Come with nie "Come away. Come, my beloved. Come away. from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards. Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse. Come away. Come from them all, and enter into eternal rest." I hear Him say, having the keys of hell and death hanging at His girdle, "I will come again, and receive you unto myself. I will not trust even an angel to unlock the door. It shall be my own doing. And I myself will with pass you through the doorway, and accompany you through the valley of the shadow of death." Moreover, He will not part with the keys of hell and of death. The Romish priest, and his stupid devotees, may talk of their keys, and I do not envy their possession of them; but sure I am that the keys of hell and of death are in the hands of my glorious Redeemer, and that He has never, and will never, trust them to any one, be he pope, cardinal, or bishop. Sure I am that He uses them Himself, and that when He unlocks the door to admit the redeemed soul through, the soul is conducted into glory, and, as Noah in the ark, is shut in for ever, for the Lord shuts him in. May I hope that these cursory remarks may be prayed over by you in secret, lead you to close selfinquiry, prompt you to make use of the appeals I have urged upon you relative to personal interest, and that this may ultimately prove to have been the best Easter Sunday you ever spent upon earth.

The Lord Almighty grant us a "resurrection from dead works to serve the living God," and His name shall be glorified thereby for ever and ever, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

No. 489 OF ZION'S HYMNS

RISE, my soul, and go with Mary,
To the dear Redeemer's grave;
He, whose promise cannot vary,
Rose this morning, strong to save;
Mighty Conqu❜ror,

He shall endless honours have.

Earth and hell their strength united,
Our great Surety to detain;

See! their guards are all affrighted,
All their power and rage is vain;
Jesus rises,

And He shall for ever reign.

Lo! He leaves the rocky prison,
And as Mediator lives;

All His saints are with Him risen,
By the special grace He gives:
From His fulness,

Every saint his life receives.

Trembling souls, dismiss your sadness,
Cease, ye sinners, to despise;

Soon His saints, with joy and gladness,
Shall in Jesu's likeness rise;

Hallelujah!

We shall meet Him in the skies.

Delivered in Grove Chapel, Camberwell, Sunday Morning, April 15, 1849, BY THE REV. JOSEPH IRONS.

"Thus saith thy Lord, the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of His people."-Isa. li. 22.

How majestic are these appellations; and if we mark the variation of the appearance of the word "Lord," it opens to our view at once a fund of information and comfort which would be lost if that were overlooked. The first time the word is used, thy "Lord," you perceive the translators have given it to us in small letters, simply signifying a sovereign ruler and governor. The second time they have given it in capital letters, which method they adopted to distinguish the word "Jehovah," from the word " Adonai," or Lord. When the word "Jehovah" presents itself to our view, we are at once filled with a consciousness of the presence of a self-existent Being, giving being to all, deriving being from none, with all worlds at His command, and all creatures under His sway. And then to have the sovereign governor, the self-existent Deity, presented to our view in His covenant character as "thy God," is peculiarly sweet. There is a sevenfold preciousness in this introduction which Jehovah gives of Himself to the notice of His people, and that, too, under circumstances particularly affecting; because what the Lord was about to say to them was just called for by the exigencies in which they were placed. They had "drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling and wrung them out;" and were led, like some people in the present day, to say, in their experience, there was none to guide them. I think this most strikingly applicable to the degenerate time in which we live, when such an effort is made to manufacture ministers, and to bring forth the Published in Weekly Numbers, 1d., and Monthly Parts, price 5d.

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sons of the clergy, and ministers qualified by man only, while there is none qualified to guide God's Church, except to guide them to hell by forms, and ceremonies, and superstitions. "There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up." Then the Lord goes on to speak of their being "full of the fury of the Lord," and "as a wild bull in a net." What an awfully appalling description, which relates first of all to the sorrows and afflictions of Jerusalem in her captivity, while her enemies were persecuting and oppressing her; and next to the degenerate state of the professing Church of Christ down to the end of time, and never more applicable than in the days in which we live. In all this distress and affliction, and after the drinking of the "cup of her fury" to the very dregs, Jehovah steps in and introduces Himself as her Advocate that pleadeth her cause, calling Himself "thy Lord," thy ruler, thy governor, thy absolute sovereign-Jehovah, the self-existent being, thy guide in covenant relationship. This portion of Holy Writ appeared to me very suitable to follow the solemn subjects which have been under discussion for several Lord's days, of the sufferings, the triumphs, and the resurrection of our blessed Lord, of whom it is now written, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate "on high to plead our cause, " Jesus Christ the righteous;" and there He ever lives to intercede. He contends with them that contend with His Church, and saves all His children without the possibility of losing one, and gets a revenue of praise continually brought to His glorious name.

My purpose this morning is, first, to say a little upon the appellations "thy Lord," Jehovah," thy God;" then upon our claim to an interest in them, as warranted by Scripture; and I trust my hearers will be able to lay the hand of faith on this little "thy," and if they are but able to paraphrase it to "my," they may go away with their souls full of comfort. Then, when I have spoken of the claim and its appropriation, I shall be led on to the transaction with which the text concludes the pleading of the cause of His people. O Holy Ghost, help me to speak the words of truth and soberness, and apply them with power Divine to many hearts.

I.-First of all, let us say a little upon the appellations that are employed, and we will take them in order as they stand. "Thy Lord." Yes, the fealty is asserted, and the submission claimed. Thy Jehovah has a sovereign right to order all that relates to the persons, the positions, and the prospects of His people; and our submission, our homage, is demanded by Him as our Sovereign Ruler. I know this doctrine is not a pleasant one to carnal reason. I know that it mightily offends the proud Pharisees. But it is that which you will have to meet at the day of judgment. Thy Sovereign Ruler, who doeth what seemeth Him good in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, has surely a right to dispose of thy person and thy position while in this world, and thy prospects in another, according to His absolute sovereignty. To whom do you owe it that your person is formed without disproportion, and with powers and faculties as well as limbs capable of performing all the functions of life. You cannot trace it anywhere but to the sovereignty of God, "thy God." Nay, more; if we look at the fact of the

persons of the Lord's people being distinguished from the world, being separated as the sheep from the goats, predestined to eternal life before all worlds, and that Jehovah should say concerning them, "those have I loved and those have I hated,"-to what can we trace it? Not to either good or evil, seen or foreseen, but simply to the fact of His being "the Lord." Dare any of His creatures to say, "What doest thou?" Who shall call this in question? The pride of man will rebel. But, "hearken, ye that follow after righteousness." Look to Abraham, thy father, and remember how God called him alone, leaving all the rest of the Chaldeans in their gross idolatry, and blessed, increased, and multiplied him. When you have considered that, come to a later posterity, and your own present existence, and ask who made you to differ, who put you in possession of spiritual life, who caused you to forsake Satan's drudgery, and flee from Egypt, and set out for the land of Canaan ? Was it proud free will? I trow not. Was it human persuasion? No, certainly not. It was the mighty power of the grace of God. And what shall I say of His sovereignty in the position we occupy? Whether it be amidst the wealthy or amidst the poor-whether it be in rank and renown, or in obscurity and unknown-who placed thee in that position? I am sweetly satisfied that I am just what God made me, and just where God put me. I rejoice in Him that, in His absolute sovereignty, He not only gave me faculties, but marked the sphere in which I should use them, "fixed the bounds of my habitation," orders every step, and counts every hair on my head. He is my Lord, and I must look to Him as such.

Moreover, let us dwell a moment on the prospects of the people of God. He is their absolute Sovereign. He points out to them the views of futurity by Divine teaching, gives them faith's telescope to look through and discover the joy, the bliss, the glory, the happiness, the rest, awaiting the people of God-the "rest that remains for the people of God"-the prospect of advancing and growing in grace, knowledge, love, light, liberty, life, until we shall obtain everlasting joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away." Who unfolds this prospect? Thy Lord, the LORD, has settled it.

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How soon thou shalt reach it, by what means thou shalt get it, what thou shalt be capable of enjoying; the crown, the harp, the song, the company, the bliss, the rest, the glory, are all prepared by "thy Lord.”

We must now glance at the next appellation-Jehovah. And here I have an object of worship presented to my view. Nothing about saints in it-nothing about Mary in it-nothing about pictures and images in it. It is Jehovah. The Lord thy God, one Lord, one Jehovah; and there is no such thing (I pray you mark this) as real worship that can be acceptable before the throne but that which is emphatically daily going on between the soul and God, and between God and the soul. And the object of worship must be known, must be understood, for "this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." The heathen are said not to know God, to be utter strangers to Him, to be ignorant of Him. But all the Lord's people, taught from on high, know Him to be the only object of pure worship, and consequently idols are cast to the moles and to the bats, all terrene things are laid aside. Wherever there is faith, under whatever forms a man may wor ship, this is his grand point-I must know the being I desire

to praise, love, and trust, and I must have all the powers of my soul brought under the operation of His Spirit's graces to be engaged with Himself, or I am not a true worshipper. Now in order to know this glorious Jehovah, we must search His word to see how He has revealed Himself, and we shall come at this threefold description of the object of worship-Triune, transcendent, and true. Neither of these things can be said of any other gods. Their truth is a lie, their transcendency is a smattering, a smearing of gilded toys; and as to being Triune, it is out of the question. God is revealed as the "Three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these Three are One." I come, therefore, before His footstool to worship, having my eye fixed by the Spirit's anointing touch, upon the second person of the glorious Trinity, as the medium of access, for no man cometh unto the Father but by Him; upon the throne of my covenant God and Father as the climax of anticipation in my approach, and I can say with the apostle, "through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." And he only is the happy man who, moved by the invisible and invincible unction of the Holy Ghost, presents all his praises and desires in the name of the merits and righteousness of Jesus, and by Him and in Him finds access to the throne, to deal with Jehovah as the child deals with the parent. To thy Lord, Jehovah, the glorious Holy One of Israel equal worship, equal praise belongs to the distinction of personalities in the one undivided essence; so that whoever honours the Father more than the Son, or the Father and Son more than the Holy Ghost, or either person more or less than the other, becomes at once an Infidel, and there is no true worship offered by him to God at all. I must love the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost with an equal love; and adore with the same height of adoration, praise with the same ecstacy of gratitude, confide with the same confidence and assurance in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

I dwell on this point with the greater interest because I believe that the doctrine of the Trinity is hardly believed in the present day. It seems almost as if its former professors had abandoned it; and their acts of worship and preaching, and their theology, appear to be a flat contradiction of what they have admitted in the words of their creed. Come then, a moment, to the test, beloved; glance a little more closely at the object of worship. He is not only self-existent, incomprehensible, the one glorious, undivided Jehovah, but I have said He is transcendent. "No man can see my face and live," says Jehovah. His transcendent glories are so great, that there is no approaching Him but by a Mediator, and that Mediator must possess the nature of the Being He approaches. Jehovah is so transcendent, that He is the terror of devils and lost souls-so transcendent, that even angels veil their faces with their wings as they bow before Him, crying, "Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Hosts '-so transcendent, that the conception of mortals, especially in the present unripe state of our faculties, must acknowledge Him incomprehensible; and yet, though so transcendently glorious, the believer in Jesus knows what it is to find access to His presence. What, beloved, have you never felt some of those mighty meltings and invincible drawings which only the third person in the glorious Trinity is accustomed to put forth upon the souls of sinners? Have you never felt that overpowering