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The Editor will, following the example and wish of the Founder, endeavour to meet the circumstances of Ministers of very limited incomes, by a reduction in the price of The Homilist, if application is made to him. Several Reviews of Books are postponed from want of space, which was required for Dr. DAVIDSON's invaluable article.

The MARCH number will contain continuation of series by Revs. Dr. DAVID THOMAS; PETER RUTHERFORD; J. G. WOOD, M.A; W. CLARKSON, B.A.; and A. F. FORREST; and Articles by Revs. Dr. CUNNINGHAM GEIKIE; COLMER B. SYMES, B.A. ; A. F. JOSCELYNE, B.A.; J. SELLICKS; PALMER GRENVILLE, LL.B.; and others.

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HOMILISTIC LIBRARY.

This Library will comprise a re-print of all the productions of Dr. DAVID THOMAS which have appeared in the Homilist and elsewhere. The work on PSALMS will appear in three volumes, the FIRST of which has just been issued by Dickenson, Farringdon Street. The second Volume will appear at the end of the year; and the third about March. Other volumes will be issued as speedily as possible. It is hoped that the whole Library will be completed in the course of two or three years at most. We specially call attention to the title, "Homilistic Library," in contrast from a publication since, called "The Homiletical Library."

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3

Leading Homily.

THE ARK OF COVENANT.

A HOMILY FOR THE TIMES.

"WHEN YE SEE THE ARK OF THE COVENANT OF THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND THE PRIESTS THE LEVITES BEARING IT, THEN YE SHALL REMOVE FROM YOUR PLACE, AND GO AFTER IT. YET THERE SHALL BE A SPACE BETWEEN YOU AND IT, ABOUT TWO THOUSAND CUBITS BY MEASURE; COME NOT NEAR UNTO IT, THAT YE MAY KNOW THE WAY BY WHICH YE MUST GO; FOR YE HAVE NOT PASSED THIS WAY HERETOFORE."-Joshua iii. 3, 4.

HE words were addressed to the people of Israel. The

occasion was an important one. The people of Israel were standing on the banks of the river Jordan. One great epoch of their history was finished and they were entering upon another. The wilderness journey was ended. They had pitched their pilgrim tents for the last time. The next stage would bring them into the Land of Promise-the fruition of their hope, the goal of their pilgrimage, the theatre of their wondrous national life, the scene of transactions and events that are to-day the very hinge of the world's history.

The guide of the people of Israel during the exodus from Egypt, and the passage of the Red Sea, and during the forty years' sojourn in the wilderness was the fiery cloudy pillar. But the guide of the people of Israel from the wilderness into the Land of Promise was the ark of the covenant of the Lord. The ark of the covenant of the Lord was more than the fiery

F

cloudy pillar, and superseded it; or rather, perhaps, I ought to say, the fiery cloudy pillar developed into the ark of the covenant of the Lord; for there is continuity in the Divine dispensations; and the law of the Divine dispensations is the law of development. There is progress in the revelations of God. "The law was a shadow of good things to come." "The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ." "The law and the prophets were until John;" since that time "the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it." "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son." "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." There is progress in the revelations of God; and the principle of the progress is the principle of the words, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth."

The ark of the covenant of the Lord, the new and higher guide of the people of Israel, was the special and appropriate symbol of Christ. Christ is the living ark of the covenant of the Lord. The meanings of the ark of the covenant of the Lord have their perfect embodiment and glorious enhancement in Christ. The ark of the covenant of the Lord was the type; Christ is the anti-type. The ark of the covenant of the Lord was the shadow-the complex shadow; Christ is the substance.

The ark of the covenant of the Lord was a kind of casket or chest, two cubits and a half in length, and a cubit and a half in height and breadth. It was made of shittim wood, and was overlaid with gold. The shittim wood and the gold represented the twofold nature of Christ. The shittim wood represented Christ's humanity, the gold represented Christ's Divinity. And Christ's Divinity comprehends, enshrines, inter-penetrates, 'and glorifies His humanity.

Within the ark of the covenant of the Lord was the law, the decalogue, the irrepealable law of man's moral being. And within the heart of Christ was the law. That is, He loved it, and in His character and life it was embodied perfectly.