ple of God themselves. How prone are they to forget their privileges and principles; and to imagine they are left of God in particular situations and difficulties. But they cannot be left, especially in their afflictions; for he has not only said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee-but "I will be with thee in trouble"-" When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." Yet after all this, divine manifestations often surprise) us; and we wonder, where we should only praise.

JUNE 18." And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."-Gen.

xxviii. 17.

SUCH was the exclamation of Jacob after his pleasing dream; when he awoke from sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.

It shows us that intercourse with God, instead of favouring levity of mind, produces the most serious impressions. The man that felt no apprehension in the evening at lying down in the open air, enveloped in darkness and surrounded with danger, is afraid in the morning-at what? The thought of a present Deity. This was not indeed a slavish, terrifying dread, like that of Belshazzar, when he saw the handwriting upon the wall, when the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees sinote one against another: but it was reverence and godly fear; such as Peter and Isaiah and Job felt, at the manifestations of the divine glory; and such as the angels feel when they veil their faces before him. Let this rectify the mistake of those who imagine that the doctrines of grace and the work of the Spirit lead people to a kind of careless and presumptuous freedom with God. The experience of every believer gives the lie to this. The nearer he draws to God's seat, and the more intimately he deals with him, the more he sees of his perfections, and the more he feels his own vanity and vileness. And the Scripture assures us that God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.

Wherever God meets with his people, that place deserves to be considered as his house. This is conformable to his own language: "The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." Observe also our Saviour's conversation with the woman of Samaria. Her countrymen supposed that God must be preferably, if not exclusively, worshipped on Gerizim; while the Jews thought the same of Jerusalem: but he reminded her that the worship of God did not derive its excellency or acceptableness from locality: "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." God seldom receives any thing but formality from those worship

pers, whose bigoted attachment to any particular mode or building leads them to say, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we." Nothing makes a people dear to God but their resemblance of him; and nothing makes any place sacred but the divine presence-There can be no sanctity in wood and stone" This," says Jacob, of the bare ground on which he had been lying, having seen and heard God there; "this is none other than the house of God." Our Lord prayed and preached in private dwellings; in the open air; on the side of a mountain; by the way side; and from a fishing-boat, as well as in the synagogue and temple. So did his Apostles. It was not till the end of the third century that Christians had edifices expressly reared for their public worship. In three cases this remark may encourage us. First, when by accident, disease, relative affliction, or civil engagement, we are detained from the courts of the Lord. If the heart be there, and we are unavoidably prevented, the Lord will make up the loss, and we shall see his power and glory as we have seen him in the sanctuary. Secondly, if Providence should fix our station where we have little or no advantage from the privileges of God's house. John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, though in exile, and far from the usual appendages of the Sabbath. "I will be," says God, "a little sanctuary to them in the midst of the heathen." Thirdly, in the intervals of public worship. We cannot be always, or very frequently, in the temple; but we may render every object and every event a preacher; and

"Where'er we seek him he is found,

And every place is holy ground.”

Again. The experience of good men even here sometimes approximates them to the world of glory. Jacob saw that he was not in heaven, but in such communion and with such manifestations, he thought it could not be far off-"This," says he, " is none other than the gate of heaven." Carnal men think of heaven (if ever they think of it at all) as a place far off, and to be reached by ascending up thousands of miles through the skies. But, says our Saviour," the kingdom of God is nigh you. The kingdom of hea ven is within you." And the believer's present acquaintance with it and participations of it convince him that heaven is a state rather than a place-He is the first-fruits of the Spirit, the earnest of inhe ritance-He has come to the heavenly Jerusalem, and has everlasting life. And we confine not this to some extraordinary enjoyments in his private and public devotional engagements-in tribulation we have seen him "joyful in glory;" and have heard him "shout aloud upon his bed" of painful sickness, and dying anguish.

Finally, the house of God and the gate of heaven are related to each other; and therefore they are well mentioned together. Not that the connexion between them is inseparable; or that all those who attend the one will enter the other-Far from it. To some the house of God will be the gate of hell, and open to them a passage into greater misery; and the preaching of the Word will prove the savour of death unto death. But this is the effect of perversion or misimprovement. The means of grace are designed and adapted to awaken and secure our attention to the things which belong to our peace. In the house of God many of his people are converted; and

all are comforted, improved, and established. To them the Sabbath is an emblem of, and a preparation for, the rest that remains, when the busy week of life is over. They are here learning and loving the song they will sing for ever. The temple below only precedes and introduces the temple above-Thus the pious Philip Henry would often end his "pleasant things" on the evening of the Lord's day, by saying-" Well, if this be not heaven, it must be the way to it."

JUNE 19.-"I am Alpha and Omega."—Rev. i. 8.

ALPHA and Omega are the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet; and therefore stand for the commencement and termination of any concern in question-Therefore it is here added by way of explanation, "The beginning and the ending."

It is proper to observe that this is the way in which God characterizes himself: "Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God"-This is very decisive. And yet the Lord Jesus applies this title to himself. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty"-We are not ignorant of the pretence of some, that God the Father is here intended; but nothing like evidence supports it; while the attempt itself betrays a concession that if the words were the words of our Saviour, his divinity would be established. But read again: "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." And again: "It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." "And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." Here he is undeniably the speaker; and equally is he so in our text. Now if he had been thus called only in one place, it would have been sufficient for our purpose: but the frequency of the appropriation of the title shows how necessary it is that we always entertain proper apprehensions of his greatness.

But what is the import of the title itself? First, it regards his nature, and shows the duration of it. It never began, and will never end. Hence in another place he is said to be "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." And Paul holds forth this truth by comparing, or rather contrasting him with the creation-He was before the world appeared; and he will be when it is no more: Thou, Lord

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in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: they shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." It is true that angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, and even their glorified bodies, will be immortal. But they will not continue like him. They are only streams, he is the fountain of life. They are branches, he is the vine that sustains them. In him they will live, and move, and have their being for ever. If he should suspend his influence for a moment, they would return to their original nothingness-"He only," therefore, "hath immortality."

It also regards his agency-The continuance and exclusiveness of it-That he is the commencer and completer-That he is all in all -In what?

Let us look at creation. Modern science has surprisingly enlarg ed our conceptions of the magnitude and extent of the universe; but glorious and immense as it is—we use only the language of Scripture: "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." "By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him." Thus he is the first cause, and the last end of the whole.

Let us look at providence, Preservation, if it be not a continued creation, requires a continual agency-" And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." "He upholdeth all things by the word of his power." How many creatures are there visible, and what myriads of myriads more, that are invisible, in the air, the water, and the earth! And the eyes of all wait upon him. He openeth his hand and satisfieth every living thing. He is the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. He raises them up, and brings them down, as he pleases: they fulfil his purposes, and will appear at his tribunal. Empires are formed or destroyed at his nod. All their revolutions are connected with his cause; and the kingdom and nation that will not serve him shall perish. He is the head over all things to the Church which is his body; the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Let us look at redemption. He trod the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with him. By himself he purged our sins. When he died he said, It is finished. And by the one offering up of himself, we are assured he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. And he is not only the Alpha and Omega in obtaining eternal redemption for us, but in the application of it. He saves us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. We live in the Spirit; we walk in the Spirit; and this Spirit is "the Spirit of Christ," and derived only from him. The Apostle therefore calls him "the author and finisher of our faith." He is all that faith sees, lays hold of, relies upon, rejoices and glories in. Whose blood but his cleanses us from all sin? Whose righteousness but his can we mention in our approach to God? In whom alone are we free from all condemnation? He only lives to make intercession for us. He only is our advocate

with the Father. In him all fulness dwells. Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. He produces also the grace of faith: he maintains it: he perfects it: and therefore the Apostles addressed themselves to him, saying, Lord, increase our faith. And the same, by a parity of reason, may be said of all our religious principles and dispositions. He is the author and finisher of our hope; the author and finisher of our patience: the author and finisher of our humility, our peace, our joy. Therefore on him all believers alone depend, and to him alone they ascribe the praise and glory of all they possess. "Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace."

JUNE 20.-" And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink."-Ex. xvii. 5, 6.

We should learn two things from this interposition. The one regards the providence of God. The other, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It should teach us to rely on the providence of God in our difficulties and straits. The trial was great-They pitched in Rephidim, and the people had no water to drink. Consider how indispensable this supply was, in a dry place, under a burning sun, and with such an immense multitude of men, women, children, and cattle! What lowings of the herds! What piercing cries of the infants! What anguish is parching thirst!-God could have led them to a place where were wells of water, or have rained down showers upon them; but this would not have been so sensible and striking a display of omnipotence, as bringing water at once by a stroke out of a rock, which, as we learn from two other passages of Scripture, was a rock of flint; and in such abundant effusions. "He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers." What a foundation for their hope in God! Yet see their unbelief. We should have thought it impossible for them, after such a proof of his almightiness and all-sufficiency, to have questioned whether he could deliver or relieve them: " yet they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?" So it was with them. But how was it with Moses, when God had engaged to furnish the people with flesh for a month? Moses said, "The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them? And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord's hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not." How was it with our Lord's own disciples? They had seen him from a most scanty supply feed a vast multitude, so that as distribuVOL. I.

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