And bring your sacrifices every morning,
And your tithes after three years,

And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven,
And proclaim and publish the free offerings,

For this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith
the Lord God."

What more was wanted: here was a most costly service, daily sacrifices as commanded, Exod. xxix. 38, tithes every three years, according to Deut. xiv. 28, 29, sacrifices of thanksgiving with leaven as they were wont to be offered, and even free offerings beyond what were laid down in the law. All this too at Bethel and Gilgal, places hallowed by the most sacred associations, where God appeared in vision unto Jacob, where the reproach of uncircumcision was rolled off Israel. But all is of no avail, it is the worship of self-will. God had commanded his altar to be erected at Jerusalem, and no altar at Bethel, however scrupulously served, was pleasing in his sight. They came to Bethel but to transgress; at Gilgal they multiplied transgression. This liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord." These sacrifices flattered their vanity; they loved to boast of them but God took no pleasure in them.

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We are told of the zeal and devotion implied in the gorgeous sanctuaries of popery; there are those who would have us think a religion which excites to such sacrifices must be well-pleasing in the sight of God; and they would moreover excite our imaginations with the associations of holy places. When we are thus tempted, let us remember the gorgeous will-worship of Bethel and Gilgal, and the judgment God has pronounced upon them. Let us remember that to obey is better than to sacrifice; and that if they could lavish on their cathedrals the wealth of both the Indies, it

would not atone, in God's sight, for the one commandment they have dared to erase from his law.

to us.

The passage ch. iv. 6-11, is full of solemn warning The words, "Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord," so often repeated, ought ever to sound in our ears. God is slow to anger, and of great mercy he does not at once strike the final blow. "I will go and return," says he in Hosea, " to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face." So it was with Israel in the days of Amos: God sent stroke upon stroke; but five times he waits in vain, and the people will not return. Then in awful judgment he summons them.

"Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel;

And because I will do this unto thee,

Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel."

What a meeting is here!-when forbearance and mercy have run their course, and the sinner is called to confront the justice of an angry God. Britain has had loud calls to repentance, God has sent cleanness of teeth and want of bread, and pestilence into our cities, but now pitying our misery he has granted us some respite, as he did to Israel in the days of Jeroboam. Let us not abuse it as they did. The God of judgments is not a being with whom we may trifle. How grand the description given to impress Israel with a sense of his power in the closing verses of this chapter.

"For, lo, he that formeth the mountains and createth the wind,

And declareth unto man what is his thought,

That maketh the morning darkness,

And treadeth upon the high places of the earth,

The Lord, the God of hosts is his name."

THE JOYS OF HEAVEN.

(Continued.)

Taste also is one great means of enjoyment below— how often degraded and debased! We have every reason to suppose from Scripture, that this sinless corporeal attribute will be gratified in heaven. Adam ate before he sinned. It was the first permission given ;— "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat." Gen. ii. 16. Our Lord ate after he had assumed his resurrection-body. "To us," says Peter, "who did eat and drink with Him after he rose from the dead. Acts x. 41. Therefore eating and drinking is by no means confined to a sinful or even an earthly state. But the food of heaven is expressly mentioned, and that repeatedly in Scripture; "Man," says David, "did eat angel's food," or as it is in the Marginal reading, "every one did eat the bread of the mighty." Psalm lxxviii. 25. "Wine, which cheereth God and man," says Jotham, Judges ix. 13; which text may be compared with our Lord's memorable words, “I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." Matt. xxvi. 29. When, in that mysterious vision recorded in Exodus, xxiv. Moses and the Elders saw the God of Israel, it is expressly said, they "did eat and drink." In Ezekiel xlvii, mention is made of the trees by the river's brink, whose leaves were never to fade, and in Rev. xxii., we learn that the tree of life, watered by the river which proceedeth from the throne

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of God, bare twelve manner of fruits, and brought forth her fruit every month. Well may we exclaim with the Jew of old, Luke xiv. 15-"Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." But the mind has tastes as well as the body, and these tastes, as far as they are innocent, will assuredly be gratified; for we read, Psalm xxxvi. 8., "Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures ;" and again, Psalın cxi. 2: "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein." But we must hasten to notice another source of pleasure to the body, viz., that of motion, and see what we can learn of its continuance. Considering again the living creatures as types of the redeemed, we find that each had six wings, thus, in Isaiah vi. 2., we read, " Above it, (the throne,) stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly." A wing is the symbol of rapid motion, it carries us on to a state of being very delightful, but very different to the one we have at present. Here we are of the earth, and tread its dust with human feet. If we want more rapid movement, we are compelled to borrow it from our inferiors, and to make use of the feet of beasts. In heaven it appears that we shall have the means of rapid movement. We shall converse without the intervention of animals with distant scenes. We read of the faithful servant being made a ruler over ten cities.-We read of each apostle judging a tribe. Distant thrones may be provided for God's distinguished ones, while all will meet around the throne of the Lamb. The Missionary who now toils over burning sands, to spread the good tidings of salvation to his brethren on this earth, may then per

chance on angel's wings bear messages of love to distant worlds.

But it may be said, that while I have been dwelling on corporeal and intellectual enjoyments, I have been forgetting the spiritual ones-that while body and soul have been cared for, spirit has been neglected. Oh

no! It is the spirit which is the true life of soul and body. It is the spiritual enjoyment which is at the root of the bodily and the intellectual. Every child of God, however feeble, knows and feels, that when he reaches his blessed home he shall be sinless like his Lord; that however his mortal frame be composed, it will offer no avenues to temptation, that however his mind be constituted, it will be in unison with the mind of God. Oh blessed consummation of earth's sins and sorrows! The whole man will be in harmony with God. Earth will have resumed her place in creation's system, and will roll majestically around the throne of God. Her inhabitants will join the universal chorus of praise, and by their union with the Godhead, will, in fact, lead the song, "Holiness to the Lord," will be written on every brow; and from the hoary patriarch to the infant of days, love to God will beat in every bosom. "Now unto Him who is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever." Amen.

X. Y. Z.