partings, tears, qnalms of conscience, fear of oomin~ evils, sense of sin ; on the other, rest, pence, the sense of pardon, of security, of God's favour, of God's love; no more Yicissitudes, no more partings, no more lapses into sin--one constant, unendina life of perfect peace and restful joy, in the midst of those we love, and in the oo"ntinual presenoe and sight of him who so loved us as to die for us I "0 Paradise, 0 Paradise, 'Tis weary waiting here ; We long to be where Jesllil is, To feel and see him near-- Where loyal hearts and true Stand ever in the light, All rapture through and through, In God's most holy sight." Vers. 12-16.-.A just ronfirlence in God is a security against cowa,rdZy /ea,rs. Men "fear continually every day" because of the emnity, ~r fury, or malignity, or cunning, of those who oppress them, or of those who would fam oppress them. '!'hey tremble before the wrath of men; they give little thought to the wrath of God. Half the sins that are committed spring from cowardice-a. short-sighted cowardice, which consists in fearing tho~e who can, at most, "kill the body," and not fearing him who after death can "destroy both body and soul in bell" (Matt. v. 28). A just confidence in God wil! secure us against such cowardice, since it will make us feel- I. RELIANCE UPON Gon's WILL TO SAVE us. God's mercy is " over all his works," over man especially; in a peculiar manner over such as love him and trust in him. He will not suffer them to be tried "above that they are able." He loves them, and watches over them, and sympathizes with their sufferings, and counts theic wrongs, and hears their groans (Exod. ii. 23), and "knows their sorrows" (Exod. iii. 7). Oppressors are hateful to him (eh. i. 23; iii. 15; v. 7, etc.). They provoke him to send upon them "swift destruction." The greater their fury, the more they rouse against them God's indignation, and the closer their destructionrdraws nigh. II. RELIANCE UPON Gon's POWEB TO SAVE us. Men are finite; God is infinite. Man is the creature of a day ; God is "from everlasting to everlastin~." Man fades as grass; God is" strong in power" (eh. xi. 26), unwearied, unfailing. The" fierceness of man turns to God's praise," for that fierceness he is able at any moment to "refrain" (Ps. lxxvi. 10). He who "has stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth," and created man and placed him on the earth, and alone sustains him in life, can at any time sweep him into nothingness, destroy him, and make "all his thoughts perish." Ver. 22.-God pleads the cause of his peop'le. How can God, it may be asked, be at once Judge and .Advocate? Can he plead at his own tribunal; entreat himself to show mercy; deprecate his own anger? If not, before what tribunal does he plead? u-hose mercy does he entreat? whose anger does he deprecate? The prophet himself could, perhaps, scarcely have explained his own words ; but the Holy Spirit who inspired them knew exactly in what sense they were true. The riddle has to be solved by the consideration of the distinction of Persons in the Godhead. God the Father is the Judge of man, before whose tribunal all men must one day appear. God the Son is the .Advocate (1 John ii. 1), who pleads with the Father on their behalf, intercedes for them (Heh. vii. 25), deprecates the Father's wrath, implores his mercy, entreats for and obtains their pardon. Satan, on the one side, accuses (Rev. xii. 10); but on the other, the Lord Jesus Christ defends. He defends his own, and he overcomes by his own blood (Rev. xiL 11), wherewith he has washed away their sins. He "justifieth" (Rom. viii 83), and then "who is he that condemneth?" Assuredly, no one.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. 1-8.-Inatrudiona to the spiritual lsraeZ. The people are described •~ " possessing righteousness," i.e. following a way of life in e.coordance with the Divine OH, LI. 1-23.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 2G5