thanks to God that they are "enriched by Him in all knowledge, and in all utterance."

This is a very fearful subject, but it is a very salutary one. The minister of Christ must ever and anon take it up and tell men that they may know what true religion is, and not be religious; that they may know what the Church is, and yet not eventually belong to her; and that they may even know about Christ and what Christ has done, and from former experiences of His grace speak feelingly of Him and of His work, and yet notwithstanding all this be His enemies.

Oh, my brethren, let us see to it that we not only know about Christ, but that we KNOW Him-know Him by that personal effectual knowledge of which St. Paul speaks when he speaks about "Knowing Him and the power of His resurrection." (Phil. iii. 10.)

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Knowing Him;" having converse—communion with Him, by and in His Spirit-we giving to Him our hearts, our praises, our prayers, our desires; He letting us know, by His secret unspeakable presence, that He recognises us and accepts us.

"And the power of His resurrection;" that is, through the power of His risen life we live, we overcome sin, we cast covetousness and every other idol out of our hearts, we partake of His flesh and blood, and so we dwell in Him and He in us.

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SERMON XX.

THE DESIRE OF GOD UNFULFILLED.

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DEUTERONOMY V. 28, 29.

"And the Lord heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee they have well said all that they have spoken. O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!" THE account of what called forth these words of Almighty God you heard but a short time ago, as the chapter from which my text is taken was read for the first lesson. Suffer me to remind you of it.

The Israelites shortly after their departure out of Egypt came to the foot of Mount Sinai, and from the top of this mountain God gave to them His moral law, contained in the ten commandments. The circumstances attendant upon this giving of the law were very terrible. They are thus described by the sacred writer: "And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people

out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount." The scene, as described by those who have been there, is one of profoundest desolation—a narrow plain shut in on all sides by lofty crags, worthy, from its barrenness, its rugged peaks, and the glare of its scorching sun, to be the cradle of the ministration of condemnation.

God Himself descended to the top of the burning mount, and gave out from it His ten commandments. The voice of God was so piercing and so terrible that flesh and blood could not endure it, so the people of Israel as one man came to Moses, and prayed him to be a mediator, as it were, between them and God. 66 Behold," they said, "the Lord our God hath shewed us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and He liveth. Now, therefore, why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die. For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? Go thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it."

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God accepted this prayer of the Israelites, and He sent them back into their tents, and retained Moses near Him as a mediator, according to their prayer. "As for thou, stand thou here by Me, and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments which thou shalt teach them." The words of approval by which God showed His acceptance of the prayer of the Israelites are the words of my text.

God's help, see what

Let us, relying on lessons they teach us. First of all, they teach us that terror, or the emotions that arise from it, may exist, and yet there may be no circumcised, no renewed, no changed heart in those who are for the time terrified into some show of reverence and godly fear. The words of God forebode, as it were, (if it be right to apply such a term to His words,)-the words of God, I say, forebode that this fear of God was not deep, and would not be lasting. There was some good or serious impression made so far as to bring forth the fruit of good words, and apparently also honest resolutions. Less than this can scarcely be gathered from the express words of God. "I have heard the words of the voice of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken."

But what became of these men who showed this apparently reverential fear? Why, as

you know well, one after another perished by rebellion against God, before they came to the banks of Jordan. There was not the "heart in them to fear God, and keep all His commandments alway." Their fear was like "the morning cloud, and the early dew that passeth away." They heard the voice of the Lord God, and saw the great sight of the mountain burning with fire, and yet this voice though the voice of God Himself and the sight of this fire, though it was the very glory that shrouded the Godhead from them-the sign and token of His immediate presence-did not change their hearts. This shows us that no sensible pomp and splendour, no signs of God's presence, however overwhelming, will change the heart of man-permanently and effectually change it. You have, perhaps, a godless, irreligious heart, and this heart enables you to enjoy this world, and to go on without much fear of the world to come, but still you hope that God may take you at last to heaven. You think of heaven, you form your ideas of it from certain visions in the Book of the Revelations, you think of a throne in the midst of it, and One sitting upon the throne, and you try to picture to yourself something of the unearthly splendours with which it is surrounded. You think of the four living creatures with their unceasing chant, "Holy,