joy of its Lord? Can a few short moments carry my poor dying parent, or brother, or child, or friend, from this dark room of mourning, into all the light of heaven? Yes; "in this evening time it shall be light." O may the God of my fathers grant, that when my evening comes, it may be light with me! of the just is as the shining light, that shineth | strive in vain to pour one drop of consolanore and more unto the perfect day." We tion-can that soul, when a few more hours re only in the twilight now; a bewilder- are past, be filled with all the unutterable ng, though a cheering twilight; but the arkness will soon be completely past, and he light will shine true and clear. Every hing will come to an end, that now eneebles, straitens, or distresses us. Our nowledge will be unmixed with error; mited indeed, but ever enlarging. We hall see God and know God-"see him s he is," and know him "even as we are nown." The consequence is, we shall be ike God-like him in holiness, for we shall e" without spot or blemish"-like him in appiness, for we shall "enter into his y"—like him in safety and repose, for we hall receive " a kingdom which cannot be noved." "Thou shalt call thy walls alvation," says Isaiah to the redeemed hurch," and thy gates Praise. The sun hall be no more thy light by day, neither or brightness shall the moon give light unto hee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an verlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither hall thy moon withdraw itself; for the ord shall be thine everlasting light, and he days of thy mourning shall be ended." And what must that light be, which comes mmediately from Jehovah's throne? Look at the sun that he has fixed in the heavens; ur feeble eyes cannot bear its splendor. n heaven, "they that be wise, shall shine orth as that sun." And if a pardoned inner is so glorious there with a borrowed ustre, who can measure the glory of him who is the Fountain of life, the source of all me light that ever shone? 2. And this light often breaks upon the oul when the soul looks not for it; its lessedness comes in an unexpected hour. At evening time it shall be light;" in the vening, when we least look for light to ome, when our hopes fail us, when we egin to fear that the twilight of a cloudy ay will be succeeded by the thick darkess of a stormy night. Let us think of this promise as we look n the dying Christian. We sometimes nd it hard to believe that the blessed hange which awaits him can be real. Can that helpless, sinking, withered frame, at "vile body," be ever made like the lorious body of the Lord Jesus Christ? an that soul which is now all gloom, or onfusion, or insensibility, into which we 66 We have now gone through this gracious promise. What use shall we make of it? If we make no other, let it at least excite us to inquire whether we are the people concerned in it. And to come to a faithful answer of this question, it is not enough that we remember the outward changes we have undergone-have we experienced any change within? We were "sometimes darkness;" ignorant of our lost condition, blind to the glory of Christ; desperately wicked, and yet trusting in our own righteousness; perishing, and yet thinking ourselves safe;—are we now light in the Lord ?" Do we see as we once saw not? Does the eternity which we once hardly thought of, now appear of tremendous importance in our sight? Is the value of the soul, is the way of salvation, is the preciousness of the Saviour, revealed to us? Do we know Christ? Has God" shined into our hearts?" Is the day begun there? If we shrink from such questions as these, this scripture was never designed to comfort us; we have at present no part or lot in the consolation it affords. The light it speaks of will never shine on our dying bed, nor break on us in an eternal world. there will be thick darkness and unbroken despair. All And must the sorrows of life end thus, brethren? Must its changes come to this mournful termination? O flee from this "wrath to come." Near as you may be to it, you are called on to escape it; to accept, instead of it, the salvation of heaven. And this call comes not to you from sermons and ministers only; it is the voice of all the vicissitudes which befall you. Every trouble that grieves, and every mercy that gladdens you, is sent to you from heaven on the same errand, to remind you of a great Saviour and to bring you to his feet. Whether mourning or rejoicing, hoping or fearing, in sickness or in health, in trouble or in peace, this is the gracious call ever sounding in your ears, " Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." "Give glory then to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains; and while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness." many things within you and around you may seem, they are all parts of one and the same plan; that this plan is continually before the Lord; that it has been so from your cradle, and will be so to your grave; that he studied and arranged it in eternity. and in eternity will glorify himself for the grace which it displays. Your own lips sha.. If the light of grace has indeed begun to praise him there-praise him, not merely dawn within us, then let this scripture for the love that formed you for himself, the "sink down into our ears." Let the young Saviour who redeemed, the Spirit who sane and peaceful Christian remember it. You tifies, and the heavenly consolations which love perhaps to hear of such consolations as refresh you, but praise him for the troubles these, but you do not feel any urgent need which have brought you low, the conflicts of them; and after dwelling on them for an which have made you tremble, the sorrow hour, you are tempted to let them pass that have almost broken your heart, and away from your memories, as though they the weakness that has subdued it. concerned you not. But you will need the time is drawing nigh. The night is them. Your sunshine will not go with you already "far spent, the day is at hand," all the way to the grave. As surely as cloudless, never-ending day. Let us look you are the children of Christ, so surely forward to it. Let us look at "the things will he make you acquainted with "the which are not seen." Let us think of them days of darkness." You know not how till, among all the changes and chances of many of them may be your portion, nor this mortal life, we can say with the happy how soon they may come. You know not Paul, "I have learned, in whatsoever state what clouds may even now be gathering I am, therewith to be content. I know both around your path; what fears, and dis- how to be abased, and I know how to abound; couragements, and temptations may be near everywhere and in all things, I am instruct at hand. Expect trials; prepare for them. ed both to be full and to be hungry, bo Take unto you "the whole armor of to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth God." "Let the word of Christ dwell in And what does this text say to you who are beginning to be afflicted and tossed in your SERMON V. And way to heaven? It bids you put to yourselves THE PRAYER OF MOSES FOR A VIEW OF GOD. EXODUS XXX. 18. I beseech thee, show me thy glory. THE blessedness of heaven consists chiefti the question of the troubled Job, "What, shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" Shall we take the comforts he has prepared for his children, and murmur at his corrections? He measures out to us good and evil, light and darkness, with infinite wisdom and in seeing God. The man therefore wh love; and we must learn to receive both with is heavenly-minded, can enter at once in equal thankfulness. There may be changes and counterchanges in our lot; and what if there be? Through the power of the Holy Ghost they are subduing our corruptions, exercising our graces, bringing us to a more simple dependence on our God. And he who sends them, marks them all, controls them all, and turns them all to one blessed end. Rest satisfied, brethren, with this truth, that, however mysterious and perplexing the meaning of this prayer. It expresses nothing more than a feeling with which he is well acquainted, one of the strongest and most cherished desires of his own hear He too can say, he often has said at the footstool of his God, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." It is plain, brethren, that we have now a very lofty subject before us. Were Moses himself among us, he could not speak of it as he ought. An angel could not elevate >ur minds to any just conceptions of it. But greater than Moses or any angel is here. The Lord himself is in this place; and he can cause his glory so to shine, that even ur feeble eyes may discern its brightness.. We must however limit our view of it to ne point-let us look on the divine glory is an object of desire to the spiritual mind. We may consider, first, the circumtances which led to the petition in the text; econdly, the petition itself; and, thirdly, he reasons why every one of ourselves hould take it as his frequent and earnest rayer. I. The great lesson taught us by the cirumstances connected with this petition, is he wonderful power of prayer. By turning to the tenth verse of the preeding chapter, we discover the Most High xpressing his righteous indignation against lolatrous Israel, and threatening to conume them. But Moses prays for the reellious people. In the first instance, he ndeavors to turn away the divine wrath rom them, that it might not cut them off; nd, as we are told in the fourteenth verse, e prevails. Still, however, to mark his ispleasure, the Lord refuses to go any furher with the guilty nation, and intimates, the thirty-fourth verse, his intention of ending an angel with them in his stead. But no angel, no, nor all the angels in the ourts of heaven, can fill up the place of a eparted God. Moses knew this. Hence e find him, in the fifteenth verse of this hapter, once more pleading for Israel. le beseeches the Lord to reveal himself gain, as the companion and guide of their ay, and humbly tells him that they had ther stay or even die where they were, a dreary wilderness, than go into the romised land without their God. 66 If thy resence go not with me," said the fervent ophet," carry us not up hence." "What an angel to us? or what the possession Canaan, with its boasted hills and fertile ains? These, without thee, will leave us or; nay, they will make us wretched; ey will serve only to remind us of the ilt we have incurred, and the pleasures e have lost." And here again Moses preiled. "My presence shall go with thee," hovah answered, " and I will give thee st." And now, surely, this intercessor will p. No, brethren; the more prayer obns, the more it asks; the more spiritual desires are gratified, the more they are enlarged. Moses turns from Israel to himself. With a mixture of filial boldness, and trembling reverence, and holy transport, he abruptly cries, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." And this bold petition too is granted. In a moment comes from the cloudy pillar this gracious answer, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee.” See here then what prayer is and what prayer does, its nature and its power. It is a longing after God, which nothing short of the full enjoyment of God can satisfy. And as for its power, it can do all things. It knows no other bounds than the good of the sinner on the one hand, and the omnipotence of Jehovah on the other. 66 Open thy mouth wide," the Lord says, “and I will fill it." "Ye shall ask what ye will," says Christ," and it shall be done." The pardon of all our sins, free, complete, and eternal; a victory over every lust; the presence of God with us all through this dark world; his glory passing before our eyes, and shining into our hearts; guidance, protection, strength; heavenly consolations while we live, and heaven itself when we die ;-all are within the reach of prayer; within our reach; nay, held up, as it were, before our face, with this inscription shining on them all, "Ask, and ye shall have." "Mercies purchased, prepared, waiting for praying man." And which of these mercies is now the object of this prophet's desire? One of the highest of them all-a clear and full discovery of Jehovah's glory. II. Consider his petition. Its precise meaning is not easily discovered. Perhaps Moses himself could not have defined it. It might be that he wished to behold God with his bodily eyes, face to face. In this sense, he is told, in the twentieth verse, that his prayer is vain. The King of kings "dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto." He is one "whom no man hath seen or can see." He accordingly declares to Moses, “Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me, and live." And yet, in the verse preceding, the great Searcher of hearts appears to have understood his praying servant in a different sense. He says, in answer to his request, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. And mark how this promise was fulfilled. Moses is ordered to ascend Mount Sinai. | every hour;-his patience? we have trial it, and know it to be almost boundless. There the Lord meets him, but still hidden from his sight by the same veil which had before concealed him. He descended in the cloud, and stood with him there." And what followed? Was the cloud rent asunder, and the Lord of the universe disclosed in all the majesty of his greatness? No. The prophet may strain his expecting eyes, he may strive to pierce the covering of the Holy One; but the cloud passes by him, dark and impenetrable. He sees nothing; but as it rolls along, he hears a voice proclaiming from the midst of it "the name of the Lord." And how did this proclamation run? In this august and yet gracious style; "The Lord; the Lord God, merciful and gracious; long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands; forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." We are warranted then in coming to this conclusion-the chief, if not the only object of the prophet's prayer, was a clearer manifestation of the divine perfections, a greater knowledge of God, a closer and more enlarged view of those attributes which constitute his glory. 1. Hence we are taught by this petition, that there is more glory in the perfections of God, than his most favored servants ever saw. Why was not Moses satisfied? He had seen the power of the Almighty in the wonders he had wrought in Egypt. He had trembled at his majesty amid the blackness, and darkness, and terrific grandeur, of mount Sinai. For forty days and forty nights, he had been surrounded by his brightness, while he received the law from his mouth. His patience had been displayed in bearing with the murmurings and idolatry of Israel. The smitten rock and descending manna proclaimed his goodness. What more could a child of the dust require? What more could he bear? If we turn to ourselves, why need we offer up this prayer? Who can look around, and not discover his Creator's glory? Would we see his power? a thousand shining worlds declare its greatness ;-his goodness? the earth is full of it ;-his wisdom? it is visible in every blade of grass, in every movement and vessel of our frame ;his justice? every opened grave proclaims it; we feel it in the griefs and troubles of And then if we turn from the vast crea tion and from providence, to the revelation made of God in the gospel of his Son-whe can an angel want more? There," in the face of Jesus Christ," shines his glory in its full radiance. There "treasures of w dom and knowledge" display themselves There justice, as it leads the Holy One of Israel to the cross, fills us with awe. There mercy and love melt us. There gra shines in its freeness; providing a S viour for rebels; in its sovereignty, pas ing by the angels that sinned, and mak lost man its object;-in its unsearcha riches; bringing the Fellow of Jehovah from his throne, clothing him in mortal fless surrounding him with earthly pollutices and pouring into his soul more than ear griefs, casting him on the ground at Get semane, condemning him at Golgotha, c cifying him in gloom and terrors at Calvary laying him mangled in the grave. O whe an exhibition of every divine perfection here! Who can look on the cross of the Lord Jesus, and still say to Jehovah, "Sho me thy glory?" Every one, brethren, w looks on it in faith. The very sight of t glory which is manifested there, will ma his heart burn to behold it nearer. There is in the fulness of the Godhead such an infinite depth and height of gl that no manifestation can display it all, and no created being, however exalted, ca comprehend it all. Take the highest cr ture in the universe; place him in the mediate presence of God, before his thro and give him all the powers which ear and heaven can supply; and let him these mighty powers for years and ages this one effort, to know God-and what he learned of him? About as much as mariner knows of an ocean which he c neither measure nor fathom. The pray with which he began the work is as on his lips as ever. And let another su cession of ages roll away, it is the He is heard crying with still greater f quency and ardor, "Show me thy glory And what does he say to every one asks him of the knowledge he has acquired The same that Zophar said to the bew dered Job; "Canst thou by searching fr out God? Canst thou find out the A mighty unto perfection? It is high as heat en; what canst thou do? deeper than he what canst thou know? The measures man's heart; and, without adding a single thereof is longer than the earth, and broader | idea, one atom, to his knowledge, he humthan the sea." 2. This truth is also implied in the text, that none but God can give us even that partial discovery of his glory, which we are capable of receiving. bles, and elevates, and almost overwhelms him with a sense of the divine glory. The testimony of Saint Paul on this point is exceedingly strong. "The natural man," he says, "receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." In another place, he sends us back to the creation of the world. He bids us look on the earth" without form and void," and with not one ray of is a picture of the mind of man; not of man Here nature, with all her splendid works, is powerless. Inquiry and study can do nothing. Nay, the gospel itself, though sent down as a light from heaven, removes not our darkness. These things may teach us something of God as an object of speculation or science, may give us as much know-light to break its darkness. Here, he tells us, ledge of him as a map of Eden would give us of paradise; but what is the sum of it all? It is no more to be compared with that sight of God, for whien the Christian prays, than studying by a taper the nature of the sun, is to be compared with the light and warmth which gladden us at noonday. This Moses knew. With this truth every servant of God is acquainted. Ask him where he obtained his lofty conceptions of the divine greatness, he will trace them, not to the sermons he has heard, or the ooks he has read, or the many hours of Deditation which he has passed; these have een the means or channels by which knowledge has been communicated to his mind, and he is thankful for them; but as for the source of it, he points us to God himself. He tells us that it is a wisdom which has come from above. He declares with humble thankfulness, that without the special teaching of the Holy Ghost, all the means of grace which he has enjoyed, would have left him as ignorant as they found him; that even in the full blaze of Jehovah's glory, he should have gone down to the grave with his mind benighted, knowing no more to any useful purpose of the Being who formed him, than the brutes which perish. And this conviction is the fruit of his present experience. There are still times when, surrounded by the works of God, with the word of God in his hands and perhaps sounding in his ears, he feels himself shut out from God. He knows that he is near him, but he is near him in a cloud, shrouded in darkness. In spite of all his efforts, he cannot see him. He is no more affected by his glory, than as though the heavens had ceased to declare, and the gospel to proclaim it. And yet wait for an hour. The Holy Spirit shines into that He We may now discover the meaning of the prophet's supplication. It is an acknowledgment of the unsearchable glory of Jehovah. It is a confession of the feebleness and blindness of his own mind. It is an earnest request to God, not so much for any new revelation of his character, as for eyes to see and a heart to feel the manifestation which he has already made of himself in his works and word. It is a prayer for an inward, and spiritual, and abiding sense of his perfections, such as may give to them a reality and power which earthly objects may not remove, nor the corruptions of his own heart deaden. 3. But this is not all. There is included also in this petition, a desire that God would reveal to the soul its own special interest in his perfections. We perceive at a glance that this desire must accompany the other. We cannot look with the eye of faith on the great God, without at the same time remembering that he is a God "with whom we have to do," |