there was no intercessor, therefore his own arm brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness it sustained him?' Let us remember that the evil heart of unbelief, in all its modifications, is ruin. Let us pray fervently and perseveringly, that the Lord the Spirit may take every 'root' of it entirely away; that we may taste and see that God is good, and be more and more established in the present truth,' that it is indeed a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom we feel that we are the chief.' FOURTH DAY.-MORNING. wretchedness, that I may thus be constrained to the agony of his last moments, when there never have recourse to the almighty Physician, and was any sorrow like unto that sorrow wherewith to say from under a deep sense of my indwelling the Lord afflicted him in the day of his fierce corruptions, of my exceeding weakness and anger,-O when we dwell on such scenes as dangerous disease, Lord, if thou wilt, thou these, and know that sin in general, and our sins canst make me clean' I exult on hearing his in particular, were the cause of them all, shall we voice uttering the reviving words, and at the henceforth take pleasure in or countenance any same time increasing my faith, and supplying me thing which contributed to such an accumulation with strength to lay hold on his promise, I of woes, or wilfully be guilty of any one transgreswill: be thou clean.' I adore Him that 'stand- sion that added to the anguish of Him who eth in the midst of the throne, having the appear-saw that there was no man, and wondered that ance of a Lamb as if it had been slain,' that he has completely satisfied me of the utter insufficiency and worthlessness of my own fancied 'righteousness, which I went about to establish, not submitting myself to the righteousness of God, even that righteousness which is of God by faith,' and that he has brought home to my understanding, and securely lodged there, the belief that if I would see his face in mercy, and 'be for ever with the Lord,' I must cast myself unconditionally on his grace, depend unreservedly on his infinite merits, and take him alone for my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.' 'Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.' 'I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.' Shall I any longer continue in the commission of any thing which the bible declares contrary to the law of God, or in the neglect of any duty which the same authority pronounces to be indispensable as the evidence of faith, when it has been made known to me by the teaching of the Spirit, that I am inexcusable, and can expect nothing but greater condemnation, if after I have been 'made acquainted with the truth, and escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I am again entangled therein and overcome, and thus the latter end shall be worse with me than the beginning, convinced as I am that it had been better for me not to have known the way of righteousness at all, than after I have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto me?' When we behold Jesus in his incarnate state when we think on the persecutions to which he was exposed; the dangers through which he passed; the calumnies that were heaped upon him; the injustice to which he was subjected; the cruelties which he experienced; the mockings by which he was set at nought; the malignity of the spiritual enemies by whom he was assailed; The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites: who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?' Is xxxiii. 14. IT is indeed a melancholy fact, that there are sinners in Zion, hypocrites among the sincere servants of the living God. None are more regular perhaps in the observance of ordinances, and none more apparently serious and attentive when engaged in the services of the sanctuary. They join in celebrating the praises of God for his creating power, his preserving goodness, and redeeming mercy. They unite in the prayers offered up as if they really felt all the spiritual wants expressed, all the unworthiness confessed, all the guilt deplored, all the anxiety for pardon breathed out, all the desires for conformity to the will of God uttered, and all the confidence in Jesus, as alone able to redeem, professed by him who acts as the interpreter of their thoughts at a throne of grace. They hear the word read as if they were intimately concerned in its declarations, and as if God's statutes were the joy and rejoicing of their heart. They listen as if they were interested in the truths drawn from the sacred records, and explained in simplicity, and pressed upon them with earnestness and solicitude for their 6 6 edification. They do not confine their religious | the heart, that sinners are' no longer at ease duties to the temple or to the Sabbath. They in Zion,' and 'that fearfulness hath indeed surprisstatedly, it may be, engage in family worshiped the hypocrites.' We know; yes, the most imduring the week. And yet they are hypocrites perfectly informed among us know the threatenstill, having a form of godliness but denying ings denounced against the obstinate sinner; the power thereof.' They have private ends to threatenings which by every rule of interpreserve. They see that a religious profession gives tation, and according to the plain meaning of respectability. They are in hopes that what it plain words, can be understood only as relating has done for others it may do for them. Self, in to what is eternal; and if we continue to live at some of its forms, is the centre of attraction, and ease in Zion,' and to act the part of hypocrites,' draws towards it every scheme in which they do we not provoke the eyes of God's glory,' and embark, and every plan that they either devise dare we complain of his government when, in or assist in carrying into effect. terms of his own solemn declaration, he appoints us to utter destruction? When the books shall have been opened and examined, and the fearful, the unbelieving, and the abominable' separated from those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life,' the Judge pronounces the sentence which fixes their unalterable state. With a countenance beaming with love ineffable, and completely satisfied with the travail of his soul,' he welcomes those on his right hand to their rest; Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world."' What then, O sinner, must be the feelings of those on the other side of the august tribunal, when instead of looks of inexpressible affection, He who sits thereon turns on them eyes in which justice is lighted up without mercy, yes, O my soul, Jesus, even Jesus, without mercy! and utters the withering soul-convulsing words, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.' God in Christ forbid that we should ever experience the agonies of that dreadful moment! But the word is gone forth, and it is irrevocable. In vain they call on the hills to fall on them, and cover them from the wrath of the Lamb.' The hills are no more, and the place appointed by the Almighty for the scene of their endless torment, opens beneath them; it receives them, and hides them for ever. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?' Now is the accepted time: now only is the day of salvation.' But such a course, though often successful for a time, must end in detection. The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.' Conscience has long been quiet, and its possessor imagined that its deep sleep was peace. But at the command of its Lord it has shaken off its slumbers, and the dreadful conviction of having dealt treacherously with the Omnipotent, fills the stoutest hearted sinner that ever was at ease in Zion' with terror, and causes fearfulness to surprise' the completest hypocrite' that ever said, 'How doth God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High?' What consternation will seize the guilty soul when God's threatenings against Jerusalem shall be fearfully executed! What then will ye do in the time of visitation? To whom will ye flee for help, and where will you leave your glory?' Escape is impossible; for the Lord himself has awaked to judgment, and guards every avenue by which the doomed objects of his displeasure might hope to find a way of deliverance. They had made him to serve with their sins; they had wearied him with their iniquities.' He is now about to bury them in the ruins which his outstretched arm is undermining, and causing to totter to their fall. And over whose heads are the crumbling and trembling masses impending? Over the heads of those who were perfectly aware of their danger, for they had been unceasingly warned by the Lord's messengers to avoid the spot on which, if they continued to stand, they must inevitably be crushed, and hidden from the face of the living world, and from the face of God in mercy for ever. Extend thy thoughts, O sinner, to that state where the Lord hath forgotten to be gracious, and mercy no longer rejoices against judgment. Think what it must be to dwell with the devouring fire,' what they are enduring 'who dwell with everlasting burnings.' Could we draw aside the veil that covers futurity, with what overwhelming force would the truth be presented to the mind, and press closely on every feeling of 6 FOURTH DAY.-EVENING. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing,' Zeph. iii. 17. THE Being here so beautifully and affectingly described is the Messiah, the Branch, the Lord our righteousness, and as is very usual in pro- | tains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but phetic language, he is spoken of as if he were my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither already come, and actually engaged in his glorious shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith and gracious undertaking. His supreme divinity the Lord, that hath mercy on thee? Since thou is recognised in the title given to him. He is 'the wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourLord thy God,' the Father's equal, who was from able, and I have loved thee.' 'Who is this that everlasting by him as one brought up with him, cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from and daily his delight, rejoicing always before Bozrah?' The brightness of the Father's glory; him.' He is therefore mighty to save' them the Head of all principality and power; the 'who are at ease in Zion, hypocrites, and the Angel Jehovah, who conversed with man in chief of sinners.' How striking and attractive is paradise, when man was holy and happy; the prothe picture here presented to the mental eye, and mised seed of the woman in the hour of sorrow; conveying its spiritual charms to the renewed the messenger from heaven to the patriarchs who heart! Every expression shows not merely the rejoiced to see' the day of his incarnation ‘afar intensity of the Redeemer's love, but also the off,' 'the Redeemer who liveth, and is to stand pleasure which he felt in its manifestation. He at the latter day upon the earth;' 'the King had from eternity 'set' his people as a seal upon who is set on his holy hill of Zion, and declares his heart, as a seal upon his arm;' and his desire the decree, The Father hath said unto me, Thou to save them was as unchangeable as the nature art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask and attributes of himself, 'the same yesterday, of me, and I will give the heathen for thine to-day, and for ever.' He foresaw their fall and inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth its consequences. But he had predestinated for thy possession; the Lord,' in short, whom them unto the adoption of children. His love his people had long sought, the desire of all to them, then, was an everlasting love, and,' nations, who was to come suddenly to his temple, therefore, with loving-kindness did he' determine in whom they who waited for consolation in to draw them' unto himself, 'that they might Israel delighted, and of whose fulness the chilbe one with him, even as he and the Father are dren of his adoption, sanctified through the truth, one.' But with what a price must their ransom his own by purchase, in every age of his church be paid? The Son of God must appear in the were to receive, and grace for grace.' Can there likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemn sin be love like this, any where else? Can there be in the flesh.' 'He came to his own, but his own one more able and willing to redeem all the received him not.' Still he knew whom he had pledges of his love?-love that was felt for us chosen, and his thoughts were still thoughts of when we were altogether unlovely, and meriting love. Many waters could not quench it, neither any thing but love?-love that was awakened in could the floods drown it.' Grace, sovereign, the breast of him who was in the beginning with free, all-subduing grace, when the hour of the God, and who is God,' for creatures degraded, sinner's redemption has arrived, must lay the foun- lost, and ruined; and the influence of this love so dation; grace must raise the building; grace must mighty, all-conquering, and overpowering, that strengthen the bulwarks, and grace must crown to express, satisfy, and gratify it, 'the Creator of the battlements, for they are the Lord's. Such, all things visible, and invisible,' became a man, and O my soul, is thy Redeemer's love, eternal, im- as a man submitted to and endured every trial by mutable, and innextinguishable. And who is which the world could testify its hatred of godlithis that cometh up from the wilderness, whither ness, and its firm determination to die the death,' he had descended in the fulness of time, that he rather than turn from its ungodliness and live. And might turn the dry land into water springs, to if we have formed any thing like an adequate idea give drink to his people, his chosen; that the soli- of this love which, in its whole extent, is 'untary place might be glad for them, and the desert searchable and past finding out,' is it possible to rejoice and blossom as the rose; that the glory conceive of any fact recorded, in the history of of Lebanon might be given unto it, the excellency heaven or of earth, so admirably calculated to of Carmel and Sharon;' that they, his eternally constrain us to believe that 'the Lord our God in loved and elected ones, might see the glory of the midst of us is mighty; that he has saved us, the Lord' in their immovably fixed redemption, that he rejoices over us with joy; that he rests and the excellency of our God,' satisfied with in this love, that he joys over us with singing." the meritorious sufferings of the Heir of all Love is as powerful as ever in the heart of things, and therefore repeating and confirming the glorified Saviour in his heavenly kingdom, the declaration of his purpose, that the moun-thrones and dominiors be subject unto him,' and 6 6 6 is displayed in his all-prevailing intercession, and | street, nor breaking the bruised reed, nor quenchin the influences of the Sanctifier and Comforter ing the smoking flax,' but then the terrors of shed abroad in the soul, purifying the believer the Lord shall be around him. On earth his more and more; strengthening the pilgrim to sceptre was peace, and the transgressor, the the celestial city,' and giving him, in the conso-chief of sinners,' was warmly invited to draw lations by which his journey is cheered, a foretaste near, to touch it and live; then 'justice and of what is reserved for him in that happy land; judgment shall be the habitation of his throne.' 'whereas the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, In his state of humiliation, his affecting words so thy God,' O thou follower of the Lamb, were, 'If thou hadst known, even thou in this shall 'rejoice for ever over thee.' thy day, the things which belong to thy peace! Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Ye will not come unto me, that ye may have life: but then his language will be, O hear it now ye who are at ease in Zion,' that you may not hear it then, FIFTH DAY.-MORNING. • Who shall be punished with everlasting destruc-and wonder and perish!-Repentance is hid tion from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power,' 2Thess. i. 9. 6 from mine eyes; vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.' The universe, through all its bounds, shall feel the approach of its Creator 'to judge the world in righteousness.' Then the sublime language of the Psalmist shall be strictly applicable to him, who though David's son is also David's Lord, (Psal. xviii. 7—15). In such awful circumstances, and with such an accumulation of horrors, will he manifest himself to the unbelieving and the half-believing, the obstinate and the unimpressed, the unconvinced and the unjustified, the unwashed in the blood of sprinkling and the unsanctified by the Spirit of holiness. Their sin is wilful, their contempt of salvation evident to all, and borne witness to, by their own conscience; and to heighten and complete their punishment they shall behold afar off,' the glory in which the saints delight themselves, in the abundance of peace, and the 'great' and impassable 'gulf fixed,' which shall separate them from the abodes of blessedness for ever. While the appalling scene is yet only in prospect, let us consider how the Judge shall appear to us individually. He has long addressed us as a Saviour; he has long told us that we are 'children of wrath,' and deserving the outpouring of wrath. He has long offered himself, in all his sufficiency, to our acceptance, and entreated us to receive him as our 'all in all.' He has long called, and have we answered? He has long stretched out his hand, and have we regarded? He has long stood at the door and knocked, and have we heard his voice, and opened the door; and has he come in and sup TO-DAY if you will hear God's voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness; when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works. Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.' This denunciation of Jehovah against the unbelieving, murmuring, and disobedient Israelites, excluding them from the temporal Canaan, is addressed in reference to a better country, even a heavenly,' to those who to the last moment of their existence, wilfully know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Their day of grace is gone, and the time of their fearful visitation is at hand. Messiah as judge, is' come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe.' When he was manifested to save those given to him by the Father, in an everlasting covenant, he had no form, nor comeliness,' and when the fallen 'saw him, there was no beauty in him that they should desire him.' They hid, as it were their faces from him; he was despised, and they esteemed him not; he was oppressed, and he was afflicted; he was taken from prison, and from judgment, and made his grave with the wicked.' But he will appear the second time, without' suffering for 'sin,' as a sinner, in the sinner's room, unto salvation.' He will then be arrayed in his own majesty, for he and the Father are one, in all the splendour, and holiness, and irresistible power of the uncreated God. Angels shall be his adoring and ministering atten-ped with us, and we with him? He has long imdants, the clouds his chariot of conquest, and the thunders of the Almighty Triune Jehovah announce his descent. He once came the messenger of glad tidings-a free and full deliverance from guilt and its consequences, 'not crying, nor lifting up, nor causing his voice to be heard in the plored us to put on the robe of his righteousness, as the only covering for the soul, and the only unfailing defence against the enemy, and are we indeed clothed with the garments of salvation? He has long assured us that every shelter which self can supply is a refuge of lies, and have we He collects the most striking incidents from their interesting and varied history, and combining all by his splendid and sanctified talents, he remonstrates, he reasons, he threatens, he implores with an energy of thought and expression which has perhaps never been equalled, and most unquestionably has never been surpassed. Never was grief for the sins and calamities of others more deeply or acutely felt, and never was it more patriotically and touchingly expressed. His whole soul is absorbed. There is a complete abandoned it as spiritually destructive, and sought and found a hiding-place from the storm,' in the one strong-hold, where alone the prisoners of hope can enjoy safety, security, and undisturbed repose? Let us put these questions to ourselves in the presence of God, and remember that the Omniscient is the witness of this our appeal. How then do our consciences authorise us to answer them? Now, and now only is the time, when they can be asked and replied to, so as to avoid the effects which must follow from inability to give satisfaction to our own minds, in the self-identification of himself, with the objects on examination to which they are intended to con- account of whose treacherous dealings' his harp duct us. Let thy meditations, O my soul, rest strings sound only lamentation, mourning, and on these truths, of unspeakable and directly per- woe.' The harvest is past, the summer is ended, sonal importance; Christ, now thy Saviour, shall and we are not saved. For the hurt of the come as thy Judge, in majesty ineffable; and art daughter of my people am I hurt. I am black ; thou prepared to stand before him without fear, astonishment hath taken hold on me.' In this dark and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God? This day of my country's visitation for her sins, I feel is the question of questions. Put it not away that she has deserved it all, but I feel at the from thee. Delay not to ask it. Every thing same time that she is still my country. Is there essential to thy happiness depends upon it. To- then no balm in Gilead?-O is there no physi day, if thou wilt hear his voice;' to-morrow, I cian there? Yes, O sinner, there is balm of may be incapable of hearing it. Death may sovereign virtue, an infallible Physician, who can have shut my eyes, and sealed my doom for apply it in all its healing efficacy to thy diseased And what must that doom inevitably be? and dying soul. The balm is the blood of Jesus, Heaven or hell, and no after change possible. of which the celebrated production of Gilead was All fixed, fixed unalterably and eternally. The the type, and the physician is Jesus himself, who soul won or lost for evermore. God in Christ be by his Spirit applies the unfailing remedy-unmerciful to me a sinner! failing because it is his blood, and because it is thus applied. It is the high privilege of the Christian teacher, to point out to the sinner the alarming symptoms of his disease, and to assure him that if he will use the means provided, and indispensable for his particular desperate case, he shall be rescued from spiritual death, and restored to spiritual health, and translated at last to that happy land where the inhabitant shall not say I am sick, because the people that dwell therein are forgiven their iniquity.' But how often, like the prophet, does the 'watchman on the towers of Zion' call, and warn, and admonish in vain! The balm is here, the physician is here. But the one has no value, and the other is regarded as not worth the inquiring after. Thus are the messengers of Jesus met in their anxious endeavours to rouse attention, and affect rational creatures suf ever. 'When thou, O Lord, shalt stand disclosed FIFTH DAY.-EVENING. 'Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there?' Jer. viii. 22. THE prophet was commissioned, by the God of Israel, to expostulate with his people, on the conduct which they had pursued and were still pursuing, and to set before them the consequences which had followed and were still following, from their apostacy. For this purpose he employs all the powers of his pathetic and persuasive elo-fering under a malady that must bring them to quence. He pours out the feelings of his troubled soul in language worthy of the subject, and with an earnestness which displays at once the peculiar characteristics of his genius, the strength of his religious principles, and the warmth of his social affection. He adverts to every circumstance particularly calculated to make a favourable impression on the minds of those whom he addressed. hell, and yet boldly maintaining that all is well with them. Thus is the Spirit of God grieved and constrained to strive no more with man determined on self-destruction; and thus are millions of miserable souls lost in the full blaze of gospel light, and in the very midst of Christian ordinances. Place the great bulk of a professedly religious community within reach of a contagious |