misery, that they are justly condemned, and giving glory to God while suffering the penalty of grace rejected.

66

The song of redemption can only be sung by the redeemed, because redemption must be experienced before its joys can be known but not every song is a song of redemption, nor can every redeemed creature sing the song. At the incarnation, and in prospect of the redemption, the heavenly hosts sang Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men :" and at the redemption, the whole creation, groaning and travailing in pain together until now, shall shout together for joy at the manifestation of the sons of God, because the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. But these are the songs of spectators, not partakers, of the highest joy it, with its corresponding song, belongs to the sons of God, which none but those who have the mind of Christ can learn, and which they shall sing in that day when HE cometh to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe.

Each song of Scripture is an expression of praise for past deliverance, and of trust for the time to come; but there are two special acts of deliverance, which have their special songs of praise,-the first and second acts of redemption; the songs of Moses, and of the Lamb: the first act, the type, and its song the chorus, of all succeeding acts and songs; the last act to be the conclusion of the present dispensation, and the renewal of all things, to be ushered in by the new song so often spoken of in Scripture.

The bondage of Egypt was the expression of man's bondage to the flesh, and the type of the oppression of the church by the world; and Pharaoh expresses the instrument of oppression, and typifies the Roman beast, which has so long enslaved the church, with a tyranny as unjustly assumed and as cruelly exercised over the people of God, as that of Pharaoh and his taskmasters. The second deliverance, which we now look for, as the antitype of the Exode, shall realize all which the first deliverance expressed or prefigured; shall set free the whole creation, now groaning under the bondage of corruption, and shall instal the sons of God in the glorious liberty which Christ hath won for them, and now freely offers; shall renew the face of all things in the kingdom of God; according to that original purpose, to the completion of which all things are now tending; when man, now fallen and enthralled, being renewed after the image of the Creator, all the creatures shall find their heaven under his dominion.

At the time when the new song shall break forth simultaneously from the whole creation, they will have attained that state for which they were originally destined in the purpose of God, and which it will then be seen that the fall of man, and

its consequent woe, has enhanced as well as retarded. It will then be seen that greater glory has redounded to God from the fall of man; and that the ill-timed ambition which brought death into the world, was a perversion of truth, rather than a direct lie; was the sinful endeavour to anticipate instinctive yearnings of the soul of man; for we shall then be as gods, knowing good and evil.

The new song of the new creation is of many parts, sung by many bands; each band learning its part in the song during the present dispensation; and he that refuses to learn his part now, shall not join in the song hereafter. The highest part shall be sung by the sealed ones of God, by those who have their Father's name written in their foreheads, who know their privilege as sons to enter into all God's mind and will, whom the Comforter leadeth now into all truth, and to whom he sheweth things to come these are they who follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth: these, and these only, learn the song of Moses and of the Lamb.

The song of Moses and of the Lamb includes the whole purpose of God; his purpose not only to individuals, but to families, and nations, and tribes, and mankind; his purpose not only to this generation, but to past and future generations; his purpose not only in the Christian dispensation, but in the Mosaic, the Patriarchal, and the Antediluvial dispensations also. He who has learned the song of Moses, will, like him, refuse the treasures of Egypt, and choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; will confess himself a stranger and a pilgrim here, and be seeking a city which is to come, that is, a heavenly. The song of Moses implies a knowledge of the purport of that tabernacle which was shewed to him in the mount; of the mystery couched under every part, so minutely described, and every measure, so exactly given.

The song of Moses implies also a knowledge of the purport and end of the legal ordinances, the sacrifices and purifications, the fasts and the feasts; a knowledge not only of their immediate purport to that generation in its wilderness wanderings, but to their children, when brought into the land of their fathers; and even passing beyond their present outcast condition to their final gathering from all the corners of the earth, and planting for ever in the inheritance promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The song of Moses, too, regards the God of Moses, a Holy and Jealous God, speaking forth his will in the thunders of Sinai, requiring implicit obedience, and accepting no defective service; proclaiming continually, that, though a man should keep the whole law, yet if he offend in one point he is guilty of all. The song of Moses calls upon heaven and earth to hear

the name of the Lord; to ascribe greatness to our God; "for He is the Rock: his work is perfect, all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He." And the Rock of Moses is a jealous God, who hath abhorred Israel because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters; till He said, "I will hide my face from them; for a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell." But yet the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up and left. And then shall he lift up his hand to heaven and say, "I live for ever. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people; for He will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries; and will be merciful to his land, and to his people.

The Lord, thus acknowledged as a God of uncompromising holiness in the song of Moses, is known as a God of mercy in the song of the Lamb. The name of the Lord was proclaimed to Moses as "merciful and gracious," but "by no means clearing the guilty." And how the guilty race of man could be cleared, how the holy God could shew mercy, was unrevealed, till beheld in Jesus Christ, God and man reconciled in one, mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace kissing each other. This blessed conjunction of the highest attributes of God, Holiness and Love, gives to the song of the sealed followers of the Lamb its sublimest note, its most rapturous strain: a note which they only can sing who have the seal of the living God, "Holiness to the Lord" upon their foreheads; and who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb; who are clothod in the fine linen, which is the righteousness of the saints.

As learning the song of Moses is knowing the purpose of God, so learning the song of the Lamb is having the mind of Christ Jesus. Holiness to the Lord is the end and scope of the song of Moses; putting on Christ Jesus is the way to that end, is learning the song of the Lamb. of the Lamb. But the holiness must be a reality, not merely a name; the righteousness a life, not merely an imputation; the kingdom of heaven received in power, not merely in word. Christ hath opened a way of righteousness, commanding his people to follow his steps: he hath called us to holiness, and empowered us to obey the call by the gift of the Holy Spirit he hath declared that the kingdom of God is within us, begun by real conformity of mind to the mind of Christ.

Such is the exalted rank of those who sing the song of Moses and the Lamb; redeemed from among men; first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb; in their mouth no guile; without fault

before the throne of God the Father; having overcome, and to sit with Christ on his throne; living and reigning with Christ in the holy city, the new Jerusalem; inheriting all things; sons of God, heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ Jesus.

And all who believe in the Gospel are privileged to take this exalted rank, and none shall fail of it but by unbelief. It is not of desert in us; it is not by our own strength we attain it provision for it has been made in Christ Jesus; strength is given in the Holy Spirit: we have but to accept the grace which is offered freely, and to use the strength which God has promised to bestow more readily than any father will give bread to his craving children.

Fain would we hope that none who call themselves Christians were so base as to forego wilfully this their high calling; but we know there are many who do so, and attempt to justify their foolish choice. Some learn the song of Moses and neglect the song of the Lamb: strange infatuation! Some think they can learn the song of the Lamb without the help of Moses and the prophets, who all wrote of Him.

In Moses is contained the germ and the promise of all that the Gospel unfolds; but, being expanded like the rose of Sharon in the person of our Immanuel, it cannot again be compressed into the bud, or re-enfolded in the germ: the attempt is preposterous: it begins with lopping off all the beauties and glories and excellencies of the Gospel, and ends in calling the dry, profitless, fruitless stump which remains, the law of Moses. The Jews, who reject the Gospel, think they sing the song of Moses: and let them know their standing, their only possible standing, after the coming of the Lord,—their standing shall be that of servants, not of sons. The sonship can only be attained now, during the continuance of the Christian dispensation; now, while it is the accepted time, while the day of salvation lasts. Salvation, in its highest sense, can only be attained now: the members of the body of Christ are being fashioned now, the stones of the temple of God are being polished now: when Christ comes forth in glory he brings his saints with him, the bride is prepared, the wise virgins are ready, the door is shut, and many, who little think so, will be left in outer darkness.

The Jews, and their infatuated followers, who think they sing the song of Moses, may comprehend one-half of these excluded ones; and the foolish virgins, who think they sing the song of the Lamb, may comprehend the other half. Both these parties we are supposing to be sincere, and warn them that the best they have to expect is outer darkness; for the hypocrites and unbelievers, and followers of Antichrist, shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone; whither also the majority of those left in outer darkness shall be driven by the fearful persecutions

and unutterable terrors of that greatest of all tribulations, when, except the Lord should shorten the days, no flesh should escape. Oh that we could paint in adequate colours the horrors of that time of outer darkness; that blackest hour in the history of the world; that vengeance, of which the Deluge, and the Red Sea, and the cities of the plain, and the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar, were types; that baptism of fire, which shall consume all the stubble, and chaff, and tares, and hay, and wood, which has been brought into the congregation of the Lord; and from which if any escape it shall be so as by fire-himself alone saved-suffering the loss of all things! Oh that we could convey to others that vivid perception which we have of the instant, the urgent necessity of betaking themselves now, without delay, to that shelter from the storm which is provided in Christ Jesus, that there they may find a refuge until the calamity be overpast! Yet this living death, this worse than the death we are accustomed to contemplate, is all that we can offer to the unconverted Jew, and to the foolish virgins.

All preceding woes fall short of this, though some of those are dreadful to contemplate. To the Jew the Lord shall give a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind; and his life shall hang in doubt before him; and he shall have fear day and night; and shall have none assurance of life. In the morning he shall say, Would God it were even! and at even he shall say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of his heart wherewith he shall fear, and for the sight of his eyes which he shall see. And to the foolish virgins a worse condition remains, if worse can be imagined; for to all the sufferings of the Jew will be added all that the special rage of Antichrist can inflict, all heightened and exacerbated by compunction at their own folly in refusing to learn Wisdom when it cried in their streets, in neglecting to buy oil before the coming of the Bridegroom, before the shutting of the door.

The bride is completing now, during the Christian dispensation, and shall be completed before the Millennium begins; completed in the act of translating the saints at the beginning of the day of the Lord; which is, in fact, the crisis to be immediately expected, and for which preparation should instantly be made. All who do not now prepare themselves, by accepting that wedding garment, that robe of righteousness, which is provided in Christ Jesus; who do not wash their garments, and make them white in the blood of the Lamb, while this dispensation lasts; shall find no admission into the heavenly Jerusalem, shall not become members of the body of Jesus, shall not attain the dignity of the bride.

And if any are halting between two opinions, half Jew and half Christian; if any baptized into Christ still hanker after