and literal sense, when "God cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity, when the earth shall disclose its blood, and shall no more cover its slain." Let us, then, be instructed that stedfastness in faith, and continuance in holiness, are the means of safety. We know not what God may have in store for our guilty land, whether a time of favour, or a season of judgment. But whilst we ought to resign this in patience to the disposal of the Divine sovereignty, and to be ready to say, "even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight," we should not forget that if, on the one hand, our land is saved, this will be only through the intercession and labours of God's stedfast people; and that, on the other hand, his judgments, if they do come, will be discriminating-that, just as the Israelites were passed over by the angel of death, and as the believers did not perish in Jerusalem's calamity, so, though there be only three righteous men in the land, they will save their own lives by their righteousness (Ezek. xiv. 20).

How urgently, then, does the alternative of impending ruin, as well as the hope of national preservation, call on us to labour efficiently, and to pray earnestly, while yet it is day. The time may come, when the voice of intercession will be hushed by the stern command, Pray not for this people for their good;" when the exertions of Christian zeal will be arrested by the solemn message, "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast;" when there will be presented to the Church the dreary spectacle of the nation shut up in hopeless impenitence to its inevitable doom. How melancholy will be the contemplation, if the guilt of this impenitence is wholly chargeable upon the nation! But how agonizing the reflection, if it be chargeable equally upon the nation and the church!

SERMON XXXVII.

BY THE REV. J. R. OMOND, MONZIE.

CHRIST'S JOY IN HIS PEOPLE.

"The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing."-ZEPHANIAH, iii. 17.

ZEPHANIAH lived and prophesied during the reign of King Josiah. At that time the inquity of the Jews was very great, and as a nation they were fast ripening for punishment. Beneath the veil of thin transparency, cast over the scene by the personal piety of the youthful monarch, were visible, a temple desecrated, a country given to idolatry, an overthrown altar, a scattered priesthood, oracles silenced, sacrifices suspended. Still in the midst of much calculated in every way to weary out the long-suffering of Jehovah, and to bring down on a guilty people his terrible wrath, he remembered the covenant which he had made of old with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob, he avowed his determination to chastise, but it was in mercy-he would carry them far from their own land, but, again would he bring back their captivity, causing Jacob to rejoice and Israel to be glad. Battle and defeat, exile and slavery, were in store for them-still these would pass away-days of rejoicing would come again; and, referring to that time, the Prophet says in the context, "Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the King of Israel, even the Lord is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear thou not : and to Zion, let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save; he will rejoice over thee with joy ; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee winging." I pause not now to enquire how much or how little of this prophecy was fulfilled, when the Jews did return from Babylon after their seventy years' captivity; neither do I enquire how much of it we are to regard as having been accomplished, when in very deed the King of Israel, even the Lord, the Lord Jesus, was personally, during the days of his flesh, in the midst of them. I enter not on this inquiry farther than to say, that whatever partial fulfilment this prophecy may have received at the periods al

luded to, no one, I apprehend, will fail to perceive, or hesitate to admit, that its entire, yea, its principal accomplishment is still future. It points the hopes and the faith of the Church to a time, when the longseparated and widely scattered tribes of Judah shall again be re-united, when Israel shall once more take that place which was hers of old, when, reinstated in her birthright, and re-established in the favour of her God, she shall again be his peculiar people, his portion and the lot of his inheritance.

But, on this, as I have said, I do not enter, and I go on to make application of the truths contained in the text to ourselves, and I take the statements in the order in which they are here presented.

I. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty.

Close and

Our Saviour is a God near at hand, not a God far off. intimate is the relation in which he stands to his people. If they are branches, he is the parent stem; if they are members, he is the head of that body of which they are members; if they are lively stones, he is the foundation, the chief corner stone, the head stone of the spiritual house, into which they are built up; if the collective body of believers are spoken of under the similitude of the bride, the Lamb's wife, he is the bridegroom, her Maker is her husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name; if, as is the case in the text, the figure employed to designate the Church be a city, then the Lord is in the midst of that city, he beautifies and strengthens it by his presence, he de fends its inhabitants, he bestows on them rest, and peace, and joy. And he is mighty. He doth what he will with his own, and all things are his. He ruleth according to the good pleasure of his will, in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of this earth. All things were created by him, and all things exist through him, and for him. The greatest feel his power, the least are not exempt from his care; the highest of the heavenly hosts exists but to fulfil his purposes; a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his permission. That he is mighty, he demonstrated in the formation of this world. He manifested his eternal power and Godhead to the whole intelligent creation, causing the morning stars to sing together, and all the sons of God to shout for joy. This he did, by calling into being this fair earth on which we live, laying its foundations not to be moved, compassing the waters with bounds which they cannot pass, establishing and making sure the everlasting hills, and clothing the vallies with the verdure of beauty, and causing the bud of the tender herb to spring forth. Magnificently glorious, however, as this proof of his might and his majesty is, ample as is the demonstration which we receive from the works of crea

tion, that the Lord our God is mighty-we are taught still more clearly in the plan of redemption that he is so, that he is mighty and mighty to save; and this leads me to the second statement in the text-he will

save.

II. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save. This is a precious promise-a promise made to Christ's own people, and to be understood, therefore, as intimating his holy purpose to save from all useless dread and alarm-to save from all unnecessary trials and assaults—those whom he has already saved from the power of sin, and the dominion of iniquity. There is no promise made here or elsewhere in Scripture that a believer will be saved from suffering, and sorrow, and temptations; what is promised is this, that he will not be overcome of these. The declarative glory of his Lord may be shewn forth, and his own increasing sanctification may be advanced, by his being subjected to severest trials; and if so, these will not be awanting. If unnecessary, they will be withheld; if needful, they will be allowed. Still, to his own people, Christ will shew himself in the days to come, as he has already in times past shewn himself, by his dearest name, by his name Jesus, the Saviour. He has saved them. Wandering in the midst of darkness, and folly, and sin, he sought them, and brought them to light, life, and liberty, He had compassion on us when we had no compassion on ourselves. Lost and undone, he found us, and delivered us, and what he has done is but the earnest of what he will yet do. From the bondage of Satan, and the enduring thraldom of their own evil lusts and passions, has he saved his people. He has given them comparative rest here, and he has graciously assured them that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate them from his love. He has saved them from the power, and the pollution, and the abiding practice of sin-he is saving them, day by day, from every sorrow and every trial that they can be spared, and from yielding themselves the slaves to Satan's will. From the harassing desires of the flesh, and the alternating promises and disappointments of the world, is he saving them; and he will save them from aught that can seriously injure them-he will keep them like the apple of the eye, and bring them in safety to his Father's home. To those, then, among you who, on Scriptural grounds, have a well-founded hope, that you are of them to whom the promise is made-to those among you who are in Christ Jesus, saved by him from the dominion of sin, and kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation—to you would I say, call to remembrance the majesty of the great Being on

whose faithfulness you have perilled your all-let your thoughts dwell on the nearness of the relation in which you stand to him-he is allpowerful, all-faithful, all love. Seek to have in lively exercise an abiding recollection of the deliverance which he has already wrought out for you, freeing you from the curse of the law, from the lashings of an aroused conscience, from the fear of coming wrath, and delivering you at the same time from the bondage of divers lusts and passions. These things call to remembrance, that you may be stirred up to greater zeal and stedfastness, and that you may ever seek to be enabled to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Salvation is yours, if 'you are Christ's. Saved from the power of sin here, you will here, too, be saved from the punishment which invariably follows sin, even in this world. And in the world to come, when you there awake, you will be satisfied, for you will behold his face in righteousness-in his presence there is fulness of joy, at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore. But if we are Christ's-if we are indeed members of his mystical body, heirs of God, joint-heirs with him-then, not only are we in possession of an abiding joy, of which we cannot be deprived by aught that is earthly, but we are with reverence be it spoken-the inciting cause of joy in the bosom of Immanuel. Joy must and will thrill the soul of the believer, when he remembers what has been done for him, and when, with the eye of faith, he anticipates that which is awaiting him; but the text tells us, that when our Saviour turns his contemplative regards on his people-and when does he cease for a moment to behold them? "I the Lord do keep my vineyard, my vineyard of red wine; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day"-when Christ turns his contemplative regards on his people, it is that he may rejoice over them with joy; and to this, the third statement in the text, let us now attend.

III. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy.

Christ is represented in Scripture as looking forth on a world of immortal spirits-who had cast off their allegiance to their rightful sovereign-who had banded themselves together against his authority, and were therefore justly obnoxious to severest punishment. He looked and there were none to help-he wondered that there was none to upholdand, in the greatness of his love, he determined to seek and to save. Leaving the bosom of the Father, and becoming incarnate, he dwelt amongst us, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The malice and the ingratitude of men, the assaults of Satan, the treachery of his enemies, and the desertion and denial of his friends-the agony of the