the effect of union, not the cause of it. The barren, fruitless branches are cut away; and men gather them, and they are burned: but he that abideth in Jesus bears much fruit. The true Christian delights to do his Father's will; he delights to abound in good works; but he does not do them to be saved; but being saved he does them ;-it is his meat and drink to do his heavenly Father's will. There is no true morality but by union with Jesus, and then it abounds; and the Christian's standard is found in the Lord's exhortation, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt. v. 48; John xv.) But ere I close this letter I must call your attention to one most beautiful figurative passage in the prophecy of Ezekiel, chap. xvii., as it so vividly sets forth the glory of the Lord Jesus in the latter days:-under the parable of two great eagles, long winged and full of feathers, THE ONE cropping a sprig of the loftiest cedar of Lebanon, and transplanting it to a city of merchants, and then sowing the seed of the kingdom in a fruitful field, and it springing up a vine of low stature; and THE OTHER strengthening this vine, which shot forth her branches towards him: the Lord sets forth the vain* attempts of the king of Babylon TO RAISE UP, and the king of Egypt TO SUCCOUR another branch of the house of Judah, when the Lord had, in Jehoiakim, (who had filled up the cup of his iniquity, by burning the word *The temporary reign of Jehoiakim, for three months, (who was then led captive to Babylon, according to the fourth verse,) was Satan's subtle but vain attempt to thwart the purposes of God. of God, Jer. xxxvi. 22-32,) closed up the kingdom until the Shiloh, the true Son of David, should come with Jehoiakim. The first parable of the two great eagles, having been thus explained by the Lord in ver. 12-15, and the destruction of Zedekiah (the vine of low stature) plainly prophesied in ver. 19-21, the Lord again resumes the language of similitude, and introduces the dominion of the true Son of David, the rod out of the stem of Jesse. (Isa. xi. 1.) "Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of the young cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon a high mountain and eminent: in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar; and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing: in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell." (Ezek. xvii. 22, 23.*) This was the glorious One, who should be God's salvation to the end of the earth, whose dignity the angel Gabriel thus announced, "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." (Luke i. 32.) "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a Righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." (Jer. xxiii. 5, 6.) : I might, my beloved children, mention numberless other passages from the Prophets and the Psalms; but, as I told you in my second letter, it was not so much as a concordance, but as a little help to your memory, that I purposed these letters on the illustrative language of scripture. Therefore I will now conclude with an earnest prayer that the Father of mercies may, by the power of the Holy Ghost, give you a part and lot in that heavenly country; and that, gathered either in the great harvest, when the Son of Man shall be revealed with the golden crown and the sharp sickle, (Rev. xiv. 15,) or as a shock of corn, ripe in its season, (Job v. 26,) you may shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the Father. (Matt. xiii. 43.) Believe me, Ever your affectionate Father. LETTER VII. PRAISE YE THE LORD. PRAISE YE THE LORD FROM THE HEAVENS PRAISE HIM IN THE HEIGHTS. PRAISE YE HIM, SUN AND MOON: PRAISE HIM, ALL YE STARS OF LIGHT.-Psalm cxlviii. 1, 3. DEAR CHILDREN, THREE days the earth had revolved on its axis, and now the fourth morning opens with exceeding glory. The trees and herbs and flowers had indeed covered the earth with beauty, but yet without the gracious CREATION of the sun they could not continue: for just as the second day provided them beforehand air to breathe, so did the fourth send forth the bright and fervent rays of the sun, to open every flower, and to give the state of absolute perfectness to the trees, bearing fruit and seed after their kind. The ordering of the fourth day is thus described in Gen. i. :—“ And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God |