pre~ence was ruanifestecl there. So was the placo where, for the timr, tho tnbemacle was pitched. ,vhen tho bush ceas<'d to burn; when the cloud rose from tho tnbernacle and Israel mnrched to a new ~esting-plncc!-the wi(d creatures _roamed ovor those spot~ ns common ground. The notion of indelible sanctity commumcated by ceremonies is forei;:;n to the Bible; things, places, etc., were holy because actually employed in God's service. No pains were spared to impress the idea that nothing is too pure or good to give to God. The victims must be without blemish; vossels, of precious material and perfect workmanship; bread, unleavened; altar, built of whole stones; priests free from all bodily defect; the very clothes of worshippers washed clean. Yet 'upon the t:lbernacle, the vessels, the priests, the people, must be sprinkled the blood of atone- ment. The lesson was that even our holiness is stained with sin in God's all-searchincr eyes (Heb. ix. 14, 23; x. 19; 1 John i. 7-9). 2. Likeness to God is the higher, deepe; view of holine8s, to which all these forms of outward holiness were designed to leacl. Before a single rite was enacted, or Aaron consecrated, the people were told to be "a kingdom of_priests, a holy nation" (Exod. xix. 6). Again and again, like a trumpet- peal or a mmster bt,ll, sounds out the great command, "Be ye holy; for I am holy." 'l'he teaching of the New Testament cannot go beyond this (1 Pet. i. 16). There are those who tell us that the Old Testament ideas of holiness were not moral or spiritual, but ritual and external This text confutes them. Could any Israelite be so dull as not to see that all this outward ceremonial was meant to inspire deep reverence, profound worship, in thinking and speaking of God, and drawing men to him; but that God's holiness which he was bidden to imitate, must be personal purity righteousness, goodness; and that to be truly holy, we must be like God (comp. Isa'. vi. 1-G)? 3. Therefore our highest idea of holiness is this-ieis God's own character. 'fhought cannot soar above this. Uninspired human thought has never risen 110 hicrh. The Bible idea of Divine holiness-perfect moral and spiritual excellence-as m;ch excels all heathen religious teaching as noontide, twilight. It is summed up in 1 John i. 5; iii. 8. !I. 'l'HE BF:AUTY OF HOLINESS MUST, LIKE TBUE HOLINESS ITSELF, BE SPIRITUAL, Th'WABD. Yet also manifest; for beauty is something we can behold, if not with the eyes, with the mind. Not a beauty we confer, by clothing, adorning, materializing the spiritual; but a beauty it confers on us, by purifying and exalting. If the heart be consecrated, the life that flows from it will be beautiful. All the outward beauty of God's works is a parable of loveliness of character and soul. Sunbeams are not 80 bright as loving smiles; the rose and the lily are Jess fair than modesty and innocence; the gorgeous sunset less grandly beautiful than the calm evening of a holy life. REMARKS. 1. The perfect " beauty of holiness" is seen in the Lord Jesus ; at once the Rei•elation and the Reflection of God's character in human nature-" Immanuel." 2. This beauty can be truly seen only by those whose eyes arc opened (John i. 14 contrasted with Isa. liii. 27). 3. 'fhe life of every Christian ouglit to be beautiful. (Matt. v. 16.)
HOMILIES DY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vere. 1-11.-Tl,e glorious sceptre of universal power. There are many productions of poets and poetesses, celeb~ating the grandeur of nature, am) the glor;y of God_ as manifested in the works of his hands; but there are noue which, even ID a poetical point of view, surpass those in Job xxvi., xxviii., xxxviii.; Isa. xl.; Ps~. civ., xix., cxlvil., aud that in the psalm before us now, which rises to the very noblest heights of Hebrew poetry, in its symmetry and grande~r. Bis_hop_ Pcrowne_(who ac~nowledg~s his ?bliga- tions to Ewald therein) has a most 1Dterestmg mtroduct10n to this psalm, ID which he points out the beauty of its structure, as in its grand description of a tempest it shows the storm at its height of majesty, and then in its subsidence to comparative calm. And, verily, even on this lower ground of poetic beauty, he would be by no means to be envied who could read it without a strange commingling of rapture, wonder, and awe. Vie seem to hear the roll of the ocean, to listen to the pealing thunder, to watch the flash of the lightning, the crashing of the trees of the forest, the heaving of the mountains, as if they were loosed from their foundations by an earthquake, Lebanou rs. XXlX, 1-11.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 215