cordance with the true spirit of the gospel, by being humble, meek, and, charitable, we shall not only then hear his voice of love, but we shall open the door to admit his peaceful influence, an influence as gentle and as pure as the dew of Hermon, and as precious as the oil which was poured upon the head of Aaron, and it will, in like manner, run down upon our beards, and reach even unto the skirts of our clothing; therefore it will affect even our own natural dispositions, and extend to the minutest actions of our lives. We shall live to the glory of God, and the good of our fellow-men; self will be subdued; the world, and all its delusive vanities will be driven to their proper place-beneath us; all we think, all we do, will be influenced from some good motive; in every action of life we shall promote the good of others and the happiness of ourselves; the Lord will, indeed, dwell with us-we shall sup with him and he with us-we shall be in direct communication with the angels of light-we shall be conjoined to him, who is the source of life, of light, of joy, and fountain of every blessing, and who will withhold no good thing from them that walk uprightly, and who keep his all-gracious commands. Even this world will then become to us a paradise of delights; we shall find every thing, when rightly used, to be productive of good; the cares, troubles, and anxieties of life will be softened down, old age will find us prepared to quit the transitory scenes of this world, and death will introduce us to that haven of rest where perpetual sunshine, calm, and peace, shall light upon our immortal souls, and where we shall be for ever with the Lord and enjoy of his fulness to eternity. Amen.

SERMON X.

DARKNESS OVER ALL THE LAND OF EGYPT, AND AT THE SAME TIME, LIGHT IN THE DWELLINGS OF THE ISRAELITES.

BY THE REV. T. GOYDER.

Exodus x. 21, 22, 23.

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.'

EVERY man who reads the Holy Scriptures, should read them for himself, with a most intense desire to understand their weighty and important contents. He should approach them under the just impression that they are divinely inspired to their very centre-that they are infilled with the living spirit or breath of God, and that they form, collectively, a vast body of divine truth, intelligence, and wisdom. He should consider them as the light of his own little world, the joy of his heart; which, while they are yielding ten thousand blessings, are his sure and certain guide to happiness and heaven! He should, therefore, approach these divine oracles in a state of perfect freedom of soul, with a calm, tranquil, unbiassed, and unprejudiced mind, and intent on nothing but the truth, that the truth may make him free; if he pray the prayer of the Psalmist, and say, "Lord, open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law !"-this prayer, springing from the heart, will so adapt the soul for the reception of the light of heaven; that upon its flowing in, it will instantly disperse the clouds of the letter, and present to his delighted mind, some of those wondrous things which have been the objects of his search and of his prayer! This is the man who belongs to the true Israel of God; and such persons will always

have light in their dwellings, though a more than a thick Egyptian darkness surround the world beside!

The members of the Christian church, generally speaking, endure the greatest privations, and the most severe checks in their progress of acquiring true theological knowledge, by the unhappy tendency they have to place the creeds of men, and the decisions of councils and assemblies, between them and the Word of God. Hence in their Scriptural studies nothing is seen but creeds and decisions; or if any truth of revelation be seen at all, it is seen through these. They become, as it were, the glass or mirror in which, and through which, the truths of Revelation are looked at, and by which all their beauty and fair proportions are marred and distorted; so that not a single vestige of their divine originality at all appears. The understanding of such a man becomes warped, and his judgment consequently perverted and infected. He gives a deformed figure to every object, and sees nothing as it really is; for

"All seems infected, that the infected spy,

As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye."

Dr. Watts says, that "the eyes of a man in the jaundice make yellow observations on every thing; and the soul, tinctured with any passion, diffuses a false colour over the appearances of things. '

If then we are desirous of seeing the truths of Revelation as they are in their own brightness and simplicity, we must not allow any thing to be placed between us and them. In matters of religion, which relate not to civil policy, but to the soul of man, and to his spiritual intercourse with his Maker; the mind must be free! as free to speak as to think ! and all human creeds, and decisions of councils, these idols of the mind, which men make for themselves as objects of worship, must be thrown to where they properly belong-to the moles and to the bats.

Let us, then, in a state of true spiritual freedom, looking up to the Lord Jesus Christ for illumination, proceed with our expla

nation.

The text gives us an account of a most remarkable miracle: a miracle so very extraordinary in itself, that it must strike every man of reflection with wonder and astonishment.

At the time this miracle was performed, the children of Israel were living in Egypt in a state of bondage, and groaning under the severity of their task-masters. To relieve them from this miserable state of bondage, the Lord commanded Moses and

Aaron to go to Pharaoh the king, and demand of him, the liberation of the Israelites, that they might serve Jehovah, the true God. Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharoah, and conscious of the power with which they were invested, they addressed the king in this ever-memorable language:-"Thus saith Jehovah, Let my people go, that they may serve me!" Pharaoh astonished at this demand, instantly replied “Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice? I know not Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go Upon this refusal, Moses and Aaron wrought a number of miracles in order to convince Pharaoh that they were sent by the true God, but all this only hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he refused to let the Israelites go. One of the miracles wrought upon this occasion, and to which our present observations, must exclusively be confined, is that contained in the text. It is said, that "Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings!" Now what is very remarkable in this miracle, is, that although a thick darkness spread over all the land of Egypt, so dense that they could not even see one another, yet the children of Israel, who were inhabitants of that land, had plenty of light in all their dwellings ! How then, it may be asked, could a thick darkness cover all the land, while the children of Israel, in their dwelling-place, enjoyed an abundance of light? This question can never receive a satisfactory answer from those who deny the plenary inspiration. of the Word of God! This denial closes the understanding against all spiritual light and intelligence, and leaves the man to grope his way in the dark, amidst doubts, mysteries, vain conjectures, and empty wonders! The sacred volume of truth is an outbirth of the Divinity! it is therefore infilled with the living breath of Jehovah; it contains, collectively, the words of Jesus, which are full of spirit and life! This doctrine when seen and felt, unlocks the sacred cabinet, and presents to view its inward treasures, in all their richness, abundance, and variety! is this inward spirituality of the Word of God, which can alone answer the question to which we have alluded. It is this that can shew the reason why light was enjoyed by the Israelites, while darkness covered the Egyptians; and it is this alone can shew, that the very same act of Moses lifting up his hand toward heaven, and which produced darkness over all the land of Egypt,

It

would, of necessity, produce light in all the dwellings of the Israel of God!

But to see this subject in its true spiritual light, the mind must be withdrawn from the things of the world, and indrawn to those of heaven and life eternal; that is, the mind must be spirituallyinclined; for the carnal mind is enmity against God, consequently to such the things of God will appear as darkness; but to the spiritually-minded and heavenly, they will appear as light!

Now this darkness is said to be in the land of Egypt, and it was produced by Moses lifting up, or stretching out, his hand toward heaven. Here, then, it will be necessary to shew what is meant by the land of Egypt. Egypt is not mentioned in Scripture in reference merely to that portion of the globe called by that name, but in reference to the state, the condition, genius, disposition, and religion of the people. Now the Egyptians were gross idolators, and the serpent was their chief and grand idol. But although the religion of the Egyptians was gross idolatry, they knew not Jehovah, and therefore worshiped not at his shrine; ye they were a bold, vigorous, and enterprising people! They cultivated scientific knowledge to an extent that perhaps was never exceeded or equalled: so that the land of Egypt, even to this very hour, is considered as a land of prodigies and mighty wonders. They were truly a scientific people; but inasmuch as their scientific knowledge, great as it was, had no tendency to lift up the mind above the things of time and sense, but rather to bend it. down to the earth, and make it grovel in the things of nature; therefore, taking this peculiar genius of the Egyptians into the account, the land of Egypt is mentioned in Scripture to denote the merely natural mind, with all its scientific pursuits, its carnal, sensual, and worldly pleasures. The most splendid scientific knowledge that any man can attain in this life, may, if properly used, prove a blessing; but if it is abused, it will prove a bitter All knowledge was given, that man might rise step by step in the order of his creation, that he might mount upwards, even above the things of this world altogether, and that, by obtaining a correct knowledge of himself, as a spiritual, im-mortal, and accountable being, he might rise to a higher sphere of intellectual knowledge and wisdom, and by becoming acquainted with a true philosophy of mind; a highway would be opened to him by the truths of revelation, by which he would ascend to a just knowledge of God, and of all the bright unfading

curse.