Out of Him, and having no interest in His great salvation, you are dead, and cannot but be so; for "to be carnally minded is death:"* and though you may smile and be light and joyous, and always clad in garments of white, there is little reason enough for it; for "she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth"-And when you say you are happy, your inmost soul will not bear you out, will not confess to it, till you are safe in the true Ark of Refuge, shut in with Christ for ever. What needs it then, but that you ask, that for you may be spoken that voice of the Lord, which is mighty in operation, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live"-" Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts;"§ that you may be reached by that thoroughly, inly, transforming word, which turns the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just? And if there is one thing more than another which I desire, it is, that out of the young men of this congregation there may be raised up, and may gather about this church and school, a body of faithful, patient, steady workers, who will not be soon daunted and disconcerted. God knows there are many things to daunt and disconcert in some of our schools; and it needs that we take up the work from the love of it, and love to Him who gives it us in charge. A sudden, fitful, desultory action is no good; it wants strength, stability, growth of Christian character; a real desire to win souls to Christ; and to cleave to Christ Himself for all grace. He "exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord."|| And I shall not have spoken in vain Ezek. xxxvii. 9. || Acts xi. 23. § Zech. iv. 6.

Rom. viii. 6. +1 Tim. v. 6.

to-night, if one soul be brought in humble dependence on Him, "without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy," to realize that "he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life;"* and to say, Henceforth I live no longer a bare self-centred life, but a life of faith on the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me; and, redeeming the time, I will seek on every side, by my life and words, to persuade others to seek to know Him, whom to know is life, holiness, blessedness eternal.

And, finally, we follow Him without the camp, because here we have no continuing city. This was spoken first of Jerusalem, but it is equally true of this world's city, in which for the present we are. We are constantly reminded of its shifting and perishable nature. But melancholy and saddening thoughts the apostle puts aside.

It is so, indeed, that here we have no abiding city, but we seek one to come. As he had said in the twelfth chapter, We have the unshaken city: comparing the Jerusalem which is from above with the earthly Jerusalem, then approaching its downfall; and perhaps also with the Roman Empire, already hastening to dissolution and decay. He would have

us feel, that the thought of the coming city, and of Christ, its eternal king,

"Christ, its lord, its king, its crown,

Christ, its sun, that goes not down;"

is sufficient to dry our tears, and quell our apprehensions. Beyond the trials and afflictions which break up our family circles, which make shipwreck of our fairest hopes, which rend our hearts; beyond all + Ga!. ii. 20.

* *John iii. 36.

these, the prospect of that unshaken kingdom, of which ancient prophecy spake, "Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down," is commended as a most restful and spirit-calming thought. On the abiding stability and security of that city he grounds one of his most persuasive arguments for going forth fearlessly to Christ without the camp, and bearing His reproach.

Isa. xxxiii. 20.

II.

God's Attributes all pledged for Israel's Preservation.

ZECH. i. 13, 14.

"And the Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words. So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy."

IN

N every thoughtful Christian mind there is a peculiar value attached to all which sets in a clear bright light the Divine attributes and perfections, whether it be the heavens declaring the glory of God, and the firmament showing His handiwork; or the minutest proof of design in the movement and structure of the tiniest infusoria which the microscope reveals to human sight: to the man whose ear is divinely opened, as that of the prophet Ezekiel was, the voice of them is as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech. The eye of sense without mysteriously conveys them to the spiritual eye within, which, as it looks with wondering gaze, those which seemed but shallows at the first are found to be unfathomable depths of wisdom and grace; and thus the soul-stirring witnesses which the natural world bears to the Divine perfections are as the basis of a pyramid, of which Redemption is the top-stone and crown. It is in this respect that the history of the Jews has always formed a deeply interesting study to the Church of God.

God's great plan for saving lost man was intimately blended with the history of that people. Forming, as that history does, a very materially distinct and complete portion of the history of Redemption, it contributes no small share to that signal illustration of the Divine name and character, and vindication of the Divine truth, which is furnished by the scheme of Redemption as a whole. Indeed, it opens such a world of wonders of wisdom, such a breadth and height of providential mystery, that the preacher may well shrink (as I do now) from preaching, with human lips, and within the short compass of a discourse, on themes of such surpassing glory.

God enable us so to speak and hear as not to do dishonour to His holy name and word, and to be encouraged to do truly and heartily the work and service to which He calls us!

Among the human feelings which are ascribed in the Scripture of truth to God most high, one that is most often ascribed is that of which the text speaks: I mean jealousy, and we readily perceive that it cannot be ascribed to Him in precisely the same sense in which it is imputed to us or any of our fellow-men; no, not though we take the higher sense in which the word is employed among ourselves. In common speech we distinguish two senses of the word: one being the high-minded regard we have to what is due to ourselves, or to the things and persons we value and respect and love, and the resentment we feel towards anything which casts a slur or blot on the merited honour. The second meaning of the word being that same high feeling degenerated into a weakness or a passion, making a point of honour of that which is not one in reality, and selfishly looking askance