but Faith could never have rested upon him, had not the glorious morn of the resurrection proved him to be more than conqueror. Each step is now a step of victory, of victory won for us: he arose from the dead, and now he has the keys of death and hell, and the king of terrors is powerless against the meanest of his redeemed. He ascended into heaven :' it was as man, as our forerunner. Heaven is no more to us a strange land; it is our Father's house, where our Elder Brother is preparing mansions for us. He sits at the right hand of God. Human nature is seated on the throne of the Most High. The right-hand seat is that of honour and authority; all power is committed to him in heaven and earth, and he wields it for the welfare of his people. He also ever liveth to make intercession for us; and if we sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. When our feeble prayers ascend before God, our High Priest is there ready to offer them with much incense in his golden censer. Hereafter, he will come again, to receive us to himself; he will come to judge the quick and the dead.

All this we profess each Sabbath to believe: "what manner of person sought we then to be, in all holy conversation and godliness;" we, who have been redeemed at the cost of such suffering, who have such a living Saviour for our Captain in daily conflict, who look for such a great and solemn event as his return, to judge the quick and the dead.

Jesus Christ was God made manifest in the flesh, the Word or Revelation of God ;-the second part of the Creed is therefore occupied with facts, facts which are the foundation of the Christian faith. The Holy Spirit, the breath of God, works invisibly, and after

declaring, in the third part of the Creed, our belief in Him as God, the third person of the ever-blessed Trinity, we proceed to declare our faith in that church in which He carries on His mighty unseen work. The holy catholic church, in other words, the general assembly of the holy ones, that body in which the Holy Spirit of God breathes and dwells; through which He acts in the world. Such a body we believe there has ever been; the Lord has never left Himself without witnesses on earth! It has sometimes, in sunny days of light and revival, been as a rejoicing bride, oftener as a lonely captive mourning in the wilderness, always surrounded by bitter foes, never forsaken by a mighty protector. Do you ask by what unfailing signet you may recognize this heavenly bride? Is she the Episcopal, the Presbyterian, or the Independent church? Oh, none of these, and yet each and all of them. A fairer seal is set on her brow, the same which stamped the mitre of Aaron of old, Holiness unto the Lord. Another signet, too, now is granted her, she is Catholic, confined no more within the narrow circle of Jewish economy, she may become the joy of the whole earth-the Holy Catholic Church. The communion of saints. We tell of the existence of life by its sure signs, breath, warmth, and motion ;as natural is the instinct of the Holy catholic church, for the communion of saints or holy ones.

Brothers are brothers evermore,

Nor wrong nor wrath of deadliest mood

That natural magic may o'erpower,

No distance breaks the ties of blood.

Oft ere the common source is known,

The kindred drops will claim their own,
And pulses beating silently,

Move heart towards heart, by sympathy.

So is it with true Christian hearts,

Their mutual share in Jesus' blood,
An everlasting bond imparts

Of holiest brotherhood.

Surely it is not to be wondered at, if this yearning expresses itself in efforts at external pledges of union: however judgments may differ as to the expediency of such efforts, those who would frown unkindly upon them, might feel themselves reproved in the words they repeat each Sabbath.

The privileges of this holy and loving church are now brought before us. Three great blessings are specially named; the forgiveness of sins-the source of every other blessing, the removal of the barrier which stayed the floods of Divine mercy. The resurrection of the body-the completed seal of forgiveness to the believer and lastly, the glorious consummation of all, life everlasting. Amen.

CHAPTERS ON SCRIPTURE GEOGRAPHY.

No. III.

CHITTIM.

In Genesis x. 4, we find Kittim mentioned as one of the sons of Javan. We have already attempted to shew, in our chapter on Tarshish, that this branch of Japheth's descendants colonized the coasts of the Mediterranean and its islands. I think it is satisfactorily proved by Bochart, that Italy is the land of Kittim, though Calmet endeavours to shew, from a passage in the Maccabees, that Macedonia was the country indicated. Kittim is mentioned as a place six times in the Scriptures. Thrice it is alluded to in connection with Tyre. In Isaiah xxiii. 1, Chittim is mentioned as communicating to the ships of Tarshish the fate of Tyre, a very natural proceeding, if, as I have supposed, Etruria was peopled by Tarshish. In verse 12 of the same chapter the daughter of Zidon is represented as passing over to Chittim, but finding no rest there" for the Tyrians," (says Jerome,) when they saw they had no other means of escaping, fled in their ships and took refuge in Carthage, and in the islands of the Ionian and Egean Sea. In Ezek. xxvii. 6, we find mention made of the peculiar article of commerce with which Chittim supplied Tyre, viz. benches inlaid with ivory.

Every classical reader will be familiar with the men

tion made of furniture inlaid with ivory by Homer in his Odyssey. It appears to have been very common among the inhabitants of the Isles of Southern Europe. 'In the Island of Ceos, one of the Cyclades, the great men's houses glisten with gold and ivory,' says Athenæus, quoting from Bacchylides. The same custom seems to have prevailed at Rome, since Horace says:

"Nor ivory, nor a golden roof

Adorns my house."

Carm. lib. 11. Ode 18, line 1.

This costly practice obtained also in Judea, as we find mention made in Amos vi, 4, of beds or sofas of ivory, (i. e. adorned or inlaid with it.) In Jeremiah ii. 10, we find the prophet alluding to the people of Chittim as faithful to their gods, though they were indeed no gods. No allusion could have been happier, for never were any people more devout than the Romans. Cicero has remarked that they surpassed all other nations in piety and religion. Nothing was undertaken in politics or in war without religious ceremonies, such as consulting of Augurs, sacrifices, or divinations. Well might their veneration for their own gods rebuke the levity of Jehovah's chosen people, who were for ever forsaking the rock of their salvation, and turning aside to lying vanities.

In Daniel xi. 30, ships of Chittim are said to come against the King of the North. Antiochus Epiphanes was, as is well known, stopped in his career of Egyptian conquest by Roman Legates. The message of the senate, desiring him to desist from his designs upon Egypt, was placed in his hand by Popillius, who declined his salutation till he had received an answer. Antiochus proposed to consult his friends as to his reply, when the haughty Roman drew a circle round