from this hateful dominion, this horrible lust, this frantic possession? Then give yourself to God. In the lucid interval fall at Christ's feet, and, like the dispossessed demoniac, beg that He would not leave you, nor suffer you to leave Him; and as Christ's Spirit takes possession of your mind, as in answer to prayer the Comforter comes, in the peace and the purity which He sheds abroad, unruly emotions will subside, angry passions will obey the voice, "Peace, be still!" and a stronger than Satan having entered in and expelled the usurper, you will taste the blessings of a renovated heart and a heavenly rule, and will find that you have returned to your right mind in returning to your rightful Master.

In the gospel, God invites each of us to take Himself for our God, and He offers to take each of us as His peculiar treasure; and it is well that, like Israel at Sinai, this kind offer of His should be met by an act of our own, express and explicit. Personal covenanting and solemn self-dedications were not unusual among our godly ancestors, and documents like the following still are extant :

"Oct. 20, 1686.—I take God the Father to be my chiefest good and highest end. I take God the Son to be my Prince and Saviour. I take God the Holy Ghost to be my Sanctifier, Teacher, Guide, and Comforter. I take the Word of God to be my rule in

all my actions, and the people of God to be my people in all conditions. And this I do deliberately, sincerely, freely, and for ever.

(Signed) "MATTHEW HENRY."

And as a date, as a definitive landmark and starting-point, there may be an advantage in a form thus written and subscribed; but if made too minute, above all, if in any way it assume the form of an oath or vow, it will become a snare and a source of subsequent distress and embarrassment, for, after every declension and failure, you will feel that you have been unfaithful in your covenant, and that you have sworn deceitfully. Happily for us, God's voice has been obeyed, and His covenant has been kept on our behalf by our glorious Representative, and it only remains for us, by a meek and thankful assent, to enter into all the blessings thus bought for us, whilst, with a voice more subduing than the trumpet of Sinai, Christ's sacrifice calls for our surrender. Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price; tell the Saviour how thankful you are, and how willing; and whilst you deeply feel that for all your future constancy you are dependent on His own good Spirit in the competition for your heart's supremacy, do you decide for that King who reigns in righteousness, and who makes His subjects kings and priests unto God His Father.

XVIII.

The Tabernacle.

"And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation; and thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony," etc.-Ex. XL. 1-38.

ISRAEL had escaped from Egypt; the Moral Law had been given from Mount Sinai; the Most High had revealed Himself as the self-existent and eternal I AM, to the exclusion of the lords many and gods many which Egypt and other nations adored, and a very solemn transaction had just been completed, on which, as on a nail fastened in a sure place, hung the whole future of the peculiar people. To the nation whom He had so signally rescued, whom through the Red Sea and across the burning sands He had borne on wings of His own omnipotence into the heart of Horeb, to the nation resting in this safe asylum on the way to its promised land, Jehovah drew near, and, claiming to be their God, He at the same time offered to be their King. He

offered to bring them into a relation to Himself such as no other nation had ever occupied :-“ If ye will obey my voice and keep my covenant, ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." And God's gracious overture the people joyfully reciprocated. On a set day and a solemn, they took the oath of allegiance to their Heavenly King, "All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient;" and thenceforward the Head of their nation was neither Pharaoh nor Moses nor any mortal man; they had a Sovereign who was deathless and invincible: their only and immediate Monarch was God; the Holy One of Israel was their King.

This theocracy or government by God was the great distinction of the Hebrew people; and the day when it was ratified by covenant may be deemed the main hinge of Hebrew history. That great transaction, the National Covenant, we have already considered, and we must now turn our thoughts to some of those details which necessarily followed.

And in considering these, we must not forget that Israel's King was also Israel's God, and that in the peculiar politico-religious organization which the arrangement involved, it was needful to provide at once for the worship of God and for the social welfare of the people.

The Most High-the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him; but linked to matter as we are, living in these bodies and limited to a certain space, locality enters into our thoughts when we think of God; and ever since we were banished from the bowers of Eden, the longing of all earnest spirits has been after something palpable and near, a longing after God manifest and God in the midst of us as well as after God propitious and reconciled.

This longing of devout and earnest spirits was most graciously met in the camp of Israel. From the memorable night of the exodus there had always moved before the camp or hovered over it a mystic symbol, cloud by day and fire by night, the sign and cognisance of their celestial Leader. And now Jehovah said, "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them ;" and to the invitation the people replied so willingly that gold and silver came in to the amount of a quarter of a million sterling. With this large offering, acting under Divine direction, and carrying out the work with the aid of Aholiab and Bezaleel, Moses reared and furnished forth the tabernacle.

It was a great day, that New-Year's day when the tabernacle was at last erected. It was twelve months after their departure from Egypt, and the first New-Year's day which they had spent in the

1 Ex. xxv. 8. 2 Ex. xxxviii. 24-31; see Kitto's Pictorial Bible.