fearful of being 'wise above that which is written.' Wait for the teaching of the Holy Ghost, and 'lean not unto your own understanding.' Then will ye find these USES in this doctrine of Divine Grace, and the source of redemption through the blood of Jesus;—it will tend to humble the creature and glorify the Creator; and while it covers the sinner with shame for his guiltiness, it will exalt the Saviour for his righteousness. It will tend, moreover, to the confirmation of our hopes, seeing that there our salvation rests,—not on the sandy footing of man's obedience, but on the rocky substance of a Saviour's merit; while it magnifies in us and by us, the exceeding goodness of God, and teaches us to wonder and adore, in these dark days of our flesh, till we sound throughout eternity the praise of redeeming love, and sing with fervour the untold treasures of a Saviour's Name, through the tender mercies of our God, and ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE!'

SERMON III.

THE INTERCESSOR.

NUMBERS XVI. 48.

He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed.'

WHAT an awful illustration have we in the chapter whence the text is taken, of the desperate wickedness of the human heart in general, and particularly of the miserable corruption of obstinate and wilful sinners,-sinners against their own souls! One act of positive disobedience of God's commands, with riotous insubordination against Moses and Aaron, the appointed ministers of Jehovah, had no sooner been visited with punishment most tremendous, than another rebellion, more open and more aggravated, breaks out. astonished, O Heavens, at man's depravity; and wonder, O Earth, at the iniquity bound up in the heart of thy children, whom neither the judgments

Be

of divine wrath can terrify from the commission of sin, nor the earnests of God's love can soften into submission, allure to obedience, or cause to delight in the beauty of holiness!

The conduct of the children of Israel, as stated in the chapter before us, and especially in the immediate context, justifies and corroborates these introductory reflections. For, first of all, though they had been so recently warned, by the terrific punishment of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their rebellious partizans; though the shrieks of those perishing sinners were still sounding horribly in their ears; though the smell of the devouring fire was yet perceptible, and the yawning grave into which they went down quickly had scarcely closed her expanded jaws; still were so many awful warnings slighted, and the same sins were committed as before! And again, though they had been themselves so lately spared, and the Lord in his boundless mercy had separated between them and their more guilty brethren, not involving them in one promiscuous ruin, but making them like brands plucked out of the burning,'-yet in less than four-and-twenty hours, are they found flying in the face of Jehovah's servants, to whose intercession they owed their preservation, and most unjustly and maliciously charge them with killing the people of the Lord: '-thus, as it were, canonizing the rebels, calling those the Lord's people who died in arms

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against him; and at the same time stigmatizing the divine justice itself: since it was evident enough that Moses and Aaron, far from being instrumental in their destruction, did all in their power to save them from the wrath of Almighty God. So that in effect they charged Jehovah with the crime, when they accused his authorized ministers of the murder. Such was the continued obstinacy of this stiff-necked people, notwithstanding the terrors of the Law, as delivered from Sinai, and the terrors of the Lord's judgments, as executed so recently on the children of disobedience.

The fact, however humiliating to our pride as the truth may be, serves to teach us just this important lesson,-that the grace of God is essentially needful for the effectual change of a man's heart, and real reformation of his life, without which the most improved means will never attain the desired end, since love alone can effect that, which fear will never accomplish.

Let us, however, hasten to the point we have chiefly in view. We are told at the forty-second verse, that when the 'congregation were gathered together against Moses and against Aaron, they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation,' -probably with some secret misgivings and anxious apprehensions of what might follow,when behold the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared!' Moses and Aaron are

presently in attendance, and sentence is immediately issued against the sinners, Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment.' The ministers of the Most High are instantly appalled;-they fell on their faces,' in token of deep abasement, prostrating themselves before the divine majesty, and earnestly entreating the Lord once more to spare his sinful people. The narrative is concise, and leaves us to infer that Moses must have perceived, probably by the cries of the congregation, that the anger of the Lord was burning hotly against them, and consequently he presses Aaron to lose not another moment in making the appointed propitiation for them in his priestly character,- Take a censer and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly into the congregation, and make an atonement for them; for there is wrath gone out from the Lord, the plague is begun!' ver. 46. The next verse informs us of the ready obedience of Aaron, who ran into the midst of the people, put on the propitiatory incense, and made an atonement; while the text affords us a most lively and graphic picture of the intercessor, and with perfect simplicity, and yet most beautifully narrates his effectual success," HE STOOD BETWEEN THE

AND THE LIVING; AND THE PLAGUE
STAYED.'

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My brethren, a greater than Aaron is here,even the Redeemer of men, our Lord and Saviour