in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.' "1

The similitude, however, which reminds us so touchingly of our state as pilgrims in this world, may also suggest to us, that if the body be thus liable to be 66 soon dissolved," it may also soon be put together again, even as a tent, which is soon struck, is as easily and quickly set up again.

2

Let me, then, be daily more and more sensible of the present frailty and vileness of that tenement which the soul is appointed for a season to inhabit, and on which so many lavish all their care, while they take no pains to adorn and beautify its immortal inhabitant, nor to provide for its wants, when, its tabernacle being put off, it will pass to another state of being, and will be found "naked and unclothed," if it be not "clothed upon with a house which is from heaven-a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Regarding my body only as a tent, let me live on earth3 as a stranger and sojourner with God, not entangling myself with those things which I am always leaving, but still looking forward with earnest desire to the true home, to which I am continually drawing nigh. Knowing how soon the tent may be struck, let me prepare myself for the journey which must then be taken; and whenever that time shall come, believe with joyful confidence, that when the dark valley is past the tent shall be set up again, no more to be taken down, inasmuch as mortality will then have been swallowed up of life.

12 Pet. i. 13, 14.

2 Ps. cxlix. 4, and 1 Pet. iii. 3. 31 Pet. ii. 11.

XV. THE WILD GOAT UPON THE MOUNTAINS.

He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places."-Ps. xviii. 33.

"The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies."-Ps. civ. 18.-See also Deut. xxxiii. 25; Ps. xciv. 18; Hab. iii. 19.

How safely does the wild goat rest on the side of the precipitous mountain, or climb the dizzy height, where our brain would turn, and our feet would inevitably slip! How freely and fearlessly does she leap from rock to rock! Her eye is as true, and her foot as sure, upon the steep and slippery crag, as on some beaten road! God has fitted her for "the high hills" on which He has appointed her to live, and has endued her with those faculties of the foot, and of the eye, which enable her, even in the darkest night, to walk on rocks and precipices, where man could not tread securely under the noonday light.

The servant of the Lord is thus enabled to dwell securely wherever God has appointed the bounds of his habitation; and to go forward freely and

He may

fearlessly on the path of Christian duty. be exposed to temptations which he would once have thought it impossible to endure; or he may have to bear up against sorrows to which he would once have looked forward with dismay, as sure to swallow him up.' He may have to serve God in high and difficult duties, to which he would have thought himself utterly unequal; or he may be called even to the giddy and slippery places of worldly greatness, where those who witness his course expect that he will stumble fatally, at some unguarded moment. But as long as he is in the path of duty, and as long as he looks to God for strength, he is endued with grace exactly fitted, both in kind and degree, to the duty which God calls him to discharge, the sorrows which God calls him to meet, the temptations which God calls him to endure. His strength is as his day. His feet do not stumble even on the dark precipices amidst which he may have to climb the narrow path; and his confession is ever the thankful acknowledgment of the Psalmist, "He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places."

How different is it with those who are so far from keeping the path of duty, that they rush into manifold snares and dangers, in which it is impossible to stand upright; or if they abstain from such miserable self-will, yet seek not the only strength and power which could keep them from falling! 2 Such persons are ever going blindly forward on slippery places, or sleeping on the edge of precipices; and though by God's mercy they are withheld for a time from the destruction which they might fall into at any moment, yet at length they stumble to their utter ruin both of body and soul. It is of these that we read, "Surely thou

1 2 Cor. ii. 7.

2 Jude 24.

didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image."

2

1

Lord! I know not what may be the difficulties or the temptations which I may be called to meet ; but do Thou ever send out Thy light and Thy truth that they may lead me. Endue me with those graces of Thy Spirit which may prepare and qualify me for my various trials. Do Thou uphold my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.3

XVI.-GOLD IN THE FURNACE.

"Who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' sope:

1 Ps. lxxiii. 18-20. 2 Ps. xliii. 3. s Ps. xvii. 5, and xviii. 36.

and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness."Mal. iii. 2, 3.--See also 1 Cor. iii. 13-15.

As the precious metals are seldom found in a pure and simple state, it is necessary to separate them from the dross with which they are mixed, by melting the ore in a furnace. By this means the dross is consumed, and whatever gold or silver is contained in the ore, is purged or purified from the baser substance with which it was before blended, and preserved for any purposes to which those precious metals are applied. The refiner casts the ore into the furnace, not to destroy the gold or the silver that is contained in it, but to prove its quality and fineness, and to extract it from the ore in a state of perfect purity. And he watches the furnace all the time that the process is going on, that its heat may not exceed the due degree, nor the metals be left in it too long. Whatever comes forth from the trial is precious gold, fit for the royal crown, or to be wrought into the noblest vessels.

Our blessed Lord " gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." And He is, therefore, said to sit, "as a refiner and purifier of silver," because it is ever His gracious and merciful purpose to sanctify us wholly in body, soul, and spirit, from all that defileth. He would have us holy, not only in outward appearance, but in the hidden man of the heart, even as we read of the king's daughter, that not only her garments are of wrought gold, but she is "all glorious within." And because the precious gold is mixed

Titus ii. 14.

2 Ps. xlv. 13.