THE TRUE CHURCH.

PSALM xlvi. 3-5.

Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, [ yet*] there is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High., God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall bless her, and that right early.

OUR Psalm is a leap with God over the wall; soaring above the heights of the earth; a joyful dance before the Ark of the Covenant. No tone of complaint, no trace of anxiety, is to be found in this song of triumph; though it may have been sung in a time of distress and affliction. The song breathes only the joyfulness of faith, and confidence is the soul of it. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble;" so the Psalm begins. "The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge;" thus it ends. It boasts of the secure condition of the people of God; and of this we will speak, according to the indication of

*The word yet, only implied in the English version, is expressed in the German.

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our text, in this last morning of the ecclesiastical year. We consider THE TRUE CHURCH, according to

There is nothing more vexatious and intolerable to unbelievers, than that we draw so marked a line between the children of God and the children of the world, and are accustomed to represent the number of the former as so very small and inconsiderable. But we cannot help it. We do not make the difference; it is made by God himself; and is deeply rooted in the nature and essence of the two parties: and the Mouth of Truth itself says, in several places, that the number of those who are saved is small. Truly, all that are called are not chosen; and not every one belongs to the true church who bears its colours. Even you, our enemies, are used to say that of those who would be Christians, -but few are sincere. And you may be in the right. After deducting the Canaanites, the false brethren, the foolish Virgins, who have lamps but not oil; clouds without water; and the Issachars, who are their own product, and not that of the Spirit; there remains, in truth, but a small seeda twinkling star in the vast clouded firmament; a

cottage in a garden of cucumbers. That which makes a true Christian is not a decent conduct and the ornament of a regular observance of the outward forms of religion: it is not the retiring from the diversions of the men of the world, and the language of Canaan: it is not the bowed head and the sullen look. Even correct belief is not sufficient. "There are many persons," says somebody, "who with a little heavenly light go to hell.” The absence of sinfulness of the heart, and to have no wish, to desire nothing, but Jesus, and Jesus alone the man on the Cross; his blood and his grace and that from the bottom of the soul: this is the stamp on God's coin. Do not then mingle chaff and wheat together; do not attempt to unite what God has separated.

The flock of lambs of the chief Shepherd, that rose among thorns, that grain of salt amidst corruption, is called in our text a "city ;" and that a city of God. The figure is familiar, and I would only say a few words by way of exhortation.

Truly, it is a strange city; little and insignificant; and yet of an extent equal to that of the world in which we live; stretching from pole to pole. But it will be one day gathered together from the dispersion, and be seen in one spot, in all its beauty and splendour. Every thing belonging to a city is found in this city of God. If you inquire after her foundation, it is a Rock that cannot be moved. If

you ask after her walls, the Lord is a wall of fire round about her:-"the Angel of the Lord encamps round them that fear him." If you ask for her bastions, fences, and pallisades, they are the perfections of our God that are around us: his wisdom, to guide us; his omnipotence, to protect us; his longanimity to bear us; and his grace, to justify and save us. Only one gate has the city, and that is strait; only one way that leads to it, and that is narrow. Whoever attempts to enter by another way, by stealth or by violence, over the walls or through the roof, is a thief and a robber. When we look out of our windows our eyes fall on beloved mountains, on holy places. Here lies Golgotha, there the Mount of Olives, here Gethsemane, there Bethlehem-Ephrata-all much-loved spots, that lie close about us: our city, therefore, is Jerusalem.

The city has its festivals, for instance, when a poor sinner repents; its assemblies, when the brethren live together in unity, and Jesus is in the midst of them; its concerts, when they speak together in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and Jesus touches the strings of their hearts: and its spectacles, when they sit at the foot of the Cross, beholding the Man with the crown of thorns, and his holy blood, as, making an atonement for sin, it flows from his wounds.

The city has likewise its market-place: there

it is proclaimed, "Come, ye that have no money: come, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." It has also its council-chamber, where one presides who knows how to give good counsel. Its police too: this every citizen has in his heart, the controlling power of the Spirit. Has it also its watchmen ? Surely it has: they stand on the walls and blow the trumpet, and cry aloud when they see the Bridegroom coming. And here and there stand guards upon the watch-towers, placed there by God, to see what hour the great clock of time has struck. And what do the guards announce in our days? "Past midnight," they proclaim from the house-tops, and the whole city is in anxious expectation of things that are to come.

In this city now, as the text says, is "the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High." Now indeed, every house in which a child of God dwells, is a house of God: for the Lord dwells with his own, under one roof. Nay, every believer is a living temple. It is written, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." By the holy tabernacles we are to understand the various conditions and states of the soul, in which the saints are placed by the ordinances of God. There is one well lodged in the lofty rock of pure faith, where, regardless of the ebb and flow of the feelings of his heart, and raised far above all the alternations of spiritual tem