Let us see to it that we receive what we ask for in these prayers; for, though we ask many times, yet if our Lord sets before us the actual realities of the unseen world in this parable, then we do not ask for the indwelling of this blessed Guide and Comforter once too often.

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II.

THE REPROOF OF GOD.

PSALM 1. 21.

"These things hast thou done, and I held my tongue; and thou thoughtest wickedly that I am even such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set before thee the things that thou hast done."

THIS Psalm is a vision of the last Judgment. It can only refer to the appearance of the Son of Man in His Glory to judge the world at the last day, for it begins to speak of God "calling the world from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof." It goes on to describe the pomp of His appearance in words that remind us of St. Paul's, for the Psalmist speaks of "our God coming, and not keeping silence; a consuming fire going before Him;" and the Apostle foretells of the Lord Jesus Christ as "revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." And then the Psalmist proceeds to speak of those whom God will judge: and who are they? Verily, my brethren, judgment is to "begin at the house of God." God, or the Lord Jesus, calls the heaven and the earth,

that He may judge, not His enemies, not His crucifiers, but His people. And for what does He judge them? Was it because they deserted His house, and left His altar without victims ? No. "I will not reprove thee," He says, "because of thy sacrifices, or thy burnt offerings because they were not always before me. I will take no bullock out of thine house, nor he-goat out of thy fold. For all the beasts of the forest are mine, and so are the cattle upon a thousand hills." The people had by no means forgotten the ritual part of God's law; they had carefully observed the prescribed sacrificial routine. But they had brought their sacrifices with no sense of sin, and no desire to put away iniquity, as if the mere bringing were the one thing needful. And so they treated God as if He eat the sacrifices which they offered: "Thinkest thou," He retorts, "that I will eat bulls' flesh, and drink the blood of goats? If I be hungry, I will not tell thee; for the whole world is mine, and all that is therein."

And now the Almighty seems to address Himself to those grosser sinners who added hypocrisy to their sin. "Unto the ungodly, said God, Why dost thou preach my laws," or rather, "declare them," "narrate them," "take them on thy lips," and "takest my covenant in thy mouth?" We do not exactly know how the Jew of old in the public service of God "took God's covenant

in his mouth." We only know one occasion on which he was required to do so in words, and that is when he brought his basket of the firstfruits of his land to the place which God had chosen. Then the priest was directed to take the basket out of his hand and set it down before the altar of God, and the man who brought it was required to say, "before the Lord:" "A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage. And when we cried unto the Lord God of our Fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked upon our affliction, our labour, and our pain. And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and he hath brought us unto this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey." (Deut. xxvi. 5.)

This may be said to have been a personal acknowledgment of God's covenant, and doubtless there were other such forms of words introduced into the temple service.

But, brethren, however it was with the Jews, there can be no doubt respecting the frequency, and solemnity, and distinctness with which we Christian churchmen take God's covenantGod's new and better covenant of forgiveness through Christ, and grace to serve God

through His Spirit-on our lips. How often, how solemnly, how persistently have we done this all through the service of this morning! What is God's covenant now but a promise of forgiveness and help on His side, and of repentance, and faith, and hope, and love on ours?

Remember, I beseech you, how you have pleaded this when you said your confession. How have you professed to take hold of God's covenant when you have confessed that you have “done what you ought not to have done, and left undone what you ought to have done, and there is no health in you," and have afterwards in the same breath asked your most merciful Father, for Jesus' sake, that you may "hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life?" How have you recounted all the great facts of redemption by Jesus Christ, which are the only foundation of God's present covenant, when you have said that you "believe in God the Father Almighty," and in His only Son, Conceived, Born, Suffering Crucified, Dead, Buried, Risen, Ascended?

If any men take God's covenant in their mouths assuredly we churchmen do so. And yet could not God say to you much more pointedly than He did to His ancient people, Why hast thou taken my covenant of grace to forsake sin on thy lips, whereas thou hatest to be reformed? My covenant is a covenant of Regeneration and