hour of affliction and exclusion from God's sanctuary, even the heart of the pious Da vid could reproach him with former coldness, what ought to be the feelings of many professing Christians of the present day in a similar situation? How often have they entered into the house of God without one emotion of awe or delight? How often have the souls of their fellow Christians ascended on the wings of fervent prayer to heaven, while theirs lingered cold and listless behind? How of ten has Jesus laboured, by the mouth of his servants, to recall them from their wanderings, and to bring them back to the green pastures and still waters of religion; while their minds, engaged by the frivolous vanities of earth, disregarded his entreaties? But those whom the invitations of the Saviour could not move, the frowns of heaven may awe. Then may the tabernacles of God, that before had no charms for them, appear truly amiable. Then may they long to behold them again. Happy if God grant their desire; happier still, if, when they return to his house, they return to God himself, and

do not forfeit, by renewed and redoubled ingratitude, his mercy for ever.

Reflect all of you, my friends, even the most pious and devout among you, that however much you may now love and prize the house of God, you will love and prize it much more, when, by distress or accident, you are from it debarred. Improve, therefore, the precious opportunities you now enjoy, and when, in the season of affliction, your soul burns with the desire of again beholding the amiable tabernacles of the Lord of hosts, he will hear your prayers, as he did those of his servant of old, and bring you once more to the place where his honour dwelleth.

VERSE 2. My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

In the warm and genial climes of the East, the mind and body possess a degree of delicacy and sensibility, to which we are in a great measure strangers. Their joys and their griefs are more exquisite than those of which we, in these colder regions, are susceptible. Many of you, my brethren, I doubt not, when debarred

by distress from the house of God, have longed to revisit that sacred place. But where is the man that could adopt the language of David in all its energy, and say, "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the living God."

But though the frame of our minds should not, at all times, permit us to adopt this glowing and animated language, yet the colder temperature, both of our climate and constitution, is not to be regarded as any apology for insensibility and lukewarmness in the exercises of religion. For, be it remembered, that we live under a more perfect dispensation than the Psalmist, and enjoy a much greater measure of light and of love. These superior advantages ought to have a suitable effect on our feelings, and to warm the coldest heart with corresponding emotions.

Did David, when driven from his capital by the unnatural conspiracy of Absalom, when stripped of his kingdom and crown, when obliged to fly from place to place with a few faithful adherents, and exposed to constant danger from every quarter, did he seem to forget all these

misfortunes, or at least regard them with indifference, compared to his exclusion from the courts of the Lord? If so, what shall we say of those, in the present day, who voluntarily absent themselves from the public institutions of the gospel;-of those, who, though prevented by distress from attending upon them, consider that as the least of their afflictions ;-of those, who, though they come to the house of God, take no pleasure in it, but thinking it sufficient to grace it with their bodily presence, allow their souls to wander on the mountains of vanity?

But it may be said, is not the universe the temple of God? Is not the Divine Being every where present? and did not David, on another occasion, exclaim! "Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or "whither shall I flee from thy presence? "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art "there: if I make my bed in hell, behold "thou art there: if I take the wings of "the morning, and dwell in the uttermost "parts of the sea, even there shall thy “hand lead me, and thy right hand shall "hold me.' Why then long so ardently for the courts of the Lord, when his ten

der mercies were over all? Why cry out for the living God, when he knew that he was surrounded by his presence?-This question will not be asked by those, whose sweetest communion with their Maker has been in that house, which he fills not only with his presence and glory, but with his love; in that house, where he requires his rational offspring to assemble and pour forth their feelings and their complaints before him ;-in that house, where he has promised to manifest himself in a manner that he does not to the world. This is what makes the devout soul long so ardently for the courts of God, not as if the Creator of heaven and of earth were confined to temples made with hands, but he recollects that support, that relief, that consolation he had derived under every former affliction by joining in the assembly of the saints.

He therefore considers it as his severest trial, when deprived of this precious privilege. Conscious, deeply conscious of his great unworthiness, he is apt to fear that God has not only visited him with misfortunes, but debarred him from all consolation, and refused him all sup