privilege; and in nothing will it be more amply fulfilled than in the right interpretation of the word which He has himself dictated to his servants the prophets. Strive, then, for a spiritual understanding of whatsoever was written aforetime. The words of Moses and David and all the prophets, like those of their and our blessed Master, had in them "spirit and life," though, like him, they spake and wrote under figures and similitudes. And the veil is still upon our hearts and minds, if we do not see the substance under the shadow, the reality represented by the type. Nor need we fear being led astray, so long as we take the Scripture for its own interpreter, or the Church which is our divinely appointed teacher, or competent authority therein. There can be no doubt that the brazen serpent lifted up by Moses represented the lifting up of the Son of man upon the cross; for he has himself been pleased to assure us thereof. Nor that the high priest, entering once every year into the most holy place with the blood of the slain animals, represented our great High Priest carrying his own blood to the mercy-seat in the heavens ; for the word of the Apostle has taught it. The same word has instructed us to see the bondage of the law, and the freedom of the Gospel covenant, prefigured under Hagar the bond-maid,

and Sarah the wife chosen by God; and again, to regard the Church as the spouse of Christ and the mother of God's children. And when this our mother teaches us that our heavenly Father, in "saving Noah and his family by water," and "leading the children of Israel his people through the Red Sea, figured thereby his holy baptism;" and by her selection of psalms and lessons for the service of the Lord's day and high festivals, leads her children through a regular course of Gospel doctrine, can we fail to yield our hearts to such instruction, and see therein an useful lesson and true pattern of the spiritual understanding of all that went before, when the Lord was pleased to "dwell in thick darkness," and "the cloud" of his presence "rested upon the holy place, so that even the priests could not minister therein ?"* Can we fail to express our deep thankfulness that "the day-spring from on high hath visited us," and "the day-star hath dawned upon our hearts ?" And oh, that, through divine grace, it may illumine every dark corner therein, and dispel the mists of ignorance or self-will, and cleanse them of all their foulness, that they may be a fit habitation for the Spirit of truth and holiness!

* 1 Kings, viii. 10, 11, 12.

And now, if so much of learning and of comfort is, as we have seen, to be drawn from the things which were written aforetime, what a fountain of living waters is opened to us in the books of the New Testament, in the words and acts recorded of our Lord himself, and those which his Holy Spirit hath spoken by the mouth of his apostles, or dictated by their pens! Not only is all that had gone before seen to be fulfilled for our comfort, and the strengthening of our hope and trust in God our Saviour, but He has been pleased to come among us in the fulness of grace and truth; and the Father is made known as "the God of all comfort," "the God of patience and consolation," "the God of hope, who fills us with all joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." of the Holy Ghost." And this blessed Spirit is promised under the gracious title of the Comforter, and sent into our hearts to dwell there, and bring forth "the fruits of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, patience." Oh, let the divine word be made profitable to us for doctrine and consolation. Let it be received into our hearts faithfully and affectionately as becomes children; “laid up them," as was commanded by God to his people;

in

"pondered," as it was by her who was the pattern of every meek and lowly soul; till it beget in us that highest grace, which brings the child of God into the nearest resemblance of its heavenly Parent- the love of Him, with all the heart, and soul, and strength.

1 COR. iv. 1. Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

THE subject presented to us this day is the office of ministers in the Church; very appropriate to this season, which is one of the Ember weeks, or times of ordaining priests and deacons. The ministers of the Church are continually executing the office of the Baptist, the forerunner of the blessed Jesus: they are, in the words of the collect for the day, " preparing and making ready his way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." This was the description of the office of John the Baptist when his birth was announced by an angel. And the Church, by adopting and applying these words, expressly marks the nature of the Christian ministry.

The excellence and true use of this office might be shown in several instances, as we find them noted in different passages of Holy Writ. But that which the Church now brings before us,

*For the Ember week in Advent.