be involved in after times, when Christ, the joy of the whole earth, should grow up as a root out of a dry ground. His view reaches from the first moment that he took humanity upon him, to that most awful one when he put it off at the cross: he sees him oppressed and afflicted, and opening not his mouth; he sees his murderers, with cruel hands, bringing him to the slaughter; no wonder, that he should be amazed and confounded at such a scene of blood, or that the thought of his heart should have been that of Elijah when he came before the Lord God of Hosts with this lamentation, "The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword, and I, even I, only am left." But God soon caused him to shake off this unbecoming spirit, by declaring, that he had not left himself without a witness: "I have left me seven thousand in Israel; all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him;" and in this way he comforted Isaiah all that he had prophetically seen of the seed of Abraham and Isaac, made his eyes gush out with water; but now a brighter vision was to pass before him. The Spirit had laid futurity open to him; there, in that unexplored and secret path, he had recognized Israel in full rebellion, turning their backs

upon a Saviour, creating themselves into independent streams, and running away from the fountain. On a sudden, the picture is reversed; he is carried with the rapidity of thought into the midst of the heathen world; and what a scene does he behold! their idolatrous altars thrown down; their loathsome sepulchres sealed up, and the dry bones warmed into life, and standing up, an exceeding great army; his whole soul is elevated at the sight, words of rejoicing force themselves from his tongue, and rapturous feelings rush into his heart; and this is his song of inspiration: " Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear! break forth into singing and cry aloud thou that didst not travail with child! for more are the children of the desolate, than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord; enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations ; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes, for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not! for thou shalt not be ashamed; neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame; for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the shame of thy widowhood any more." And after he had thus spoken

of the glorious aspect in which the kingdoms of the heathen stood out to his astonished eyes, he comes, at once, to the grand cause of all the blessedness that he saw, " For thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name."

My division of this subject will be brief and simple. I shall first describe those who are interested in the precious name that God assumes in the text; and, secondly, show the suitableness of that name, as connected with the Lord of Hosts. Thy Maker is thy husband this is a word that expresses the closest and most endearing kind of affection, and it seems to have been used for the special purpose of laying open the breadth of divine love, and of signifying the spiritual marriage between Christ and his church. Where could we find a more significant term to represent this excellent mystery, than that of husband? and how does the bride regard him? he is fairer and more pleasant in her eyes than any other of the sons of men: "He is the chiefest among ten thousand ;" and if the bands of our captivity have been broken, and we are knit into our beloved by a stronger band, "through the faith of the operation of God," our rejoicing will be, above all things, in the riches of his glory. This is a point too little considered by Christians, but one most necessary to es

tablish that sort of spiritual interest which is implied in the words before us.

Man, alas! for the most part, does less in this matter than created objects which are made for man. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work." We are apt to rest upon the works of the Master Builder, instead of going on, and laying out our thoughts upon the hand that built them; we talk of his throne, and his riches, and his kingdom, and imagination revels in the prospect of enjoyment; the thoughts spring involuntarily forward as the psalmist directs us to invisible treasures, and says, "Glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city of God." No doubt it has a grandeur surpassing all that the heart can conceive, but it is admired abstractedly for itself; it is the city we dwell in, and not the Builder: we may be meditating intensely, but God is not himself in any one attribute distinctly recognized. In such a meditation as this, the glory is the purity of God, "Who is like thee, O Lord, glorious in holiness?" The apostle, speaking of the righteousness of God, says, "That it is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference;" and he gives this as the reason that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." We cannot accurately measure ourselves, we

cannot form any thing like a proper estimate of our state of degradation as sinners, unless we first cross the threshold that keeps off carnal minds from the immaterial worlds, and get a more defined idea of the perfection of holiness, which, like a clothing of light, surrounds the majesty of the Most High. Such a view is essential to the best interests of the soul, and one contemplation of God in Christ, removed by an infinity of degrees from the brightest archangel that is the nearest his throne, would bring us lower into the dust, than the most comprehensive consideration that we could bestow upon the practical duties of the Christian life: these must be all founded upon humility, or they are worth nothing, and such a humility as is undisguised and naked before him with whom we have to do. Be ye, therefore, my brethren, humbled, thoroughly humbled, if you would be one with the Lord of Hosts, by virtue of that name which he appropriates to himself in the text. Your love must be awakened by a knowledge of his glory, even though that knowledge should be only beheld as through a glass darkly.

I may observe, secondly, that a bride, when she has departed to her husband, leaves father, and mother, and brethren, and sisters, and all the relations that she has loved the most, and cleaves unto him; and such a full, and entire