to help in time of need, both the heart to will, and strength to do, the things which Jesus says.

Brethren, the question is not whether we shall acknowledge and submit to Jesus as Lord, but whether we shall do it willingly, or by compulsion,---drawn by his love, or coerced by his terror. It is not open to you to decide whether Christ shall actually be your King. But you may be the King's friend, in which case you shall reign with him; or his enemy, in which case you shall be his footstool. He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. God has set his Son upon his holy hill of Zion. The government shall and must be upon his shoulder. Jesus is appointed heir of all things, and sooner or later there shall be none to dispute his sovereignty, or resist his rule. Of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, every knee shall bow at the name of Jesus, and every tongue confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Greatness shall be of no avail to elude his sceptre : all kings shall fall down before him. Obscurity shall be no protection: the mean man also shall be brought down.

Will you have Christ to reign over you now? Then your enemies are his also through him you shall have victory over them; and finally

you shall share his throne; if you suffer with him, you shall also reign with him. Are you either refusing him altogether, or only giving him fair words ?-like the man in the parable who said, "I go, sir," but went not. Then observe what your real position is, an enemy of Christ. Remember there is such a thing as the wrath of the Lamb. "Those mine enemies who would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Let me conclude with a word of counsel to those who are showing their faith by their works, and doing the things which Christ speaks to us from heaven. Do not rest satisfied with that whereunto you have already attained. Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Live in closer communion with him it is those who thus wait on the Lord who shall renew their strength. According as you grow in knowledge of the Lord and Saviour, your path shall shine more and more unto the perfect day. Treasure up his sayings; ponder them in your heart, and bring them to bear upon your

daily life and business. Keep his commandments and live, and his law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them, as it were, upon thy fingers, and write them upon the table of thine heart.

Make his promises your own, and feed upon them. Study and observe his warnings; they also are the Shepherd's voice to keep you in the way, when you would turn to the right hand, or to the left. So shall your peace be as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea. Thus you have good evidence that you really belong to Christ. You are the man who, building a house, digs deep, and lays the foundation upon a rock. Having taken Christ for your Saviour and your Lord in earnest, and “doing the things which he says," you are the man who shall one day hear another saying of his," Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

E

IV.

A FATAL MISTAKE, OR SAVING

KNOWLEDGE.

"The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."-1 COR. i. 18.

IN former ages God taught the gospel to his people Israel, in a great measure, by means of types and symbols, as children are sometimes taught by means of pictures. This was a method of instruction very suitable to their state of spiritual knowledge, before the coming of Him who brought life and immortality to light. Spiritually, they were in a state of infancy or childhood. God's way of saving sinners, while still maintaining his truth and justice, was but obscurely seen, as it were, in the distance.

One of these symbols, and a most important one, was the Ark of the Covenant. It was made, like the tabernacle and all belonging to it, precisely according to the pattern which God showed to Moses in the mount. It was a chest of wood,

A FATAL MISTAKE, OR SAVING KNOWLEDGE.

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overlaid with gold, and placed within that part of the tabernacle called the Holiest, which was itself a figure or type of heaven. This ark contained the everlasting law, written by the finger of God on two tables of stone, and delivered to Moses, after the first tables had been broken. There was a covering or lid to the ark, made of pure gold, which was called "the mercy-seat." This mercy-seat used, by God's appointment, to be sprinkled seven times with blood on the great day of atonement, once a year. Now, by the conjunction of these two things, namely, God's law written on the unbroken tables within the ark, and the mercy-seat upon it sprinkled with atoning blood, the Holy Ghost signified this, that in God's method of salvation, his everlasting law was to be maintained in all its perfection and integrity, and yet an atonement was to be provided for man who had broken it,-in other words, that in Christ mercy and truth should meet together, and God should be just while he is the justifier of the sinner who believes on Jesus.

But there was a further peculiarity in the construction of the ark. Two cherubim of gold were made by God's direction on the mercy-seat. These were representations or figures of two