The cover or lid of the ark of the covenant of the Lord was called the mercy-seat, or propitiatory. It was sprinkled with blood, with atoning blood. And Christ is the propitiatory. "Whom God hath set forth to be propitiatory (R. V.) through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." The law of man's moral being Christ not only loved and obeyed, but the penalty of its transgression by man He endured. That penalty was death; "and He became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross."

Upon the mercy-seat, or propitiatory, stood two cherubic figures with outstretched wings, and with eager, intent, wondering gaze. "Which things the angels desire to look into." Those two cherubic figures represented the glorious angel-world. The glorious angel-world has manifold relations to the purpose of redemption. The glorious angel-world is incorporated with the economy of redemption. The angels are the servants of Christ; they fulfil the behests of Christ. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?"

Between those two cherubic figures, and just above the bloodsprinkled mercy-seat, was the shekinah, the mysterious glory, the ineffable splendour, the present Deity. There to hear prayer; there to forgive sin; there to bless His people. Throned in the midst of a symbolism that represented law broken and law vindicated and honoured. Throned in the midst of a symbolism that represented the Holy God in relationships of mercy and love with fallen and sinful man. And all that symbolism, with its august and awful enshrinement, has its answering reality in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the living ark of the covenant of the Lord. "God is in Christ Jesus reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." The might and the mercy, the righteousness and the love of the invisible Father are expressed toward us through the Lord Jesus Christ. "Thou shalt call His name Emmanuel, God with us." Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh!"

Now, very significant, I think, are the instructions that were

given to the people of Israel with reference to the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the new and higher guide of the people of Israel, and the special and appropriate symbol of Christ :—“ 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!"

I call these the marching orders—

"Ye have not passed this way

The way was untried.
Great conflicts lay in it.

I.—THE LINE OF THE MARCH. heretofore." The way was unknown. And it was a danger-encompassed way. Great trials lay in it; trials of faith, trials of courage, trials of patience, trials of strength. The people of Israel had to conquer the Land of Promise before it could be theirs; and it was inhabited by strong and warlike tribes.

II. THE LEADER OF THE MARCH along the unknown, untried, and danger-encompassed way. "The ark of the covenant of the Lord." In other words, Jesus was the Leader of the march. He was with the Church in the wilderness-the true Joshua-the Captain of "the sacramental host of God's elect." "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; Thou that dwellest between the cherubim shine forth. Before Ephraim, and Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up Thy strength, and come and save us." And, in answer to the cry, His banner waved before His people; and His sword of flame gleamed on the unknown, untried, danger-encompassed path, the pledge, the guarantee of safety, of progress, and of glorious victory.

III. THE MARCH ITSELF. In other words, the following of the people of Israel. Of what sort was it to be?

1.—It was to be a prompt following—an unquestioning, soldierlike following. "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." To the high

summons, "Follow me," the response was to be, "Lord, we will follow Thee, whithersoever Thou goest."

"Come not near

Near

2. It was to be humble, reverent following. unto it." The following was to be far: far, and yet near. because far. Far, through a perception of the greatness of God; far, through a consciousness of unworthiness. Far in that sense, and therefore near. "For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."

3.-It was to be a trustful following. That aspect of the following is set forth in the significant words, "There shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure." The ark of the covenant of the Lord was to stand out clear and distinct, that each and all might see it; that even the little children might see it. There was to be no crowding round the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Nothing was to intervene between the people and their guide, and the object of their trust; not even Joshua. They were to see no man, save Jesus only." Now, the instructions given to the people of Israel in that crisis of their history are given to God's Church to-day. The position of God's Church at the present time is analogous to the position the people of Israel occupied when these words were addressed to them. The Church "has not passed this way heretofore." She is completing an epoch of her history. Her wilderness journey is ending. She is nearing the frontier of the Promised Land. The fiery cloudy pillar is about to develope into the ark of the covenant of the Lord. The dispensation of division, of coldness, of worldliness, of controversy, of scholastic theologies, is passing away, and will be succeeded by a higher and more spiritual dispensation—a dispensation in which the personal Christ will be everything to His Church,—her theology, her guide, her glory.

In the immediate future difficulties gather and storms lower. A Jordan has to be crossed, and it overflows all its banks. Siftings and testings are at hand. The transitions in the line of progress

are not accomplished easily; sometimes there are throes and agonies. We seem on the eve of numerous changes-social changes, political changes, ecclesiastical changes, politicoecclesiastical changes, theological changes. "The heavens and the earth will be shaken"; churches, and creeds, and systems, and politics will be shaken, "that those things which are shaken may be removed, and that those things which cannot be shaken may remain."

Of the things which cannot be shaken, and which will remain, rising into new visibility and grandeur, is the Rock of Ages, the personal Christ; and the personal Christ is Christianity. The personal Christ is the creed that will survive all creeds, because the sublimated and living sum of all; and keeping the space round the personal Christ clear, as the space round the ark of the covenant was kept clear;-(that, alas! the churches have not been doing, for they have been crowding the space with all manner of confusions, obscuring the personal Christ; but keeping it clear)— clear of priestism, clear of ritualisms, clear of human theologies and theosophies; exalting the Christ, honouring the Christ, filling the vision of the soul with the Christ; as preachers and teachers, being content to be merely hierophants of Christ, we shall endure the testings, and siftings, and purgings that are most surely coming, and shall cross every Jordan of difficulty; and under His leadership shall take possession of the Land of Promise, the goal of the Church's long and weary pilgrimage, the theatre of her most splendid conquests, and the scene of her largest, freest intellectual, spiritual, and communal life.

BRIGHTON.

W. CROSBIE, M.A., LL.B.

"I will mention a very striking illustration of the difference between men's striving to improve one or another individual good quality, and the improving the common root of all of them, and thereby improving them all at once. The former is the way in which a human artificer works a statuary, for instance, sometimes making a finger, sometimes a leg, and so on-while the latter, the workmanship of the Divine Artificer, is like the growth of a plant or a tree, in which all the various parts are swelling out and increasing, or, as we term it, growing, at the same time." -Letter from Wm. Wilberforce to Samuel Wilberforce when a boy at school.

Homiletical Commentary.

HOMILETIC SKETCHES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS.

Piety exulting in Divine Goodness.

"Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.

For He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates:

He hath blessed thy children within thee.

He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.

He sendeth forth His commandment upon earth:

His word runneth very swiftly.

He giveth snow like wool:

He scattereth the hoar frost like ashes.

He casteth forth His ice like morsels :

Who can stand before His cold?

He sendeth out His word, and melteth them:

He causeth His wind to blow, and the waters flow.

He sheweth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto

Israel.

He hath not dealt so with any nation:

And as for His judgments, they have not known them.

Praise ye the Lord."-Psalm cxlvii. 12-20.

ANNOTATIONS: Ver. 12.-“ Praise

the Lord, O Jerusalem: Praise thy God, O Zion." Although these stanzas are put here as constituting a part of Psalm 147, they are in all probability a fresh composition. The poet calls on restored Jerusalem to praise God, Who has raised her from ruins and strengthened her with gates, who has given her peace instead of conflict, plenty

instead of desolation.

From

Him alone all earthly blessings come, the cold of winter and the genial breezes of spring; and to Israel He has manifested Himself not only as the God of nature but as the God of revelation. To all the world He has imparted His outward gifts; to Israel alone has He vouchsafed the knowledge of Himself. Ver. 13.-"For He has strength