fixed place, with regular ceremonies. We hear the same of Isaac, the heir of his father's faith; when Gor appeared to him and said, "I am the GOD of Abraham thy father : fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed, for My servant Abraham's sake ''; Isaac showed his sense of Gon's condescension thus: "He builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants digged a well." Again, when Jacob went forth in solitude from his father's house, this remarkable incident is told of him: "he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and, behold, the angels of GOD ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD GOD of Abraham thy father, and the GOD of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." Now observe what is said, and said of course approvingly, of Jacob's feelings when he awoke. GOD has just told him that He would be with him equally in all places, yet his first act is to consecrate that particular spot to GOD. He was indeed but a wayfaring man, he was going on his road presently, yet he gave what he had, and he recognised God's especial Presence there. "Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; 2 Gen. xxviii. 11.

1 Gen. xxvi. 24.

and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the House of GOD, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel, the House of GOD." How very far was Jacob from that mocking irreverence, which calls itself spiritual mindedness, and says, "GOD is a SPIRIT, therefore the places most sacred to Him, where His worship has been offered up, and His sacraments administered, for hundreds of years, are not sacred at all: they are but piles of stone and mortar." Surely Jacob's lone pillar in the wilderness, consecrated with the oil which was all he had to offer to God, shames those professing Christians who can see in God's own House but the bare walls, while they are blind to the Sacred PRESENCE which dwells therein. Nor was this all; Jacob's act of reverence was accompanied by a promise of dedicating to God's special service one-tenth of all that God should give him, in which likewise it would be well that Christians should follow his example, and equal at least the measure of the Jewish Patriarch's righteousness. "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, if GOD will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my GOD; and this stone which I have set for a pillar, shall be GOD's House: and of all that THOU shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto THEE." And when the years of his banishment were embittered by the jealousy of Laban towards him, GOD appeared to him in his perplexity, and said, “I am the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst the pil

lar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto ME: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.""

So a few years passed away and the lone wayfaring man came back with flocks and with herds, with wives and with children, with men-servants and with womenservants, a very great company and as soon as he bought a parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, we read of him, as of his grandfather Abraham, and his father Isaac, "he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel," that is, GOD, the God of Israel. And presently GOD HIMSELF reminded him of the incident we have just been speaking of. "GOD said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto GOD, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother." And the Patriarch most touchingly acknowledges the circumstances of that appearance of GOD to him. "Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments; and let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; and I will make there an altar unto God, Who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went." "So Jacob came to Luz,-that is, Beth-el, and he built there an altar, and called the place El-Beth-el; because there GOD appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother." In his prosperity he did not forget his wonderful dream, and the lone pillar with the oil poured upon it, and that place remained a holy place in the promised land, until it was desecrated by the schism of Jeroboam; and of the spot which Jacob in his reverence named "the House of God,”

1 Gen. xxxi. 13. 2 Gen. xxxiii. 19. 3 Gen. xxxv. 1, 2,

6.

GOD spake by the mouth of His Prophet thus: "Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the LORD GOD, the GOD of hosts, that in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also visit the altars of Beth-el; and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. And I will smite the winter-house with the summer-house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD." Thus Jeroboam's sin of separation polluted the altar which Jacob had set up, and which God had accepted. These are instances in the earliest patriarchal times of that piety which sought to connect the worship of GOD with recollections of His particular Mercy and Providence ; strivings of the mind of man to grasp that most comfortable doctrine,-that the LORD of the whole earth is a PERSON Who views with discriminating love each one of His creatures.

I now pass to a very remarkable instance wherein GOD testified His will to be worshipped in a particular place and manner.

When the children of Israel came up out of Egypt, GOD revealed to Moses upon Mount Horeb the form of a Tabernacle which he was to erect; He gave him HE not merely general directions, but down even to the most minute detail of the vessels of the sanctuary, and the clothing of the Priests, all was appointed by GOD. "Moses was admonished of GOD when he was about to make the Tabernacle: for, See, saith HE, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the Mount." This tabernacle was, as you know, so made as to take to pieces when the children of Israel journeyed, and to be put together again when

they rested, and part of it was so sacred that no one but the High-Priest, and he only at stated times, might approach it. And here God willed that His spiritual Presence should dwell, and His Glory be made visible. And thus He most evidently confirmed it to be His pleasure that certain spots and things should be consecrated to HIMSELF, and so partake as it were of His Holiness; and this in condescension as it would seem to the weakness of His creature, who being Body as well as Spirit, requires such sensible aids to devotion. But at the same time that GOD caused a Tabernacle to be erected for HIM, and revealed a particular worship, and particular persons who should officiate therein, HE likewise imposed a restriction which had not before existed. We have seen how the Patriarchs erected altars to GOD, and offered HIM worship in many and different places; but now this was forbidden: a check was placed upon what may be called the natural prompting of human piety, and it now became a sin to build an altar and offer GOD worship at any other place but at His appointed Tabernacle. Not only were they commanded "to overthrow the altars, and break the pillars, and burn the groves with fire," of those idolatrous nations which they were going to dispossess, but likewise it was told them, "Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God." But when ye go over Jordan there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause His Name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the LORD." "Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every