plished, this mediatorial form of government shall cease and determine. Having cleared up this subject, let me now observe that we can trace the goings of the Redeemer in almost every event in the old economy. He meets with Abraham beneath the shadow of the oaks of Mamre; he descends in mystic flames into the bush, and speaks to Moses at the base of Horeb. Amid pealing thunder and flashing lightning he comes down upon the peak of Sinai to reveal his law in the form of a written code and ritual service. The emblem of his presence was seen surroundin g the sacred altar, when he descended to taste the sweet odour of the first sacrifice offered in the Jewish temple. Ages rolled over ages, and one generation after another passed away. Poets who sat on Mount Zion, who drank the dew on Hermon, and beheld the excelency Car mel, sang of the peace and giory of his reign. Inspired prophets foretold his coming and greatness. Types and sacrifices kept the image of his sufferings constantly before the Church. At length he appeared as a man among men, to redeem men "from the curse of the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." On earth he lived purely, freely, lovingly, and actively. În heaven he ever lives that he may intercede for us, -that he may gather the incense of the praying Church,-that he may scatter the blessings of the reign of grace,that he may conduct his people home to God; he lives, and he must live till he has put all his enemies under his feet. I know that my Redeemer is the living one. Again: He regarded him as a victorious Redeemer. The situation in which the patriarch saw the Redeemer was one of victory and glory: "I know that my Redeemer liveth; and that he shall arise in judgment at the last day, and shall stand upon the earth after it has been changed and refined by the conflagration. The commentary of the pious and celebrated Henry on these words is lucid and striking: "There will be a latter or last day when time shall be no more. Our Redeemer will at that day stand upon the earth or over the earth to summon the dead out of the grave, and to determine them to an unchangeable statefor to him all judgment is committed. He will stand at the last on the dust to which the earth shall be reduced by the conflagration." Thus shall the friend of man appear in victory and glory when all enemies of man are destroyed and utterly extinct. Death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed, and the Lord alone shall be exalted. Then shall be universal insurrection in the grave, and its myriads shall be free. Since the entrance of sin into our world, death has travelled through creation, cutting his remorseless way through the ranks of men, sweeping away armies, cities, kingdoms, regardless of age, learning, and beauty, levelling all in his gory march; while the grave opens wide its capacious caverns, to receive the numberless slain that fall at his feet, holding them in cold captivity and chains. But Christ has taken away the sting of death; he has broken the bondage of the tomb; and once its prisoner, but now its conqueror, he has laid broad and deep the foundations of his own kingdom on its hoary ruins. This glorious time is rapidly approaching. The time fixed in heaven ere the world was created-predicted by the Apostles and expected by the regenerated Church for which all other times were made, and to which all events are tending; when the name of the last soldier of the cross shall be inscribed on the muster-roll in heaven,-when Christ shall close his intercessory prayer and ascend the judgment-seat, - when the clangour of the archangel's trump shall be heard pealing louder and louder through the universe, waking the slumbering dead,-when the elements shall melt with fervent heat,-when mankind shall see the opening heavens and the descending Judge,-when the final separation shall take place between the righteous and the wicked, and "the wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God," and the saints shall enter into heaven with the Redeemer as the purchase of his blood, the trophies of his grace, and the partners of his glory. Does it not become living men to inquire how and where they will stand in that dreadful day, and what will be their relationship to God through eternal ages? Let sinners tremble and saints rejoice in prospect of that day. INFLUENCE OF JOB'S VIEWS. We shall now inquire into the kind and degree of influence which this view of the Redeemer exerted upon the patriarch's mind. Clear views of Christ exert cogent influence upon the heart, especially in the hour of calamity and reproach. The keen frosts and cold winds of winter enhance the value of clothing. Bread is sweetest when men are hungry. The lamp shines most resplendently when darkness covers the earth. Religion is most powerful and delicious when men are in distress, darkness of soul and death. The nature of religion determines the kind of comfort, and the strength of our faith the degree. We have a marvellous case before us. Providence placed this good man on the pinnacle of human greatness, according to the notions of that age and country. He was the owner of vast wealth, and the holder of vast power, which no one envied; for he was an amiable man, a benevolent prince, an upright ruler. Look at his portrait, drawn by the pencil of inspiration. Excellences so luxuriant rarely cluster in the character of man. He had spoken more respectfully of God than any of his companions, though suffering severely under his hand, while they were in ease and prosperity:"For ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath." Providence, however, withdrew the shield of its protection from this man, not by reason of caprice, but with a wise and even gracious purpose in view. The oxen were ploughing in the field, and the asses feeding by their side, when the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away. The Chaldeans slew the servants, and drove away the camels. The fire of God rushed down from heaven, and burnt up the sheep and the crops of the field. His sons and daughters were buried beneath the ruin of their eldest brother's house. His person was smitten with a loathsome disease, and he stripped of every comfort, forsaken by every friend, was stretched upon the ashes, a melancholy proof of the inconstancy of earthly wealth and enjoyment. Only the sanctuary of his mind was preserved intact. All else was gone save life and religion. And what is life when all the comforts of life are gone? Religion, will you also go away? Never. In the hour of affliction and the day of trouble I delight to make my visit. Only wait, and you shall see the salvation of God. By-and-bye I will calm that tumultuous soul. I will heal that deeply wounded spirit, and lead it to an object that shall instantly inspire it with the blessedness of paradise. Let the pretended friend, and the avowed enemy, and the foul disease do their worst. the spirit of the sufferer be well-nigh broken, and hope withered, and nature exhausted, and then I will show you Let what visions of eternity and redemption can do. Job's hold on earth was now lost; his hold on Christ was strong. Faith in Christ has done her work well. She has brought the light and love of heaven into his soul. There is an opening in that dark cloud. On the bright bosom of that cloud the promised Messiah is seated, with a smile on his countenance, and the language of love flowing from his lips. Hence that strong consolation. Here arises that peace that passeth all understanding. By past experience and present enjoyment "I know that my Redeemer liveth." Such will be the effect of a personal interest in the Redeemer in the case of every man. And is not this ample compensation for the loss of all earthly things? To enjoy God in prosperity is more agreeable, no doubt, and it is no uncommon thing in the Church of God. The patriarch enjoyed God in the height of his prosperity; "for he was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil." So keenly alive was he to the honour of God, and the spiritual welfare of his children, that in the days of their feasting he rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt-offerings and sacrifices according to the number of them all; for he said, "It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." clear, also, from this chapter that he was longing after those spiritual blessings which he enjoyed in better days, and praying for them; and that they came strongly into his soul when he uttered our text: "Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through the darkness; as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of the Lord was upon my tabernacle! when the Almighty was yet with me; when I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil." In all seasons Christ is the friend and helper of man, but in seasons of darkness and sorrow he is the only friend and helper of man; "for he is able to save to the uttermost all them that come unto him by faith." It is Moreover, his view of the living Redeemer excited his hopes. "Yet even in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, on my side, and mine eye shall behold, not estranged." He felt that the immortality and glory of the Redeemer belonged to him. The life which he lived in the flesh was by the faith of the Messiah, who loved him, and gave himself for him and to him. He was then in darkness, but he saw a great light shining in that dark place. His enraptured soul bounded forward to embrace that glory that was in prospect. His fragile barque was now far off upon the dusky waters, tossed about by the tempest and the storm, but he caught a glance of the radiant beacon which told him of friendly port. There he would speedily be welcomed by thousands who had crossed the same dark and tumultuous wave, and who were safely landed on the shores of blessedness. This view of Christ and his eternal home enkindled his hopes, and taught him, with the apostle, to feel that his present afflictions are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall follow. It taught him to look onward and upward towards the region of everlasting joy and brightness, where the felicity of the Redeemer and the redeemed is alike, where the noblest spirits that have ever adorned creation meet around the throne of the Messiah, where the songs of angels yields to the more melodious anthem of redeeming love. It taught him to claim a place in the forefront of that glorious throng, even on the threshold of the throne. It taught him that his then ulcerated body would one day be strong and fair, clothed in snow-white robes, his careworn brow encircled with an everlasting crown, his deep-sunk eye kindling with rapture and delight, his enervated limbs endowed with immortal youth, his feeble hands grasping the heavenly harp, and his tongue then vocal only in plaintive strains, celebrating the praises of redeeming love. What a heart-rending contrast do the dismal abode and the dismaller feelings of the wicked present. Oh! sinner, turn aside, and behold the gloomy region of your future abode. Behold its atmosphere gleaming with the wrath of God, and its haggard forms withered with its curse. The waves of sorrow and disgrace ever rolling one over another; and its plaintive voices ever exclaiming, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." On the verge of that lake you wander, careless, but not ignorant. The ground beneath your feet is hollow and dangerous. It has proved fatal to thousands. It will soon yield beneath your tread. The surges of perdition rage below. The foul spirits of darkness are ready to drag you into the deep. One step more, and it may be you are lost! Hard by where you now wander, careless but not ignorant, is the Rock of Ages. The ever merciful Saviour appears in the midst of its mighty munitions. Between him and you there stands the minister of the Gospel, and he says, "Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world." You hear that word. You believe that truth. You enter into peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. You walk on the confines of heaven. You suffer, but you are sustained. You die, but you enter into glory. Thus you have the way of life and death set before you. Heaven and hell await your determination. Conscience has already told you which course you should take. But then you hesitate, and why? By all you are leaving in time, and all you are hastening to in eternity-by every principle of moral government which assures you that there is a God, before whose august tribunal you must stand and give an exact account of the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or whether they be bad, by every feature of the plan of redemption, which is the richest and most gracious manifestation of God which has yet been given, by every fear and hope of your immortal mind, we implore you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved. Finally; the view of his victorious Redeemer inspired him with confidence.—In the enjoyment of this trust he does not stand alone, nor is it the peculiar privilege of any age. On his death-bed David reviewed his family and kingdom with the eye of a tender father and patriotic prince, and finding that religion was disregarded, and that anarchy was about to renew its efforts, he turned to God to seek consolation for himself, and he was able to say, "Although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, for this is all my salvation and all my desires." 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. At the close of life similar sentiments were cherished and uttered by the apostle of the Gentiles: "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and got to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing," 2 Tim. iv. 6-8. Do you wish to feel as Job did in sorrow and bereavement, and as Paul did in death? Endeavour to get a vivid idea of the feelings and prospects of the great Apostle when he uttered these words. He had passed through a life of unusual toil, suffering, reproach, and success. Every passion of his heart, from the hour of his conversion, was consumed by his love to God and man. He turned aside from the cultivation of literature, which he tenderly loved, and in which he had made great progress when the Saviour addressed him on his way to Damascus, that his mind may be free to receive heavenly inspirations, and to inculcate Christian doctrines and duties. He turned aside from domestic pleasures, which he was well able to enrich and enjoy, that he may be more free to enter into the joys and sorrows of the household of faith. He gave himself wholly to the work of God, and travailed in birth till Christ was formed in the souls of men. And now he is an old man, and the Divine Spirit has told him that the hour of martyrdom is at hand; and, under the influence of this intimation, he takes a final review of the past, and a more searching glance at the future. He does not dwell upon the manner of his death, or madly rush into danger, or exult in that storm of human wrath which was about to waft him into the harbour of eternal repose, but he feels and expresses modest satisfaction with regard to the past, and calmly thinks of another life and of the crown of righteousness which the eye of faith clearly beholds in the hand of the Lord, the righteous judge. He enjoyed the truth of his own inspirations, "Oh death, where is thy sting! oh grave, where is thy victory! Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Like faith in Christ, like devotion to his cause, will bring like triumph into your soul in the hour of death. CONCLUSION. The passage from the experience of Job which we have endeavoured to illustrate contains no small portion of that light and love which God has shed upon our path to immortality. Every portion of Scripture which contains a distinct principle of truth is like a ray of light coming from the Sun of Righteousness, piercing through the darkness which sin has brought upon us, showing us what is our work and how to do it, what are our dangers and how to avoid them, who and what are our enemies and how we are to conquer them, what are our consolations and how we are to lay hold of them, whence we came and whither we are going, and what manner of men we should be in all holy conversation and godliness. It is said that new stars sometimes appear in our hemisphere,-stars whose beams have been travelling towards our earth with immense rapidity for numberless years, but whose light has not before our day been perceived by man. It is said, also, that there are other luminaries in heaven whose beams, travelling with equal rapidity, will pour their lustre upon our earth in ages yet to come. Owing to the increasingly happy influence of these orbs upon the atmosphere, our earth shall be gradually improved until it shall become a suitable theatre on which to display the latter-day glories of the Church. On the truth or value of this speculation we will not dwell. Turning to the moral world, we are quite certain that every portion of Scripture which contains a distinct principle is a beam of light from the sun of truth and love. Within a comparatively short period all these beams were set in motion; they began to travel towards the habitation of man, who, however, does not all at once perceive them. Some truths are better understood now than they were in the days of the Apostles, and there are truths which will be better understood next century than they are at present. Light will thus continue to increase till the whole Bible will be clearly and spiritually discerned. To attract the attention of the sorrowful soul to the well-spring of love and consolation opened in our text, God has surrounded it with circumstances of pathetic grandeur. T. M. NEWNEs. TENDER CONCERN FOR SINNERS AND FOR THE HONOUR OF GOD. "Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law."-PSA. cxix. 136. A KING in tears is an affecting sight, but more especially so when it arises from such a cause as that which prompted the tears of David. How seldom have monarchs been found weeping from this cause! They have wept over their own misfortunes, thwarted purposes, blighted hopes, diminished wealth, or splendour, or power, but how seldom over the ruined condition of souls, and the dishonour that is done to God! Yea, how few even of God's people can say with the Psalmist, "Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law." Surely it is high time to awake out of sleep in reference to this subject. It demands the serious consideration of all who call themselves Christians. Tender concern for sinners and for the honour of God is a solemn duty. If he who "hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him," cannot have the love of God in him, how much less can he have the love of God in him who feels no concern for sinners and for the honour of God! 1. The examples of holy men of old, placed before us in Scripture, press this as a duty.-Noah, when surrounded by the world of the ungodly, seems to have felt most deeply for the condition of sinners, while he was jealous for the honour of God. Hence, as a preacher of righteousness, he witnessed for God, and laboured to pluck souls as brands from the burning. The righteous soul of Lot was vexed, grievously distressed, with the filthy conversation of the wicked. Jeremiah exclaims, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!" And again, appealing to the transgressors, he says, "Hear ye and give ear. ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears." But if The Apostle Paul, when pondering the impenitence and unbelief of the Jews, says, "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." And when Jesus Christ on one occasion, towards the close of his earthly course, looked at Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, oppressed by the thought of the calamities that would come upon that devoted city on account of sin, he wept and exclaimed, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" And in the verse before us David opens up the deep sorrow of his heart, because men kept not God's law. How solemn the duty to sympathize with this feeling of the wise and the good of past days! 2. The fact of God's mercy being specially manifested to such presses this duty upon us.-They are precious in his sight, and he spares them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Ruin, devastation, and death may overtake others, but they shall be secure under the shadow of his wings. They are his jewels-his precious ones. "Set a mark," said Jehovah, of old, "upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done." And again: "Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark." But this concern should be intelligent. Be ready to give a reason for this deep emotion. Seek to understand the grounds of it. Be anxious that it may be the offspring of right views. But 1. The honour of God.-Believers must be jealous of that honour. sinners outrage his law, violate his rights, attack his throne. They scatter his commandments to the winds, and trample upon his authority, and thus dishonour him. If, then, you could not witness a parent, a friend, a master, a prince dishonoured without emotion, how much deeper and more pungent should be the feeling with which dishonour done to God should be witnessed! 2. The peril of sinners.-By transgression they expose themselves to the penalty of wrath. They are condemned already. They are on the verge of ruin. The blackness of darkness, the undying worm, the quenchless fire, the second death awaits them. Speak of other peril-it is lighter than vanity in comparison with that of sin! Would it, then, awaken deep feeling to witness a man on the edge of a fearful precipice, ready to fall into the yawning abyss ?—or a man in a dwelling where the devouring flames were raging ?-or a man sinking in the waves of ocean?- —or a criminal just waiting execution? How much more so should the sight of sinners, when there is but a step between them and everlasting misery! "We are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness." "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" "The redemption of the soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever." But this concern should be continuous. |