will give to an earthly state the godly consecration, the glorifying kiss of alliance.

II.

The children of the prophets make known to their master their intention of founding a new colony: "Let

us go, we pray thee," they say, "unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make a place there, where we may dwell." Say, who would not feel a desire to join them? How charming is this plan, to settle oneself down apart from the harassing turmoil of the world in beloved dwellings of peace, on the silent bank of the stream where Israel, after the weary pilgrimage of the desert, first kissed the longed-for soil of the Holy Land. A small town of brothers, the banner of which is love! A dwelling of God with the children of men. And it was in no vain caprice or arbitrariness that this plan was formed; it had its origin in necessity. The Lord suggested it. Similar buildings of a spiritual kind have at other times been often tried, only that the wood has not been fetched from the right forest. It was cut down on the mountains of self-exaltation; in the idol-groves of self-love: or it was felled in the gloomy woods of colossal mis-conception of Christian worlddenial, or brought from the fruitless and leafless hedges of monkish rules for fasting and repenting. They enclosed themselves within the bulwark of an interpretation of their own of the Bible; which interpretation was enforced with bigotry, and after a complete separation from the church had come to be considered by them a sign or shibboleth of a genuine Christianity; or, in bold impatience and great self-over-appreciation, they abandoned, before the hour of the Father had arrived, the wish to represent the pure unmixed church upon earth. This

idea may never certainly, since the apostolical period, have been nearer its realization, than as in consequence of ex ternal and internal necessities that community was created which, particularly in the first ten years of its existence, so beautifully preserved the name of "Brotherhood." But, if this community subsequently regarded the image of their original state as that of the character exclusively peculiar to, and lastingly provided for, them; they also here and there even raised it into a principle, that in the entirety of their members they were "the bride of the Lamb," and Christ's favourite flock, it cannot fail but that they must continually feel the after-pains of such a mistaken notion in the painful conflict into which such a supposition must daily place them with their real experience. They must be the elect of God, even when they prove the contrary by their deeds. It is a thing determined, that the Saviour dwells especially among them, even though, instead of him, a preponderating spirit of the world be manifest. What a false position it is to be forced, for the sake of a principle, to account oneself something, when, according to the internal unbiassed consciousness, we are, nevertheless, nothing, and to be obliged to continue to appear outwardly that which we once really were, perhaps, in former timesas if still in the manner of the service of God, and forms of life; thereby reminding us only too much of the garments of ancient princes with which their descendants, now reduced and degraded into the class of work ing men, still desire to adorn themselves. It does not present the most pleasing sight when, as may happen in neglected and abandoned territories, at the lofty windows of noble palaces, only the mean forms of workmen appear; but still these violate only æsthetic truth. To

behold, however, in the same manner, religious truth violated, offends still deeper. But such defects must present themselves wherever it is intended to keep up the church strictly in its purity through means of human authority—a work which belongs to God alone, and which he has expressly reserved for himself. Meantime it lies in the nature of the true church that it should strive more and more to lift itself out of the world, to embody its ideal unity, and perfect the same in an unmixed spiritual brotherhood, the more durable according as it is more numerous. That it is forced to dwell amidst the heterogeneous generations of those who are estranged from the life in God, it feels as a calamity, a trial, and therefore has an inextinguishable longing for a separation, development, and perfected formation within itself; a longing upon which also its appeasement will once blossom, only that this once must be awaited patiently. A hasty, compulsory, anticipatory eagerness for this once may certainly promote the appearance and existence of caricatures, but not truth. The "One Shepherd and one flock!" waits for the hour of the Father.

"Space!"-This word marks a pressing want of the children of God. These swallows build their nests in the firmament; nay, beyond the stars their bold wings soar, for whom this earth is too narrow. As often as the light of the Spirit falls upon them in their true position in Christ, they exclaim, "Space!" because they feel that this world, as it is, bears no proportion to, and stands in no manner of connection with, that glory to which, in their Chief, they have attained. Without, indeed, any prophetic word, they would still know of a new world, which, for their sake, must slumber in the lap of

futurity, and which will completely agree in every thing with the elevation of their rank, as well as the magnitude of their rights.

"Space!" is their cry, when by the side of the greatness of the merits of Christ, they survey the small number of those really preserved by his blood! "Space" for his kingdom from pole to pole. The community resembles an obstructed river, whose swelling waves find no repose until they have overflowed the meadows of the whole world. A holy impulse for conquest was born in it, by which it boldly draws the metewand round the borders of the earth, and confidently holds over the universe the sceptre of peace, and the banner of its King.

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Space!" sigh forth the saints, as often as a rich view is opened for them into the grace which has been allotted to them. To them language appears too limited, the breast too narrow for those sentiments of gratitude and love which flow within them. But space will be given them beyond their expectation, prayers, or comprehension. A language-vessel for a sea of sensation; a voice for psalms of eternity.

The children of the prophets wish to build. One structure I recommend also to you, as the most urgent and delightful of all. The wood for it is furnished by the eternally-green forest of the Holy Scriptures. Hew there, saw there. The trees out of which the habitation is to be formed are truths, are divine promises. Let the foundation of the house consist of the word: "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."1 For rafters and pillars of support select promises such as these : "For the mountains shall deHebrews, x. 14.

part and the hills be removed; but my loving-kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed;"1—and, "Even so it is not the will of your Father, which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish."2 The roof above, which is to shelter you from storms of snow, hail, and rain, arch out of the passage, Casting all your care upon him ; for he careth for you."3 For windows take the words: "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."4 Your small bed-chamber furnish with the assurance,

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Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for thee;"5 and your couch of rest bestrew with the words, "He kept him as the apple of his eye."6 Ah, between such walls, how sweet, how comfortable, it is to dwell. Out of such materials those dwellings are formed to which the prophecy points: "They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts

hath spoken it."7

III.

The friends in our history are anxious to proceed to work without delay, only that they have still something upon their hearts. They stand in need of a man who is capable of supplying the place of an architect amongst them, and they consider that Elisha, who has already been so valuable to them, may also assist them in the present case. The Holy Spirit, they think, can give to every man ability; a thought which, in experience, is well founded. Who made a Bezaleel an ingenious artist;