world, presenting a path of discovery continually opening before us, refulgent with the footsteps of the Messiah, and resounding with the promises of the Gospel. It is there that, in allusions to the natural Israel, we see adumbrated the fortunes of the spiritual Israel-the Christian Church; it is there the kingdom of grace, the glory of the saints, the passage of Jehovah through the wonders of his creation, travelling in the greatness of his strength, the victories of faith, the accomplishment of the promises, the doom of sinners, and the consummation of all things, are set forth with the utmost majesty of diction, vivacity of truth, and beauty and variety of allusion and comparison. It is there that, in the private life of holy David, we see personified the holier Son of David, the Lord of all things, both in heaven and earth: it is there that, in the form of allegory, we trace a continued series of prophecy in Egypt, in the wilderness, in the fortunes of the chosen people, in the fruitful Canaan, we see in figure the bondage of sin, the Christian warfare, the happiness of the redeemed. In the ritual sacrifices, the services of the law, and the offices of the priesthood, are shadowed forth the great sacrifice for all men, the spiritual temple, and "the High Priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec." In the pictures of

David's sufferings, we see the Man of Sorrows; in Solomon's magnificence, the more than mortal majesty of the King of Glory. It is there that we see depicted the Great Captain of our salvation, girding his sword upon his thigh, and surrounded with the trophies of his victorious grace; or anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, the bridegroom of his church, that comes forth to meet him, in her odoriferous vesture of gold and embroidery.

Who, when these Psalms are chanted, sung, or said, can sit or stand unconcerned, with vagrant thoughts or vacant gaze? Not the Christian gentleman; if he ever sings, he sings upon this occasion. What singer can refuse the tribute of his voice to subjects so enchanting? Only he or she whose voice has been dedicated to mischievous or unmeaning sing-sóng, or made the vehicle of senseless sound and vapid senti

ment.

SECTION XXIII.

THE SUBJECT OF THE CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN'S SABBATH CONTINUED.-GENERAL CONCLUSION.

THE Christian gentleman does nothing for display-nothing with affectation; and yet he carries to all things a sort of sacred tact, and an unconscious propriety of behaviour. His walk into church, and his walk out of it, are like his walk in life, decorous, simple, and sedate.

Full of the honesty of real meaning, his carriage comports with his situation and object; he neither courts nor shuns observation; he has a direct and professed purpose in going to church, and to that he addresses himself, without regard to the eye or comment of man; it is his commerce with eternity-his earnest negotiation with his God; his heart is in it; there is nothing foreign to it in his look or manner; neither gesticulations, nor salutations, nor whisperings, nor greetings, divide his attention; nothing disturbs the polarity of his mind. On leaving the house of prayer, he walks quietly and uncovered, till he ceases to tread on holy ground. While others are impatient to resume

their worldly topics, his thoughts still linger within the sanctuary; while others are employed in remarks on the preacher or his sermon, he tacitly examines and criticises himself; while others are satisfied, he still thirsts; while others fall back within the world's enclosures, he continues his pilgrimage onwards, with the land of rest before him; while the loose devotion of others drops from them at the church porch, his habitual religion takes faster hold upon him, with every renewed exposure; its analogies follow him into life and society; his soul, which has dressed itself before the mirror of the Gospel, still wears its white investiture, attracting the homage of gentle spirits, and forbidding the touch of unhallowed communication.

The heart of the Christian gentleman is in a tender state when he comes new from the house of God; a tenderness which becomes soreness, when he contemplates the state of things around him. Scarcely has he come into the open air, when the sound of wheels, and silly talk, and insane laughter, assails his ears; scarcely is he out of the hearing of God's awful dealings with his creatures, the records of his might, the mysteries of his grace, and the visitations of his wrath; hardly has the organ ceased, or the church-yard been crossed, when a world bursts

upon him, wherein an open indifference to all these things prevails; wherein the Sabbath is employed, as if the Lord's brief term in it had run out, and the inheritance, with a full right of disposition, had reverted to man, to devote it as interest or humour may suggest-to traffic, toil, or diversion; to the office, the counter, or the festive board; to gossiping visits; to the gathering and propagation of news; or to the fluttering tumult of parks and promenades.

From such unlovely scenes the Christian gentleman is glad to escape into the bosom of his family; happy if the domestic scene present a contrast to what he has witnessed abroad. And it generally must so do; for the wise example and admonitions of a parent have our better nature on their side; and, what is better still, the earnest of that new nature which is the great conqueror of the will and the reclaimer of our wild humanity.

The ways of God are unsearchable. A Christian is not always allowed to see the consummation of his pious wishes in respect of his children's dispositions and principles; such a case, however, is an anomaly in life, and a mystery in the divine administration. A stubborn heart is sometimes made more stubborn by caresses, and is in a manner congealed in the