anxious shiftings and evasions to escape from the requirement! What writhings and tossings of desperation and agony when for a time it is felt to be urgent, imperative and unmitigable! What is there which an unhumbled man would not yield, what is there which he would not do, what is there which he would not suffer, rather than give up his own will, his own importance and his own fancied sovereignty of himself? When pressed hard by truth and conscience, what will he not give, what will he not promise, if he may but be spared the dreaded act of giving up himself? There is nothing which he will' not consent to short of this, and in order to avoid this. He will pay any price for this coveted indulgence of not yielding his will and heart to God. He will correct irregularities of his life. He will multiply his religious observances to toil and weariness. He will fast and watch. He will perform grievous and painful pilgrimages, yield his property, shut himself out from the enjoyments of life and the comforts of society. He will macerate his body, im-' mure himself in a dungeon, and torture his own flesh. All this will he do if he may but be exempted from that hated act of presenting himself as a sacrifice to God. Nay, a bodily immolation of himself would appear a more easy and less grievous thing, than that spiritual offering of himself which God demands when he says "Son give me thine heart."—In truth, in the eyes of such a man this dedication of soulthis surrender of will, of desire, of lot, of heart, of all to God, in his own case, has all the character and aspect of stern impossibility. The clearer the demand is made to appear, the more fixed and resolute is his resistance. If the requisition is made to bear

with all the force of convincing and silencing demonstration; he is still unmoved, he refuses to yield, and wrapping himself up in sullen and deadly despair, prefers to await the "fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries."-Such is man, proud man. Rather than give himself into "the hands of a faithful Creator," which yet are the hands of infinite love, he would rather "gnaw his tongue in torment and blaspheme." How subduing and humbling an energy must go forth upon the soul of man before he will consent to live that exalted, that self-consecrating life of which we speak! What a casting down of imaginations must there be! What a prostration of vain-glorious thought! What a humbling of one's self under the mighty hand of God! what is there that shall effect this self-abasement short of the pride-withering truths of the gospel received in faith-short of the deep and heart-awing convictions of the guilt and sin of that self, of which we have thought so much-and short of those alldissolving influences which flow from the blessed Spirit of God? It is when we are brought into this sobered and conquered, this meek and lowly state, that we are disposed to say, in heart and conduct, in life. and death, on earth and in heaven, "let God be magnified."

And

VI. There must be a cheerful dedication of ourselves to God. Before the priests could act, and the utensils be used, in the service of the tabernacle, they had to be consecrated. We too must dedicate ourselves to God before our acts and services will glorify God. That this is indispensable is evident from the fact that we have felt it needful repeatedly

S

to refer to it, and to take it for granted in our foregoing illustrations. It is indeed so inseparable from our great subject that we could not but in part anticipate it. Living to God's glory is a consecrated life, begun in solemn acts of dedication, and sustained by renewed and frequent offerings of ourselves to the Lord. If then we would spend our lives to God's glory, we must hasten to yield ourselves to God, as those alive from the dead; to present our bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God; and to come out and be separate, and touch not the unclean. It is when, moved by the grateful view of redeeming blood and saving love, we consecrate ourselves to God, that we commence that noble and celestial life we now contemplate; it is then we are solemnly inaugurated to our sublime dignities, our glorious offices, and our divine services, as "kings and priests unto God." This surrender of ourselves which is to lead on a life of devotedness-an eternity of “ holiness to the Lord," must be unreserved. Reservation would spoil the whole act, and turn it into hy pocrisy and mockery. There must be a sincerity, á frankness, a spontaneity, a confidence, a cheerfulness, an entireness in our self-surrender, which shall evade nothing, which shall conceal nothing, which shall slur over nothing, which shall stipulate for nothing, which shall lay the heart all open, and invite God to fill it with his authority, with his influence and with his glory. Where reserve is practised in our professed offering of ourselves to God, there is no security for our glorifying him. This one thing reserved may be just that single point where our rebellion concentrates all its energy, and vents all its malignity. It may be just that one fort which the

Whatever we

rebel is resolved to hold to the last. may profess to yield to God, we "glorify him not as God," until we give him all. It must be a free, complete, acquiescing, rejoicing act-a transaction in which the soul is eager, satisfied, delighted-a performance in which the mind feels as if arriving at its home, as if entering upon its rest.

Such are the changes and such the dispositions requisite to fit a man to do all things to the glory of God. For the sake of more distinct illustration we have viewed them separately. But they are not separable in fact and in operation. United, they form the great qualification-the essential tendency-the natural aptitude-the congenial taste—the moral capability for seeking the glory of God. bined form the scriptures sometimes requisites upon which we have dwelt. "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, THAT WE

In this compresent these

SHOULD BE A KIND OF FIRST FRUITS OF HIS CREATURES." "Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile, and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings, as new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, Ye also as lively stones, are built up A SPIRITUAL HOUSE, AN HOLY PRIESThood, to ofFFER UP SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES, ACCEPTABLE TO GOD by Jesus Christ.” † For through him we both have an access by one, spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no

more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building, fitly framed together, GROWETH UNTO AN HOLY TEMPLE IN THE LORD in whom ye also are builded together for AN HABITATION OF GOD THROUGH THE SPIRIT."* The office of the priests, whose business it was continually to present sacrifices to God, is the apt and lively image employed by the divine Spirit, to point out the hallowed life of Christians whose obligation and whose delight it is to glorify God by offering spiritual sacrifices. But for this priesthood, as for the former, we learn from the same authority, men must be selected, fitted, and anointed. There must be a qualification and an introduction. We must be made priests unto God. The representation of Christians under the idea of a temple, is as appropriate, as it is magnificent and beautiful. What an image of glorifying God! The abode of the Shechinah. The scene of sacrificial blood and incense. The place of praise and prayer. The resting place of the covenants and the law. The resort of a worshipping nation, and the testimony to the world of the power, and goodness, and glory of the Lord. The church is a temple. God dwells in it. He manifests his glory there. He is sought there. He accepts sacrifice and incense there. But this temple must be built. It must consist of " lively stones." And this temple must be consecrated too, and in a sense more real, more solemn, and more affecting than that of Solomon.