"And Moses spake uuto the children of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod a-piece, for each prince one, according to their fathers' houses, even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness. And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds. And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel; and they looked and took every man his rod."-Numbers "And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.”- "King Solomon made a molten sea."-1 Kings vii. 23. The Nature of the Lord's Invitation to all that labour and are heavy laden 297 "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."-Isa. lviii, 13, 14. "Verily, I say unto you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing "In that day, he which shall be upon the house-top, and his stuff in his house, let him not come down to take it away; and he that is in the field let him likewise not LIST OF THE WRITERS OF THE SERMONS CONTAINED IN THIS VOLUME. BRUCE, Rev. W., of Edinburgh. DYKE, Mr. T. D., of Salisbury. KEENE, Mr. J., of Bath. MADELEY, Rev. E., of Birmingham. MASON, Rev. W., of Melbourne. MAXWELL, Mr. A., of London. NOBLE, Rev. S., of London. PROUD, the late Rev. J. RENDELL, Rev. E. D., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. SHAW, Mr. T. C., of London. SIBLY, Rev. M., of London. WOODMAN, Rev. W., of Brightlingsea. WORCESTER, Rev. T., of Boston, U. S. THE NEW-CHURCH PREACHER. SERMON I. ON THE CHARACTER OF MARY MAGDALEN. BY THE REV. S. NOBLE. Luke viii. 1, 2, 3. "And it came to pass afterwards, that he went through every city and village, preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities; Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others; which ministered unto him of their substance." AMONG the various female converts and disciples spoken of in the Gospels, there is none who has been regarded with greater interest than Mary Magdalen, and none, the consideration of whose history and character can be more interesting, or more replete with salutary instruction. This then shall be attempted in the present discourse. The first thing necessary to be known respecting her, which, though obvious to scholars, may not be usually understood by common readers of the Scriptures, is, the reason why she has the surname of Magdalen, or Magdalené, as the pure Greek word which the translators have rather strangely retained, would be properly pronounced. This merely signifies, that she was a native or resident of Magdala, a town in Galilee. It would be more agreeable to our customary mode of forming such personal titles from names of places, to call her Mary the Magdalian,-Mary Magdalen simply meaning, Mary of Magdala. 1. |