cannot you, my brethren, find much beneath,—I mean the Hill of Calin this peculiarity significant of vary,-where was exhibited to the Jesus? His home is heaven; the world how deep and thrilling an bosom of Godhead is his rightful interest God took in the salvation of dwelling-place; without undue in-man. And from the manifestation trusion he can enter into the holiest of mercy there made, the humblest of all, and without unwarrantable believer may gather encouragement; assumption choose out for himself he may assure himself that his insiga seat on the right hand of the nificence among men will not cause Majesty on high. His wisdom is him to be forgotten by his God; omniscient; His power without limit; and he need not fear that the meloand His are all the dominions that dious harpings or the thunderous belong to the Creator and Governor hallelujahs of heaven's angels will of the universe. But though thus prevent the timid whispers of his elevated, though thus raised above repentance or the earnest cries of all principality and power, though his distress from reaching the ears our aching sight endeavours in vain of heaven's king. This truth is, to reach the topmost height of indeed, very consolatory to him who his glory, though the wing of faith is conscious of the frailty of his herself, all-venturous and zealous as nature. The believer knows that she is, flags and sinks downwards, he cannot in his own strength ascend wearied and exhausted, when at- to God; but he knows that God tempting the impracticable ascent, has descended to him; and he looks yet does this exalted personage own upon the cross, so to speak, as a a close connection with the frail golden ladder which, though it beings of this mortal world. Yes, reaches to the highest heaven, yet my brethren, the Son of the Most has its resting-place on the earth. High has linked himself to the sons He may not be able to mingle with of humanity; He has woven for him- the crowd of worshippers round self bonds which His own omnipo- the Eternal's throne, but he can tence cannot burst, and has shewn to us by what He has said, done and suffered for our sakes, that He is ever mindful of the union, and cherishes it with the greatest constancy and affection. The countless worlds that swim in space, which were all framed by his power, and "The mountain of myrrh.' Myrrh are supported by his providence, an acrid and nauseous substance, is the myriads of radiant immortals evidently an emblem of bitterness that stand obsequiously around Him, and suffering. We may well take do not distract His attention from it here, then, as meaning grief and our humbler planet and its scanty affliction; and what grief and afflicpopulation; and there is a spot on tion, my brethren, can so readily its surface, a spot which has been occur to our minds as those of Him, trodden by millions of devout en- concerning whom it may be said, quirers of widely separated lands 'Behold, and see if ever there was and various languages, a spot over sorrow like unto my sorrow,'-of which, me thinks, angels often linger Him who is styled The Man of to muse on what once occurred Sorrows?' Whose sufferings can

kneel in faith at the foot of that cross on which once hung the Son of God, a bleeding sufferer for the sins of the guiltiest. If he cannot scale the heights of the mountain, he at least, can pluck the flowers that blossom at its base.

urging his engines against the people of God, when the persecutions or seductions of the world are assailing them from without, or the corruptions of a fallen nature betraying them from within, He contemplates the combined forces of hell, of the world, and of sin, as foes whom he has vanquished on the cross, and in virtue of the conquest which He has effected on the mountain of myrrh,' he will prevent them from doing any real injury to his church. And then, too, he applies this atonement to the consciences of his people; when the clouds of conviction darken over the sinner, Jesus betakes himself to the mountain of myrrh,' he sprinkles the healing balm upon the anguished bosom, and oh! how soothingly and gratefully fall on the penitent those medicinal weepings of the cross. And in the hour of sorrow, too, is the Saviour ready to comfort. And as

be so fitly connected with this emblem 'mountain of myrrh,' as those of Him to whom, when suspended by nails on a cross, erected on the hill of Calvary, and there doomed to suffer an agonizing, lingering, and ignominious death, wine mingled with myrrh was offered to alleviate his pains, by those very enemies who though they did not scruple to inflict yet seemed to pity his woes. "I will get me says Jesus, to the mountain of myrrh-to the hill of Calvary, the scene of my sufferings. He is not ashamed of the memory of those sufferings he underwent for his people; He is not anxious to forget the abasement He endured. The form under which he is described as appearing in the palaces of his own heaven, amid the dazzling files of His holy angels, is that of a lamb as it had been slain.' 'I will betake myself to the working out a perfect atonement, to the presenting it before the mercy-seat in virtue of the tribulation he himand to the applying it to the hearts self underwent he is able to sympaof my people,' is the paraphrase that thize with those who are tempted, may justly be made of this declara- when he sees his people cast down tion. Before the disobedience of with grief, he betakes himself to Adam had entailed iniquity on the the mountain of myrrh,' and brings whole church, God had designed an from the experience of his own soratonement for her sins. And we rows the befitting cure for the afflicmay imagine that while Jesus has tions of his children. been looking down on the dark- "The hill of frankincense' is ness and the gloom in which evidently emblematical of prayer or she has been hitherto shrouded, intercession, frankincense having His mind has continually dwelt on been used by all nations in their the atonement provided by His incense offerings. Frankincense is blood. Before his incarnation his a whitish and nearly transparent eye was ever fixed on the appointed substance, giving us a lively image hour, and when the fulness of time was come, there was no delay, there was no forgetfulness. From his lofty throne he descended without any hesitation; and the Son of God was dandled on Mary's knee. And now that redemption has actually been accomplished, he looks back on the wondrous work, and, when Satan is

of the perfect purity of Christ's intercession, which is ever rising and rising without intermission before God. The intercession of Christ, like volumes of incense from some august altar, is continually ascending before the throne of Jehovah, veiling even from the eye of omniscience the transgressions of the

saints, and shedding on their persons lost to view in the distance. And and performances the perfume of by the Christian, when in sorrow or celestial holiness. The renewed mental disquietude, how eagerly are soul well knows that his prayers are retirement and solitude sought. He all unworthy to meet the ear of does not seek for consolation amid Deity, that at times they are so im- the noise and the glitter of worldly perfect that he would hesitate to amusements, but as the wounded address such to a fellow mortal, that deer hastes to the most sequestered there is much which for his un- covert so the mourning believer beworthiness he dares not, and for his takes himself to the mountain, that blindness he cannot ask, but he is, he shrouds himself in secrecy and takes courage when he is assured is unwilling that any human eye by the promises of God's Holy should witness the hallowed comWord that his petition is answered munings which he holds with his even before it is made, that there is God. The mountain carries with One waiting to receive his most dis-it, too, the idea of elevation. And jointed supplications, and to convey as when we look down from the them swiftly to the Father's ear that towering eminence we behold the his incense, worthless though it be, is carefully received into the censor of the Almighty High Priest, and it is there purged and purified till it becomes an acceptable (oh! my brethren, by what a marvellous alchemy must the sinner's groans and tears be transmuted!) an acceptable offering to the King of kings. Till the shadows flee away Christ will betake himself to the hill of frankincense,' and in so doing he will render even sorrow subservient to the happiness of his chosen, like the setting sun which colours with crim-terest in the breasts of mankind, or son the dark clouds by which he is surrounded, and uses them as a gorgeous mantle to set forth the more fully his beauty.

objects beneath us diminished in size, some of them become scarcely perceptible and others altogether beyond the scope of our vision, so when the Christian is engaged in those sublime musings in which he delights to indulge, when he has been able to tread in fancy the outskirts of heaven, he can look down with indifference on the faded anxieties which were wont to harass him, and he wonders how the things which now appear to him so insignificant can excite so warm an in

that he himself should ever have so eagerly pursued them. The elevating tendency of religious contemplation goes far towards evidencing "The passage may also, I have the divine origin of Chritianity. said, be considered as the language While engaged in ordinary occupaof the Church, and consequently of tions, though they may be lawful or the individual Christian. And from even necessary and imperative, we the words 'mountain' and 'hill,' we feel that the intellect is acting on may draw, among others, the ideas something inferior to itself. The of retirement and elevation. Of mind of man, unless imbruted by retirement; for what a complete se- passion or apathy, cannot feel conclusion may be found on the brow of tented amid sublunary employments. the mountain, where the thicket or It is ever aiming at something bethe forest surrounds you, while the yond the horizon of earth, and town and its population lie far be- though, when its wings are spread neath your feet and are altogether for flight, it is often beat back again

in disgrace, yet though baffled it tracted afflictions which my Saviour still aspires, and exhibits in the soar- bore, when I read those chapters of ing character of its imaginings the woe which record the history of his august origin of its powers. But we sorrows, and when I reflect that cannot rise above the sublime reve- they were endured not for his own lations of Christianity. The utmost transgressions but for mine, dare I that physical science can do is to murmur at the scanty portion of teach us to explore the extent and sorrow which I am called upon to pry into the nooks and crannies of bear? Can I refuse to taste of that our prison-house, but religion gives cup which my Redeemer drank to us the means of setting ourselves the dregs? Let me rather rejoice free from our thraldom, and, lifting that I am thought worthy of chasus far above the scene of our de- tisement, and can thus receive an basement, conducts us to an emi- earnest of my adoption into the nence which though lofty is not the family of God. Let me rather less safe. Here we may find an render thanks to the Lord that I ample field for our intellectual in- am thought meet to be a partaker quiries. Here may the imagination of the sufferings of Christ, and am expand its wings without any fear of thereby enabled to gather the anmeeting a boundary to its flight. ticipation of being one day the parWith humility and patience for our taker of his glory. I will get myself guides, here may we climb the to the mountain of myrrh, and there heights of Divine mysteries, and our in meditation and patience will I wait spiritual strength shall be invigo- till the menacing clouds have passed rated and our prospects brightened away.'

and extended while we are prose- "Nor is the Christian an uncuting the delightful task. And, frequent visitor to the hill of frankwhile engaged in religious medita- incense.' No; for when sorrow and tions, we shall find that the mind sin throw their black drapery around will gradually improve in intellectual him, speedily does he betake himself acumen, and that as fresh supplies to confession and prayer. He reof grace nerve our energies, we are members that it is still permitted rapidly gaining a more commanding him to breathe forth his feeble supelevation and are breathing a purer plications to his God, and he finds air; while the ruddy blush of health at the footstool of Deity that support that crimsons the cheek of the hardy which earth's proudest eminence mountaineer shall be the emblem of could not afford. There he tells out the spiritual vigour which shall glow and mantle throughout the whole of our moral constitution.

his wants and his wishes, there, when his tongue is unable to give utterance to all that the heart con"To the Christian, too, the ceives, the sigh and the tear become 'mountain' to which he betakes his interpreters in the court of himself is the 'mountain of myrrh.' heaven, and there, through the He contemplates Christ's sufferings finished work and continual interand so learns to bear with patience cession of his glorified Saviour, his his own. 'However dark may be prayers are graciously answered and the night,' he exclaims, until the his bosom cleansed of that perilous day break I will get myself to the stuff which before weighed so heavimountain of myrrh. And when I ly upon it. The pure gold of the consider the accumulated and pro-throne of Jehovah is not dimmed by

a mortal's incense, when it has been darkly, but they will soon roll away. purified in the censor of Christ. The storm may be beating veheTo the hill of frankincense,' the mently, but it will soon be hushed. believer exclaims, 'would I repair Often while the months of winter in every trial and every emergency, are passing gloomily along, we cry, for there I am lifted above the More cold! more rain! will sumworld and its tumults: the impure mer never come?' But summer atmosphere of earth is beneath me, does come at length; and the blue and the incense which I shall offer, arch of heaven bends lovingly over fanned into fragrance by the in-us, and the birds come forth to welfluence of the Holy Spirit, and re- come us with their rejoicings, and ceived and presented by the Great the flowers, the trees, and the herbHigh Priest, will ascend gratefully age spring up smilingly around our unto Him who is waiting to be path, and we forget in the buoyancy gracious. On that blessed hill are of our hearts the frost and the temthe footprints of the wise and good pest we have left behind. And so of every age; thither has resorted will it be with the Church. Here the penitent when his enlightened she dwells under an uncongenial eyes first beheld the evil of sin, and sky, and in a land to whose inhabihe shuddered at the serpent he was tants she is a stranger; her lowly caressing; thither has wandered the beauty is disregarded amid the memourner when he sought to supplant retricious glare of pleasure, amthe painful recollections of the loved bition and covetousness; and her one he has lost, with animated hopes long white garments collect someof a future and speedy re-union; what of defilement while she is thither has gone the man who has journeying through a polluted world. been hard pressed by temptation or But she is journeying on. She is harassed with doubt; thither our still urging onwards, still looking blessed Saviour, when on earth, upwards, and the end of her pilwent often, and there he lingered grimage will at length be gained. long, and thither have the recipients Yes, my brethren, even now does of his grace ever delighted to follow faith behold the rosy tinge which is him, and there have they met with prophetic of the dawn; and with Him whom their souls loved. And the Bible before her she traces out thither will I go, for I shall not be a dim outline of the landscape which greatly alarmed at the clouds which is to be the inheritance of the reare rolling around while I can look deemed. Whether the future abode up and see a clear sky smiling above. of the Church will be this same I shall not be greatly terrified at the earth on which we tread, regenethick darkness of the night while I rated and purified for its exalted can watch from that favoured height destiny, or whether the new Jerusasome faint vestiges of a coming lem will be altogether a new creation dawn.' in another place, she cannot certainly "Until the day break,' &c. The tell; but she knows that the crown particle here used implies the tran- of glory which awaits the Christian sition or passing away of an inter-will sit becomingly on his brow, and vening space of time, with the ar- the garland of immortality will hang rival of the event specified. The gracefully on his neck, and his harp period here referred to will at length of praise will be most melodiously The clouds may now gather tuned, and his garments of holiness

come.