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How evidently doth this part of their history declare that God's people have no resting-place here, and that through much tribulation they are to enter the kingdom of heaven."

It seems to be in reference to this symbolical cloud that Christ is represented to Daniel in a visionary way, as coming with clouds, Dar. vii. 13. And also in the 10th of the Revelations, he appeareth to John "Clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head; and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.' Which, doubtless, refers to his majestic appearance in his presence to his people, when he went before them in a cloud by day, descended on it on Mount Sinai, and dwelt in one between the cherubims in the tabernacle and temple, and was overshadowed with one on the mount of transfiguration. And if his whole church was covered with a cloud, the shining forth of his face would be sufficient to dispel it instantly. The cloud in which Jehovah the Savior dwelt, out of which he spake, and by which he led his people through the wilderness, continued until the death of Moses, and their being on the immediate entrance into Canaan; an act of grace, for which Nehemiah celebrates the Lord's praise, saying,

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Thou, in thy manifold mercies, forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way

wherein they should go." Nehemiah ix. 19. Our divine Jesus will likewise be our guide, protector, glory, and defence. He will lead us and guide us, for his name sake. The pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, shall not, in its spiritual significancy, be removed from us. He will give and continue to his church and people as real evidence of his love, and presence unto them, and with them, as he can give them this side heaven. The Lord bless his truth.

Amen.

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ÓN THE SINAI TRANSACTION AND COVENANT BETWEEN 'THE LORD AND THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, WITH THE GLORY, MAJESTY, AND REGALIA OF SOVEREIGNTY, DISPLAYED BY THE LORD GOD ON THAT MOST IMPORTANT AND SOLEMN REVELATION OF HIS WILL TO THE ISRAELITES.

EXODUS xix. 16, 17, 18.

"And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp, to meet with God, and they stood at the nether part of the And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.”

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THE Lord God brought forth his people, with joy, and his chosen with gladness, and went before them in a pillar of a cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. He divided the, waters of the Red Sea, and they passed safely through, whilst the Egyptians sank like lead in the mighty waters. The cloudy pillar, sym bolical of the divine presence, was a guide to the Israelites in their journies: as it rested on Mount Sinai, in the tabernacle and temple, it was the visible and outward manifestation of the glory of the Lord. When they had passed through the sea on the twenty-first day of Nisan, or Abib, they saw the Egyptians dead on the sea shore, for which great act they sang the Lord's song, recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Exodus. A very distinct view of their march after they came out of Egypt, may be pleasing, and I will quote it. from Dr. Lightfoot: The cloud of glory was their conductor. On the fifteenth day of Nisan, even while it was yet night, they began their march, and went out in the sight of all Egypt, while they were burying their dead: this day they went from Rameses to Succoth; here they set off the sixteenth day of the month, and came to the edge of the wilderness of Etham, The Red Sea so pointed into this wilderness, that before they passed the Red Sea, they were in the wilderness of Etham; and when they had passed it, they are in it again. The wilderness

xv. 22. On t

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of Etham and Shur are one and the same: see Numbers xxxiii. 7, 8. compared with Exodus the seventeenth day of Nisan they came to Pihahiroth; on the eighteenth day of the month, it was told Pharaoh that they fled; for till their third day's march they went right for Horeb, according as they had desired to go three days journey to sacrifice; but when they turned out of that way toward the Red Sea, then Pharoah had intelligence that they intended to go to some place which they had not mentioned, or asked leave to visit; therefore he and his Egyptians prepare to pursue them. On the nineteenth day of the month, they set out on their pursuit; on the twentieth, towards evening, they overtake them encamping beside Pihabiroth, before Baal-zephon; that same night they enter the sea, and by break of day were all marched through, and the Egyptians drowned; on the one and twentieth in the morning they came out of the sea. This was the last day of the holy passover week: they sang the Lord's song, and after three days march they came to Marah, and from thence to Elim.'

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In the Lord's going before the Israelites, and guiding them through the Red Sea, and overwhelming their enemies, we have full proofs of the care of Christ, and his merciful kindness towards his church. The passage through the Red Sea, and their being baptized unto Moses

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