largest, wealthiest, and best built city of the country; the seat of the court and government; the centre of literature, science, and art; forming a kind of miniature representation of the whole state, that by which it is best known to foreigners, and to which they in preference resort. Viewed merely in these respects, there was no reason for being ashamed of the capital of Judea, the royal residence of the sons of David. Her romantic situation, her towers, her palaces, and other splendid edifices,—above all, the numerous buildings of her temple, rising in costly magnificence and stately grandeur from the sides of the north, were the admiration of the stranger, and the boast of every Jew. But were these its only charms for him? Was this the sole cause of his attachment- an attachment so deeprooted and tender, that, even yet, you have but to utter the magic word, "Jerusalem," to warm the frozen heart of the most degenerate outcast of Israel. No, brethren, that was not all; Jerusalem was the city of God; that was its high and honourable distinction, for glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city of