the greater glory of the latter house, or second temple (Hag. ii. 9). This self-same "Shechinab,' which dwelt in the tabernacle of Moses, is that divine Person who was afterwards made flesh, and pitched his tabernacle among us on earth (John i. 14). The same "Shechinah" is, and will for ever be, the glory of his church in heaven; for, "behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people; and God himself shall be with them, and be their God" (Rev. xxi. 3, vii. 15; John xvii. 24); and, saith the apostle, "I saw no temple" in the new Jerusalem; "for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it" (Rev. xxi. 22)*. Again: the Mosaic tabernacle, being a moveable tent, was taken down by the Levites, and carried from one station to another (Numb. i. 50, 51, x. 21), till at last it was conveyed to and remained in the temple at Jerusalem (1 Chron. xv. 25-29; 2 Chron. xxxv. 3)†. In like manner the human nature, or body, of the Antitype was taken down and dissolved by death, and reared up again by his resurrection (John ii. 19- | 21), and at last translated into the heavenly temple; where it will remain till the times of restitution of all things (Acts i. 11, iii. 21; Rev. xxi. 3). Moreover, the Lord spake unto the children of Israel by Moses, saying, "There I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee" (Exod. xxv. 22). And is it not in and through the Antitype alone, that we Gentiles have access to, and commune with God? (Ephes. ii. 18; Matt. xi. 27). Again: it was there, in that appointed and "chosen place," and in none other (Lev. xvii. 4, 8, 9; Deut. xii. 5, 11, 13; 1 Kings ix. 3, viii. 29; 2 Chron. vii. 12), that the Jewish church was to come, and appear at certain times before the Lord God (Exod. xxiii. 14, 17, xxxiv. 23; Deut. xvi. 16). And is it not there, that is, in the Antitype, and in no other place, name, way, or person, that we, whether Jews or Gentiles, can now come unto, or appear before, the Lord God? (Mic. vi. 6, 7; John xiv. 6; Acts iv. 12). And there the Israelites worshipped, and gave thanks unto the name of the Lord (Ps. cxxii.; John iv. 20); and if at a distance from that most boly place, however remote they might be, they prayed with their faces toward it, that being the place where the ark stood (1 Kings viii. 29, 30, 44, 45, 48; Ps. v. 7, xxviii. 2, cxxxviii. 2; Dan. vi. 10; Jonah ii. 4). And is it not there, in the Antitype, that "we have boldness" in our approaches to the throne of grace, and have access with confidence by the faith of him"? Ephes. iii. 12, ii. 18; Heb. iv. 16). And, however great the distance we may be, or appear to be, from him "who hath passed into the heavens," are we not to pray, and "hold fast our profession of faith" in him? (Heb. iv. 14, x. 23; 1 John v. 13-15)*. And there, "at the door of the tabernacle," the Israelites were to present their "sacrifices" (Lev. The human nature of Christ was a much more august temple, in respect of the essential inhabitation of the divinity, than that at Jerusalem (Col. ii. 9). On referring to "the temple of his body," he saith, there is One greater than the temple (Matt. xii. 6; comp. John ii. 21). And will not our everlasting happiness, in the new Jerusalem, consist in the blissful vision of his entire Person-in being made partakers of that glory which the Father hath bestowed upon him? (John. 2, 3, xvii. 8, 9), and offer up their "incense" xvii. 24). †That is, the holy ark, with its appendages, which were the principal parts of the tabernacle: these were deposited in the temple of Solomon; therefore the temple is called the resting-place of Jehovah, and of the ark of his strength (2 Chron. vi. 41), and an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of Jehovah (1 Chron. xxviii. 2). Thus were the Levites relieved from the burden of carrying it (2 Chron. xxxv. 3). We here notice that the tabernacle is sometimes called "tabernacles" (Ps. ixxxiv. 1), because of the several parts-first and second tabernacles (Heb. ix. 2, 3). But beside the tabernacle which David built for the reception of the ark of Zion (2 Sam. vi. 17; 1 Chron. xvi. 1), there was the tabernacle of the congregation which Moses had erected, in which he administered justice, and answered the inquiries of those who applied to him (Exod. xxxiii. 7). But the tabernacle in the wilderness of Sinai, of which we now speak, is called "the tabernacle," by way of distinction (Exod. xl. 34, 35). Being a moveable temple (Josh. iii. 14, vi. 6; Numb. iv.), it is sometimes called the temple (1 Sam. i. 9, iii. 3; Ps. cxxxviii. 2); and the temple being an immoveable tabernacle, is sometimes called the tabernacle (Jer. x. 20; Lem. ii. 6; Acts vii, 46); and by "the temple of the tabernacle," we are to understand the temple which succeeded the tabernacle, in which was the ark of the testimony, viz., the two tables, all bearing witness of the truth even of him who is himself the Truth, and the true and faithful Witness (Rev. xv. 5). These times of restitution of all things do likewise refer to the security and privileges of the Christian church, and to the accomplishment of all pronuses and prophecies concerning the bringing in the fulness of the Gentiles, and the conversion of the Jews, when Israel and Judah shall be reinstated in their own land. And in allusion to the spiritual temple militant here on earth, the prophet Isaiah, in the most beautiful manner, takes occasion from the moveable state of the church in the wilderness, to foretell her future establishment on Mount Zion, where not one of her members should ever be moved, nor annoyed by an enemy. "Look upon Zion," says he, "the city of our solemnities! Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down: not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But (Numb. xvi. 17; Exod. xxx. 7, 8); and thither they were to bring their" offerings," for acceptance (Deut. xii. 6, 11-14; Lev. xvii. 4). In like manner, it is through the Antitype alone that "we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, aud lively sacrifice unto thee" (Rom. xii. 1); and it is in him only that our persons and services are accepted (Ephes. i. 6; 1 Pet. ii. 5); for it is he who is the great High-priest, who from his own hands, and through his own intercession, presents all the prayers of all the saints with acceptance unto God; and the smoke of the incense, the infinite merit of his sacrifice, went up with the prayers of the saints before God, out of the angel's there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shail gallant ship pass thereby; for the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: he will save us. The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity" (Isa. xxxii. 20, et seq.). * There was a special reference to the Messiah in all the temple worship, and all its acceptance depended upon him; and praying towards God's holy oracle was directive of Israel's faith in Christ and to God, as propitious on a mercy-seat through him. Thus David thought when he said: "I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving-kindness ar for thy truth; for thou hast magnified thy word above ail thy name" (Ps. cxxxviii. 2). And "behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine Anointed" (Ps. lxxxiv. 9). And "let thy hand be upon the Man of thy right hand, upon the Son of man, whom thou hast made strong for thyselt; so will we not go back from thee" (Ps. lxxx. 17, 18). And thus Daniel prayed that "God would cause his face to shine upon his sanctuary (which was desolate) for the Lord's sake, that is, for Christ's sake, the Messial” (Dan. ix. 17). hand (Rev. viii. 3, 4)*. Again: it is said, that the place in which the sweet incense under the law was offered, was within the vail, or just before it (Lev. xvi. 12). In analogy to this, the Antitype having rent the vail, or rent asunder his own soul and body (Luke xxiii. 45, 46; Heb. x. 19, 20), passes into the heavens, and there offers himself as incense within the vail of that celestial temple; and this offering is indeed "a sweetsmelling savour" (Heb. iv. 14; Ephes. v. 2; comp. Lev. i. 9, ii. 9). Hence we find that "the tabernacle" was specially provided by God, as a place in which the Israelites were to offer to him their legal sacrifices, and render to him their ritual services, but which were in themselves insufcient to take away the moral guilt of sin (Deut. xii. 5, 6; Heb. x. 1-4); therefore, when the coming into the world of the Antitype was contemplated, it was said by the prophet (Ps. xl, 7), "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not; but a body thou hast provided me," in which I may render thee more acceptable service (Heb. x. 5); and this he did by taking away the first-that is, the legal-sacrifices, and establishing the second; that is, doing and suffering God's righteous will, thereby rendering his spiritual Israel, and all their persons and services, acceptable to Godt. It thus appears The prayer of faith is acceptable to God, as the fragrance of incense is to the senses of man (Ps. cxli. 2). The incense of praise, and the spiritual worship of the believing Gentiles, and the giving up of their persons unto God, is the pure offering which was predicted by the prophet of old (Mal. i. 11; comp. John iv. 23). And the "harps and golden vials," or cups, "full of incense," do figuratively represent the prayers and praises of the saints, which are acceptable to God through the merits and intercession of him who was to expiate their guilt, and who has redeemed them to God by his own blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation (Rev. v. 8, 9, viii. 3; comp. Ps. cxli. 2). We observe here, that the intercession of Christ is foretold in Isa. liii. 12; and being founded on satisfaction, none but he can be the intercessor, in regard that none but he is the propitiation for our sins (1 John i. 1, 2). Consequently, saints in heaven cannot be intercessors for sinners on earth. And as to the intercession of saints one for another, while in the church militant here on earth, it is quite different from Christ's intercession for them. He intercedes as having merited what he asks for them; whereas they intercede for their brethren, as expressing their good will towards them, and because these exercises are acceptable to him who hath promised to hear their prayers for others, when it is for his glory and their good. It pleased the blessed God frequently, in ancient times, to appoint particular places wherein he would be worshipped, and have sacrifices offered to him. This was observed by various patriarchs (comp. Gen. xii. 8, xiii. 4, xxi. 33). And God said unto Abraham: "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering, upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of" (Gen. xxii. 2). Again: after God had "brought forth the people out of Egypt," he said unto Moses at Mount Sinai, that they were to worship God there; "ye shall," it is added, "serve God upon this mountain" (Exod. iii. 12). And again: the Lord appointed "the young men of the children of Israel to sacrifice peaceofferings of oxen" unto him "under the hill," or some mountain of Sinai, with "an altar and twelve pillars," and made a "covenant" with the people there (Exod. xxiv. 3-8; Deut. xii. 2-6). And thus the manner and place of worshipping God was, from the remotest period, instituted by himself, and was limited by his own revealed will, that his people might not fall into idolatry, or follow the devices of their own hearts (Exod. xx. 4-6), or worship him in any way not prescribed by him (comp. Deut. xii. 32; Acts xvii. 25; Matt. iv. 10). Respecting the Israelites when they were come to Canaan, God appointed the tabernacle as the place of national worship and stated services (Exod. xxiii. 17; Deut. xvi. 16). that the Jewish tabernacle was a type of Christ's house of Obed-Edom, a Levite (2 Sam. vi. 11). David then stantially, and personally (Heb. viii. 2; ix. 11); and that Christ is the true minister of the sanctuary, who, being now gone into heaven, there ministers and executes the remainder of his office, in the true substantial tabernacle of his human nature, by presenting to God the merit of his sacrifice, as the high-priest of our Christian profession; all which is confirmatory of his being the true tabernacle, the everlasting medium of communion between God and his church, the abiding temple (Rev. xxi. 22), the great gospel highpriest (Heb. viii. 1, 2), and the divine Witness of the mediatorial covenant. Poetry. LAYS OF A PILGRIM. No. XLII. (For the Church of England Magazine). ON A LAUREL LEAF GATHERED IN WORDSWORTH'S Placid and calm along the winding shore; And there the laurel, in rich beauty growing, Shall wreathe for thee one votive garland more. For thee, the white-hair'd bard, whose length of days Have brought such well-carn'd tributes to thy name, By lonely haunts, by streams, and mountain ways, From the dark contests in the walks of time, In forms of light, and combinations new. The grassy mead, the dark and tangled wood, Yea, every wild flower bending to the gale, Has language to thy soul, well understood. 2,15; Mark xiii. 2, 14; Luke xxi. 6-20; comp. Micah iii. 12). And this same temple, which had been repaired and partially rebuilt by Herod and the Jews (John ii. 20), was superseded by the man Christ Jesus, in whom God dwelt bodily, as his noblest tabernacle (Col. ii. 9; Matt. xii. 6; Heb. ix. 11; Rev. xxi. 22; and comp. Acts vii. 47-50, xvii. 24; 2 Chron. vi. 18; Isa. lxvi. 1). Hereupon the Jewish economy was dissolved, and the gospel-church erected (Matt. xxiv. 14), when Jews and Gentiles also were to worship Ged in spirit and in truth, in all places, and at all times (Mal. i. 11; John iv. 21-24; 1 Tim. ii. 8; Rev. viii. 3); for, immediately upon the death of our Saviour, the veil of the temple, which separated the "holy place" from the "holy of holies," was rent in twain from the top to the bottom (Matt. xxvii. 51; Ephes. ii. 14), which signified that the sword of divine justice (Zech. xiii. 7) had violently separated and rent asunder the soul and body of Christ (Luke xxiii. 46), and that by the sacrifice of his human nature, consisting of soul and body (Isa. liii. 10; Matt. xxvi. 38; 1 Pet. ii. 24), there was consecrated for his people, among the Gentiles as well as Jews, a new and living way of access to the throne of grace, through the veil of his own flesh (Heb. x. 19-22). There is no relic of a vanished scene, Thy muse attunes her heavenly strains the best. And nature's beauty claim'd their highest flight; To "nature's God," thy soaring wing upborne, Sings the great Source of good, and life, and light. And of the church on earth, faithful and true, An earnest, humble part is ever thine; This praise, the highest to thy genius due, Shall in thy laure! wreath the brightest shine While thus advancing on the starry way, Thy light within no gathering years can chill; And sacred be that home, whose mental ray Shall to green Rydal guide the pilgrim still. Miscellaneous. ... EXPEDIENCY.-I too am an advocate for expediency, if the consideration of it be limited to its proper objects. In matters merely temporal it is our proper, because our only guide; though even in these how poor and uncertain is its guidance appears from the proverbial blindness of the most able and experienced politicians. But I cannot allow that the temporal good of a nation should be the sole standard of all public or national deliberations. Neither have I urged the nonsense, "that whatever coincides with expediency must be opposed to principle;” nor do I know any one who has been so absurd. The truth appears to be that this nonsensical reasoner is conjured into a feeble and doubtful existence, that in his fall he may draw down with him the substantial adversary, who opposes the positive obligation of duty to the seduction of an apparent interest. ... It is easy to overwhelm these advocates of expediency with notorious examples of the blindness of politi cians. It was expected that the conquest of Canada would secure the safety of the British colonies in North America; and within twenty years it generated their independence. Mr. Pitt, in the beginning of the year 1792, promised the British parliament fifteen years of uninterrupted peace; and on the first day of February in the following year the country was engaged in a war which lasted twenty years, calling forth its utmost exertions. The Whigs of the Irish parliament, to protect their borough-interest against a reform, procured among others a place-bill to pass for the satisfaction of the people; and this law, as it afforded the means of changing an adverse majority, years for carrying the union, by which that borough was the very agency employed within a very few influence was almost wholly crushed. All history abounds in such examples; yet men will argue as if apparent expediency, even in temporal concerns, afforded a secure direction.-Rev. Dr. Miller. London: Published for the Proprietors, by EDWARDS and HUGHES, 12, Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY JOSEPH ROGERSON, sented, as the first-fruits of the Saviour's sojourn upon earth, before his Father's throne. presenting their little ones to the Lord. ONE of the most engaging characters in which our We afterwards read that our Lord caressed and blessed Lord appears is that of the kind friend of blessed the children that were brought to him. children. And a great many of the interesting The disciples, imagining that, as they could not events which marked his sojourn upon earth had understand his instructions, they must be a trouble to him, wished, with officious zeal, to keep them reference to these "little ones." Thus, to pass from Christ. But he had a large and affectionate by the fact that he himself became an infant, and heart. He rebuked his disciples: he took the went through the periods of childhood and youth children in his arms, laid his hands upon them, among us, setting thereby an example to every and blessed them. He taught us thereby how illage of willing obedience towards God and harm-judged are the scruples of those who hesitate in lessness among men, we find that, shortly after his birth, when there was a design laid by Herod against his life, there occurred the cruel massacre of many infants in and round about Bethlehem. The mind recoils from the atrocity of the tyrant; but we may well believe that he, in whose cause these children were, so to speak, martyrs, gathered them, as the tender lambs of his flock, into his eternal fold. They were too young to be conscious of the reasons of the violence done to them; but they were not too young to be pre VOL. XXV. Then, again, we find that, when the apostles were disputing for pre-eminence, Christ took a little child, and placed him in the midst, and told them that, unless they were converted, and became as little children in simplicity and artlessness of mind, they could not enter the kingdom of heaven. He warned them, too, that it was a dangerous thing to offend one such little one. He that was the cause of such offence would better have had "a millstone hanged about his neck," and been 2 H "drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matt. xviii. | one, to profit by those seasons! They are 1-6). Children too there were, who joined in the procession in which Christ, for the last time before his passion, entered Jerusalem, and who cried in the temple: "Hosanna to the Son of David!" (Matt. xxi. 15, 16). The Pharisees were displeased at these acts of praise. But our Lord rebuked them, and told them that then was fulfilled the ancient word, which they might have read: "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise." After our Saviour's resurrection and ascension, we find that children were a recognized part of the Christian church. For, not to dwell on the conclusive argument which might be sustained from the recorded baptisms of households, we are expressly informed that children formed a part of that community at Tyre who accompanied St. Paul to the beach, and commended him in earnest prayer to the God he served, and in whose cause he was about to suffer many things of the Jews (Acts xxi. 5). All these facts beautifully illustrate the kindly condescension of our incarnate Lord, and encourage the weakest and the youngest to seek him, who, like a considerate Shepherd, "carries the lambs in his bosom," and "to them that have no might increaseth strength." THE MURDER OF THE INNOCENTS: A Sermon BY THE REV. W. ALEXANDER, Curate of the Cathedral, Londonderry. PSALM viii. 2. as foot-prints on the wild desert, which if they be not followed at once, the sand drifts over them, and they are for ever lost: they are as the track of a swift keel, just seen on the broad sea, and then lost in the waste of waters! O that we had the heart so to love the Lord Jesus that all which spoke to us of him, and reminded us of him, should be inexpressibly dear and precious! O that we could realize to ourselves the truth of the events of his life as they are unfolded to us in order-his incarnation, his nativity, his glorification in the death of the Innocents, his circumcision, his manifestation to the Gentiles, his doctrine, his miracles, his passion, his precious death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, his sending of the Holy Ghost! To-night I purpose to consider one of these events-the murder of the Innocents; and I select it in preference to other topics claiming our attention, because it is immediately connected with the history of our Lord's childhood. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained praise or perfected strength." We know how our Lord applies these words in Matt. xxi. Just after his entrance into Jerusalem he was performing great miracles: even little children began to see what he was; and so they lifted up their voices, and cried in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David ;" and the chief priests and scribes were sore displeased, and said unto him: "Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea: have ye never "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings ordained strength." THIS is a solemn time, so near the end of one year and the beginning of another to many it seems a sort of type of time on the verge of eternity. But, solemn as such thoughts undoubtedly are, suggestive of reflection, and awakening to prayer, heightened perhaps to many of us by recent parting with a valued friend, there are thoughts connected with the season more solemn by far than these. Time, and the things of time, and the course of the natural year, and seasons measured by the motion of the sun, what are these in comparison to the successive events that mark the life of God manifested in the flesh? The Christian's year is enlightened by him who is "the Sun of Righteousness:" he sees no star in heaven but "the Day-Star which is on high." Thus the whole year becomes a sort of silent preacher, and invites him to ponder the different mysteries of the precious gospel. O that we had the wisdom, one by thou hast perfected praise?" This passage is quoted in the prayer in which we joined a few moments ago; not, of course, because the infants murdered by Herod glorified God with their mouths, but because a case is alluded to, in which God's glory was promoted by babes; and, by the murder of these babes, on account of the incarnation of our Lord, whose life was chiefly aimed at, God promoted his glory, inasmuch as he secured the holy Jesus in a miraculous manner from the rage of the tyrant, and thereby caused that prophecy in Hosea xi., "Out of Egypt I have called my Son," to be exactly and literally fulfilled. Let us examine, first, the occasion of the death of these infants, with a few incidental remarks on the narrative; and then make some practical observations on what shall have been said. I. Herod being alarmed at the inquiries of the wise men, and thinking his own kingdom to be in danger from him "that was |