liar favour promised in our text is restrained by the Spirit to him that overcometh. Victory implies a contest; contest implies enemies: and, alas, numerous as were the enemies of Israel ere they rested in the land of Canaan, equally numerous are the enemies of the Christian now. Many of the thousands of Israel entered not into the land because of unbelief: Would God, said they, we had died in the land of Egypt! or, would God we had died in the wilderness! Numb. xiv. 2; and for their impiety, they did die in the wilderness. Happily, however, out of the general redemption from Egypt, there was a particular election to the priesthood and to Canaan and the election obtained it, though the rest were blinded. At this present time also, there are a distinguished few who remain faithful amidst a lamentable defection; and the individual who wars a good warfare, fights the good fight, and reaches forth unto the things that are before, shall assuredly partake of the hidden manna. The worldling knows no conflict with the world the motions of sin in the flesh, do not trouble the self-complacent Christian. He is as a city broken down and without walls; easy of access to the enemy, and a prey to every invading foe. Not so the true disciple of Jesus Christ. Ah! who can depict his terrors under occasional defeat? his anguish of spirit under the hiding of God's countenance? his self-humiliation and abhorrence when a deceiving heart has induced a contemptuous feeling towards the heavenly bread? and then, again, the misery of the doubt which will sometimes rise, whether it will ever be awarded to him to participate the hidden manna! Truly, the heart knoweth its own bitterness, and utterly would it faint, did not the returning brightness of the cloud and the flowing streams of the smitten rock, and the mercifully con tinued food of the wilderness, revive and comfort it. But, he overcometh: and continuing to overcome, he shall eventually triumph: yea, the Lord himself will bring him his crown of victory and joy, and then farewell to weakness, to sinfulness, to painfulness, for ever. We are come to the borders of the land of life, and now we exchange pain for ease, distress for comfort, poverty for riches, privation for fulness of every good, the bed of corruptibility for the body of immortality, mystery for certainty, death for life, and the manna that was common to the multitude for the manna laid up within the vail, and promised peculiarly to the conflicting Christian and thus the Spirit's saying stands accomplished in the resurrection-glory. And he that overcame, does DISCOURSE XVI. THE SILVER TRUMPETS. NUMBERS X. 8. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets; and they shall be to you for an ordinance for ever throughout your generations. THE first mention of a trumpet we find in the sacred records, is that in Exod. xix. 16, where the voice of the trumpet is described as exceeding loud, and waxing louder and louder still, as the law of the Highest was in course of delivery to the children of Israel. What trumpet, and by whom blown, we are not informed: probably, by one of those celestial intelligences alluded to by St. Stephen, in Acts vii. 53, and by St. Paul, in Gal. iii. 19. Its use, as an accompaniment of the law, was no doubt to increase the solemnity of the august scene, and to call the attention of the people more particularly to the voice of the supreme Lawgiver. It is with reference to the loud vibrations of the trumpet, and of the thunders of Sinai, we are wont to speak of the appalling denunciations of God's righteous law against sin and sinners. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, (as a rule of justification, or a covenant of works,) do ye not hear the law? do you not hear its awful sanctions and its dreadful penalties? Why will ye not then seek the aid of a gracious and a merciful mediation? Israel said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. Look ye to the Mediator of the better covenant, and let the displays of Jehovah's transcendent holiness drive you to the bleeding bosom and the powerful advocacy of the Man of sorrows. blame the ancient nation for unbelief: have we, considering our superior privileges, a stronger faith than theirs? We The next mention of trumpets in the sacred volume, occurs in the chapter whence the text of this Discourse is taken. You would do well to peruse the entire paragraph, from verse the first to verse the tenth, inclusive. You observe, the material of the trumpets was silver; and the number of trumpets required was two; each one to be composed of a whole piece, in order, doubtless, to the perfection of the sound that should issue from it, and as indicative of one especial object, namely, the glory of God. The priests alone were permitted to blow these trumpets; and as at that time there were but two priests, namely, the two sons of Aaron, the high-priest, therefore but two trumpets were necessary for their use. Subsequently, we find in 2 Chron. v. 12, one hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets, so that the limitation of the number to two, in the tabernacle worship, possesses no peculiar or definite signification. After the formation of the two silver trumpets, B. c. 1490, we remark continual mention of trum pets, in connexion with every possible variety of season and of circumstance, up to the very close of the canon of holy Scripture, A. D. 96. They are shadowed typically; they are announced prophetically; they are described historically. One striking peculiarity respecting them is this: all the trumpets of the holy Word, whether represented in type, in prophecy, or in accomplishment, resolve themselves into the number seven— that mystic number so often meeting our researches in the word of God, and which uniformly indicates completion or fulness of perfection. To this point we shall again revert, as we proceed, and shall now only ask your attention to the silver trumpets of the tabernacle, FIRST, In their literal, and SECONDLY, In their spiritual significancy. And do Thou, who didst show the pattern of the sacred instruments unto Moses, and didst, moreover, instruct Bezaleel and Aholiab to construct them, graciously vouchsafe unto us light and understanding in thy word, preserving us from all error and misunderstanding, and by no means permitting us to injure or to disfigure the heavenly things themselves, by any fanciful conceits, or traditionary legends of weak and fallible men. FIRST: The literal use of the silver trumpets can be easily gathered from our context. We will enumerate the several particulars, as specified therein. 1. They were blown, to assemble the entire congre- 3. Alarms or blasts for the journeys of the people |