every creature-comfort and every earthly object crumbling away under the pressure of Death; and that none but God can be her support and help, in that moment, when she is called to pass into the unseen world. Oh, that while health and strength remain, we could realize and anticipate the sensibilities and wishes of that solemn hour; and, now that mercy is offered and grace promised, we would seek earnestly what we shall then find to be alone valuable and precious! The privileges and blessings of God's People are set before us, that we may "covet earnestly" these," the best gifts" of a GOD of Grace and Beneficence, to His needy and unworthy creatures. Let us, then, pray to be numbered among the righteous by faith in CHRIST JESUS; and, beholding the security, numbers, stability, peace, and blessedness, of the regenerated, justified, and believing followers of the LAMB, let us adopt the resolution of Ruth, and say, as she did to Naomi, "Whither thou goest, I "will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy "people shall be my people; and thy God, my GOD."

SERMON V.

THE CITIES OF REFUGE.

NUMBERS XXXv. 11, 12.

Then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares. And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment. ST. PAUL has declared, that "the Law was the shadow of good things to come." In considering the institutions, ceremonies, and sacrifices of the Israelites, we may see the exemplification of the Apostle's words. All that happened to the Children of Israel, was intended to typify what occurs in the experience of believers, who are denominated the Spiritual Israel. Thus, the choice of the seed of Jacob to be the peculiar people of JEHOVAH, the depositaries of His revealed Word, the witnesses of His glory-affords a lively type and representation of the Divine selection of believers to become the recipients of the HOLY SPIRIT in His quickening and purifying influence upon their hearts, and the living witnesses of the exceeding greatness of Divine power, grace, mercy, and truth,

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as those blessed perfections are manifested in the conversion, justification, sanctification, and preservation unto eternal life, of all the spiritual seed. In like manner, the Levitical Priests shadow forth the grace and office of our great High Priest, CHRIST Jesus; who, having made atonement by the blood of His cross, entered into the immediate presence of God in glory, where" He ever liveth to make intercession for us."—We might trace this similarity further, and show how the Tabernacle and Temple, the altar and the incense, the manna and the rock, the brazen serpent and the ark of the Covenant, the journeys, conflicts, trials, sufferings, conquests, and final establishment of the Israelites in Canaan-all serve to prefigure the doctrines, privileges, experience, and ultimate salvation of Christians under the New Testament Dispensation.

There can be no doubt respecting the typical reference of that remarkable institution recorded in the text, to spiritual danger and deliverance. In Hebrews vi. 18, St. Paul, after mentioning the counsel and the oath of God, as uniting for our comfort and security, refers to the flight of the manslayer; and traces its antitype in the true convert, who has "fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before him" in the Gospel.— May that blessed hope be endeared to all our hearts, while we now consider the nature and spiritual intention of the singular appointment specified in the words before us!

1. Mark the ORIGIN of this institution.

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"LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the Children of

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Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come over "Jordan into the land of Canaan, then ye shall

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appoint you cities, to be cities of refuge for you; "that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares."-No human legislator would ever have enacted such a law. It resulted entirely from the mercy and sovereignty of GOD.-So, the Refuge, whither sinners may "flee from the wrath to come," is not the contrivance of human ingenuity or of created wisdom; but it is the result of the depth of the knowledge and loving-kindness of JEHOVAH. JESUS, the Eternal Refuge of perishing sinners, is denominated by GOD THE FATHER, "Mine Elect, in whom My soul delighteth." It is He whom the FATHER hath set apart and constituted "to be a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in "his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow "from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones "is as a storm against the wall." 'GOD so loved the "world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that "whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but "have everlasting life." Salvation through CHRIST is no cunningly devised fable, but it is the sovereign, gracious, and merciful ordinance of a GOD of truth, wisdom, and love. Here is the warrant for faith in JESUS. The FATHER hath appointed the Son to be the Refuge of sinners. You and I are there

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fore authorised to escape to this Rock of deliverance. Let no sinner, trembling under a sense of his sin and danger, hesitate for a moment, whether it may be lawful for him to look to JEsUs for pardon. Let him not think that it would be presumptuous to cast his iniquities, how numerous or how burdensome soever they may be, upon the head of the LAMB OF GOD: let him not suppose that it would be unwarrantable boldness in him to hasten to the Gospel City of Refuge, even though his sins be of a crimson dye; for "God hath "set CHRIST forth as a propitiation, through faith in His blood." He has made His SON to be a sinoffering for us; He hath revealed Him as the hope, to which we are invited, nay commanded, to flee for safety. To come, to draw near, to run to CHRIST for shelter from the uplifted arm of Divine vengeance, is therefore most conformable to the intention of JEHOVAH in giving His Son to be the SAVIOUR of

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mankind.

2. The Cities of Refuge were always DESCRIBED AND MARKED OUT WITH THE GREATEST CARE; so as to prevent the possibility of mistake. They were six in number; three on one side of Jordan, and three on the other. These were separated and distinguished from all other cities and towns. Their names and situations were familiar to every Israelite. Their use and benefit were explicitly stated, and publickly known. The roads leading to them were wide and