that, which was celebrated on the fiftieth day following the Passover, called the Feast of Pentecost. On this day, after the ascension of the risen Saviour-the Holy Spirit was miraculously poured forth on his disciples. The year of Jubilee, celebrated on the recurrence of every fiftieth anniversary of the day of atonement, was rendered a season of special rejoicing, because it was a year of rest, and one in which every bond-servant was set free. Each individual also, who had sold, or lost possession of his inheritance, regained it by a statute of general restitution. How strikingly significant of our being restored through the Redeemer to the blessings-the rest, the liberty, and the heavenly inheritance lost in the fall!

It is evident that the design of the Almighty Father, in thus training the Israelites by ceremonial observances, was infinitely wise and gracious. They were, by the continually recurring services of the sanctuary, reminded of the evil of their own corrupt nature, of the deadly consequences of transgressing the divine law, and of the need of expiatory sacrifices; of their allegiance to the only true God, of the

obedience and reverence due to His sacred Name, and of their entire dependence upon Him for every blessing.

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There was, however, a still further purpose indicated by the ordinances of the outward tabernacle—they were calculated, and doubtless designed, to prepare the people of God for a higher and more perfect dispensation; the law being, as the Apostle testifies, a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ," whom alone we have redemption, through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." He is our "All in All;" our King, our Prophet, and our ever-living High Priest, through whose mediation we are reconciled to the Father. He is the foundation, the cornerstone, on which the church is builded: "neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." And His Church consists of all those, of every denomination amongst men, "who worship God in spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." These "are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;" who,

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being cleansed by the baptism of the Holy Ghost-not in the brazen laver of the outward temple, but by the washing of regeneration; and being anointed, not with the oil consecrated in the tabernacle, but with the unction of the Holy Spirit; and sprinkled, not with "the blood of bulls and goats," but "with the precious blood of Christ," are permitted "to enter into the holiest of all," "by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us through the vail-that is to say, (through) His flesh :" and these worshippers in the spiritual temple offer unto God the sacrifices well-pleasing in His sight, even those of a broken and a contrite spirit ;" and in humble adoration, approach the Mercy-seat, with the incense of prayer and praise to "Him, who hath called" them “out of darkness, into His marvellous light.”

CHAP. XLVIII.-We have considered the more remarkable features of the ritual devotion of the Israelites. It is right also to notice their typical character as a separate nation, and that of the dispensation under which they were the chosen people of God.

As the seed of Abraham, by Isaac the child of promise, they were the offspring of the free-woman; whilst Ishmael was the son of Hagar, the bond-woman. These, as the Apostle Paul tells us, are an allegory," representing "the two covenants;" that of Hagar's son the law given on Sinai, (under which the Israelites were kept in subjection. to the carnal ordinance,) answering to "Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children:" but the child of the freewoman was an emblem of the life and liberty of the gospel covenant, and of that "Jerusalem which is above." And, on another occasion, the same Apostle strikingly contrasts the two dispensations; and shews, in sublimely figurative language, the peace and joy of faithful believers in Christ, who, says he, were not come unto Mount Sinai, "that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words;"-(a manifestation of the presence of Jehovah, so terrible, that even Moses, the divinely appointed Leader of the people, said, "I exceedingly fear and quake :") but, adds the Apostle,

"Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel."

The condition of the Hebrews during their long wanderings in the Arabian desert-the marvellous evidences, continually vouchsafed, of the special regard and superintending care of their Almighty Sovereign, their grievous murmurings and awful rebellion against Him -the trial of their faith from the recurrence of hunger and thirst-so natural in that barren and arid region-the super-natural agency employed in the supply of all their wantsand the manifestation of the power and justice of God in the destruction of their enemies are impressive symbols of the experience of the frail and feeble pilgrim, in his Christian travel through the wilderness of this world: whilst the warfare, which the