pours water from the flinty rock, who rains manna from heaven, and who scatters the menacing foe with the breath of his mouth. In every page of these venerable records we behold the arm of Omnipotence, a circumstance which imparts to them an unequalled degree of sublimity. Under the gospel dispensation we can boast a similar, though not a visible interposition; an interposition which has befriended the church from the first moment of its establishment, and which will be displayed with much greater magnificence and effect in the future extension of the Messiah's kingdom.

Promises, in relation to this interesting subject, abound in the word of God. The following shall suffice as a specimen :-"The Spirit shall be poured out from on high, and the wilderness shall be a fruitful field. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on thy seed, and my blessing on thine offspring. As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations."

But before we can expect the accomplishment of these promises, we must endeavour to cultivate such a concern for their fulfilment as

shall, in some measure, comport with their importance. God has engaged to pour upon his people a spirit of grace and supplication; and there cannot be a more favourable presage of the approaching reign of the Messiah than, when, convinced of the insufficiency of all human efforts, we are diligent and fervent in our supplications for an abundant out-pouring of the Spirit of God: for, in such exercises, we employ the very means with which he has connected the promised blessing, and bring Omnipotence to bear against the prince of darkness.

The preceding observations having been protracted to an unusual length, I reserve the remaining branch of this subject to a future opportunity.

Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

HAVING presented you with some observations on the origin, extent, and duration, of the kingdom of God, and directed your attention to the sovereign agency by which its interests are advanced in the world, we proceed to show,

III. The glorious results in which this order of things will terminate in reference to the Deity: "Thine is the glory for ever."

To elucidate this article, we shall observe,

i. That the increase of the Divine kingdom will afford a grand display of Jehovah's perfections.

The term "glory" has not always the same meaning in scripture. In the writings of Moses, it frequently denotes the presence of the Supreme Being, and is used particularly in reference to those symbols of the Divine Majesty which were exhibited on the top of Sinai, and to the Shekinah which appeared above the mercy-seat. Alluding to the former of these, the Hebrew lawgiver, when reminding the people of the honour which had been conferred on them, says: -" Behold, the Lord our God hath showed us his glory, and his greatness; and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire." But there is one passage in which the word is used in a very different sense. I refer to that in which Moses said to Jehovah, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." He could not, in this place, have requested to see the mere image or symbol of the Divine presence, for that he had frequently seen, and, probably, he beheld it at the very time in which he expressed this desire. His prayer, therefore, must have related either to the manifestation of the Divine essence, or to that peculiar display

of the moral perfections of Deity, which he supposed might be communicated to his senses by means of some magnificent appearance. This idea is supported by the answer which Jehovah condescended to return: "Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live:" intimating the impossibility of beholding the essential glories of the Supreme Being, or a full manifestation of his excellencies, with the feeble organs of human vision; as the revelation would not only dazzle, but overwhelm him. It is not improbable that St. John had this circumstance in view, when he said, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." There was no medium through which the Divine glory could be displayed to Moses; but, when the Only-begotten assumed our nature, that glory was so attempered, that fallen creatures could gaze on it with holy pleasure; and while the personal excellence of Immanuel was exhibited to the disciples, the character of the "whole Deity" shone out with unexampled splendour: “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God was seen in the face of Jesus Christ."

By the glory of God we are to understand such a manifestation of the Divine Being as