make our abode with him" (John xiv. 23).

The people

of the world know not the experience of the believer; they see not the intercourse of heart he has with the loving Saviour, but the effects are evident by his having in some humble measure the dispositions the Lord Jesus had, and is enabled to endure the severest trials, to perform the most arduous labours. This Divine intercourse enabled the missionary to spend years in the comfortless hut in Labrador, and others to toil at unwritten languages beneath a tropical sky, and in noxious air; the martyrs, cheerfully to endure any bodily torments, or to be imprisoned to the end of their mortal life in damps and darkness, destitute of any earthly comfort. It stimulates very many to spend all their energies to benefit their fellow-creatures, and to turn away from the allurements of a transient world. The kingdoms of nature are distinct and various; this kingdom differs from all the others, for its region is the soul: "It is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen (Job xxviii. 7).

The covenant made with

lxxxix.

This psalm is supposed to have been written. David.-Ps. in the reign of Rehoboam, when the honour and power of the kings of David's race had fallen, and were apparently ruined. The Psalmist, looking at this state of things, which appeared as a failure of the covenant made with David, concerning the perpetuity of his kingdom in the line of his posterity, declares his determination to praise the mercies and faithfulness of God; being assured that his promise to David would be

fulfilled throughout all generations, for, after accomplishing many wonderful deliverances for Israel, he laid help for them upon one that was mighty; he exalted one chosen out of the people, whilst performing the duties of a shepherd-gave him regal dignity-suffered none to injure him-subdued his foes-encompassed him with his faithfulness and mercy-made his own perfections to be his strength and honour-extended his dominion; and he yielded loving obedience to his Heavenly Father, acknowledging that it was from his Almighty power his prosperity and safety came. He treated him as his favourite son, and set him above all the co-temporary monarchs promised that his posterity should live for ever, and his kingdom endure as long as the sun ; that however his children might act, he would not take his loving-kindness from him; but would chasten them, and nothing should alter his faithfulness. His covenant he would not disannul, nor make any change in what he had spoken.

The promises of this covenant were in some measure fulfilled to Solomon, and to the long succession of kings that reigned over Judah till the captivity; but it is in Christ, and in his spiritual seed, they have their only full accomplishment; for by his own holiness Jehovah had sworn to Christ, the true David, to perform exactly the covenant made with him—to accept his atonement, and receive his redeemed ones; for they should live for ever, and his mediatorial throne should last as long as the sun and moon (like the rainbow, "that faithful witness in heaven"

to the truth of God in his covenant with Noah)—a constant witness, by a succession and increase of loyal subjects, that God is fulfilling his covenant with the Redeemer. And as by various corrections the Lord visited upon the posterity of David their transgressions of his law, but did not utterly cut them off-continuing them in regal authority over Judah till the captivity, and afterwards preserving the family till Christ descended from it, and received the kingdom-so he will correct his people, but never finally cut them off.

CHAPTER V.

MESSIAH PREDICTED BY PROPHETS, FROM THE TIME OF SAMUEL
TO THE CAPTIVITY.

Jonah in the

JONAH was the earliest of the prophets whale.-Jon. ii. whose writings are preserved. He lived in the reign of Amaziah, king of Judah, and of Jeroboam, the second king of Israel-more than eight hundred years before the birth of Christ. He was himself the subject of a most wonderful occurrence-being a day and at least a part of two others, in a great fish. This miracle was referred to by the Lord Jesus Christ as an emblem of his own burial; the application he makes of it furnishes an example of the testimony to him, to be found in the most wonderful events recorded in the Old Testament. It was, no doubt, to foreshadow his lying in the grave that God was pleased to correct the disobedience of his servant in that manner, so that, in a little more than one hundred years after the death of Solomon, the Jewish Church was favoured with a type of the promised Messiah in an aspect differing from all they had before. In the Mediterranean Sea, into which Jonah was cast, whales are

sometimes seen; but in it, it is well known that sharks are common, and that whole men have been actually found in their bellies; although the whale is of such a monstrous size, it has not a swallow large enough for a man to pass; therefore, it is more probable it was a shark that enshrouded Jonah.

The word translated whale is a common name for the larger inhabitants of the deep, and not limited, as at present, to one species of fish. No doubt, there was an adaptation for the design of saving the prophet's life, in order to prevent his being suffocated. How easy it is for him who is the Author of nature, and the maker of its laws, to alter or suspend them at his pleasure, when there is an object of sufficient importance to require it, without which there is never the least deviation from their original appointment! To mark the entombment of Messiah was of such magnitude as to account for any change in these laws.

The fame of this miracle reached Greece, and one of their poets, who lived after Jonah, magnifies his hero by putting him into similar circumstances.

Israel's conversion.-Hosea iii., 4, 5.

Hosea prophesied for a lengthened period, during the reigns of four kings of Judah, and one of Israel. He foretold many events which took place soon after; but he is peculiarly distinct and striking on the more distant ones. He looked through the long vista of ages, and described Israel when without a king or prince; without their temple, where alone they were to offer sacrifices, and also without attempting to worship.