Most High, there might be room for the objection. As it is there is none at all. It is most becoming in sinful creatures, who receive the benefit, to admire and honour the grace of God, and not to cavil at the manner of its manifestation. When it is fully understood, as seen in the light of eternity, it will no doubt appear to be the result of infinite wisdom and good ness. At present it is manifest that we are living under a mediatorial dispensation, in which no man can come unto the Father but by the Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. However disposed we may be to contemplate God as all benignant, it is not in this view only that he is revealed, nor is he so revealed at all, but through a Mediator. Still there is room for Jehovah to say, "Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted; and they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them."-Ezek. v. 13. Still all his sense of wrong continues, and all his regard to moral law and holiness. Continued sin and impenitence will yet excite his severe anger. But we are under no fatal necessity to experience this; through Christ, he can be just, and yet the justifier of the penitent believer. How great then is the encouragement for the sinner to repent and turn unto the Lord who will have mercy upon him, and to our God who will abundantly pardon. In the atoning sacrifice of Christ, expiation is made for sin, and on the ground of this our great High Priest intercedes effectually for the penitent believer. From this subject we may learn, 1. ven. The glory of our nature in heaIt is taken into union with the Son of God, and the divine and human natures in him, constitute one glorious person. To this divine person angels and principalities and powers are in subjection. To him all power is given in heaven and on earth; and to him every knee shall bow. Our nature, debased by sin, is thus by grace exalted to ineffable dignity and glory. Let us contemplate this, not with pride, but with sincere humility and gratitude to the sovereign mercy of God. Let us be encouraged to rise above sin, and preserve ourselves in sanctification and honour. 2. That the penitent sinner has much reason to be assured that, in his approach to God through Christ, he will be accepted and pardoned, and justified, and made meet to be a partaker of an inheritance with the saints in light. Sins, great and numerous, and long continued, may be purged away by the blood of Christ, applied to the conscience by the Holy Spirit through faith. For every soul coming to God in reliance on this sacrifice Christ will be a willing and effectual intercessor. Him that cometh, he will in no wise cast out. 3. That this presents to the believer an all-sufficient refuge under all temptations. The christian has no reason to calculate on exemption from the fiery darts of the wicked one. That malignant adversary who assailed the great Captain of our salvation may be expected to assault his servants. But as he retired abashed and foiled from that conflict, so he will finally from all that trust in the Lord. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." JEHOVAH'S SURVEY OF HIS COMPLETED WORK. Dissatisfied with heathen fictions and | bestowed upon him, who above all the theories of philosophers, we open the Hebrew Scriptures. The first words which arrest our attention are full of sublimity and power. They present themselves to the judgment as the enunciation of an important truth, in which, heedless of whatever has been said or written to the contrary, we immediately acquiesce. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." We are taken into the depths of the far distant past, to the time when, out of nothing, the innumerable hosts of heaven were called forth; when the stupendous fabric of the material universe was raised; when suns innumerable first shed their beams, and planets were first impelled in their orbits; "when the morning stars sang together." Magnificent must have been the spectacle when angels first beheld it; profound the devotion which this display of omnipotent power and matchless wisdom would suggest. The earth, insignificant though it be, —an atom, when compared with the worlds and systems of worlds with which it is environed, then appeared, to add its "little glory" to the rest, and to mingle its song with their ceaseless harmonies. The heavens and the earth, the production of one Supreme Intelligence, stand forth, and have for ages stood forth, as marvellous products, revealing, on a scale too vast to be completely comprehended by finite minds, the skill of the Great Architect, and discovering to man, if he will only make them the objects of his consideration, incontrovertible evidences of Jehovah's power and Godhead. The work of creation is completed. Adam has just been formed. The Divine commands have been given him. He has been made acquainted with his high prerogatives. The blessing of the Holy One has been nature is "first, fair and glorious." When the work is done the Father of all is represented as pausing to survey the stupendous whole, and to behold therein, in all their harmony, symmetry, perfection, and beauty, the vast achievements of his most excellent power; "And God saw everything that was made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." The crown has been placed upon the world, in the creation of man. The work is now finished. I. In the above quoted text, your attention is naturally directed to Jehovah's extensive survey of the completed scheme of creation. "And God saw everything that he had made." These words suggest sublime thoughts. We commence our brief elucidation of them with a familiar illustration. A complex machine is before you. All its parts belong to the great system of means whereby the end the inventor had in view is effected. Its movements are varied and intricate. You are perplexed. The end designed is effected, yet you know not how. It is necessary an experienced mechanic should explain. Nay, a thorough knowledge of it would perhaps be impossible, unless it were taken to pieces, its parts defined, then re-adjusted in your sight, and then set in motion. A thorough knowledge of it is thus obtained gradually; 1, by a minute consideration of each of the parts; 2, by their adjustment in order to the formation of one great system of means; and 3, by careful observation of the working of the machine, as it is actually accomplishing the purpose for which it was invented. The thought we wish clearly to bring out is this-that the thorough comprehension of the whole, at first sight, with all its intricate and seemingly opposed movements, is im But possible. Minute and protracted | cid streams. Matter has been conscrutiny is necessary. If we are thus formed into innumerable objects, suslow in comprehending and under- blime and beautiful. The plastic standing this one object, what length of time would be required in surveying the structure, and understanding the theory of the universe? When our work had been pursued for ages, (new fields of inquiry opening uptrackless, boundless,) the words of Job would appropriately express our conviction, "These are but parts of his ways how small a portion is known of Him." How wide the contrast existing between the extensive and complete survey of Jehovah, and our insignificant attempts at investigation and discovery. "And God saw everything that he had made." When the complex and intricate machine of the heavens and the earth had been created and set in motion, all its parts were present to the piercing gaze of their exalted Maker at one and the same moment. He need not investigate. He was not a discoverer. Nothing was hidden from him which he had not yet penetrated. The vast fabric of nature, with all its component parts, was only the realization of the sublime ideas which had existed in the infinite mind of Deity, from all eternity. Laws innumerable, simple and combined, are being obeyed. Vegetable and animal life have been developed on a large scale. A stupendous system of mutual relations and dependencies is established. Myriads of suns and planets are created; myriads of plants, of innumerable varieties, are growing; myriads of trees have put on their varied foliage; myriads of animals, of widely differing species, from the elephant to the animalculæ, are enjoying the pleasures of newborn life; myriads of reptiles are basking in the sun, or luxuriating in the cool shade; myriads of birds, of all species, are cleaving the air with joyous wing, or are warbling their sweet notes in the woods and groves; and myriads of fishes are gliding gracefully through the pellu hand of Deity has moulded and ar- II, We proceed, now, to the con JEHOVAH'S SURVEY OF HIS COMPLETED WORK. sideration of another thought suggested by the words of Moses :Jehovah's complete satisfaction with the workmanship of his hands. "And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." If you go back, in thought, to the commencement, and trace the gradual process of the work of creation, as contained in the Mosaic account, from the first exercise of Divine power to the formation of Adam, you cannot fail to be struck with the additional lustre shed upon the natural attributes of God, on the appearance, at his command, of each new and peculiar manifestation of his power and wis. dom. Light streams forth; the waters retire to the place assigned them; islands and continents appear in sight, as though upheaved out of the deep in which they had been submerged; the fresh herbs and grass afford them verdant clothing; in the expanse the two great lights appear, "for signs and for seasons, and for days, and for months, and for years;" the waters of the great deep bring forth abundantly "the moving creatures that have life;" the feathered tribes fly abroad in the expanse of heaven; and lastly, myriads of creatures appear, glorious for beauty and for strength. All beasts and cattle, and creepingthings innumerable," receive the gift of life from their creator. By this gradual operation of Jehovah's power, provision is made for a grand crisis. The work is yet unfinished. being on earth can appreciate what has been done, or attain even to the most limited knowledge of the nature and attributes of Him, " by, and through, and to whom are all things." Let an angel descend from the realms of light into this new sphere. Let him ask the everlasting hills, and the great deep, who formed them. They are silent. Let him ask organic creation, the various orders of shrubs and trees, whence they sprang. Though exhibiting in their structure, proofs of matchless power and skill, No 117 they can make no reply. Let him ask the new-born lion, at whose roar the forests reverberate, or the beautiful leopard, which bounds with such agility over the plains. He understands not the question. Neither the fishes of the sea, nor the fowls of the air, nor the variegated insects fluttering in the sun's rays, know anything whatever respecting the God who created them. Not one being can be regarded as Jehovah's representative, of whom it may be said, "Thou hast set him over the works of thy hands." The vast temple is without the top-stone. As far as the work has proceeded it is satisfactory, and reflects the glory of the builder; but it is incomplete. There is a solemn pause, methinks, in the universe. There is breathless silence among the hierarchies of heaven, as they look down from their high thrones; or the theme of their inquiry is, "What will be the next manifestation of the Divine excellency ?" The evidences of Jehovah's power, wisdom, and goodness have hitherto been accumulating. "What will be the great crowning work?" It is done. Adam is formed. The Lord has made him, and Paradise receives him. A perfect mind inhabits a perfect body. A being is introduced into the scene, who, in his spiritual nature and physical organization, reflects, infinitely more than all God's works besides, the attributes of his Creator. Imagine his emotions as he becomes conscious of existence. When his eyelids are first unsealed, how thrilling the surprise. Now, with native majesty, the new. born son of God takes a wide survey of the azure vault of heaven, and now of the verdure of the earth on which he treads; and now of the various forms of vegetable life which meet his gaze. The music of the groves, or the murmuring of the crystal waters, or the perfume of the newly blooming flowers, or the soft fanning of the gentle breeze, fills him with inex pressible delight. He receives perfect gratification from all the senses. He perceives, wherever he turns, he is placed in a theatre of wonders, teeming with life and activity, beauty and grandeur. Turning his attention upon himself, he discovers the exquisite construction, symmetry, and proportion of his own physical frame-the most perfect, the most glorious of God's material works. And then, new delight arises at the discovery of the power of locomotion. And then, he looks in upon himself, and, filled with the energy of new life, contemplates with rapture the extraordinary faculties with which his Maker has endowed him. In proportion as these faculties are exercised, he gradually becomes conscious of the dignity conferred on him by the great Author of his being, and of his vast superiority to all other creatures. He can look upon all the various races of beings which surround him; upon the birds which skim along the glassy pool, or the insects which fly past him, or the numerous animals which couch at his feet, as far below him in the scale of intelligence; and then, he can lift up his eyes, in humble adoration, to the throne of that God whom he delights to honour as his Creator, Governor, and constant Benefactor, dwelling on his perfections with ineffable delight. The world is formed: all things are set in order by the Divine hand, that it may become the sphere of a new dispensation, the abode of a new race, entirely distinct in its mental and physical characteristics from any other hitherto created. A moral government is established, to continue for ever to run parallel with the eternal existence of its object. The head and representative of the new race has come. The reins of dominion are placed in his hands. The created one has received the charter of his rights from the hands of the Lord of the universe. Obedience is enjoined. And when this was done, "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." Could it be otherwise ? Is it possible that there could be a single flaw in any part of the mechanism ? Can we conceive of a defective work proceeding from the hand of Him who is the origin, sum, and centre of all perfection? If imperfection were discoverable, if there were anything therein which might have been amended, the great Author could not be possessed of infinite knowledge, power, and wisdom. He must necessarily be a limited, finite being, inasmuch as all imperfection in manifestation is incompatible with the nature and attributes of a being infinitely perfect. "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good." There is sufficiency. There is completeness in everything. There is an exact fitting together of all the parts of the great whole. There is no jarring wheel, no inharmonious conflict, no imperfect working of pre-established laws. There has been no useless expenditure, no vain display of power. There is no needless complexity in the structure. There have been no sacrifices, as in human productions, of beauty for utility, or of utility for beauty. Not even to the Divine mind is any thing suggested as capable of amendment. God seeth not as man seeth. He pierces into the inmost recesses; yet perfect complacency is felt, on the contemplation of that which he has formed. He viewed the whole, not only to mark the present fitness and adaptation of all things, but he viewed it also as a permanent system, to endure many successive ages. Though taking into account the immense period during which the work of his hands was intended to exist, he could still perceive therein the same sufficiency. III. The inspired proposition that every thing which the Lord has made is very good must commend itself as truthful to all intelligent beings by whom such a survey is made. Of the capabilities of angels we know but little. As they are desirous of looking into the mysteries of redemption, we may reasonably infer that they are not regardless of the proofs of creative power and wisdom which their Maker has exposed to their view. Though it be admitted that they possess intellectual powers far superior to our own, and that fields of enquiry are open to them which are hidden from us, yet we cannot conceive of their conclusions (formed, though they be, after the most protracted and scrutinizing investigation), as differing in the least from that of the Eternal Father. Ap |