loud and long; and the voice, most human and most divine, which spake from off the lonely mountain peak to that vast horde of coward and degenerate slaves, and said, 'I am the Lord 'thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Thou shalt obey my laws, and keep

my commandments to do them.' Oh! the man who would rob his suffering fellowcreatures of that story-he knows not how deep and bitter are the needs of man.

Then was Freedom born: but not of man; not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man: but of the will of God, from whom all good things come; and of Christ, who is the life and the light of men and of nations, and of the whole world, and of all worlds, past, present, and to come.

From God came freedom. To be used as his gift, according to his laws; for he gave, and he can take away; as it is written, 'He shall take 'the kingdom of God from you, and give it to a 'people bringing forth the fruits thereof.' For 'there be many first that shall be last; and last 'that shall be first.' It is this which makes

worthy to enter at once into rest; no more have the nation of Christ's church been worthy. The Israelites brought out of Egypt base and slavish passions, which had to be purged out of them; so have we out of heathendom. They brought out, too, heathen superstitions, and mixed them up with the worship of God, bearing about in the wilderness the tabernacle of Moloch, and the image of their god Remphan, and making the calf in Horeb; and so, alas! again and again, has the church of Christ.

Nay, the whole generation, save two, who came out of Egypt, had to die in the wilderness, and leave their bones scattered far and wide. And so has mankind been dying, by war and by disease, and by many fearful scourges, beside what is called now-a-days natural decay.

But all the while a new generation was springing up, trained in the wilderness to be bold and hardy; trained, too, under Moses' stern law, to the fear of God; to reverence, and discipline, and obedience, without which freedom is merely brutal license, and a nation

is no nation, but a mere flock of sheep, or a herd of wolves.

And so, for these 1800 years, have the generations of Christendom, by the training of the Church, and the light of the Gospel, been growing in wisdom and knowledge; growing in morality and humanity, in that true discipline and loyalty which are the yokefellows of freedom and independence, to make them fit for that higher state, that heavenly Canaan, of which we know not when it will come, nor whether its place will be on this earth or elsewhere; but of which it is written, And I John 'saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming 'down from God out of heaven, prepared as a ́ bride adorned for her husband. And I heard ' a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the 'tabernacle of God is with men, and he will

dwell with them, and they shall be his people, ' and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all 'tears from their eyes; and there shall be no

more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither 'shall there be any more pain: for the former

'things are passed away. And he that sat

upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord 'God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple

of it. And the city had no need of the sun, 'neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the

glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is 'the light thereof. And the nations of them ' which are saved shall walk in the light of it :

and the kings of the earth do bring their glory ' and honour into it. And the gates of it shall 'not be shut at all by day: for there shall be 'no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And 'there shall in no wise enter into it anything 'that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh

abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.' ·

That, the perfect Easter Day, seems far enough off as yet but it will come. As the Lord liveth, it will come and to it may Christ in his mercy bring us all, and our children's children after us. Amen.

SERMON XIII.

KORAH, DATHAN, AND ABIRAM.

(First Sunday after Easter, 1863.)

NUMBERS xvi. 32-35.

:

And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the congregation. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also. And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.

I WILL begin by saying that there are

several things in this chapter which I do not understand, and cannot explain to you. Be it so. That is no reason why we should not look at the parts of the chapter which we can understand and can explain.

There are matters without end in the world round us, and in our own hearts, and in the