The events comprehended in the history of the Jewish nation, afford particular expositions of the topics to which we have alluded. Selected, as that people were, by the express call of Jehovah, placed under institutions which were derived immediately from him, and connected with plans of the utmost moment to the moral welfare of the human race, the fact could not be otherwise; and we have but to turn to their records, to perceive the lessons of instruction and improvement on every page. There are portions of their history which bear a character of the most remarkable kind,-affording designed representations of the spiritual condition and prospects of the redeemed people of God, and elucidating many truths as to their vocation, their difficulties, their duties, their privileges, their hopes, and their reward. To the Christian, therefore, are presented in these annals of the past, materials for study of transcendent interest; and well may he refer with eagerness and delight, to the time when "God spake unto the fathers."

The part of Jewish history connected with the words we have now offered to your attention, is one which will allow this application to the saints of the Most High in every age, and teach much that should direct and inspire them. They were words uttered by God to Moses, soon after the memorable departure of the people of Israel from Egypt, in order to receive the fulfilment of

ancient promises. Their position, as will appear from the context, which we shall soon have occasion more distinctly to notice, was most peculiar and critical; and it was in circumstances so endangered, amidst perils which beset them on every hand, and which it seemed impossible to overcome or avoid, that the Almighty, prepared to work his own wonders of deliverance, uttered this emphatic command to his chosen minister" Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward."-In applying the words and the connexion in which they stand, for the purpose of Christian improvement to the extent we believe they will fully admit, we propose to consider them-as illustrating the character and course of the people of God—the impediments which oppose their progress—and the command under which they are placed, and which is connected with powerful excitements to obedience. And may the Spirit of God now animate his servants in their spiritual career, to go forward!"

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We contemplate

I. THE CHARACTER AND COURSE OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD.

At the period of the sacred history before us, the visible people of Jehovah who formed the nation of the Jews, were at the commencement of a course, connected with important proceed

ings and results. A series of events, as you are aware, had recently taken place, by which their redemption from their state of bondage in Egypt had been at length achieved. The judgments of God upon Pharaoh and his subjects, had compelled them to give tardy release to their captives; and the hosts of the Lord, after prolonged slavery and ignominious depression, had gone out from the land. They were now assuming their separate form of national existence; they were gathered together in their compacted body, as a holy and peculiar people; they were prepared to receive the special and permanent institutions of heaven, and were placed under the more immediate and visible government of the Most High; they were made to set their faces towards the wilderness; and were travelling on in their pilgrimage, to reach the possession of the good land, which had been so long a land of promise to their ancestors, and the prospect of inheriting which kindled in every mind the warmest and most joyous anticipations. How interesting and dignified the position which thus they held!

1. These circumstances of Israel, illustrating the spiritual character and course of those who form the new-covenant church, may apply to them as they are redeemed and called out of the world. Men are, by nature, in a worse than Egyptian bondage. They are sold under sin-the ser

vants of corruption, and the slaves of Satan. But, in the divine mercy, there have been formed purposes of deliverance, by which the chains of millions are to be broken, and their souls brought forth to the enjoyment of glorious liberty. As the saints of God, on whom these purposes have operated, we are called his chosen, his ransomed, and his redeemed. We are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father;" Christ our passover has been sacrificed for us; by the blood of the great propitiation, we are justified from the curse of the law, and secured from the wrath of heaven; and there is given, "not the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption," by which we become the children of the Lord Almighty. The designs of God in the advancement of our salvation, involve and demand our continued moral separation from the world. As Israel stood in visible and public separation from the nations by which they were surrounded, "a peculiar treasure unto God, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation," so, in all matters of spiritual habit and principle, must it be with those who assume the fact of their interest in the salvation of divine grace. They have to go forth, divided and distinguished from the elements around. They are described as "not being of the world, because Christ hath chosen them out of the world;" as being "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that they should show forth the praises

of Him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light."* They are commanded to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness," and not to be" unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for," as the solemn challenge runs," what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols ?Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing."t-In their habits of thought, in their motives of action, in their objects of pursuit, in their sources of pleasure, their great distinctions are to be preserved,-living practically and avowedly under the influence of principles, as different from those which govern the unregenerate, as light is from darkness, and as death is from life. It is necessary for the people of God to remember this, as an established and irrevocable institute of their spiritual existence, as to which no compromise can be made, and from which every departure is guilty. They must stand upon the ground allotted for them to occupy, without hesitancy, and without equivocation it is ordained by authority that is supreme; and where is, or where can there be, any evidence of a portion in the mighty work of