plication of thy universal church. “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, 0 most mighty ; with thy glory and thy majesty, ride prosperously,” until “ the seventh angel sounds, and there are great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.'

*

And was not, then, thy Godhead's crown

Glory enough for thee,
That thou wouldst lay that glory down,

To come, and die for me?
And dost thou deem thy crown of thorns
The brightest that thy brow adorns ?

Thine empire — was its boundless line

Too narrow for thy sway,
That thou wouldst all thy realms resign,

And quit the worlds of day,
To wrest this province from the foe,
And lay the dark usurper low?

Thus the fond shepherd leaves the fold,

To seek the wandering one;

Nor shrinks from peril, heat, or cold,

Till pity's task is done:
That one to him is dearer made
Than the whole flock that never strayed.

My Sovereign Lord! my Shepherd King!

My spirit's homage meet, While I

my

heart's full tribute bring,
And lay it at thy feet:
Dear Sovereign of my prostrate soul,
When wilt thou reign from pole to pole?

12

LAMB.

MY SAVIOUR is "the LAMB OF GOD, which taketh away the sin of the world."* Did not fallen but penitent Adam have a view of his promised deliverer under this name, when he shed the blood of his first sacrifice in Eden, and knelt beside its consumed flesh on the first altar of atonement? It is highly probable, that the first creature of this lower world, which tasted death, was one of the firstlings of the brute creation, from the newly-created flock that had strayed, in joyful security, over the lawns of Paradise. With the unblemished fleece of that spotless victim were 66 our primal parents clothed." + They were significantly taught by him who, doubtless, condescended to explain the types of mercy, that they might look for atonement and righteousness to the Lamb of God — to Jehovah,

incarnate in the woman's promised seed. What other object met and rejoiced the eye of Abel's faith, when he was kneeling at the accepted altar of burnt sacrifice, and when he breathed out his soul into the hands of the Saviour in whom he believed, beneath the murderous blows of a brother's hand ?

If the morning and evening sacrifice of a lamb was instituted at the fall, and was continued uninterruptedly on some altar or other raised by the Lord's people, in that sacrifice alone, three millions of lambs assisted the faith of believers, before John the Baptist exhibited to view the grand antitype. All that perfection of atoning virtue, which was shadowed forth in the careful selection of lambs for the Jewish altar, was fully displayed in Christ; and the prophetic circumstances of their slaughter, whether for the altar or for the paschal table, were fulfilled in the affecting particulars of his death.

May the Christ-revealing Spirit engage my soul in frequent, deep, and delightful meditation on this grand turning-point of its deliverance from eternal death, that I

not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but

was

99*

with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot.'

How complete was the atonement which Jesus made for my guilt! How perfectly free from blemish, and from defiling spot, must be the soul that is washed in that “precious blood”! Joyful assurance, it “cleanses from ALL sin "!My soul,“ dost thou believe on the Son of God”? I Art thou looking to the Lamb of God ? That look of faith transfers all thy guilt to his past sacrifice, and confers on thee his everlasting righteousness. The church - the soul that has

been redeemed by a Lamb thus unblemished and spotless, must be itself without spot, in the sight of divine justice. That justice is satisfied with the sacrifice of “the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world,” s and is therefore necessarily reconciled to the soul which is interested in the spotless offering.

In turning over the prophetic pages of the Apocalypse, I am struck with the prominence given to this name of my Saviour, in all that is said of the future periods of the church militant and the church triumphant. When I behold my