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When our Saviour ate the passover, for the last time, with his disciples, and invited them to drink of the cup; he said of the wine which was in it, This is my blood of the New Testament, (or new Covenant,) which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

This new covenant which God offers, my young friend, to form with you, securing to you the full pardon of all your sins, and the divine protection and blessing, both in this life and for ever, must be ratified by the blood of Christ. The victim is already slain. On God's part every thing is ready. How is it on yours?

Repentance for sin, and faith in Jesus Christ, as the great propitiatory sacrifice, makes you a party to this covenant; and God binds himself to fulfil it. you tread under Have done this? Beware, lest you foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and do despite unto the Spirit of grace?

CHAPTER XXXV.

Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders ascend Sinai. They see God. Moses there forty days, receiving divine communications.

After the ratifying of the covenant, Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, ascended the mountain; Moses bowing in adoration near its summit, and the others worshipping afar off.

A new vision burst upon their astonished sight. "They saw the God of Israel;" not, indeed, any personal similitude, but some most extraordinary manifestation of his presence; a splendid effulgence, a divine glory, surpassing every thing that the imagination can conceive.

Beneath it, and on which it seemed to rest, there was, as it were, "a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were, the body of heaven in his clearness.”

The sapphire is a very precious and costly stone, of a fine sky-blue color; of which the apparent pavement was made, looking like the clear, pure azure of the concave above us, in a day without clouds, when the eye seems to penetrate the infinite.

If such was the vision of Sinai to the enraptured sight of the worshippers who were then on it,

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what will be the glorious manifestation of the Divine Presence in heaven to the redeemed who surround the throne of God and of the Lamb !-Shall we be there to witness it!

the nobles of the chilWe are told that upon dren of Israel," (the chosen and highly honored men who were permitted to see this sublime sight,) "the Lord laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.-The overwhelming glory did not consume them. They were near the peculiar presence of God; and yet lived, so as to eat and drink again like other men; or, as some of the ancient commentators interpret it, (in a spiritual sense,) their eyes feasted with a ravishing delight on the splendid vision.

Moses had other communications to receive from Jehovah. A voice from the divine glory addressed him: Come up to me into the mount, and be there and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them."

In obeying this direction, Moses bestowed a most distinguished honor upon one individual who It was a mark of was with him on the mount. confidence not to be forgotten by the Israelites, showing that he who bore it, was doubtless destined to some very conspicuous station in the future progress of their affairs.

He took Joshua with him, and ascended still

nearer the divine presence. Before going, however, he directed the elders to await their return ; saying that if it became necessary to have any matters of difficulty adjusted among the Israelites, Aaron and Hur were invested with the requisite authority.

God called

For six days Moses and Joshua were near the cloud which hung round the summit of the mountain, and directly over which was "the glory of the Lord." On the seventh day, unto Moses, out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire, on the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud;" where he remained, without food or drink, forty days and forty nights.

During the same space of time, Joshua also remained on the mountain; but in what particular spot; how he was sustained; what he did; and whether he had any communication with Moses, or the elders; we are not informed. We know, however, that he again accompanied Moses, when the latter descended from the mountain. This, and many things of a similar kind, connected with the facts recorded in the Scriptures, it might gratify our curiosity to know; but God inspired good men to write the Bible just as it is written, and we are sure that he knew best how it should be done.

The forty days which Moses spent on the sum

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mit of the mountain, near the divine glory, were days full of momentous importance to the children of Israel, and indeed to all mankind. He then received particular instructions from God respecting the building of the tabernacle, or holy place of his residence as Sovereign of the Jewish nation; the ark of the covenant, in which the tables of the law were deposited, with the blossoming rod of Aaron, and the omer of manna that was gathered in the wilderness; the mercy-seat and cherubims over the ark, between which the Divine presence was manifested in a visible heavenly glory, and where Moses came to consult Jehovah, and receive his instructions in the government of the Israelites; the golden table for the show-bread; the golden candlestick; the altar of burnt offerings; the court of the tabernacle; the setting apart of Aaron and his sons for the priest's office; the splendid garments which, in the discharge of their sacred duties, they were to wear; the mysterious Urim and Thummim in the breast-plate of the high-priest, to be used when he went in before the divine presence, to make inquiry of the Lord, with difficult questions of duty; the manner of consecrating Aaron and his sons, to hallow them, to minister unto the Lord in the priest's office," by sacrifices and of ferings, and other religious ceremonies; and the morning and evening burnt-offerings, at the door of the tabernacle," day by day, continually."

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