of sin, it is promised in the covenant of mercy to the devout believer, Your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more. Heb. viii. 12. Still, however, the anti-typical fire of the altar burns, and its sacrifice remains; or, in other words, the justice of God meets its perpetual offering in the work and mediation of his dear Son. Imperishable fuel thus supplies the imperishable fire. Nothing that could not bear the test of fire among the spoils captured by Israel from the Midianites, was to be retained, Num. xxxi. 23: and nothing that will not bear the scrutiny of Omniscience, and remain, after the fiery ordeal, pure and untarnished, as gold from the pot of the refiner, will be allowed to enter into the ground of our justification, or the reward of our faith and love. Hence, all the blessings of the everlasting covenant are infallibly secured by Christ to all whom the Lord and Spirit of life regenerates and hallows. With assured hope, therefore, may each individual member of God's believing household pray, Be surety for thy servant for good, Ps. cxix. 122: and the Redeemer will graciously defend our cause against all our adversaries, and bring to a most merciful and triumphant issue all the trials of his willing and obedient people.

There is another view of the perpetually burning fire which we would suggest; namely, the illustration it affords for the necessity of continual vigilance in the Christian life. The proverb of Solomon is true, as well in a spiritual as in a literal sense: Where no wood is, the fire goeth out, Prov. xxvi. 20: and where no stated, habitual, persevering efforts are made, to cherish the presence of the eternal Spirit, and to cultivate those holy dispositions and affections so peculiarly denomi

nated, the fruits of the Spirit, as originated by his power and nurtured by his grace, the piety of the heart will decline; and although the final state of the believer may not be questioned, there will be much darkness pervading the understanding, much doubtfulness enfeebling and disquieting the mind, and those giant sins which we had deemed to be overcome and slain, will again, peradventure, revive, and live, and dominate. If then we would that the Spirit of judgment and the Spirit of burning, Isa. lxvi. 16, should pass through all our mental being, and the fire of a holy love should prevail in comforting and purifying power within us, we must watch and pray, stir up the gift that is in us, add daily fuel to the fire of our heart's altar, and see diligently that no permitted evil be allowed to damp the spirit's ardour, and to bring clouds of distrust or shame between us and our holy and jealous God. Now, do you ask, How shall we maintain this soul-prosperity? Without particular enlargement upon them, we will submit to your consideration and adoption the following rules:

1. Make the Word of God, from day to day, your careful study: Jer. xxiii. 29.

2. Cultivate a reflective mind: Ps. xxxix. 3; Col. iii. 16.

3. Seek intercourse and converse with pious and experienced Christians: Luke xxiv. 32.

4. Attend with constancy and diligence the public means Acts x. 33.

And 5. And, more than all, be much in mental and in stated private prayer: Eph. vi. 18.

As a fire, the holy Word will soften, illuminate, and

purify while you meditate, the kindlings of devotion will be felt in the soul: in converse with his righteous servants, Jesus himself will draw near and commune with you, until your very heart shall glow with heavenly ardour; the worship of the sanctuary will refresh and quicken you; and by continuing instant in frequent private prayer, the Spirit of God will so help your infirmities and replenish your necessities, that the fire of your devotion shall truly be an ever-burning one. See an illustrious instance, in proof of our assertion, in Isaiah: when the vision of Jehovah, in his glorious holiness, was presented to the prophet's mind, so overpowering and appalling was the grandeur of the passing scene, that he cried, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. No sooner, however, does one of the seraphim touch the prophet's lips, with a live coal from off the brazen-altar, and it is asked, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? than the abashed and trembling prophet rises, in the might of that imparted purity, and fearlessly replies, Here am I; send me. Ch. vi. 1-8. Thus will it be with every true servant of Christ: in proportion to our self-humiliation and watchful waiting upon the Lord, help and strength will be graciously afforded. Grieve not, then, by any unbefitting temper or unworthy act, that gracious Spirit by whom ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Eph. iv. 30. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity; for if these things be in you and abound, they make

you that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Pet. i. 5—8. The fire of devout affection shall thus rise higher and purer in the censer of your heart, until, like the burning seraphim of the prophet's vision, you shall worship in the immediate presence of the Lord of hosts, when the train of his attendant followers shall fill the courts of his glorious temple.

Before we pass to our conclusion, the point we are discussing will admit of an additional remark: it was in the morning of each day, that Aaron and his sons ministered wood unto the fire of the brazen-altar: and surely the early hours of each day, while the powers of both mind and body are most vigorous, and, consequently, also best capable of exertion, are most decidedly preferable to any other season, for religious exercises and devotional study. Even in this particular, small and inconsiderable as it may seem to many, Jesus has left us an example, Mark i. 35; and we can moreover venture to assert, without fear of contradiction in the matter, that all those who have attained to great eminence in the spiritual life, and to extensive usefulness in the church of Christ, have generally risen early in the morning, and devoted the first hours of the day to God and to eternity. Alas! that our fire should be so near extinction when it should burn the brightest! Alas! that our powers of conception and of action should be dimmed and oppressed by sloth, when they should be soaring with an eagle's pinion, and the whole soul should be ardently inquiring, What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits which he hath done unto me? Quench not the Spirit, is an exhortation never, perhaps, more suitable and seasonable, than in these days of luxurious ease and physical refinement. Hé

becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. Prov. x. 4. We forget that the effeminate and the trifling shall not inherit the kingdom. 1 Cor. vi. 9. Want, as an armed man, shall come upon the careless Christian, and spoil him of all his spiritual substance: what better method with his slothful child could the Lord pursue, in order to induce the cultivation of a field all grown over with thorns and noxious weeds? Prov. xxiv. 30-32.

Having now seen whence the fire of the tabernacle proceeded, what was its appointed use, and how it was preserved alive upon the altar; we will conclude by a reference to two or three PARTICULARS, which could not so suitably be introduced before :

And 1st. We observe that in all the Scriptures the advent of Messiah in glory is represented as attended with fire, or accompanied by fiery manifestations. In that magnificent description of the Lord's appearing which we read in Psalm xviii., we find mention of smoke, fire, and burning coals, all in commingled radiancy around his footsteps. Again in Isaiah, we read, Behold the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many. Ch. lxvi. 15, 16. And Paul also to the Thessalonians writes, The Lord shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire. 2 Epis. i. 8. Now in these and similar descriptions of the glory-advent, are we to understand the presence and the agency of literal fire? We think, the probability is, we are so to understand it; and yet with a striking reservation of its