The Altar

“The altar that sanctifieth the gift.” — Matthew xxiii. 19.

Had man remained perfect, his communion with God would have been as unrestricted as that of an obedient child with an affectionate Either. Adam might have worshipped his God acceptably at any time, and in any mode he chose. Had there been literal offerings as well as sacrifices of praise, he might have brought before his God the delicious fruits of the garden, or poured forth libations from Eden’s goldensanded river; and these might have been presented on the high places of the earth, or in the shady groves, or amid the verdm-e of the plains — anywhere the Lord would have received the grateful offerings of men whose hearts were perfect towards himself. But the fall intervened. Man became a rebel to his King. Man by his depravity of nature was placed far off from God, and his once unrestricted fellowship with heaven was brought to an end. Mercy gave tidings of renewed communion, but the good news came by slow degrees, and meanwhile if man would approach his God it must be under rules and regulations which should remind him of his changed” estate. If he be permitted to draw near to his offended God at all it is a great favour, and he shall be made to learn by the way of coming how great that favour is. He shall, ere a fuller ceremonial is revealed, only be allowed to offer a bleeding sacrifice. He shall not present to God that which costeth him nothing — the growth of the soil — but he must bring a victim from his flock or herd, and by his own hand he must cause the victim to suffer and die, for God will accept only a life poured forth in blood as a sacrifice from man, whose own life was forfeited to justice. And while rules and regulations were laid down as to sacrifices, altars were also under commandment — they must be built of earth or unhewn stone; and at the last all altars of burnt-offering were suppressed save one only, the consecrated brazen altar of the tabernacle. All the rest of the world was left altarless. One spot was selected, and only one. First in the place where the tabernacle was pitched, and afterwards the temple of Jerusalem, the altar for bloody sacrifice was set up; and everywhere else when men offered to God on their high places, they did so in defiance of his commands: prophets might make exceptions to the rule, but fosr the Nos. 831 — 32. g

800 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PUTJ’ir.

many the unbending rule was that all sacrifice must be made at the one holy altar.

Brethren, the outward truth clearly reveals to us its inner meaning. We must, had we remained innocent, have brought before God every day the thank-offerings of our hearts without a mediator, but we are guilty, and our holiest acts are the deeds of imperfect men, and our purest worship is the worship of fallen beings. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. And ere we can be accepted in our best things, there must be the shedding of the blood which taketh away sin. There is no door of acceptance for us except through the merit of the great Surety who solemnly laid down his life for his people; there is but one way by which we who have been washed in the blood of Jesus can offer unto God our humble service and our loving hearts, namely, through Jesus Christ who stands as the type of that one and only permitted altar; to him we must bring ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God; for it is only by Jesus Christ that this reasonable service can be accepted of the Most High. In the one altar of the tabernacle or the temple we see a type of the person and merit of our glorious Lord Jesus, and learn that apart from him there is no acceptable worship — for this is the truth which we desire this morning to teach.

Many mistakes have been made through applying the emblem of an altar to matters to which it hns no correct reference. There was but one authorised altar of Jehovah, as we have already noted: that one altar finds its fulfilment in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ; but through loose talking, if not through doctrinal error, other things have come to be called altars which are not so, certainly not such altars as meet the requirements of my text, for they do not sanctify the gift, and are not greater than the gift. Frequently have we seen the cross spoken of as an altar. Up m the cross as upon an altar, our Lord is said to have been offered as the great sacrifice for sin; but the expression is mere poetic flourish, and no more. As a man, Jesus died on the tree, and the wood to which he was nailed was a gibbet, and not an altar; it was never appointed as such by God, nor is it ever so called in his word. The cross of wood was simply the instrument of our Saviour’s torture and death, and is no more to be reverenced than the whips of Pilate or the spittle of the scoffers. The cross used at Calvary, and all other crosses, whether of wood, or stone, or gold, are no more to be esteemed than the same material shaped in circles or squares. Indeed, if we are to attach any kind of moral quality to the material and visible form of the cross, it is rather a thing accursed than a thing to be l)lessed, for the divine curse fell on every one that was hanged on a tree. Certainly this fancied altar of the cross in no way sanctified the victim. What honour did our Lord Jesus derive from the tree on which he hung? What virtue came from this so-called altar to make God’s unspeakable gift acceptable? A piece of wood and nothing more was that cross. It could give no sanctity to Christ, and we ought never to use words concerning that piece of timber which would in any way lead men to associate its material substance with the meritorious work of Christ. It is to be feared that the constant use of the emblem of the ci-oss, in itself as innocent as an oval or a square, often leads men into

THE ALTAR. gQJ

a species of idolatry. When I see a cross embossed on Bibles, wrought out in jewelry or fashioned gold, I cannot but think how contradictory it all seems: the cross, a thing of shame, the instrument of our Lord’s execution by those who abhorred him, and yet worn as an ornament I surely men might as well wear at their girdles the dagger with which their friend was stabbed! Why do not the ladies wear a gibbet from their necks? For what more or less is a cross? Such was not the cross which Paul gloried in; he would have despised such idolatry. He gloried in the gospel, which is a spiritual cross, and he says of it “By which the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world.” Which of those cross wearers was ever crucified to the world by the cross ^•!.ich dangles on their bosoms? The sign of the cross when reverenced is much the same as the brazen serpent when Israel fell to adoring it: it must be broken, and Christian people should discountenance its use. Clearly it is no altar.

We occasionally read, and especially in poetry, of the “altar of the heart,” but is not that also a misnomer, and may it not one day lead to doctrinal error? The heart an altar! It certainly does not sanctify the gift. If there be anything in the gift that is acceptable to God its sanctity must come from its being offered on a very dilFe rent altar than that of our poor, corrupt, and depraved heart. I know the meanincr is, that sincerity makes our service acceptable, but I doubt the truth of til at assei’tion, for however sincere our devotions may be, apart from the atonement of Jesus God accepteth them not. Sincerity there must be or there can be no offering made to God at all; but still all the sincerity that ever dwelt in human bosom could not make an offering to be received of God, unless faith found an altar in Jesus, and relied for acceptance upon the grand sacrifice and finished atonement of the Mediator. Talk not quite so loosely lest mischief come of it.

A more common and dangerous mistake, however, is to call the table which is used for the purpose of the Lord’s Supper an altar. If it had been called a house, or a horse, or an angel, either title would have been quite as correct a name, for there is no likeness whatever between the table of communion and an altar. The mistaJie is egregious, and the m;schief flowing from it is most terrible. All through Scripture we read of the communion table, but never find it either plainly, obscurely, directly, or indirectly called an altar. Jesus said, *’ The hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table; “he did not say, “The traitor is ofiiciating with me at this altar,” and yet surely that first celebration was quite as complete as any which have succeeded it! Paul saith, ‘• Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table and of the table of the devil,” and that too in a connection in which he would surely have said the Lord’s altar had the term been allowable. Neither, except by the most violent straining, can there be found any passage of Scripture which represents this table, used to celebrate a feast, as an altar for the consumption of a sacrifice. Indeed, what sacrifice do the modern priests place upon their so-called altar? See, they bring forth bread and wine, fit furniture for a table, but where are the fire and the wood for a burnt-offering? If the table be an altar, then according to our Lord, it is better and holier than the bread and wine placed upon it, for the “altar sanctifieth the gittj” and yet our modern ritualists will hardly venture to say that their altars of wood and stone are really more holy than the body and blood of Jesus Christ, which they profess to offer thereon. I know not to what length folly may go, but one thing I marvel at, if these gentlemen must needs have a material altar, why do they not follow the scriptural form thereof? Why do they make a kind of sideboard or dresser of it, by setting it against a wall? a thing that was never heard of in all the world before, for everywhere altars are so placed as to be compassed about. David said, “So will I compass thine altar, 0 Lord.” Elijah digged a trench about the altar. The altar of the Old Testament could be surrounded, but whence came these new-fashioned erections, which are not even according to the fashion of Judaism? From what heathenism did they borrow their steps to the altar, such things being forbidden of the Lord? Whence came their high altar? What mean tho«e ornaments on an altar? Strange intrusions these for an altar! Surely they must have taken their models from those altars of Baal, of which we read that there were images on high above them; for how commonly do we gee either their pieces of plate with superstitious symbols, or their sumptuous common prayer books, adorned with silver crucifixes, or what is worse, pictures and images, and candles, and I know not what of trumpery besides I Let us never therefore use the term altar as synonymous with communion table, lest we countenance deadly error. Of ail delusions that have ever happened to the human race, surely that of transubstantiation has been at once the most absurd and the most profane, and both that doctrine and all growing out of it should be protested against by every sincere Christian, especially at this dreary time when superstition is daily increasing. If ever we shall have Popery back in this land, it will owe much of its advance to the misuse of terms. Call not you table an altar, lest ye come to bow before it as the Popish heathen do. Use it as a table of fellowship and communion, but never dream of it as an altar. The one altar which sanctifieth the gift is the person and merit of our Lord Jesus Christ, and nothing else.

Come we then to the consideration of this subject. I shall first refer you to the passage in the book of Exodus, in which the great brazen altar of the tabernacle was described, and try to work out the type as it reveals our Lord; and then, secondly, I shall ask a few practical questions.

L In the twenty -seventh chapter of the book of Exodus you have the Lord’s command: “And thou shall make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the aliar shall be four-square: and the height thereof shall be three cubits. And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass.” Jesus Christ is the ANTITYPE OF THIS BRAZEN ALTAR. All that it signified typically we have in him.

And first the altar typifies our Lord, if we consider the use of it. The altar had at least two uses. First, to sanctify that which was put upon it, and then, secondly, to sustain it or bear it up, while the fire was consuming it. Our Lord Jesus is himself the sacrifice as well as the altar. Whatever is oifered to God by him or by us is accepted, because of the excellence of his pei son. As God and perfect man in one person, all that he does and all that he presents becomes acceptable because of the excellence that dwelleth in him; and so, also, he bears and sustains all the violent heat both of the fire of divine wrath and the fire of divine presence, which consumeth the sacrifice put upon the altar. How our Lord Jesus Christ lifts up our gifts towards heaven I How of old did he lift up our sins! and when the holy flame descended and consumed him, as the great victim for human guilt, what strength and power there was in him, fitting him like an altar of brass to endure all those furious flames! And how to-day does he sweetly lift up before God all the offerings of his people, and renders them acceptable in himself I The old Puritans were wont to say that the altar represented the deity of Christ, because the deity of Christ lent power as well as virtue to the manhood of Christ; but may we not consider his entire person to be the sustaining and sanctifying altar of mediation? As the one appointed Mediator for mankind, he puts a value into the gifts of his people, and his own sacrifice derives efficacy from his person and character. In him we are able to bear the presence of God when he accepts us, for our God is a consuming fire, and we can only meet him in Jesus; it is only on the brazen altar that the heavenly fire can consume our sacrifice. The wrath which consumes Jesus has endured once for all; that glory of consuming love we are able to learn through our union with the incarnate God. Let it never then be forgotten by us all that if our souls and bodies, which we offer to God, are to be presented before the Lord, it must be by Christ us an altar; and if we arc to be sanctified and rendered acce[)table, it must still be by Christ as an altar. There never could be but this one altar for Israel — for all Israel, according to divine appointment, this was the alone altar; every victim must be slaughtered here; every acceptable burnt-offering must be brought here; and so with us. We cannot offer a prayer, much less ourselves, except by him. There is one Christ for all the saints, one Jesus for you who are grown in grace, one Jesus for those who are but beginners in spiritual things, one Lord Jesus for the black and filthy sinner when he first seeks for mercy, one Lord Jesus for the Christian made perfect when he enters into his rest. One altar for all Israel, and that one altar for all times: for Israel in the days of Moses, for Israel in the days of Solomon, for Israel until the end of the dispensation. You and I come to God by the selfsame road which was travelled by David, and afterwards by the Lord’s apostles. Never a believer accepted except in Jesus, in any age, never a work done that was acceptable to God in any period except through Jesus Christ. One altar, and only one for all ages, for the whole chosen seed. We hold this as a truth; let us prize it and defend it.

The place of the altar next deserves your consideration. You will remember that the moment you entered into the door of the tabernacle you saw this altar of burnt-offering, and before you could reach the veil which separated the holy from the most holy place, you must pass hard by the altar. So at the very beginning of the Christian life, the first thing we have to learn is that we approach God through Jesus Christ. Thou knowest nothing of Christianity unless the most prominent thought of thy soul is Jesus as the Mediator between thee and God. Talk not of Christian example or of Christian holy teaching, these fchiiips are but secondary; ye must know Jesus Christ as suflfering and pourinff out his soul unto death as a propitiation for sin, or you do not know the inner sense of the divine religion of the cross. Nobody could help seeing that brazen altar. Walking with his eyes open through tluit court, every observer must see it. There was its perpetual smoke and smell — and this even one would perceive — while in itself it was so large and important, that it could not be overlooked. Even so, my hearer, thou canst not abide in the religion of Jesus, even for an hour, without beholding him and without resting in him. Thou knowest nought unless thou knowest him as the altar of God. The way to the most holy place was by this altar. “No man cometh to the Father but by me.” We cannot enter into fellowship with God, nor understand the deep things of God, nor penetrate into the divine arcana oi the highest of the doctrines of the truth, except by fii’st passing where the atonement is ottered and where Jesus stands, the only Mediator between God and man. How many have tried to learn the doctrines apart from Christ, and how many try to preach them! but they are unedifying, and even lead to mischief. The best of all preaching of doctrines is such as that which we had in Dr. Hawker’s ‘day, when he preached election, but it was always election in Christ; when the doctrine of predestination was clearly enough stated, but its sweet relationship to the Lamb of God was always dwelt upon. Let it be our desire when we enter into the deep things of God to view them in relation to Jesus, and pass by the altar to reach the veil.

The form of the altar deserves our attention, as it helps to bring out something more of Christ. The altar was tbur-square. Where shall we learn to measure the heights and deprhs, the lengths and breadths of the love of Christ that passeth knowledge? If we may not so measure them just yet, it is satisfactory to know that everything about Christ is well ordered and arranged by infinite wisdom; the altar is not made at haphazard, it is four-square. There is no excess in him, there is no lack in him; all that we can need to render our sacrifice acceptable to God we have in him. Ainsworth saith that the foim of four-square represents stability and endurance; and truly our Lord is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Other altars have been overturned, but this never. The saints came to him thousands of years ago, and there he stood between the porch and the veil: we come to him to-day, and he stands there still; and when the ages shall have passed by, and things that men have dreamed to be everlasting shall have melted like the morning’s hoar frost, there shall still be the selfsame Saviour fixed in his place to otter still the prayers and the praises of his people.

At each corner of the altar was a horn. The horn is always the emblem of power; and these horns indicated doubtless the power which lies in the person of Jesus Christ — the power with God on our behalf. We never need be afraid of acceptance in the Beloved when we see what might, what virtue, what sacred merit dwells in him. God reject his Son I Impossible I The adored of angels, the eternally beloved, must be accepted of God. Having given his hands to the nails, and his heart to the spear, having suffered even unto death, it cannot be that the Lord should deny him and disrespect his sacrifice. He must be for ever prevalent with the Most High. Put thyself on the altar,

Christian, God must accept thee, for he accepts the victim because of the altar which sanctifieth the gift; he must accept thee, feeble as thou art, for Jesus infuses merit into thee as the altar into the gift. Come with thy tears, come with thy sighs and thy groans, poor treuibliug one, there is no fear but what thou shalt speed; those four horns indicate how meritorious Jesus is, and he will render thee as acceptable as he is himself.

The altar, too, while we are describing its form, we must remember, was built originally so low that it was reached by the priests without the use of steps, and, inleed, steps were expressly forbidden, the reason being given that, in going up to the altar, it might not be possible that the nakedness of the priest should be discovered. God would have nothing indecorous in his service. The spiritual meaning being, I suppose, that Jesus Christ, when we go to him, is most accessible. We are not to climb to him by steps of creature effort, merit, and preparation. Those preparations for Christ, of which so much is made by certain preachers, are all mischievous. Divines will tell you you must feel tills and feel the other, you must pass through that experience and the other, but, truly —

“All the fitness he requireth,
Is to feel your need of him.”

And this he gives you. There are no steps up to the altar, there are no human preparations for Christ. You may come to him just as you are, for he is waiting to be gracious. Solomon’s altar in the temple was on a large scale, to show the greatness of our Lord’s power and grace; and in order to maintain proportions, it was made much too high to be reached withoar some mode of ascent — and it is supposed, therefore, that the priests reached it by a gradual incline, since steps must not be made to it. And hei-e we should be taught how, in coming to Christ, we ascend towards God. When we draw near unto him with true hearts, we are elevated thereby. Man is never more truly exalted in spirit than when he bows lowest at the cross foot. Calvary, though it was no mountain, nor scarce a hill, outsoars the Hermous and Pisgahs; its top is nearer heaven than Carmel or Bashan.

“Here it is I find my heaven,
While upon the cross I gaze.”

Let me but tarry there, and if I am not in paradise, I should be, at least, in the suburbs of the New Jerusalem. No truth so dear as Jesus crucified: the altar of his atonement is so low, that a child may reach it, and yet it is so high, that by it we ascend to heaven.

It is notable, and you will kindly look this afternoon into your Bibles, and investigate the matter, that this altar was increased in size in the temple. It was far smaller in the tabernacle than in the temple; RO may our conceptions of Christ be ever growing: if we know him well enough to find that he is sufficient for our present needs, may we yet understand his all sufficiency; if we have discovered something of his excellence, and of the admirable way in which he secures our acceptance with God, may we know this more and more. May Jesus grow upon us, until unable to comprehend him, we shall rejoice in his wceeding greatness and be filled with his fuhirss.

I must not forget, in speaking of the form of the altar, also that as the observer passed round it, he would be constantly struok with its bespattered appearance. Entertain not the notion the tabernacle and the temple must have been very pleasant places — we can scarcely imagine anything that must have been more awe inspiring, and even revolting to the mind of the observer, than the court of priests, when sacrificing was being carried on. It must on great occasions have resembled a butcher’s shambles, with the addition of smoke and fire. And this brazen altar was so frequently besmeared with blood, and so constantly were bowlfulls of warm gore thrown at its base, that it must have presented a very ghastly appearance. This was all to teach the observer what a dreadful thing sin is, and how it can only be put away through suffering and death. The Lord did not study attractive aesthetics, he did not prepare a tabernacle that should delight men’s tastes; it was rich indeed, but so blood-stained as to be by no means beautiful. No staining of glass to charm the eye, but instead thereof the inwards of slauglitered bullocks. Such sights would disgust the delicate tastes of the fops of this present age. Blood, blood on every side; death, fire, smoke and ashes, varied with the bellowing of dying beasts, and the active exertions of men whose white garments were all crimson with the blood of victims. How clearly did the worshippers see the sternness and severity of the justice of God against human sin, and the intensity of the agony of the great Son of God who was in the fulness of time by his own death to put away all the sins and transgressions of his people I By faith come ye, my brethren, and walk round that blood-stained altar, and as you mark its four-square form and its horns of strength, and see the sacrifices smoking thereon acceptable to God, look down and mark the blood with which its foundations are so completely saturated, and understand how all salvation and all acceptance rests on the atonement of the dying Son of God.

We will pass on to observe, next, the materiuls of which the altar was made, for these also were instructive. It was made of shittim wood, overlaid with brass. The shittim wood is always understood to represent the incorruptible human character of our Lord Jesus, for this which was probably the acacia, was a wood which would not rot, even as Jesus when tempted, even in all points like as we are, yet remained without sin. The brass, of course, was necessary as an outer covering, lest the altar should be consumed by the flames. It had to bear perpetually the blazing and the burning fire; and so we in the brass see the endurance of Christ, how his loins were girt about with power, and how the divinity within sustained the perfect man while he bore “All that incarnate God could bear. With strength enough and none to spare.” Look on that brass. Christian, with admiring eye. Think how oftentimes it was heated by the fire, and then look upon your Lord, and think how in soul and body he was tortured and tormented for your sins, and reflect how strong he must have been to suffer so as to be able to bear the whole of wrath divine, and make a complete atonement for the transgressions of his elect!

The fire which burnt upon the altar also deserves to be noticed. It was doubtless no common fire of ordinary culinary use. It fell from heaven, and there may have been qualities about it which rendered it different from any other. For instance, it may have left none of that residuum of ash, and smoke, and filth, that would be found in the use of ordinary fire; it may have been like lightning in its force and pureness. Complaints were always made of the old heathen temples of the abundance of flies and filth found there. Hence the Jews were accustomed in derision to call the idol god Baal, Baal-zebub, or the god of flies, because of the abundance of such noxious creatures found in his temples. Probably there were none such in God’s temple, for the Lord’s fire slew every unclean thing. This fire had noble and distinct qualities, consuming and blazing after a nobler and diviner sort than ordinary flames; and certainly our Lord Jesus Christ has burning upon his altar no impure flames; love burns there which sprang only from his own bosom; a holy zeal burns there without the slightest admixture ot self love; the Holy Ghost burns there, that purest and best of flames that can rest on mortal men, and there too burned the fire of divine wrath, which was a holy jealousy against sin: and when God himself comes upon that altar to accept his people, it is a divine acceptance unutterably glorious.

But I must not detain you longer. If you will read the passage at home you will find abundance of matter suggestive of the person and the work of Jesus Christ. To him must we always come in heart and soul. We know of no holy place now, nor holy days, nor holy implements. Our soul serves God in spirit, for he is a Spirit and seeketh those to worship him who do so in spirit and in truth. Our soul gives to Jesus Christ pre-eminence in all her trusting, coming only to God through him, and never thinking that she can either serve, or worship, or lire aright, except as she dwells in Christ, and the merit of Christ commends her to the Father. That is the thought, the one thought I wish to bring forward; and though I cannot speak this morning as I would, yet if that abide with you, this hour shall not have been lost time.

II. ^OW A QUESTION OR TWO.

My first enquiry is. Have you and I always taken care to keep to the one spiritual altar? The sin of this age is idolatry. The whole tendency of this generation is towards the setting up of other than spiritual altars. The only way to come to God is spiritually through Jesus Christ, but you will find yourself, dear friend, frequently tempted to make something else the vehicle of access to God, and to render homage to him through some other vehicle. You may depend upon it, that the belief that this building or that any other building is a house of God, a place peculiarly suitable for worship, is idolatry; you are giving to bricks and mortar some little of the honour which is due only to Christ as an altar. If you suppose that there is any more acceptableness to God in a church or a cathedral than in any public hall or in the open air, you have made a material building into an altar, you have gone back to the types and have missed the Antitype, and so far have robbed Christ of a portion of his glory. If you look upon any material substances as being holy, or, I will add, upon any postures, whether kneeling, standing, or sitting, as having in them any kind of holiness, or ilj in fact,

2(j3 metropolitan tabernacle pulpit.

you get away from the spiritual in any manner — begin in any sort, or mode, or degree, to attach reverence to the physical and to the material — you have so far wandered away from the simplicity of Christ, you have set up an Antichrist, and you have robbed the Lord Jesus. God will never put away the sin of this land until the belief in material consecration is given up. Thus spake Isaiah of old: “By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take awaj his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.” We must down with idols, and learn that there is no more holiness in our parish steeple-houses, called churches, or in our chapels or cathedrals, than in barns and hovels. God abhors our idolatry, and will visit us for it unless we repent and turn from it. We cannot hope, in this England of ours, to see restored to us the purity of the gospel until Protestants cleanse themselves of this Antichristian, Popish belief and reverence for postures, and places, and men, and days, and books, and I know not what beside. Worship God, men! Demean not yourselves by paying reverence to anything else. Worship God in Jesus Christ. That is the one only canon of worship; in the power of the eternal Spirit approach God through the merits of the Redeemer: and as for your so-called priests, and your churches, and your holy things, away with them! They are not to be borne by reason, much less by men of spiritual minds. Worship God in Jesus Christ, and give the glory due unto hi§ name wholly to him, but give none of it to things of human devidng.

The next question is, Are there not some among you tvho have been offering to God ivithoid an altar at all? I mean this: you have been striving, you saw, to, do your duty; you are au honourable member (f the state. You have sought to be religious too, and you have come up with the assembly of God’s people. You never forget the Sabbath, nor the oifering of your morning and evening prayer, and you believe yourself, therefore, to be among the good and the righteous, and you hope to be accepted at the bar of God. Yes, 1 see your sacrifice, but where is your altar? For be assured, God will not receive your sacrifice luthout an altar, and for altars there is but one. You have forgotten, my dear friend, the one great essential thing. According to our text, the altar sanctifies the gift: your gift is not sanctified at all then; it is an uusanctified, unacceptable gift. The whole of your life, though commendable in itself, and to be imitated by others m its outward’ development, is not accepted of God because you have never placed that life upon the appointed altar of Christ Jesus; you have not ottered it to God, having first trusted in Christ and looked to his merit for its acceptance. You have been depending upon yourself, and therefore you are no more likely to be saved than Cain was when he went about to offer a sacrifice of his own, and could not submit to brmg the lamb according to divine appointment. Oh, I could weep over some of you who have so much that is good about you, because you forget the Lord Jesus. Why, you have forgotten the one, the mam, the essential thing. Those morning and evening prayers of yours, what are they? If you have not seen Jesus on the cross, if you have not looked to his wounds, you have not prayed at all. That helping of the poor which is so kind of you — ay, but if you have not done it for his sake, trusting in him, who, though he was rich, yet for your sake became poor, you have not done it unto God at all. And if you have been working and going about to establish your own righteousness, and have not submitted yourself to the righteousness of Christ, it will all be a failure. You gentlemen who have brought up your families so well, you honest working men who fight the battle of life so valiantly, oh 1 it is grievous to think that you should labour in vain, and spend your strength for nought, and bring your bullocks and your rams and sacrifice to God, and they should all be an offence and an abomination, because you do not bring them to the one appointed altar. God help you to think of this and to repent of the folly, and henceforth live in consistency of character as you have done, but make not that your trust: come to Jesus first, and let the rest follow.

Next, my brethren and sisters, another enquiry, for those of us who have brought our offerings and ourselves to God through Jesus Christ. Let me ask whether we have not often forgotten to attach the importance to the attar which ive shouid have done. I mean this. I pray, and when my prayer is done I think within myself, will it prevail? And I remember that I did not plead the blood of Jesus as I ought to have done. I said, “for Jesus’ sake” — I should be ashamed to pray except in his name — but did I realise that I could not be acceptable with God in myself? that it must be because of the Redeemer’s perfections, sufferings, bloody sweat, passion, and resurrection, that I must be heard? Now my prayer has lost much power if I have not pleaded Christ’s work, and Christ’s merit, with all my heart, and soul, and strength. To plead the merit of Jesus is the marrow of prayer; good words are but the bone. This is the soul of prayer; this it is that takes heaven by storm; this moves the heart of God — the bringing before God the sacrifice of his dear Son, the making Gethsemane to ring aG:ain in the paternal ears, making the cross to shine again before the Father’s face, pleading earnestly because Jesus deserves abundantly. Have we not often missed this? and if we have in our prayers, I am sure we have much more in our other engagements. I am afraid we preach without putting the sermon on the brazen altar, and that we distribute our tracts or teach in the Sabbath-school, or talk of Christ with tha sick, and do it without presenting the service through the meritorious person of our Lord. Oh! it is blessed when one has preached, and felt, “Well, I have not succeeded as I could desire; I have felt heavy in my Master’s service, shut up so that I could not come forth; but still I meant to honour him, and now, my God, accept my poor service for my Redeemer’s sake.” This is the way to put our service right on the altar, and there it is sure to speed. Oh, then it is so blessed to know that Jesus sanctifies the gift! The gift was nothing — a’ po(tr speech for his name, a scanty gift to his poor saints, but still God receives it as he accepted the bullocks, not for the bullocks’ sake, but for the altar’s sake; and so will he receive our faulty services for the sake of Jesus, when we offer them through him. Let your souls anchor themselves to the atonement of Jesus. Cast more cords about yourself, and bind your spirits fast to him. You are never healthy, you are never strong, you are never happy, you are never lifted up towards heaven except when you abide close to the person of the Son of God made flesh for you. Never journey away from the cross. Seek other truths, and delight in other beauties if you will, but the first truth and the first beauty in heaven and earth is the crucified Redeemer: keep you to him, and rejoice in him.

I shall not detain you longer except to say this. Have we, dear friends, as believers, ever fed at this altar? for we have an altar of which they have no right to eat that serve the tabernacle. That is to say, those who trust in ceremonies have no right to Christ; those who think themselves priests above their fellow Christians cannot taste Christ; they are shut out by their own act and deed, they have no right there; but we who do not serve the outward tabernacle, but have come to spiritual worship, we have a right to eat at the altar of Christ. Here is a choice morsel for us, God has accepted us in Christ. Feed on that. Christian; you have condemned yourself but God has accepted you. Men have criticised and censured you, but in Christ God has accepted those imperfect works of yours. Why, it is enough for a courtier if his king smiles; is it not enough for you? Nay, lie not down and groan, and cry, because you have not acted perfectly, but having repented of every omission and transgression, rise up with courage to do better things, because even your worst things have been accepted. Peed on Christ who makes you accepted; feed on the acceptance itself, and so like the priest, commune with God at his table.

And if you have already laid yourself upon the altar of Christ as a reasonat»le sacrifice, come ami do it again. It is very desirable frequently to renew our consecration to Jesus. “Thine are we, thou Son of David, and all that we have.” You who have been bought with his blood, draw nigh to him, and yield yourselves anew to him this morning. You own the soft impeachment that you are his in blessed marriage bonds, come, then, and anew declare, “My Lord, take me wholly! Use me, use me to the last ounce! Use me up! Grant that there may not be a hair of my head, nor a drop of my blood, nor a beating of my pulse, which is not thine! Lord, 1 make no reserve. I give thee my ohildren, my house, my property, my time, my body, my soul, and I do not ask thee to spare me and give me an easy life. Do as thou wilt with me, only glorify thyself in me!” When the bullock was on the altar, the flesh-hook was used to aid in burning it completely — the priest desired that there should be nothing of the offering left. “So, Lord, if thou usest the flesh-hook of affliction to drag me into the fire, so let it be. I would that thou shouldst win as much glory out of me as thou canst extract from a mortal man by suff’ering or by service; appoint me what thou wilt, only, Father, glorify thyself, and enable me to glorify thee!” If we shall thus consecrate ourselves, there will be better days in store for us than we have as yet known, and the church and the world will know that God has wrought wonders for us. May God give you a blessing, for his name’s sake. Amen.

Portion or Scripture Read before Sermon. — Hebrews
“THE AEK OF HIS COVENANT.”

Intended fob Reading on Lord’s-day, August 25th, 1895,
delitered by
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,
On Thursday Evening, August 18<A, 1887.

“And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament (covenant — e.v.): and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great haii.” — Revelation xi. 19.

I 8HAXL take the passage quite by itself. I do not fully understand its connection, whether it relates to that which goes before or to that which comes afterwards; and, happily, it is not necessary for us to know this, for the passage stands complete in itself, and is full of valuable instruction.

Dear friends, even we who believe have as yet failed to see much of the truth of Grod. We know enough to save us, to comfort us, and to help U3 on our way to heaven; but oh, how much of the glory of divine truth has never yet been revealed to our eyes! Some of God’s children do not fully know even the common truths as yet, and those who do know them realize but little of their depth and height. Erom our text, it appears that there are certain things of God which as yet we have not seen; there is need that they should be opened up to us: “The temple of God was opened in heaven.” When our Lord Jesus died, he rent the veil of the temple, and so he laid open the holy of holies; but such is our dimness of sight, that we need to have the temple opened, and we need to have the holy of holies opened, so that we may see what is not really concealed, but what we are not ready to perceive by reason of the slowness of our understandings. The two words for “temple “here may relate not only to the temple itself, but also to the holy of holies, the innermost shrine. Both of these, it seems, need to be opened, or else we shall not see what there is in them. Blessed be the Holy Spirit that he does open up one truth after another to us. Our Saviour’s promise to his disciples was, “When he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth.” If we were more teachable, if we were more anxious to be taught, and waited upon him more, he would, doubtless, lead us into No. 2,427. 7 manj’ a truth which at the present moment we have not fully enjoyed. It is a happy thing for you and for me when at any time we can say, “The temple of God was opened in heaven, so that we saw oven that which was in the innermost shrine of the holy temple.”

The saints in heaven doubtless behold all the glory of God so far as it can be perceived by created beings; but we who are on the right way thither behold, as in a glass darkly, the glory of the Lord. We know only in part, but the part we do know is not so great as it might be, we might know far more than we do even here. Some suppose that they can know but little, because they say that it is written, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Yes, but why do you stop there? Half a text is often not true; go on to the end of the passage: “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God; “and that which your eye cannot see, and your ear cannot hear, and the heart of man cannot imagine, can be revealed to you by the Spirit of the Lord. Oh, that we were more conscious of the power of the Spirit, and that we waited upon him for yet fuller instruction! Then I am persuaded that, in our measure and degree, it would be true to us, even as to the perfected ones above, ‘* The temple of God was opened in heaven,” and they saw that which was in the holiest place.

What did they see when the temple was opened? When the secret place was laid bare to them, what did they see? That is to be my subject now. “There was seen in his temple the ark of his covenant.” If we could look into heaven at this moment, this ’s what we should see, “the ark of his covenant.” 0 sinner, thou thinkest that thou wouldst see an angry God, but thou wouldst see the ark of his covenant! 0 child of God, perhaps thou dreamest of many things that might distress thee in the glory of that sight; but rest thou content, this would be the main sight that thou wouldst see, Jesus, the incarnate God, the great covenant Surety! Thou wouldst see there, where the Godhead shines resplendent, the ark of his covenant.

I. I shall begin by noticing, first, that the ark of his covenant “18 ALWAYS NEAR TO God: “There was seen in his temple the ark of his covenant.”

Of course, the outward symbol is gone; we are not now speaking of a temple made with hands, that is to say, of this building. We speak of the spiritual temple above; we speak of the spiritual holy of holies. If we could look in there, we should see the ark of the covenant; and we should see the covenant itself always near to God. The covenant is alwajs there. God never forgets it; it is ever before him: “There was seen in his temple the ark of his covenant.”

Why is this? Is it not because the covenant is always standing? The Lord said concerning his people of old, “I will make with them an everlasting covenant,” of which David said, “Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.” If God has made a covenant with you, it is not simply for to-day and to-morrow, nor merely for this life, but for the ages of ages, even for ever and ever. If he has struck hands with you through the great Surety, “THE ARK OF HIS OOVENAJS^T. 313

Rnd lie has pledged himself to you, remember, “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” Jehovah hath said, “The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed.’’ * What he hath said he will stand to for ever. He will keep his word. He said to his Son, “I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people;” and he will never revoke the gift. This covenant stands secure. Though earth’s old columns bow, and though my spirits sink, and flesh and heart fail me, yet this covenant shall bear me up even to the end.

The covenant of grace is for ever the same, because, first, tht God who made it changes not. There can be no change in God. The supposition is inconsistent with a belief in his deity. Hear what he says: “I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” The sun hath his chanjjes, but the Father of lights is without variableness, or shadow of turning. “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” God has never to alter his purposes; why should he? Those purposes are always infinitely wise. He knoweth the end from the beginning; so his covenant, which he made with such deliberation in the councils of eternity, that covenant which is sealed with the most precious thing he ever had, even with the blood of his only-begotten Son, that covenant upon which he stakes his eternal honour, for his glory and honour are wrapped up with the covenant of grace, —; that covenant cannot be changed because God himself changeth not.

Then, next, the Christ who is its Surety and Substance changes not. Christ, the great Sacrifice by whose death the covenant was ratified, Christ, the Surety, who has sworn to carry out our part of the covenant, Christ, who is the very sum and substance of the covenant, never alters. “All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” If we had a variable Saviour, brethren, we should have a changeable covenant. Look at Adam; he could change, and therefore he was a poor representative of the human race. Our first federal head soon fell because he was a mere man; but the Surety of the new covenant is the Son of God, who, like his Father, faileth not, and changeth not. Though he is of the substance of his mother, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, and therefore can stand as man’s Representative, yet is he Light of Light, very God of very God, and so he standeth fast and firm, like the unchanging God himself. In this great truth we do and we will rejoice. The covenant is always before God, for Christ is always there. He, the Lamb in the midst of the throne, makes the covenant always to be close to the heart of God.

And, beloved, note you this. The covenant must always be near to God because the love which suggested it changes not. The Lord loves his people with a love which has no beginning, no end, no boundary, no change. He says, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” When the love of God’s heart goeth forth toward the believer, it is not changeful like the love of man, sometimes high and sometimes low, sometimes strong and sometimes weak; but, as it is said of our Saviour, “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end,” so can it be said of the great Father that his love is evermore the same; and if the love which dictated the covenant is always in the heart of God, depend upon it that the covenant which comes of that love is always there in. the secret place of the Most High.

Reflect also, beloved brethren, that the promises contained in th$ covenant change not. I quoted to you, just now, one passage about the promises, and that is enough: “All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen.” Not one single promise of God shall ever fall to the ground unfulfilled. His word in the form of promises, as well as in the form of the gospel, shall not return unto him void. 0 souls, you may hang your whole weight upon any promise of God! You need not fear that it will break. Though all the vessels of the King’s house were hung on one nail made by him, that nail would bear them all up, as well the flagons as the vessels of smaller measure. Heaven and earth may hang upon a single promise of God. The voice that rolls the stars along, and keeps them all in their orbits, is that voice which spake even the least of the promises, and therefore every promise of God stands secure for ever.

And once more, not only the promises, but the fores and binding power of the covenant change not. All God’s acts are done with a r*^ference to his covenant, and all his covenant has a reference to his covenanted ones. Remember what Moses said of old, ““When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.” Everything that he does follows the line and rule of his covenant. If he chastens and afilicts, it is not in anger, but in his dear covenant love. When first that covenant came into full action with the redeemed, it was all powerful; but it is just as powerful still. AU that God doeth is still guided and directed by his eternal purpose and his covenant pledges to his people. Stand still, then, and when thou lookest up, if thou canst not see that temple because thine eye of faith is dim, if thou scarcely darest to look within into the secret place which is the holiest of all, yet know thou of a surety that the covenant is still there, and always there, whether thou seest it or seest it not.

I will tell thee when, perhaps, thou wilt best know that the covenant is there; that is, when the storm-clouds gather the most thickly. When thou shalt see the black masses come rolling up, then remember that the Lord said to Noah, “I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.” Then shalt thou know that Jehovah remembereth his covenant; thou may est even be half glad of a black cloud, that the sun of the divine love may paint upon it the many-coloured bow, that God may look on it, and remember his covenant. It is good for thee to look on it; but what must it be for him to look on it, and to remember his covenant? Be thou glad that the covenant is always near to God, as our text declares, “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his covenant.”

“THE ARK OF HIS COVENAIfT.” 315

H. Now, secondly, the covenant is seen of sauh’s: “There was seen in his temple the ark of his covenant.”

First, we see it when, by faith, we believe in Jesus as our Covenant-head.

By faith we know that God has entered into covenant with us. He that believeth in Christ Jesus is in covenant with God. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” “He that believeth on him is not condemned.” He that believeth in him is at peace with God, he has passed from death unto life, and shall never come into condemnation. Thou art in covenant with God, believer. Wipe thy weeping eyes, ask God to take the dust out of them, that thou mayest Bee that there is an unchanging covenant made with thee to-night and for ever.

Next, we see this covenant when, by faith, tee perceive it in God’8 actions towards us. Faith may see the covenant of God in all his actions. Do you not remember how the old Scotchwoman blessed God for her porridge, but she blessed him most of all because the porridge was in the covenant? God had promised bread and water, and therefore it was sure to come to her. God sent her bread to her in the form of porridge, and she blessed the Lord that it was in the covenant. Now, I thank God that food is in the covenant, and that raiment is in the covenant. It is written, “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass,” so they are in the covenant. Life is in the covenant, and death is in the covenant: “To die is gain.” Everything that is to happen to us is in the covenant; and when faith sees it so, it makes life a happy one. Am I chastened? I say to myself, “Well, the rod was in the covenant, for the Lord said that, if his children disobeyed him, he would chasten them with the rod of men. Ji I never had the rod, I should be afraid I was not in the covenant.” Is it not written, “In the world ye shall have tribulation “? That is a part of the covenant, you see; so that, when you get it, say to yourself, “The God who is evidently keeping this part of his covenant will keep the rest of it to me, his child.”

Brethren, we get, perhaps, the best sight of the covenant when by prayer we plead it. In that hour of our wrestling, in the time of our inward craving of mercies from the hand of God, we come at last to this, “Lord, thou hast promised; do as thou hast said.” I love to put my finger on a promise, and then to plead it with the Lord, saying, This is thy word, my Father; and I know that thou wilt not run back from it. 0 God, I believe in the inspiration of this Book, and I take every word of it as coming from thy lips. Wilt thou not seal it to my conscience, my heart, my experience, by proving it to be true? “Have you ever found the Lord’s promises fail you? I remember one who had put in the margin of her Bible in several places, “I and P “; and when she was asked what those letters meant, she said, “They mean, ‘Tried and Proved.’ As I go through life, I keep trying and proving the promises of God, and then I put a mark in the margin of my Bible against every one I have tested, that I may not forget it the next time I have to plead it.” That is the way to see the covenant at the right hand of God, when you plead it in prayer.

And there are some of us, I think, who can say that our experience w till now proves that God does not forget his covenant. We have

METBOPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT.

wandered, but we have been able to say, “He restoreth my soul,” for he has restored us. We have needed many things, and we have gone to him in prayer, and pleaded that word, “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly,” and he has listened to the cries of his servants. He said he would do so: “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” He has remembered us in our low estate, for his mercy endureth for ever; and some of us who are no longer young can set to our seal that God is true because of many experiences of his faithfulness. If they tell us that there is nothing in the Bible, and nothing in Grod, and nothing in the gospel of Christ, we laugh them to scorn. We have now for many a year lived upon the faithfulness of God, and we cannot be driven into a distrust of him. He is faithful, and his mercy endureth for ever.

Do you not also think that, when we arrive in heaven, we shall have a wonderful retrospect, and that retrospect will all come to this: “The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his covenant “? Miss Hannah More very prettily puts it that, often, we do not see the right side of things here. She went into a carpet manufactory, and she looked at what the workmen were doing, and she could see nothing that looked like beauty of design. There were tags and ends hanging out, and she said to the men, “I cannot perceive any design here,” and they answered, “No, madam, for you are on the wrong side of the carpet;” but when she went round to the other side, she saw the beauty of the workmanship. Alas! we are at present on the wrong side of God’s work; we must get to heaven to see it perfectly, and when we get there, we shall —

“Sing, with wonder and surprise,
His lovingkiudness in the skies.”

and we shall say,” It was all right; it could not have been better.

“• Every dark and benting line
Meets in the centre of his love.’”

God hath not erred. He has not gone about the longest way to do his work, but he has done in the wisest and most prudent manner all that was for the best and highest interests of his dear covenanted ones.

Thus, I have shown you that sometimes, and it should be always, God’s people do see that glorious covenant of grace which is in the temple above.

III. Now I want to have your attention while I say briefly, in the third place, that the covexant contains much that is worth

SEEING.

Let us think of what was in the ancient ark of the covenant, for all that was in that ark as a type is to be seen in Christ our heavenly covenant ark above.

In that ark, if you and I could have gone into the holy place, and havu had our eyes strengthened to look, we should have seen, first, God dwelling among men. What a wonderful thing! Over the top of the lid of that sacred coffer which was called the ark, there shone an amazing light which was the index of the presence of God. He was “THE ARK OP HIS COVENANT.’.” 7

in the midst of the camp of Israel, He that filleth heaven and earth, the infinite Jehovah, deigned to make that place his special dwelling-place, 80 that he is addressed as, “Thou that dwellest between the cherubims,’* Here is a part of the new covenant:” I will dwell in them, and walk in them.” It is marvellous that God does speak with men. He whom you heard thundering, last night, as he drove his chariot through the sky, that God in infinite condescension speaks with us, and has come down to us, and taken us into relationship with himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is at once the fellow of the Almighty, and the brother of the sons cfi men. 0 beloved, rejoice in the covenant, that God is no longer divided from men! The chasm made by sin is filled, the gulf is bridged, and God now dwells with men, and manifests himself to them; and “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him,”

Next, in that ark you would have noticed, if you could have seen into it, God reconciled and communing with men upo7i the mercy-seat. Over the top of that ark, as I have told you, was a golden lid, which fitted it, and covered it exactly, and that golden lid was called the mercy-seat, the throne of grace. There God spoke with men. He sat there, as it were, enthroned as the Friend of men. Now, it is a part of the covenant that God hears prayer, that God answers our petitions, that he meets us in a way of reconciled love, that he speaks to us in tones which the spirit can hear though the ear cannot. Thank God for a blood-besprinkled mercy-seat. What should we do if we had not that as our meeting-place with the thrice-holy Jehovah?

Then, within the ark, underneath the lid, if we could have looked in, we should have seen the law, the two tables of stone, which represent law fulfilled in Christ, and henceforth laid up in his heart, and laid up in our hearts, too, if we delight in the law of God after the inward man. Now, this is our joy, that the law of God has nothing against the believer. It is fulfilled in Christ, and we see it laid up in Christ, not to be a stone to fall upon us to grind us to powder, but beautiful and fair to look upon as it is in the heart of Christ, and fulfilled in the life of Christ. I rejoice in the covenant which contains in it stipulations all fulfilled, and commands all executed, by our great Representative.

Together with those tables of the law there was laid up a rod, a rod which had originally been a dry stick in the hands of Aaron, but when it was laid up before the Lord it budded, and blossomed, and brought forth almonds. So, in the covenant of grace, we see the hingdom established and flourishing in Christ, and we rejoice in it. Oh, how pleased we are to bow before his fruitful sceptre! What wonderful fruit we gather from that blessed rod! Reign, reign, Jesus, reign! The more thou dost rule us, the more thou art absolute Sovereign of our hearts, the happier shall we be, and the more shall we delight ourselves in thee. There is no liberty like complete subjection beneath the sway of Jesus who is our Prophet, priest, and King.

Then, by the side of that rod there was laid up the golden pot full of manna, tht provision made for the wilderness. Let us rejoice that there is in the covenant all the provision that we need. God has laid up for us in Christ all our spiritual meat, all the food that we shall ever need between here and heaven. “Feed me till I want no more,” we cry to our blessed covenant Eepreseiitative, and he will do so.

Then, over the top of the ark, sat the cherubim with outstretched wing», as, I think, representing how the angels are in league with us, and with the angels all the forces and powem of the universe. This day, the beasts of the field are our friends, and the stones of the field have ceased to be our foes. Child of God, you may travel by land or sea; you may go where you will; for everywhere j-ou are in your Father’s house. All that you see about you is a friend tb you, since you are a friend to God. I often wonder that the earth bears up ungodly men. It must groan beneath the weight of a swearer; it must want to open and swallow him up. But with the gracious man, the man who fears God, all things are at peace, and we may know it to be so. “Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” We do not often enough realize, I think, the friendship of all God’s creatures to those who are his children. St. Francis, though he was a Romish monk, yet had a true idea when he used to regard the sparrows and other birds of the air, and even the dogs in the street, as his friends and his brothers, and talked to them as such. And Luther was much of the same mind when he opened his window, and listened to the chirpings of the robins in the early spring, and felt that they had come to teach the theological doctor some lesson which he had not learned. Oh yes, oh yes, we are quite at home anywhere, now that God is our God! True, the earth travaileth, and is in pain, and the creation suffers and will suffer till Christ comes again; but still her travail is our travail, and we are in sympathy with her, and when she doth reflect the glory of her God she is our looking-glass in which we see our Father’s face.

Thus, I think, I have shown you that there is much to be seen in the ark of the covenant. God give us grace, like the angels, to fix our eyes upon it! “Which things the angels desire tu look into.” We have more to do with the ark of his covenant than they hare; let U8 be more desirous even than they are to look therein.

IV. I close with this fourth point. The covenant has solemn SURROUNDINGS. Listen: “There were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.”

When the people entered into covenant with God on Sinai, the Lord came down upon the top of the mount, and there were thunderings, and lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake. There were all these tokens of his presence, and God will not leave the covenant of tns grace without the sanctions of his power; that thimder, that lightning, that storm, — all these are engaged to keep his covenant. When they are wanted, the God who smote Egypt with great hailstones, the God who made the Kishon to sweep his enemies away, the God who made the stars in heaven to fight against Sisera, will bring all the overwhelming forces that are at his command to the help of his people, and the fulfilling of the covenant which he has made with them. 0 you who are his people, fall back in confidence upon the God who has treasure* of snow, and hail, and the dread artillery of storm and tempest!

“the ark or HIS COVENANT.’’ 819

Most of you, my hearers, have never seen a great storm yet, nor heard in its majesty the thunder of Grod’s power. You must be in the tropics to know what these can be, and even then you would have to say, “These are but parts of his ways.” Oh, how the Lord can shake the earth, and make it tremble even to its deep foundations when he pleases! He can make what we call” the solid earth” to be as weak as water when he doth but lift up his finger. But all the power that God hath, — and it is boundless, — is all in that right hand which has been lifted high to heaven in the solemn oath that he will save his people. Wherefore, lean upon God without the shadow of a doubt. He may well put all your fears to rest even by the thunder of his power.

Then reflect that there is another side to this truth. You who are not in covenant with God, you who have not believed that Jesus is the Christ, you who have never fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before you, you who refuse the divine mercy which comes to you through the bleeding person of the suffering Christ, do remember that there will be for you the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voices, and the earthquake, and the great hail, for these set forth the terrors of eternal law, overthrowing Gods adversaries. You have no conception of what God will do with the ungodly. False teachers may smooth it down as much as they like, but that Book is full of thunderbolts to you who refuse God’s mercy. Listen to this one text: “Consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” Can you sport with that? Listen to another: “Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies! “What will you say to that, or to this?” And again they said Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.” “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” They talk as if we invented these terrible words, but we do not; we merely quote the Scriptures of truth, and they are terrible indeed to the wicked. They should make men start in their sleep, and never rest until they find a Saviour. A Universalist once said to a Christian man that, whatever he did, God would not punish him, and the other replied, “If I spit on your god, I suppose he will not punish me. If I curse him, if I defy him, it will all come right at last? “” Yes,” said the Universalist. “WeU,” answered the other, “that may be the character of your god; but don’t you try that kind of thing with my God, the God of the Scriptures, or else you will find that because he is love he cannot, and he will not, suffer this world to be in anarchy, but he will rule it, and govern it, and he will punish those that refuse his infinite compassion.” So I beseech you, my hearers, fly to Jesus at once; weary, and heavy-laden, look to him, for he saith specially to you, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest.” The Lord add his blessing to the truth I have tried to preach to you, the sweet and the terrible alike, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

820 METBOPOLITAJf TABERNACLE PULPIT.

Exposition tg €. ^. .Spurgeom

HEBREWS IX.

Verse 1. Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.

That is to say, a material sanctuary, a sanctuary made out of such things as this world contains. Under the old covenant, there were certain outward symbols. Under the new covenant, we have not the symbols, but we have the substance itself. The old law dealt with types and shadows, but the gospel deals with the spiritual realities themselves.

2, 3. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the amdlestick, and the table, and the shewbreadj which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;

All this was by divine appointment; the form of the rooms, the style of the furniture, everything was ordained of God; and that not merely for ornament, but for purposes of instruction. As we shall see farther on, the Holy Ghost intended a significance, a teaching, a meaning, about everything in the old tabernacle, whether it was a candlestick, or a table, or the shewbread.

4, 5. Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant j and over it the cheruhims of glory shadowing the mercyseatj of which we cannot now speak particularly.

It would not have been to the point which the apostle had in hand, so he waived the explanation of those things for another time.

6 — 8. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of Ood. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offi-red for himself, and for the errors of the people; the Holy Ghost this signifying,

It is from this sentence that I am sure that the Holy Ghost had a signification, a meaning, a teaching, for every item of the ancient tabernacle and temple; and we are not spinning fancies out of idle brains when we interpret these types, and learn from them important gospel lessons. •’ The Holy Ghost this signifying,” —

8. That the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:

It was necessary that you should take away the sacred tent, the tabernacle, ay, and take away the temple, too, before you could learn the spiritual meaning of them. You must break the shell to get at the kernel. So God had ordained. Hence, there is now no tabernacle, no temple, no holy court, no inner shrine, the holy of holies. The material worship is done away with, in order that we may render the spiritual worship of which the material was but the type.

9. Which was a figure for the time then present.

Only a figure, and only meant for “the time then present.” It was the childhood of the Lord’s people; it was a time when, as yet, the light had not fully broken in upon spiritual eyes, so they must be taught by picture-books. They must have a kind of Kindergarten for the little children, that they might learn the elements of the faith by the symbols, types, and repre- ‘“Bentations of a material worship. When we come into the true gospel light, all that is done away with; it was only “a figure for the time then present.”

9. In which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;

All those rites could only give a fleshly purity, but they could not touch the conscience. If men saw what was meant by the outward type, then the conscience was a,ppeased; but by the outward sign itself the conscience was never comforted, if it was a living and lowly conscience.

10. Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

These ordinances were only laid upon the Jews, — not upon any other people, — and only laid upon them until the better and brighter days of reformation and fuller illumination.

11. But Christ —

Oh, how we seem to rise when we begin to get near to him, away from the high priests of the Jews! “But Christ” —

11. Being come an high priest of good things to come,

Not of the shadows, but of the good things themselves: “an high priest of good things to come,” —

11. By a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

That tabernacle was his body, which was not made with hands, nor yet formed by carnal generation as our human tabernacle is. This greater and more perfect tabernacle was made according to the power of an endless life.

12. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

The Jewish high priests went once a year into the holy of holies. Each year as it came round demanded that they should go again. Their work was never done; but “he entered in once,” and only once, “into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Hove that expression, “eternal redemption “— a redemption which really does redeem, and redeems for ever and ever. If you are redeemed by it, you cannot be lost; if this redemption be yours, it is not for a time, or for a season, but it is ‘* eternal redemption.” Oh, how you ought to rejoice in the one entrance within the veil by our great High Priest who has obtained eternal redemption for us!

13 — 15. For if the blood, of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer eprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: hotv much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living Oodf And for this cause he is the m,ediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

When you come to deal with Christ, you have to do with eternal things.. There is nothing temporary about him, or about his work. It is “eternal redemption” that he has obtained for us, it is an “eternal inheritance* that he has purchased for us.

16, 17. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is offeree after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.

Or, “Where a covenant is, there must also be the death of him who covenants, or of that by which the covenant is established.” Or read it as we have it in our version, for it seems as if it must be so, although we are loth to give the meaning of testament “to the word, since its natural meaning is evidently covenant: “Where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth;” or, if you will, while the victim that was to confirm the covenant lived, the covenant was not ratified; it must be slain before it could be thus effective.

18 — 22. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

There is no truth more plain than this in the whole of the Old Testament; and it must have within it a very weighty lesson to our souls. There are some who cannot endure the doctrine of a substitutionary atonement. Let them beware lest they be casting away the very soul and essence of the gospel. It is evident that the sacrifice of Christ was intended to give ease to the conscience, for we read that the blood of bulls and of goats could not do that. I fail to see how any doctrine of atonement except the doctrine of the vicarious sacrifice of Christ can give ease to the guilty conscience. Christ in my stead suffering the penalty of my sin, — that pacifies my conscience, but nothing else does: * ‘Without shedding of blood is no remission.”

23. It was therefore necestary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these;

These things down below are only the patterns, the models, the symbols of the heavenly things; they could therefore be ceremonially purified with the blood which is the symbol of the atoning sacrifice of Christ.

23, 24. But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the truej but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of Ood for us:

He never went within the veil in the Jewish temple; that was but the symbol of the true holy of holies. He has gone “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

25 — 28. Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. A nd as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many;

There is no need that he should die again, his one offering has for ever perfected all his people. There remains nothing but his final coming for the judgment of the ungodly, and the acquittal of his redeemed.

28. And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without tin unto salvation.

Christ’s second coming will be “without sin,” and without a sin offering, too, wholly apart from sin, unto the salvation of all his chosen. May we all be amongst those who are looking for him! Amen.