this is the sustenance which, in a spiritual sense, is provided for them. Mark the wonderful correspondence between the Prophet Jeremiah, ichen describing the times of the Gospel, and Moses, in the fore-cited passage, declaring the ordinances of the Law : " They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall Jloio together to the goodness of the Lord, for ivheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the fiock and of the herd : and their soul shall he as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all ... . And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness ; and my people shall be satisfied loith my goodness, saith the Lord V Who does not see in this the accomplishment of my text ? In communion with God, the souls of men are filled as with marrow and fatness, whilst their mouth praiseth him with joyful lips'^. " And in the communi- cations which they receive from him, they are abundantly satisfied with the fatness of his house ; and he makes them to drink of the river of his pleasures'." In truth, no tongue can declare, no imagination can conceive, the full extent of those benefits which men obtain by waiting upon God : for " the riches that they obtain are unsearchable;" their " peace passeth all understanding;" and their "joyis unspeakable and glorified."]
See, then, I pray you, Brethren,
1. How different is the issue of men's different pursuits ! —
[Is the worldling ever thus replenished to satiety? Never. He grasps a shadow ; and " in the midst of his sufficiency he
is in straits™" But the true Christian finds in his God
all that his soul can desire : and " drinking of the water that Christ gives him, he never thirsts again" for any thing that this vain world can afford" ]
2. What a preparation for heaven is the Christian's employment upon earth !
[It is the delight of the Christian to draw nigh to God, and to offer to him the sacrifices of prayer and praise. And what, I pray you, are they doing in heaven ? The only dif- ference is, that here they pour forth their prayers vmder the influence of hope ; but there, their one sacrifice is praise, called forth without ceasing, mider a sense of complete, uninterrupted fruition.
Let, then, every soul amongst you adopt the habit of holy David: "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after ; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple °."]
i Jer. xxxi. 12, 14. ^ Ps. Ixiii. 5, i Ps, xxxvi. 7, 8.
»« Job XX. 22. " John iv. 14. "^ Ps. xxvii. 4,