And when the joy of the believer is interrupted by sudden gusts of temptation, or severe trials and extensive losses, or the bursting out of the corrupt fountain of his own depraved heart; when he is apparently sinking in the deep waters, and ready to exclaim, "All these things are against me;" it is the beam of heavenly mercy that dissipates the gloom, that dries up his tears, that takes away his sackcloth, that gives him beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Thus the Lord God proves himself to be a Sun consoling the cheerless mind. It is but for a little moment that he hides his face; he revisits the soul he loves; restores the joys of his salvation: and by the application of his promises and witness of his Spirit, diffuses a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory: when this is the happy case that sublime song is again adopted, "O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Behold God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah is my strength; he also is become my salvation."

But the inspired writer instructs us also that THE LORD GOD IS THE SHIELD OF HIS PEOPLE. According to the ancient usages and modes of warfare, the shield was a piece of defensive armour, generally constructed of wood, or leather, then overlaid with plates of brass, silver, or gold, according to the dignity and resources of the warrior. Its design was to defend the combatant from the spear or sword of his adversary.

This piece of armour in a striking and beautiful manner illustrates the preserving goodness of God to his people. He is their shield, protecting them from the sword of divine wrath. The unalterable requisition of the righteous law of heaven had gone forth, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." To this curse man stood exposed; justice (armed with power to cast the rebel sinner into the fire and agony that endureth for ever) was sent in pursuit of him; the dire conflict was on the point of commencing; but the matchless and incomparable grace of the ever-blessed Jesus, the everlasting Son of the Father, induced him to interpose, and by becoming our shield to effect our rescue. He saw the hand of Justice uplifted, and the sword of the Almighty's vengeance on the point of piercing the sinner's heart; when, filled with ineffable love, he exclaimed, Father, stay thine avenging hand, behold, I give my life for the life of my people. I voluntarily and readily consent to shed my blood as their ransom." Having thus offered himself as their sacrifice and shield, the Eternal Father accepted his mediatory work on their behalf, and the command was given, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered; and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones."

66

Thus from the thunders of Mount Sinai, from the curses of heaven's violated law, does the Lord the Redeemer shield his people; he received that stroke which, had it alighted on us, would have consigned us to irremediless woe. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted." Was ever love like this

THE HEAVENLY TEMPLE.

REV. H. MELVILL, A. M.

ERCY CHAPEL, CHARLOTTE STREET, FITZROY SQUARE, MAY 31, 1835.

And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it."-REVELATIONS, xxi. 22.

THESE words occur, as you may be all aware, in that sublime description of the new Jerusalem, which is given us by St. John, in the conclusion of the book of the Revelations. We are not much concerned, in order to the understanding its import, with the prophetical bearings of the last chapters of this book; seeing that it is admitted on all hands, these chapters describe the future and everlasting blessedness of the righteous and if this be admitted, we have all that can be gathered from the context towards illustrating the words which are to come under review.

:

Our text is not the only verse in the chapter which describes the heavenly state by the absence of things with which we are familiar here. We are told that "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." We have no difficulty in understanding the absence from the new heavens and earth of these consequences of sin; their continuance would be alike inconsistent with the holiness and the happiness of eternity. Again we read that "there shall be no night there." It were easy to shew many a striking change which this absence of night seems to indicate as having passed upon our nature. Night is emphatically the season of rest; and the saying, "there shall be no night there," is saying, we shall no longer require periods of repose. At present it is sufficient to prove an individual not human, to prove him capable of existing without sleep, or to adapt himself to the circumstances of a planet whose diurnal rotation should so far differ from our own, that the days and nights are described as three or four times as long. It is a beautiful adaptation of the inhabitant to the dwelling-place, or of the dwellingplace to the inhabitant, that the hours during which man may labour, and those during which he rests, make up the time of the earth's rotation on its axis.

But there is a great deal involved in the absence of night: without spiritualizing the expression-without endeavouring to show that absence of night is characteristic of the heavenly state; applying it, that is, to the absence of all moral darkness, the unbroken continuance of day-light supposes such an alteration in our construction as, in itself, should make me long for futurity. That there shall be no moment of inactivity, nor seasons of weariness; that no employment will exhaust, no duty prove a burden; that always elastic and vigorous, I shall be always alike ready for searching into the wonders of God

these are some of the consequences, and make me dwell with delight on the fact, that "there shall be no night there."

But our text is a still more remarkable instance how heaven may be delineated by the absence of things with which we are familiar on earth. We can perceive at once, that it is nothing but our feebleness which causes us to connect pleasurable ideas with the absence of night; and we might be prepared, therefore, to expect, that there would be no night in heaven. But the case is somewhat different in respect of temples or churches. Temples or churches are places in which we specially abstract ourselves from earth, and have fellowship with our Creator and Redeemer in heaven. "How dreadful is this place!" exclaimed Jacob when at Bethel: "this is none other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven." The public worship of the Almighty, when with one heart and one voice the congregation join in prayer and praise, presents the best image which is to be found within the circle of our creation, of the employment of the redeemed in glory. We know, moreover, that it is through the preaching of his word, that God sends messages to our souls. So that forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, would be abandoning the appointed channels of intercourse between earth and heaven. Hence temples do not seem out of place in sketches of the earth; and we might almost have expected, that when St. John gazed on the Eternal City, he would have beheld it rich in the structures especially consecrated to Deity. And yet, you observe, it is with temples as with night-“I saw no temple therein." Or, rather, it is with temples as with the sun and the moon: "The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." Thus also-" I saw no temple therein for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." So that, after all, the assertion is not that there is no temple in heaven, but that the place of our earthly sanctuary is supplied in some mysterious, and, perhaps, ineffable manner, by direct manifestations of Deity.

Now it cannot be other than a most interesting and instructive inquiry, that which sets itself to the tracing out the intimations conveyed by the fact, that there is no temple in heaven but the Almighty. We are quite persuaded there lies a vast amount of moral intelligence in such intimations as that of the difference between our two states of being. And however true it may be that the future must be realized before it can be understood, it is equally true that we may remain more ignorant than God designed us to be of its wonders, through neglecting the scattered notices of the Bible, or through omitting to sift their meaning. We are, moreover, induced to occupy you with this subject on the present occasion, because, we think, it will well introduce that appeal to your liberality, which we have undertaken to-day. The object commended to your benevolence, is one which must be dear to all who would uphold Christianity in a neighbourhood; namely, that of supporting a place of worship in connexion with the Established Church, and on which, from unavoidable circumstances, there has long pressed a considerable debt. And in treating of the absence of temples from the heavenly state, we shall be led to dwell so much on their necessity in the earthly, that we believe no topic of address could be better suited than that now chosen, to urge you to co-operate in so holy and righteous

an end.

We proceed to consider the use of temples in man's present state. We shall then, in the second place, consider the absence of temples from his future state: and, in conclusion, apply the whole subject to that cause which now solicits your support.

Now whatever disputes may arise in respect of the spiritual obligation of the Sabbath as a divine institution, it would be hard, we think, to select a single appointment which so manifestly consults the well-being of society. If there were no future world, so that our calculations might be limited to this existence, the Sabbath would still be the most merciful, or rather the most necessary, ordinance, as affording time for the recruiting of minds, which would be certainly worn down by incessant application. We entertain no doubt, though we pretend not to reckon it susceptible of equal demonstration, that just as twenty-four hours is the exact length of time for the return of toil and sleep to mankind, so is one day in seven that precise portion of our lives which should be given to the repair of an overtasked nature. We are not able to prove that one day in three would be more than enough, or that one day in ten would be less than enough, for the preserving in any thing like healthful play the energies of the human machine. But we are so well assured that there are proofs of the nicest adaptation between man and every appointment wherewith man is found to be connected, and which we can trace in great variety of particulars, that we can feel certain that the selection of one day in seven was not arbitrary, but that it was ordered with as exact reference to the wear and tear of our powers, as that distribution of light and darkness which we have already commended to your notice. If you annihilate the Sabbath, and so do away with that fine pause in all the businesses of a stirring community which each seventh day introduces, you will have done more towards rasping down the energies of the nation, than if you had sent mutiny into its armies, and recklessness into its commerce. If the time ever came when each man went day by day to his business, without having a day of rest; and when there was no weekly cessation of bustle in our exchanges, our courts of law, our shops, and our farms, we should have made the nearest approach towards national decrepitude; the powers of every class would be most fearfully overwrought; and we could expect nothing but the speedy giving way of an engine, on all of whose parts there was such an unnatural tension.

But it is to the day as the period in which attention can be given to the concerns of the soul, that the Sabbath is to be revered, and its institution upheld. Those who are engaged in secular concerns will be ready to confess the worth of an arrangement which withdraws them for one day in the week from the deadening atmosphere of profit and loss, and that leaves them at liberty to increase their acquaintance with the things of eternity. We are convinced that God is honoured and served by our faithful discharge of the duties of life; and we do not therefore think, that because a man's occupations are incessant and laborious, he is incapacitated from making great progress in religion. The pious tradesman who makes his godliness a ruling principle in the business and intercourse of life, will unquestionably find his Christianity matured by the business of the week-day as well as by the exercises of the Sabbath. It is nothing better than a calumny on religion, to speak of it as a thing which flourishes in

:

the cloister and withers in the counting-house. Yet there is a necessity for seasons which shall be especially and exclusively consecrated to God. No man is so spiritual that he can be always in contact with this world, and yet maintain communion with the next: he must have times of abstraction from earth, otherwise he will soon languish in his aspirations after heaven. And if the Sabbath be thus necessary for the well-educated Christian, who shall calculate its importance to the man whose Christianity is as yet only nominal? The Sabbath is a great national barrier against an almost national infidelity and never will the champions of atheism and profligacy have made such progress towards uprooting Christianity, than in doing away with an institution that fixes a time for the religious instruction of its population. Whilst they leave us the Sabbath, we have something like a fair opportunity for grappling with their machinations: but let once the edict go forth, "No more Sabbath morns are to break in their beauty and blessedness on our cities and villages," and every effort of Christian philanthropy would be immediately paralyzed: and by putting an end to all Sabbath ministrations, the reign of heathenism will almost have commenced; you will have destroyed that vast moral hold, essential to the well-being, and, perhaps, the very existence of the community, which the revealed will of the Creator still possesses over the multitudes who profess not to be in heart and soul Christians.

And in exact proportion as you recognize the worth of the institution of the Sabbath, you will also recognize the necessity that there is for a public provision for its right use and improvement. It would be of little moral benefit to our peasants and our mechanics, that one day in seven should be set apart from business for religion, unless some means of instruction were placed at their disposal. We could expect nothing better than that the time intended for religion would be given to idleness and profligacy, if there were no organized system which brought the lessons of Christianity to almost their own doors. A Sabbath without churches would be a day of open licentiousness, rather than even the appearance of devotion. And you might leave untouched the ordinance of the Sabbath, yea, and enforce with the utmost carefulness, its outward observance, so that in the high way of traffic there should be the quietness, and the bustle of our crowded streets should be exchanged for the listlessness of the village but if there is to be no public gathering of the people, and if, in the hushing of other sounds, you hush the bell that calls men to the solemn assembly, and thus take away from us that music which ushers in each Sabbath's morn, and which seems to chime to us of heaven, we fear and believe you would leave the land overspread with a godless population: and in providing a season of leisure, without assisting them to use it to heavenly purposes, you would strengthen a hundred-fold the growth of impiety, by giving it clearer space for its development. Our churches were designed, and ought to serve, as schools of theology-seminaries in which multitudes who every day but the Sabbath are immersed in secular occupations, may be instructed in the ordinances and duties of religion.

:

We are quite certain of many a village pastor in our land, that he has been instrumental through his Sabbath' ministrations, in sending a system of sound, practical divinity into all the cottages of his parish. During the week he can scarcely gain access to any of his parishioners, except the young and the sick;