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Again to use the words of McCosh, "It had been determined, in eternity, that' He whose delights were with the children of men,' should come to our earth in the fullness of time. He is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;' and as soon as man falls, there are symbols of Him. The prefigurations of Christ may be divided into three classes-typical ordinances, personages, and events. These ordinances all impart substantially the same instruction; all point to guilt contracted, to God offended, to a propitiation provided, and to acceptance secured through this propitiation; the four great cardinal truths of revealed religion, as addressed to fallen man. There were sacrifices, in which the offerer, placing his hand on the head of the animal, and devoting it to destruction in his room and stead, expressed symbolically his belief in those great saving truths. There was the tabernacle, with the people worshipping outside, and the Shechinah, which had to be sprinkled with blood, in its innermost recesses, pointing to an offended God, but a God who was to be propitiated through the shedding of blood. There was the ark of the covenant, with the tables of the law inside, and the pot of manna, and the rod that budded, and, over all, the cherubim shadowing the mercy-seat-fit symbol of an arrangement by which the law is fulfilled, and provision made for a revival of life, and a supply of spiritual food by a God ready to meet with, and to commune with us on the mercy-seat. There is the scapegoat, with the sins of the people laid upon it, pointing, as clearly as the Baptist did, to "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." The typical persons shadowed the prophetical, priestly, and kingly offices of Christ. The typical events exhibit the same truths in a still more impressive form such as the flood, in which many perish, but a few, that is, eight souls, are saved by an ark symbolical of the Saviour. The most instructive of these events is the deliverance from Egypt. The state of the He

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brews as bondsmen, the deliverer prepared for his work by suffering, the method of the deliverance in the midst of contests and judgments, the wonderfully instructive journey through the wilderness, with the provision made for the sustenance of the people, and the statutes delivered, are as certainly anticipations of a higher redemption to follow, as the fish's and reptile's digits are anticipations of the fingers of men. We are trained in this training of the children of Israel; and by means of the discipline through which they were put, our imagining faculty has acquired some of our clearest and liveliest, some of our most profound and comforting representations of the method of redemption."

Every Christian sees in the deliverance of the people of God from Egypt, and in their journey through the wilderness, the type of his own experience. His deliverance from the "powers of darkness" by the Almighty power of God is miraculous. While journeying towards the promised inheritance he finds himself constantly falling into sin, and as constantly delivered by his Saviour. He needs daily to apply to the "Lamb that was slain" for pardon and for righteousness. It is necessary for him daily to gather a supply of heavenly manna, to feed upon Christ the "true bread from heaven." He drinks "the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ." He knows that the great High Priest, Christ Jesus, after "he had by himself purged our sins," "hath entered into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us," "into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:" and he has the assurance, that when he reaches Jordan, he will find there Jesus, the High Priest; for He has passed before him with the ark of the covenant, and will be with him in the midst of the river, holding back the waters of death, until he has passed triumphantly into the heavenly Canaan.

John vi. 32, 48.

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God has likewise always used symbols to impart a knowledge of Himself and to instruct us in spiritual things. These symbols should be studied, for the noblest study of mankind is not man, but God. Paul, who was very highly educated, said, "I count all other things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." He might well say so: for the knowledge of Him is the foundation of all knowledge; it "is life eternal." The burning Bush, the cloud over the Tabernacle and the mercy seat, and the Dove, were symbols in which God manifested him- · self. He reveals himself to our comprehension in a most lovely and loving aspect in the symbolical names which He has assumed; such, as our Father, Husband, Elder Brother, Redeemer, Comforter, Shepherd, Shield, Refuge, Dwellingplace, etc., etc. Most of the public teachings of our Saviour were by the use of symbolical allegories, or parables. God has also ordained certain symbols to be used until the end of the world as seals of covenant blessings. The great Sacraments of the Church have always been symbolical. Circumcision, and the Passover, in the old dispensation, and Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, in the new, are symbols of deep import; designed to instruct, and to seal covenant blessings to the people of God.

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We still live under a dispensation of types and symbols. The great spiritual temple, of which "Christ is the corner stone," is still in progress of erection. As in nature each leaf bears in it the image of the entire tree, so each living stone in this temple is carved after the similitude of the whole temple. Christ is the "head of the body, the Church." Every member of that body, created anew in the likeness of God, "is predestinated to be conformed to His image." Here we bear his image; in heaven," we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him, as he is."

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CHAPTER XLV.

ANALOGIES IN CREATION AND THE COURSE OF NATURE TO REVEALED RELIGION.

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N creation, and in what we call the laws of nature, there are many striking analogies to the great revelations contained in the word of God concerning His moral government, man's responsibility, a future life, and a future eternal state of rewards and punishments.1

As the manifold appearances of design in creation prove it to be the work of an intelligent mind, so particular causes of pleasure and pain distributed amongst His creatures prove that they are under His government, as subjects under a moral ruler, or as children under a parent. The immediate effects of virtue and vice show that we are under such a Ruler. The natural attendants of innocence and virtue are a sense of inward security and peace, a mind open to the gratifications of life, complacency, and joy; while vice is naturally attended with uneasiness and apprehension. The moral nature given to us also proves that we are under a moral Governor. All good men approve virtuous actions, and sometimes public honors are accorded to them, while vicious actions are punished as mischievous to society. In the domestic circle children are rewarded or punished according to their deeds. All these declarations of the Author of Nature, being so clearly for virtue and against vice in the

1 The leading thoughts of this chapter are taken from the celebrated work entitled "The Analogy of Religion Natural and Revealed to the Constitution and Course of Nature," by Joseph Butler, late Lord Bishop of Durham, to which the reader is referred as the most complete work on that subject.

natural government of the world, are grounds to hope and to fear that they will be rewarded and punished in accordance with His word in higher degrees hereafter.

The general doctrine of Religion is that our present life is a state of preparation for a future one: a state implying trial, difficulties, and dangers. In the natural government of God we find ourselves in such a state of trial. He has annexed pleasure to some actions and pain to others which are in our power to do or forbear, and has given us a notice of such results beforehand. People often blame others, and even themselves, for their misconduct in their temporal concerns. Many miss that happiness which they might have attained in the present life, and many run themselves into extreme distress and misery, not through incapacity of knowing, or of doing better, but through their own fault. Every one knows the hazards which young people run upon their setting out in the world. Thus, in our natural or temporal capacity, we are in a state of difficulty and danger, analogous or like to our moral and religious trial upon which our final happiness or misery depends.

Many things in nature, besides the changes which we have already undergone and which we know that we may undergo without being destroyed, suggest to us that we shall survive death and exist in a future state. We have abundant evidence that the same creatures may exist in different degrees of life and with different capacities of action, of enjoyment, and suffering. Our changes since infancy, the change of the caterpillar to a chrysalis, and then to a butterfly, and the vast enlargement of their locomotive powers by such change, are instances of this general law of nature. The matter composing our bodies is constantly changing, and every few years is entirely different from what it was, yet we do not lose our existence or identity. We know that our living powers exist, even when through sleep or a swoon we are unable sensibly to exercise them. We see that men may