the atoning blood, rich, free, full, and everlasting, for our wilful violation of the precept concerning it. To be renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created us, is now therefore our gracious distinction. By and by it will be our mercy to know only good again, and so to stand once more in the immediate shinings of that tabernacle which the glory of God shall lighten, and whose central orb shall be the enthroned and glorified God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Rev. xxi. 23.

Meanwhile, let there be an earnest inquiry in all our minds, an inquiry proportionate, somewhat in intensity to our own admitted poverty, ignorance, and weakness; and also to the fulness of wisdom and blessing in that Redeemer who can supply all our need. Then, peradventure, shall our light rise in obscurity and our darkness be as the noon-day. Isa. lviii. 10. The candlestick of the tabernacle was to burn continually in the holy place, Lev. xxiv. 2: continually let us question ourselves with respect to our attainments, state, and prospects: In individuality of character, let each one ask,

1. Have I seriously and deliberately sought the illumination of my understanding in the things of God, from above?—I read, If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Prov. ii. 3-5. Do I thus cry and lift up my voice in supplication for heavenly wisdom? Am I accustomed thus to search for understanding? And is God's law really better to me than thousands of gold or silver? The blessing is annexed to the precept: Can I expect the one without a com

pliance with the other? While adventitious aids are not to be refused or contemned, is my main dependance upon the eternal Spirit, and does my heart rise in frequent right-intentioned supplication to my anointed Lord, Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord; even thy salvation, according to thy word?--O think upon thy servant as concerning thy word, wherein thou hast caused me to trust! Ps. cxix. 41, and 49.

2. Am I walking in the light and comfort of the Holy Ghost? As both a Teacher and a Comforter is the Spirit given: Does he lead me in the way everlasting, Ps. cxxxix. 24, and cheer me with tokens of good? Ps. lxxxvi. 17. While I look not for new revelations, am I disposed to receive what communications of God's will are already made? My Saviour prays that his people may be sanctified by the truth: Do I prove the power and the value of God's truth, and the real efficacy of my knowledge of it, by its sanctifying influence upon my heart and life? I am exhorted to beware how I neglect or refuse the prophetic parts of the holy Volume: Does the word of prophecy serve me as a lamp in this dark world until the day dawn and the day-star ariseth in our hearts? 2 Pet. i. 19. Am I thus illuminated from the secret place; and does my light after this heavenly and spiritual manner, at once shine before men, and glorify my Father who is in heaven? Matt. v. 16. It is written, If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light, Matt. vi. 22: while Jesus does not restrict this remark to singleness of object, but merely to singleness of vision; is my spiritual perception so clear, so pure, that I can take in in wide survey all that my heavenly Father says and promises? namely, the things that have been, the things that are, and the

things that shall hereafter be? Rev. i. 19. Do I love to dwell in the full radiancy of the seven spirits which are before the throne? Would I see the seven horns and the seven eyes in the atoning Lamb, putting forth their conjunctive and united energies in the destruction of all evil, and the complete emancipation of the true church from all that now depresses and afflicts her? And is it in my desire and will to constitute, as it were, a knop or a flower in that seven-branched candlestick which shall one day relume the world with light and glory? O let me remember, nothing but gold might enter into its material, and only holy fire might burn in its sacred lamps. Wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be? Jer. xiii. 27.

in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the pure Matt. v. 8.

3, and finally : Do I realize the constant inspection of the Son of man amidst the congregations of his people? He walks among the golden candlesticks. Is the preacher free from all unbecoming fear of his fellowmortals on the one hand, and is there no lurking latent aiming after worldly popularity on the other?-Does the hearer listen as for life, cultivating a child-like spirit before the Lord, and cherishing no needless and refined fastidiousness about voice or manner in the teacher?—If we may so say, the simplest simplicity, and the sincerest sincerity, will alone endure the eyes which are as a flame of purest and most penetrating fire. 2 Cor. i. 12. Rev. i. 14. Do we habitually recollect that all things are naked and opened unto that righteous gaze? Am I, are you, sufficiently impressed thereby ?—Oh, to be clear and unmixed in character as the light of the beaming lamps of the tabernacle, or as those blest intelligences which surround the throne of

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God and of the Lamb, emanating at once from the central point of knowledge, and reflecting back again all their light and love and praise upon their sun and centre! Let us apply unto that same source continually so shall the innumerable communications of the Spirit replenish all our desires and wants, until, filled with the Spirit, we rise into the perfect manhood of our being--know as even also we are known—and range again, in the plenitude of our primeval happiness, through a creation fully ransomed from the effects of sin, and inhered by a present and presiding Deity!

For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named: that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Now, unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,-unto him be glory in the church, by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, and world without end. Amen. Eph. iii. 14—17.

DISCOURSE V.

THE VAIL.

EXODUS XXvi. 31-33.

And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made. And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim-wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold upon the four sockets of silver. And thou shalt hang up the vail under the four taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.

VAILS or draperies for the face and figure obtain very early mention in sacred Scripture. They would seem to have been peculiarly characteristic of the costume of the East, and were often formed of costly and beautiful material. Thus, Abimelech presented Abraham a thousand pieces of silver, wherewith to furnish a covering for Sarah's eyes, in order to conceal her beauty from the gaze of strangers. Gen. xx. 16. The vail was also indicative of female modesty, and the submission of the wife to her betrothed husband, as in the case of Rebekah concealing herself therewith when she alighted from off the camel to meet Isaac in the plains