wings.'* It is very probable that the prophet drew this figure from the custom in the East of travellers, who find it very necessary and refreshing 'in a weary land,' to erect a shelter or covert. To such places there is an evident allusion. They are to be met with in every part of Arabia and Egypt.

Jesus then is a covert from the tempest.' Happy thought! When the storms of trouble beat upon our heads, we may find in him permanent rest and security. Hear him in the consoling declarations which dropped from his mouth :-'Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rést. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.' 'Let not your heart be troubled.' 'I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me because I live, ye shall live also.' 'As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.'|| Such truths in affliction are indeed consoling to the mind; like the gentle dew upon the tender plant; like the calm sunshine after the convulsion of a tempest; like water to a thirsty soul. In Jesus every want is supplied. There is no wound which he cannot heal; no cloud so dark that he cannot paint the bow of hope upon it; no tempest so severe that he cannot succeed it by clear skies. And when we have passed through the 'weary land,' he will bear us in his arms to that world where storms and tempests are never known,

*Psa. lxi. 3, 4.
Matt. xi. 28-30.
§ John xiv. 18, 19.

John xiv. 1.

|| Ib. xv. 9.

and where we shall dwell around the throne of love and purity forevermore.

'In him the naked soul shall find
A hiding-place from chilling wind;
Or, when the raging tempests beat,
A covert warm, a safe retreat.

In burning sands, and thirsty ground,
He like a river shall be found;
Or lofty rock, beneath whose shade
The weary traveller rests his head.'

8

XXII. DELIVERER.

'And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.' Rom. xi. 26.

THIS Word occurs in ten instances, but is applied to the Saviour only in this passage, which in the main is taken from Isa. lix. 20.; for in the quotations from the Old Testament by the Saviour and the Apostles, the precise words are not always employed.*

We will prepare the way by some general remarks before we consider Jesus in the character ascribed to him in the motto. Almost every person knows the duty of a deliverer. He is one sent by a superior power, or one who voluntarily assumes the duties and responsibilities of the office. Sometimes, objects are embraced of very wide extent, and of difficult accomplishment. Sometimes, the object is merely to rescue an individual, either from some imminent peril or danger to which he is exposed, or sufferings which he is actually enduring. Sometimes, a hero starts on the great errand of freeing an entire nation from the yoke of religious tyranny or political bondage. Washington was the great deliverer of America from political evils. Howard was the deliverer of men from physical suffering and mental degradation. Luther, Calvin, and

*For some just remarks on this point, see Dr. Taylor as quoted by Clarke, at the close of Rom. x.

a host of others, have aimed to deliver men from superstition and religious oppression. But while the great and the good have striven for universal emancipation, their means have been limited; for although it may be painful to a benevolent mind to realize that the Creator has so constituted man, that he can conceive of more than he can accomplish, yet it is a pure and blessed thought when considered in its proper connection.

But when we view Jesus, we are not pained with the thought that he can conceive more than can be accomplished. His large soul contemplated the happiness of a world, and he will carry such an object into effect. To contemplate him in any other light is derogatory to his character. Human deliverers may effect a temporary relief, but Jesus came to secure a permanent salvation. God has imparted to him sufficient wisdom and power.

In the motto, it will be seen that the deliverance of Israel from sin only is contemplated, but the connection contemplates also 'the fulness of the Gentiles.' A certain order is pursued in the grand scheme of a world's redemption; for God has assigned laws to the moral world as well as to the physical world. That order is well expressed in a phrase employed by the Saviour: the first shall be last and the last shall be first.' This is finely illustrated by the parable of the Laborers in the vineyard. The greatest good that can be conferred on man is to 'turn him away from his iniquity.' The bestowment of wealth is supposed by many to be the greatest blessing. But he who turns another from the practice of a single vice, confers a greater good than the riches of a world. This

doctrine is recognised by an apostle: 'Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.'*

Here is a great work in which all may engage. In the moral world, we need not seasons, as in the natural world, but we may labor at all seasons. We need not say 'four months, and then cometh the harvest.' We may thrust in our sickle, and work at all times. Let us then be faithful laborers in the vineyard of our Lord and Master, and we shall hear his voice cheering us onward-' Well done, good and profitable servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.'

Without enlarging farther on the great object for which this Deliverer was sent, which appears so frequently as we progress, we anticipate an objection that may be raised from the following passage: ** 'And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.'t On this phrase, Dr. Clarke says, 'The desolation which was about to fall on the Jewish nation for their wickedness, and threatened in the last words of their own Scriptures, "Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." Mal. iv. 6. This wrath or curse was coming: they did not prevent it by turning to God and receiving the Messiah, and therefore, the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost.' From this wrath those were saved who trusted in Jesus.