redemption of humankind, could not associate, as we ourselves can, various scenes with the various transactions in which sinners have interest, he might at least connect the whole land of Canaan with the promised rescue of our race, and regard all its spreadings as "holy ground," like that which surrounded the burning bush in Horeb. And as we ourselves, carrying with us the remembrance of all that was done "for us men and for our salvation," might feel that to visit Judea would be to strengthen our faith and warm our piety-seeing that dead indeed must be the heart which would not beat higher in the garden of Gethsemane, and on the mount of Calvary-so may Moses, borne onward by the prophetic impulse, have felt that it would be to awaken loftier emotions, and obtain clearer views, to enter and walk the land which was finally to be consecrated by the presence of the Shiloh. ting the sentence which his impatience | ture, and behold in mystic shadows the and unbelief had provoked, he spake as though there were one spot which he specially wished to be permitted to behold. "I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon." "That goodly mountain "-were his thoughts on Mount Moriah, where Abraham had offered up Isaac, and which was to be the scene of a sacrifice of which this had been only a figure? Was it Zion on which he was cager to gaze, as knowing, that, on a far distant day, it would be hallowed by the footsteps, and witness the sorrows of the prophet, whose coming he had himself been commissioned to foretel? Indeed, we again say, we can hardly think that it was simply the wish of beholding the rich landscape of Canaan, its fountains and brooks, and olives and vines, which actuated Moses when imploring permission to pass over Jordan. He knew that in this land was to be accomplished the original promise; that there was the seed of the woman to bruise the serpent's head. He knew that in this land would that Deliverer appear for whom patriarchs had longed, and of whom he was himself a signal type-the Deliverer in whom he felt that all his hopes centred, but whose office and person could be only feebly learned from revelations already vouchsafed. And why may it not have been, that Moses longed to tread Canaan, because his mind already peopled it with the august occurrences of coming ages? even as to ourselves would Palestine be a scene of surpassing interest, not because its mountains may be noble, and its valleys lovely; but because haunted by the memory of all that is precious to a christian, because every breeze would there seem to us to waft the words of Christ, and every flower to be nurtured with his blood, and every spot to be hallowed by his presence? To Moses it must have been through anticipated, whereas to us it would be through remembered events, that the land of Judea might thus preach by its every hill, and fountain, and tree. But the trains and processions of prophecy were as splendid, though not as distinct, as are now those of history; and if the lawgiver, privileged to search into the fu For this it may have been that the lawgiver so intently longed to pass the Jordan. And when he stood on the summit of Pisgah, and God showed him the land, it may have been by the revelation of mysteries, which he had ardently desired to penetrate, that his spirit was cheered, and death stripped of all terror. He looked from the mountain-top o'er many a luxuriant scene; but as plain, and vineyard, and town, and river, were made to pass before his view, God, who is expressly declared to have been with him to instruct him, may have taught him how each spot would be associated with the great work of human deliverance. His eye is upon Bethlehem; but, lo, already a mystic star hangs over the solitary village; and he learns something of the force of the prediction which himself had recorded, "There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel." The waters of a lake are heaving beneath him; but, lo, a human form is walking the agitated surface; and he is taught that as Noah, whose history he had related, was sheltered in the ark, so shall all, who will turn from iniquity, find safety in a Being whom no storms can overwhelm, and no waves ingulph. And now a mountain is seen, but not lit up, as the panorama had hitherto been, by the joyous shinings of the sun; awful clouds hang around it, and over it, as though it were the scene of some tragedy which nature shrank from beholding. This rivets the lawgiver's gaze; it is the "goodly mountain" which he had prayed that he might see. And there is a cross upon its summit; greater than Isaac is bound to the altar; the being, whom he had seen upon the waters, is expiring in agony. The transactions of the great day of atonement are thus explained; the mystery of the scape-goat is unfolded; and Moses, taught the meaning of types which himself had been directed to institute, is ready to exclaim, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Thus it may have been, that, ere Moses departed out of life, God not only showed him the promised land, but made it a kind of parable of redemption. And, on this supposition, we may well understand why Moses was so eager to see Canaan before he died, and why the sight should have been instrumental to the making him die happy. Yes, I cannot but feel, as I follow Moses in thought to the summit of Pisgah, that the man of God does not climb that eminence, merely that he may gladden his eye with a glorious developement of scenery, and satisfy himself, by actual inspection, of the goodliness of the heritage which Israel was about to possess. And when I find that God himself was with this greatest of prophets, to assist his vision, and inform him as to the territory which lay beneath his feet, I cannot think that the divine communication referred only to the names of cities, and the boundaries of tribes. Rather must I believe that what Moses sought, and God vouchsafed, was fuller knowledge of all that would be wrought in Canaan for the pardon of sin; that, as Bethlehem, and Nazareth, and Tabor, and Zion, graved themselves on the picture, it was their association with the promised Messiah which gave them interest in the eye of the delighted spectator; and that, therefore, it was literally to prepare Moses for death, by showing him" the Resurrection and the Life," that God spake unto him, saying, Get thee up into this moun " tain, and behold the land of Canaan, and die there, and be gathered unto thy fathers." And there did Moses die; his spirit entered into the separate state, and no human friends were near to do the last honors to his remains. But God would not desert the body, any more than the soul of his servant; both were his by creation, and both were to become doubly his by redemption. It is therefore added to the strange narrativeand perhaps it is the strangest fact of all-that he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor; but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." Wonderful entombment! no mortal hands dug the grave, no mortal voices chanted the requiem; but angels," ministering spirits," who are appointed to attend on the heirs of salvation, composed the limbs, and prepared the sepulchre. We refer to angels this performance of the last rites to the departed prophet, because it appears from another, though obscure, passage of Scripture, that angels were in some way the keepers of the body; for we read, in the General Epistle of Jude, of "Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses." Why this special mystery and carefulness in regard of the body of Moses? It has been supposed, that prone as the Israelites were to idolatry, they might have been tempted, had they known the sepulchre of their great lawgiver, to make it the scene of superstitious observances. But this seems at least an insufficient supposition, more especially since the place of burial, though not the exact spot, was tolerably defined, "a valley in the land of Moab over against Bethpeor;" quite defined enough for superstition, had there been. any wish to give idolatrous honors to the remains of the dead. But you will all remember that Moses, though he must die before entering Canaan, was to rise, and appear in that land, ages before the general resurrection. When Christ was transfigured on Mount Tabor, who were those shining forms that stood by him, and "spake of the decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem?" Who but Elias and Moses-Elias, who had been translated without seeing death, so that he had entered, body and soul, into heaven; and Moses, who had indeed died, the soul having been separated from the body, but whose body had been committed to angelic guardianship, as though in order that it might be ready to take part in the brilliant transaction upon Tabor? The body, which had been left upon Pisgah, reappeared upon Tabor; and evidence was given, that those who lie for ages in the grave, shall be as glorious, at the second coming of Christ, as those who are to be changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." Moses was the representative of the myriads who shall rise from the grave; Elias, of those, who, found alive upon the earth, shall be transformed without seeing death; and forasmuch as the representatives appeared in equal splendor, so also, we believe, shall the quick and dead, when all that was typified by the transfiguration shall be accomplished in the preliminaries to the general judgment. and possess that good land which God hath prepared for his people. Therefore, we may believe, was it appointed that there should be a change of leaders, that all may know, that, if the law, acting through terrors, bring a man out of the slavery of sin, it is only the Gospel, rich in merciful provision, which can open for him an entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Moses was commanded to resign the people to Joshua: The very acts of God," says Bishop Hall, "were allegories; where the law ends, there the Savior begins; we may see the land of promise in the law; only Jesus, the Mediator of the New Testament, can bring us into it." Thus does Moses instruct us, by his death, to whom to look for admission into the heavenly Canaan. He instructs us moreover as to how we must be placed, if our last hours are to be those of hope and peace. We must die on the summit of Pisgah: we must die with our eye upon Bethlehem, upon GethBut we have no space to enlarge semane, upon Calvary. It was not, as upon this. We must pass from the we have ventured to suppose, the glomysterious death and burial of Moses, riousness of the Canaanitish landscape and ask you whether you do not see which satisfied the dying leader, and that there are great spiritual lessons in nerved him for departure. It was rathe series of events which we have ther his view of the Being by whom briefly reviewed? We need not tell that landscape would be trodden, and you that the captivity of Israel in who would sanctify its scenes by his Egypt was a striking representation of tears and his blood. And, in like manthe moral condition of the whole hu-ner, when a christian comes to die, it man race, as sold by sin into the service of a task-master. And when the chains of the people were broken, and God brought them forth "by a mighty hand, and a stretched out arm,' the whole transaction was eminently typical of our own emancipation from bondage. But why might not Moses, who had commenced, be allowed to complete the great work of deliverance? Why, after bringing the people out of Egypt, might he not settle them" prepared from the foundation of the in Canaan? Why, except that Moses was but the representative of the law, and that the law, of itself, can never lead us into heavenly places? The law is as "a schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ; it may discipline us during our wanderings in the wilderness; but if, when we reach the Jordan, there were no Joshua, no Jesus-for the names are the same to undertake to be our guide, we could never go over is not so much by views of the majestic spreadings of the paradise of God, of the rollings of the crystal river, and of the sparklings of the golden streets, that he must look to be comforted: his eye, with that of Moses, must be upon the manger, the garden, and the cross; and thus, fixing his every hope on his Forerunner, he may be confident that an entrance shall be ministered unto him abundantly, into the kingdom world." "Get thee up into this mountain, and die there." O that we may all be living in such a state of preparedness for death, that, when summoned to depart we may ascend the summit, whence faith looks forth on all that Jesus hath suffered and done, and, exclaiming, we have waited for thy salvation, O Lord," lie down with Moses on Pisgah, to awake with Moses in paradise. SERMON VII. THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle."Psalm 24: 7, 8. scended, and take his seat at the right hand of God. But as, in discoursing on the resurrection of Christ, we strive to show you our personal interest in that event, arguing our own resurrection from that of our Head; so will we endeavor, in discoursing on the ascension, to consider the occurrence in its bearings on ourselves: for such bearings undoubtedly there are, seeing that St. Paul declares to the Ephesians, that God "hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." We hardly know how it has come to pass, that comparatively but little at tention is given to the great fact of Christ's ascension into heaven. Christmas-day, Good-Friday, and Easter-day, are universally observed by members of our church; but Holy Thursday is scarcely known, even by name, to the great mass of christians. The church evidently designed to attach as much importance to that day as to the others, having appointed proper psalms as well as lessons, and furnished a sacramental preface. We have come, however, to the neglecting this ordinance of the church, so that, whilst we statedly as- It is generally admitted, by exposisemble to commemorate the birth, tors of the writings of David, that the death, and resurrection of our Lord, words of our text have a secondary, if we have no solemn gathering in cele- not a primary, reference to the return bration of his ascension. And if this of the Mediator to heaven, when he had have not arisen from men's attaching accomplished the work of human retoo little importance to the ascension, demption. By many, the Psalm, of it is, at least, likely to lead to their which our text is a part, is supposed to thinking less of that event than it de- have been written and sung on occaserves, or than is required for it by the sion of the removal of the ark by Dachurch. On this account, forasmuch vid to Jerusalem; it may have been as we have just passed Holy Thurs- also employed when that ark was carday, we think it well to direct your at-ried into the magnificent temple which tention to the closing scene of Christ's sojourn upon earth, so that, having stood round his cradle, followed him to Calvary, and seen him burst from the grave, we may complete the wondrous contemplation by gazing upon him as he soars from Mount Olivet. Of course it will not be the mere historical fact on which we shall enlarge: for we may assume that you require no evidence, that, as Jesus died and revived, so did he return in human nature to the heaven whence he had de Solomon had reared. The Levites may be regarded as approaching in solemn procession, bearing the sacred depository of sacramental treasures. As they approach the massive gates, they claim admission for the King of glory, who was perpetually to dwell between the cherubim that should overshadow the ark. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in." The keepers of the gates are supposed to hear the summons, and they demand from within, "Who is this King of glo- | had not fought, may be considered as ry?" The answer is, "The Lord strong exultingly requiring his admission into and mighty, the Lord mighty in bat- the heavenly city, shall men be silent, tle:" and then we are to imagine the men for whom he had suffered, men for ponderous gates thrown open, and the whom he was about to intercede ? Ragorgeous throng of priests and Levites ther let us take on our own lips the pressing towards the recesses of the summons to the gates and everlasting sanctuary. doors; and, as we stand with the Apostles, gazing upwards at the ascending Savior, let us exclaim, in a voice of gladness and triumph, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in." But if such were the transaction to which the Psalm originally referred, it may well be regarded as typical; whilst certain of the expressions, such as "ye everlasting doors," seem evidently to belong to no earthly house, however sumptuous and solid. In short, as Bishop Horsley affirms, the Jehovah of this psalm must be Christ; and the entrance of the Redeemer into the kingdom of his Father is the event prophetically announced. The passage is very sublime, when thus interpreted and applied. * You are to consider the Mediator as ascending towards heaven, attended by a multitude of the celestial host. The surrounding angels mingle their voices in a chorus, which summons their glorious compeers, who are within the heavenly city, to open wide the gates, that the triumphant Savior may enter. The angels within the city may be regarded as thronging to its walls, wondering who this could be that approached in human form, and yet claimed admission into the immediate presence of God. They ask the name of the ascending man, for whom was demanded entrance to their own bright abode. The answer is a reference to his achievements upon earth, where he had "spoiled principalities and powers," and "made a show of them openly." "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." And then you are to suppose the everlasting doors to revolve, and that, amid the enraptured adorations of the whole celestial hierarchy, he who had been "a man of sorrows," and who "bare our sins in his own body on the tree," advances to the throne of God, and takes his seat there as "Head over all things to the Church." It is in this manner that our text may be applied to the great event with which we now propose to engage your attention. And if angels, for whom Jesus did not die, and whose battle he * See Bishop Horne. What, you will say, are we to rejoice in the departure of our Lord from his Church? It may well be understood why angels should utter the words of our text. Angels were delighted at the return of that Divine Person, who had emptied himself of his glories, and withdrawn himself for a time, so far as Deity could be withdrawn, from the scene where he had been wont to show them his greatness. To angels, therefore, the ascension was indeed cause of lofty gratulation; we might well expect them to manifest their gladness, to throng joyously round the returning Redeemer, and to usher him, with every token of exultation, into the house of his Father. But assuredly the case is very different with us. The ascension of Christ was his withdrawment from all visible intercourse with his church; that church has ever since been in comparative widowhood; and the return of her Lord is the grand event with which she is taught to associate what will be most brilliant in her portion. Must we then be glad at the departure of Christ; and, as though we wished him to be hidden from our sight, must we summon the gates of the heavenly city, and bid them fly open that the King of glory may enter? It is in the answer to such a question as this that we shall find matter of important and interesting discourse. There are indeed other aspects under which the ascension may be surveyed, and furnish to our contemplation truths of no ordinary kind. But the great thing for our consideration, is, the personal interest which we ourselves have in the ascension of Christ, the cause which that event furnishes for our gratitude and rejoicing. To this, therefore, we shall strictly confine ourselves; so |