remember that between that majesty and a holy, severe, condemning Law, there interposes a blood-besprinkled mercy-seat, a prevailing advocacy; and that even eternal justice itself, terrible though it be in truth and purity, becomes mild and propitious in its passage through the agony of Gethsemane and the cross of Calvary. May it be given you in very gratitude to say, We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool. Arise, O Lord, into thy rest; thou and the ark of thy strength. Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy. For thy servant David's-thy Beloved's sake, turn not away the face of thine Anointed. Ps. cxxxii. 7-10.

2. Is it possible to realize communion with the Holy One in our present lapsed and miserable condition? There will I commune with thee, is the promise of his grace. Let then the children of God seek the closest intimacy with the Father of their spirits. The glorious brightness of the eternal Godhead is attempered to our enfeebled powers in the human sympathies of the man Christ Jesus. His bosom is the bosom of a friend, yea, a brother. Prov. xvii. 17. Let us cultivate acquaintance with him: try to enter into a holy community of feeling with this Man of sorrows allow his gentle hand to wipe our tears away, and look forward to that state of pure delight which the temple of the tabernacle in heaven shall realize to our hope when fully opened, and where, from the throne of his glory, one wave of unmingled blessedness shall flow over our ransomed and purified nature through innumerable years. I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever. lxi. 4. I will lodge under the shadow of the Almighty. Ps. xci. 1. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face: my

Ps.

heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Ps. xxvii. 8. The world of glory makes no difference in the gracious benignity of the Lord of glory.

All

3. Will the Lord open unto us his word, and reveal unto us the purposes of his love? Yes; he will do so, if ye will wait in meditative and prayerful expectation upon him. Ps. lxii. 5. All that was given in commandment unto Moses, was further dispensed unto Israel. which the Lord our God shall teach us, would we freely communicate unto you. 1 John i. 3. We wish your fellowship to be with us, as our fellowship is with the Father and the Son. The ministers of the Christian covenant ought indeed, as befitting their high calling of God in Christ Jesus, to serve as it were in the more immediate blaze of the Shekinah-glory: but they will not intercept or absorb that glory: we are quite willing it should stream forth to the utmost limits of the true tabernacle, and we just want you so to gaze upon its bright effulgence in the face of Jesus Christ, that you yourselves may be transformed into the same image, and thereby be ready at his appearing and his kingdom, to form the cherubim of his heavenly throne. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. Ps. xxv. 14. May that secret be unfolded to you, and that covenant be richly verified in your heart's experience!

4. And finally: Amidst the painful bereavements and separations we are often called to experience here, may we entertain a well-grounded confidence of a blessed re-union in eternity? Assuredly we may. All Israel had but one seat of mercy: God in Christ is still the sinner's friend

and the mourner's comforter. In meeting him, we meet each other in him. All the sun's bright rays of light centre in a common focus: all believers are but the several radiations of a single Saviour, and all will converge to that central Lord again. When, therefore, men depart to their long home, and the mourners go about the streets, Eccl. xii. 5, let us remember, the grave is not to be their home for ever: God has provided some better thing for us, Heb. xi. 40; and when all believing prayer, presented before the mercy-seat, shall have been granted, the throne of glory will supersede the seat of mercy, and our united joyful acclamation, in the full fruition of that blessed hope Tit. ii. 13, will be, Halleluia; for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. Rev. xix. 6, 7.

Blessed fold! no foe can enter,

And no friend departeth thence;
Jesus is their sun, their centre,

And their shield-Omnipotence.

CHAPTER III.

The Table of Shew-bread :

INGREDIENTS OF THE CAKES: THEIR PREPARATION: NUMBER: ARRANGEMENT: FRANKINCENSE: RENEWAL: ASSIGNMENT TO THE PRIESTHOOD: THE MORE ENDURING TABERNACLE AND ITS EVERLASTING BREAD.

EXODUS XXv. 30.

And thou shalt set upon the table shew-bread before me always.

THERE are various significations of the term table in holy Scripture. Of course, the natural and obvious sense is that of a frame of wood, made for domestic and social uses as when David would show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, by allowing them to eat with Solomon at the royal table. 1 Kings ii. 7. In one instance, we find the table of the Lord called an altar, and God complains by Malachi, Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar, that is, manifestly, upon the table of shew-bread. In the pride and arrogancy of a corrupt and degenerate people, they reply, Wherein have we polluted thee? and the Lord tells them, In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible. Mal. i. 7. This table was the table of the sanctuary or of the temple, and the incidental mention of the dishonour done to it, evinces

clearly the sanctity and the importance attached to it in the will and purposes of Jehovah. The same term is also synonymous with food or provision, whether for the sustentation of soul or body. Ps. lxix. 22. Prov. ix. 2. Hence, God prepares a table before us, both in Providence and grace; and with especial reference to the provisions of his sanctuary, does he say, Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. Ps. xxiii. 5. Cant. v. 1. Our blessed Lord, moreover, leads the anticipations of his disciples forward to a scene of incomparable glory and felicity under the figure of a table, and a free participation of it with himself, as he says, And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelves tribes of Israel. Luke xxii. 29, 30. What shall be the blessedness of such a state, who can conceive? or what the exalted dignity of personal and immediate communion with the Son of God, who can declare? We can only now exclaim, in the language of the holy Psalmist, Oh, how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Ps. xxxii. 19. Oh yes: for how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids. Zech. ix. 17. Blessed truly are they that are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. Rev. xix. 9. A royal pavilion, Jer. xliii. 10, with royal dainties, Gen. xlix, 20, combined with royal majesty, 1 Chron. xxix. 15, in royal apparel of blue and white, Esth. viii. 15, will not be deemed too glowing a portrayal of the blessedness reserved for a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an