"Thy garments are all myrrh, aloes, and cassia." The sequel of this verse is somewhat obscure. I shall give you what in my judgment is the literal rendering of the passage:Ver. 8. " cassia, condescends to take delight. This is the doctrine of this highly mystic text, that the value of all our best works of faith and obedience, even in our own eyes, must sink into nothing when they are contrasted with the Thy garments are all myrrh, aloes, and exuberant mercy of God extended to us through Christ." Excelling the palaces of ivory, Excelling those which delight thee." Ivory was highly valued and admired among the Jews and other Eastern nations of antiquity. It was a favourite ornament in the furniture of the houses and palaces of great men; and all such ornamental furniture was plentifully perfumed. The Psalmist therefore says, that the fragrance of the King's garments far exceeded anything that met the nostrils of the visitors in the stateliest and best furnished palaces. But this is not all: he says, besides, that these perfumes of the royal garments "excel those which de. light thee." To understand this, you must recollect that there were two very exquisite perfumes used in the symbolical service of the temple, both made of the richest spices, mixed in certain proportions, and by a process directed by the law. The one was used to anoint every article of the furniture of the sanctuary, and the robes and persons of the priests. The composition of it was not to be imitated; nor was it to be applied to the person of any but a consecrated priest, upon pain of death. Some, indeed, of the kings of David's line were anointed with it; but when this was done, it was by the special direction of a prophet; and it was to intimate, as I apprehend the relation of that royal house to the eternal priesthood to be instituted in due season in that family. The other was a compound of other ingredients, which made the incense that was burnt upon the golden altar as a grateful odour to the Lord. This, too, was most holy; and to attempt to make the like for private use was a capital offence. Now, the perfumed garments of the Psalmist's King | denote the very same thing which was typified under the law by the perfumed garments of the high-priest, the Psalmist's King being, indeed, the real person of whom the high-priest, in every particular of his office, his services, and his dress, was the type. The perfumed garments were typical, first, of the graces and virtues of the Redeemer himself in his human character; secondly, of whatever is refreshing, encouraging, consoling, and cheering, in the external ministration of the Word; and, thirdly, of the internal comforts of the Holy Spirit. But the incense fumed upon the golden altar was typical of a far inferior, though of a precious and holy thing,-namely, of whatever is pleasing to God in the faith, the devotions, and the good works of the saints. Now, the Psalmist says that the fragrance breathing from the garments of the King far excels not only the sweetest odours of any earthly monarch's palace, but that it surpasses those spiritual odours of sanctity in which the King himself delights. The consolations which the faithful under all their sufferings receive from him, in the example of his holy life, the ministration of the Word and sacraments, and the succours of the Spirit, are far beyond the proportion of any thing they have to offer in return to him, in their praises, their prayers, and their good lives; notwithstanding in these their services he Such is the fragrance breathing from the great King's wedding-garments. We proceed to other particulars in the magnificent appearance of his court on the wedding-day, figurative of the glory of the Church in its final condition of purity and peace, and of the rank and order of particular Churches. Ver. 9. " Kings' daughters are among thy honourable women," (among thy honourables.) The primary meaning of the word is "bright, sparkling;" and it is particularly applied to brilliant gems, or precious stones. Sparkling is in all languages figuratively applied to female beauty; and the imagery of the original would be better preserved, though the sense would be much the same, if the passage were thus rendered : "Kings' daughters are among the bright beauties of thy court." The beauty certainly is mystic,-the beauty of evangelical sanctity and innocence. But who and what are these kings' daughters, the lustre of whose beauty adorns the great Monarch's court?" Kings' daughters," in the general language of holy writ, are the kingdoms and peoples which they govern, of which, in common speech, they are called fathers. The expression may be so taken here; and then the sense will be, that the greatest kingdoms and empires of the world, converted to the faith of Christ, and shining in the beauty of the good works of true holiness, will be united, at the season of the wedding, to Messiah's kingdom. I rather think that the kings' daughters mentioned here are the various national Churches fostered for many ages by the piety of Christian princes, and now brought to the perfection of beauty, by the judgments which shall have purged every one of them of all things that offend: for they may well be called "kings' daughters," of whom kings and queens are called, in the prophetic language, the fathers and the mothers. From these the Psalmist turns our attention to another lady, distinguished above them all by her title, her place, and the superlative richness of her robes. 'Kings' daughters are among the bright beauties of thy court. At thy right hand the consort has her station, In standard gold of Ophir." Some expositors have imagined that the consort is an emblem of the Church catholic in her totality,-the kings' daughters, typical of the several particular Churches of which that one universal is composed. But the queen-consort here is unquestionably the Hebrew Church,-the Church of the natural Israel, re-united, by her conversion, to her husband, and advanced to the high prerogative of the mother-church of Christendom; and the kings' daughters are the Churches which had been gathered out of the Gentiles, in the interval between the expulsion of this wife and the taking of her home again, that is, between the dispersion of the Jews by the Romans, and their restoration. If the Bishop's exposition of this obscure verse, be deemed somewhat farfetched and fanciful, it is to be observed, that it does not at all affect his general scheme of interpretation, as applied to this psalm. ever. The restoration of the Hebrew Church to the rights of a wife to the situation of the queen-consort in Messiah's kingdom upon earth-is the constant strain of prophecy. In the latter part of the second chapter of Hosea, Jehovah, after discarding the incontinent wife, and threatening terrible severity of punishment, adds, that nevertheless the time should come when she should again address her offended lord by the endearing name of Husband." And I will betroth thee to myself for Yes; I will betroth thee to myself, with justice, and with righteousness, and with exuberant kindness, and with tender love. Yes; with faithfulness, to myself I will betroth thee." These promises are made to the woman that had been discarded, and cannot be understood of mercies to be extended to any other. The prophet Isaiah speaks to the same effect, and describes the Gentile converts as becoming, upon the re-union, children of the pardoned wife. And St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, to clear up the mystery of God's dealing with the Jews, tells us that blindness is in part only happened unto Israel, till | the time shall arrive for the fulness of the Gentiles to come in; and then all Israel shall be saved; for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." To expound these predictions of the ancient prophets, and this declaration of the apostle, of any thing but the restoration of the natural Israel, is to introduce ambiguity and equivocation into the plainest oracles of God. The standard gold upon the queen's robe denotes the treasures of which the Church is the depositary. The Psalmist, beholding the queen in her costly robes, on the King's right hand, interrupts the progress of his description with a word of momentous advice addressed to her. Ver. 10, 11. "Hearken, O daughter! and consider ; Incline thine ear; and forget Thine own people, and thy father's house : So shall the King set his heart upon thy beauty. Truly he is thy Lord; therefore worship thou him." If a princess from a distant land, taken in marriage by a great king, were admonished to forget her own people and her father's house, the purport of the advice would easily be understood to be, that she should divest herself of all attachment to the customs of her native country and to the style of her father's court, and learn to speak the language, and assume the dress, the manners, and the taste of her husband's people. The "father's house" and "own people," which the Psalmist advises the queen-consort to forget, is the ancient Jewish religion in its external form,-the ceremonies of the temple service, the sacrifices and the typical purgations of the Levitical priesthood. The rites of their ancient worship are to be forgotten, that is, laid aside; for they never were of any other importance than in reference to the Gospel, as the shadow is of no value but as it resembles the substance. Practically, therefore, the restored Hebrew Church is to abandon her ancient Jewish rites, and become mere and pure Christian. And this she is bound to do; for her royal husband is, indeed, her Lord: Moses was no more than his servant, the prophets after Moses, servants in a lower rank than he. But the authority of Christ the husband is paramount over all: he is entitled to her unreserved obedience; he is indeed her God, entitled to her adoration. | This submission of the consort to her wedded Lord will set her high in the esteem of the Churches of the Gentiles. Ver. 12. "See the daughter of Tyre, with a gift; The wealthiest of the people shall entreat thy favour." The “daughter of Tyre," according to the principles of interpretation we have laid down, must be a church established either literally at Tyre, or in some country held forth under the image of Tyre. Ancient Tyre was famous for her commerce, her wealth, her excellence in the fine arts, her luxury, the profligate debauched manners of her people, and the grossness of her idolatry. The "daughter of Tyre" appearing before the queen-consort" with a gift," is a figurative prediction that Churches will be established, under the protection of the government, in countries which had been distinguished for profligacy, dissipated manners, and irreligion. It is intimated in the next line, that some of these Churches will be rich; that is, rich in spiritual riches, which are the only riches of a Church, in the mystic language of prophecy,-rich in the holy lives of their members, in the truth of their creeds, and the purity of their external forms of worship, and in God's favour. But, notwithstanding this wealth of their own, these Churches will pay willing homage to the royal consort, their eldest sister, the metropolitical Church of Jerusalem. From this address to the queen, the Psalmist, in the thirteenth verse, returns to the description of the great scene lying in vision before him. Ver. 13. "The king's daughter is all glorious within." In this line, the same personage that has hitherto been represented as the King's wife seems to be called his daughter. This, however, is a matter upon which commentators have been much divided. Some have imagined that a new personage is introduced: that the King's wife is, as I have all along maintained, the figure of the Hebrew Church; but that this "daughter of the King" is the Christian Church in general, composed of Jews and Gentiles indiscriminately, considered as the daughter of the King Messiah by his Hebrew queen. Far to be preferred is the exposition of the late learned and pious Bishop Horne, who rejects the notion of the introduction of a new personage, and observes, "that the connection between Christ and his spouse unites in itself every relation and every affection." She is therefore daughter, wife, and sister, all in one. The same seems to have been the notion of a learned Dominican of the seventeenth century, who remarks that the Empress Julia, in the legends of some ancient coins, is called the daughter of Augustus, whose wife she was. But I am persuaded that, the stops being rightly placed, the Hebrew words give this sense,— "She is all gloriouз," She, the consort of whom we have been speaking, is glorious in every respect, "Daughter of a king." That is, she is a princess born (by which title she is saluted in the Canticles): she is glorious, therefore, for her high birth. She is, indeed, of high and heavenly extraction: she may say of herself, collectively, what the apostle has taught her sons to say individually, "Of his own will begat he us with the word of his truth." Accordingly, in the Apocalypse, the bride, the Lamb's wife, is "the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God." The Psalmist goes on: "Her inner garment is bespangled with gold; Her upper garment is embroidered with the needle." These two lines require little comment. The spangles of gold upon the consort's inner garment are the same thing with the standard gold of Ophir of the ninth verse, the individual treasure with which the Church is endowed, with the custody and distribution of which she is intrusted. The embroidery of her upper garment is, whatever there is of beauty in her external form, her discipline, and her rites. The Psalmist adds, the recovery of the Jews, and, in a great degree, the effect of their conversion. "Have they stumbled that they should fall?" saith the apostle, speaking of the natural Israel: "God forbid! But rather, through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to emulation. Now, if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness? For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?" In these texts, the apostle clearly lays out this order of the business, in the conversion of the whole world to Christ: First, the rejection of the unbelieving Jews: then, the first call of the Gentiles : Ver. 14. " She is conducted in procession to the King." the recovery of the Jews, after a long season of obstiOur public translation has simply, "She is brought;" nacy and blindness, at last provoked to emulation, but the original word implies the pomp and conduct of brought to a right understanding of God's dispensations, a public procession. The greatest caution is requisite by that very call which hitherto has been one of their in attempting to interpret, in the detail of circum- stumbling blocks: and, lastly, in consequence of the stances, the predictions of things yet remote. We conversion of the Jews, a prodigious influx from the may venture, however, to apply this conducting of the Gentile nations yet unconverted, and immersed in the queen to the palace of her lord, to some remarkable darkness and corruptions of idolatry, which make little assistance which the Israelites will receive from the less than two-thirds, not of the civilized, but of the Christian nations of the Gentile race, in their re-settle- | inhabited world. The Churches of this new converment in the Holy Land; which seems to be mentioned sion seem to be the virgins, the queen's bridemaids, in under the very same image by the prophet Isaiah, at the the nuptial procession. end of the eighteenth chapter," and by the prophet Zephaniah, chapter third, verse tenth, and is clearly the subject of more explicit prophecies. "Thus saith Jehovah," speaking to Zion, in the prophet Isaiah, "Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the peoples; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders." And in another place, They (the Gentiles, mentioned in the preceding verse,) shall bring all your brethren, for an offering unto Jehovah, out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem." But the Psalmist is struck with the appearance of a very remarkable band which makes a part in this procession. "She is conducted in procession to the King. Virgins follow her, her companions, Coming unto thee: The Psalmist again addresses the queen : Ver. 16. "Thy children shall be in the place of thy fathers; Thou shalt make them princes in all the earth." Thy children shall be what thy fathers were,-God's peculiar people, and shall hold a distinguished rank and character in the earth. The Psalmist closes his divine song with a distich setting forth the design, and predicting the effect, of his own performance : Ver. 17. “I will perpetuate the remembrance of thy name to all generations; Insomuch that the peoples shall praise thee for ever." By inditing this marriage-song, he hoped to be the means of celebrating the Redeemer's name from age to age, and of inciting the nations of the world to join in his praise. The event has not disappointed the holy prophet's expectation. His composition has been the delight of the congregations of the faithful for little They are conducted in procession, with festivity and less than three thousand years. For one thousand and rejoicing: They enter the palace of the King." These virgins seem to be different persons from the kings' daughters of the ninth verse. Those "kings' daughters" were already distinguished ladies of the monarch's own court: these virgins are introduced to it by the queen; they follow her as part of her retinue, and are introduced as her companions. The former represent, as we conceive, the Churches of Gentile origin, formed and established in the period of the wife's disgrace: these virgins we take to be new Churches, formed among nations not sooner called to the knowledge of the Gospel and the faith in Christ, at the very season of the restoration of Israel, in whose conversion the restored Hebrew Church may have a principal share. This is that fulness of the Gentiles of which St. Paul speaks as coincident in time with See Bishop Horsley's exposition of that chapter, (abridged) Vol. 1., page 69, First Series of Christian Herald. forty, it was a means of keeping alive in the synagogue the hope of the Redeemer to come: for eighteen hundred since, it has been the means of perpetuating in Christian congregations the grateful remembrance of what has been done, anxious attention to what is doing, and the cheering hope of the second coming of our Lord, who surely cometh to turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and to set up a standard to the nations which yet sit in darkness and the shadow of death. "He that witnesseth these things saith, Behold, I come quickly. And the Spirit saith, Come! and the bride saith, Come! and let every one that heareth say, Amen! Even so! Come, Lord Jesus!" Published by JOHN JOHNSTONE, 2, Hunter Square, Edinburgh; J. R. MACNAIR, & Co., 19, Glassford Street, Glasgow; JAMES NISBET & Co., HAMILTON, ADAMS, & Co., and R. GROOMBRIDGE, London; W. CURRY, Junr. & Co., Dublin; and W. M'COME, Belfast; and sold by the Booksellers and Local Agents in all the Towns and Parishes of Scotland; and in the principal Towns in England and Ireland. Subscribers will have their copies delivered at their Residences. THE CONDUCTED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF MINISTERS AND MEMBERS C THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. ON THE MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE GLORY. THERE can be no question that the glory of the Such being the principal characteristics of the divine glory, it is perfectly evident that nothing could be intended by God in reference to it, but its manifestation. That it might be displayed in all its magnitude, the universe was called into existence by Jehovah, and peopled with various orders of moral and intelligent creatures. We shall now briefly contemplate some of the modes in which the great First Cause of all things is unfolding the glorious excellencies of his character in the view of finite minds. I. In the work of creation God is manifesting his glory to a vast extent in the sight of his intelligent creatures. This will appear with sufficiently clear evidence, if we take even the most cursory glance of the effects produced by his power, wisdom, and goodness. Astronomers inform us that the universe appears to them to be composed of many millions of suns. Now, supposing this to be the fact, and that each of these is attended by a number of worlds like our sun, how magnificent must be that empire over which the Almighty reigns! Contemplating it as a whole, how amazing must be the power which first brought it into existence, and still maintains it in being! When such an effect has been produced, we are very apt to think that a mighty effort must have been necessary to cause it. But this is judging of the operations of Him who is infinite by a standard which applies only to us, No. 12. MARCH 23, 1839.-14d.] who are finite in our nature. Though the work of creation be as great as any of our philosophers believe it to be, it could not require any effort on the part of the Creator to produce it. However much its magnitude may exceed our most enlarged conceptions, still it is limited in extent; and no work which is so can require the effort of infinite power. The holy Psalmist, speaking under the direction of the Spirit of truth, confirms the statement now made, when he exclaims, in language no less simple than sublime, "He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast." And, as no laborious endeavour was necessary to create so many suns, and so many worlds, so none is needed to keep them in their relative positions, or to cause them to perform their accurate revolutions. The various systems into which they seem to be collected may be regarded as all suspended from the omnipotent arm of Jehovah; and by means of the laws which he has impressed on matter, all their movements are in the most perfect accordance with his will. The illustration which the work of creation gives us of the wisdom of God, is less striking, but far more diversified than that of his power. Every object, however minute, in so far as it can be brought within the range of our vision, by means of glasses, presents us with an instance of his wonderful operation. And, when we direct our attention to the various departments of nature, we are astonished at the endless diversity, and the numberless adaptations which are to be found in them, the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, and the spiritual kingdoms, being filled with wonders, and appearing to surpass each other, according to the place which has been assigned to them in the scale of being. It is a fact which is well known, that mankind have been able to penetrate only to a very small depth into the globe on which they dwell, and consequently its mineral treasures have been ex[SECOND SERIES. VOL. I. and excellent in working." Some of the kinds of animals far surpass others in the curious structure of their bodies, and thus supply more striking examples of the intelligence employed in their formation. But, above all, there are the best grounds for believing that the bodies of mankind ought to be regarded as patterns of the workmanship of the Almighty, to which nothing equal can be found among the material objects of this lower world. The royal Psalmist, when contemplating this interesting subject, exclaims, "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made : marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." plored only to a very small extent. Few mines approximate one mile in deepness from the surface of the earth; and yet, from the surface to the centre, the distance is nearly four thousand miles, so that the contents of the mass never can be known. And yet, in the comparatively small field which has been laid open to observation, how numerous and how remarkable are the formations which have been discovered, and how extensively are many of the cabinets of the curious furnished with beautiful specimens of the handiwork of the Almighty! Were the component parts of our own and of all the other worlds in existence to be ascertained, and were the knowledge of them to be placed within our reach, by any means whatever, we would undoubtedly feel ourselves to be over-apprehend, afford us such an exemplification of whelmed with the very idea of the wonderful modifications of matter, which, to our limited minds, would appear to be infinite in number. None of the other kingdoms of nature, we the wisdom of the Creator as that which includes spirits in all their gradations of intellectual and moral excellence. We know nothing of the nature of spiritual beings, though we are partly composed of them, and they are considered to be the more excellent branch of our constitution. But if we were enabled to form an adequate conception of those beings that are simple spiritual exalted of those intelligences that surround the throne of God in heaven, we believe that we would see in them proofs of the actings of Him whose understanding is infinite,-proofs so amaz ing as to be altogether unparalleled among the other works of God. From the few and slight references which have now been made to the works of Jehovah, we may learn what fields of knowledge must remain unexplored by us in this life; and we may be induced to adopt the words of the Psalmist, "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the We have no hesitation in saying that the vegetable kingdom of nature far surpasses the mineral kingdom in the multitude and variety of the material forms which it presents to our notice. Those who have spent much of their time in the study of botany can form some conception of the vege-existences, from the soul of man up to the most table riches which cover the surface of our beautiful world, a world still beautiful, notwithstanding the divine curse which sin has brought on it. When it retains so many features of loveliness, what must have been its condition when the Creator himself pronounced it to be "very good," as soon as it came from his forming hand, and when "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" at the sight of it! Even in the very unfavourable circumstances in which it is now placed, it annually produces so many examples of the exquisite workmanship of the great God of heaven and earth, that multi-earth is full of thy riches." tudes of our race take pleasure in collecting them. Numbers of these, without doubt, have their minds led directly from the specimens of contrivance which they gather, to the Wonderful Counsellor who fashioned them; and they find abundant matter for praise to Him who has condescended to gratify them by permitting them to view the works of his hands. Others, however, have their minds so blinded by sin that, though they often feel ecstacies of delight at the contemplation of the vegetable productions of nature, they never once think of nature's God, who made the very objects which they admire. We scarcely know any class of persons so much to be pitied as those whose understandings are so clouded with moral darkness that they are unable, through the materialism of this world, to discover Him "who is God over all, and blessed for evermore." Though the animal kingdom does not present to our observation so many illustrations of the divine wisdom as the vegetable kingdom, its specimens are more remarkable for their astonishing contrivance. Every species of living creatures which is to be found on the land, or in the water of our globe, furnishes a beautiful specimen of the operation of Him who is "wonderful in counsel, Moreover, the work of creation not only manifests the glory of the divine power and wisdom. but also furnishes us with many rich displays of the goodness of God. Every thing that has life, from the minutest animal which exists to the mightiest archangel in the regions of blessedness, is a participator of the divine goodness. All of these, according to the circumstances of their condition, are dependent on the bounty of Him of whom it is said, in the emphatical language of the Holy Oracles, "The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." Who of created beings can estimate the amount of goodness which is exhibited by the Almighty in his treatment of all the orders of animate and intelligent creatures that are to be found throughout the universe? Nay even, who of mankind can calculate how much our single globe contributes annually, by the benevolent arrangement of Jehovah, for the sustenance of the various tribes of animals which it contains? Viewing the goodness which is put in operation for supplying the returning wants of the children of men, and for conferring on them all spiritual and heavenly blessings, we have abun |