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THE CONDESCENSION OF GOD.

ever. The subject of them all is one and the same; the praise of the King of Kings. Now imagine for a moment what such songs, in such a place, from such worshippers, must be! How fervent, how elevated, how divine! We are ready to think them worthy of their subject-suited to the glory of the great Lord of all. No, reader; his glorious name, we are told "is exalted" raised on high "above all blessing and praise." The songs of heaven cannot set forth his majesty; though lengthened out to eternity they can never display even one of his perfections. We are brought then to this conclusion; "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised," but "his greatness is unsearchable." All the discoveries that have yet been made of it, are as nothing when compared with what is still concealed, they are rather "the hidings" of his glory, than the unveiling of its splendour. The Psalmist's description falls far short of the truth. He dwelleth so high, that we cannot ascend to him, "cannot find him out."

The Condescension of God.

HERE we have before us the link which connects the great Creator with all his creatures. We cannot rise to him; He therefore stoops down to us. And he does this without impairing his own dignity. His condescension does not lesson the vast difference between us and our God. It leaves him on his lofty throne and us in the dust before him-and yet it brings him near to every one of us; places us as much within his sight as though he were our equal, or our friend. We need not go far for proofs of the divine condescension. We ourselves are living monuments of it. We owe to it our very being, all we have, all we are. And what is the work which now employs us, but an affecting evidence of its greatness? He who is exalted above the praise of angels is suffering a miserable worm to sully his glory by feeble efforts to display it; looking with delight on you who are endeavouring to comprehend it, and is bearing with others who do not deem it worthy of a single thought. Let us admire his patience while we look at the Psalmist's description of his condescension. "He humbleth himself" says he "to behold the things that are in heaven." By "the things that are in heaven" we are to understand the inhabitants of heaven, the glorified saints and angels, with all that belongs to or surrounds them. And "beholding" them signifies not merely observing them as their Lawgiver and Judge but taking an interest in them and in their concerns. Exhalted as he is, the Lord is not so wrapt up in his majesty, in his own glory and happiness, as to overlook them. No. He makes them the objects of his care, his love and his delight. And in this he manifests his condescension. He humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven. But how is this? Is not heaven a holy place, and are not the spirits who dwell in it holy too? They are; but then they are creatures, and as creatures they fall infinitely short of the perfection of the living God. In comparison with us their knowledge is excellent, but it is as nothing when compared with his infinite wisdom. Hence, he is said "to charge his angels with folly:" and pure as is their dwelling place in comparison with the earth, he says that it is not "clean in his sight." Look at God, and all in heaven is knowledge and holiness: look at man, and all is mingled with ignorance, pollution, and meanness. Dwell on this thought reader! Think what a world heaven is: how unspeakably glorious;

THE CONDESCENSION OF GOD.

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read the glowing, the elevating descriptions given us of it in the word of God: after you have thought and read, hear the inspired writers tell you that it has not, and cannot enter into your hearts to conceive aright of this wondrous place. Then while your mind is filled with the subject and the glories of the New Jerusalem seem to be almost present to your view, turn to this text "Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth." What do you read here—that this is a place worthy of the God who formed it-suited to be the habitation of his greatness? No; that he humbles himself if he deigns to cast an eye on it. But the condescension of God comes down yet lower. He humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth, even this vile earth; the very things which we ourselves cannot look on without many a mournful and sometimes a sickening thought. And here again by the word "behold" we must understand something more than a mere glance. It implies a concern, an interference in our affairs, a constant and deep interest in all that passes around us and within us; a care so extensive that it reaches to the meanest of our race, and so close that it numbers the hairs of our heads.Look at the divine condescension as it is seen in the preservation of the inhabitants of the earth! Think of the goodness that upholds us! We have experienced this so constantly and so long, that many of us regard it as a mere matter of course; as a mercy of so ordinary a kind that it need not excite either our surprise or our thankfulness. But did we know the power which is required merely to keep in existence such frames as ours, "so fearfully and wonderfully made"-we should all be filled with astonishment to find ourselves still alive. Think also of the goodness that provides for us! When we consider that every moment ever since we were born, the providence of God has been at work for our support and welfare-that he has ordered all our affairs from the highest down to the very lowest,—that not a thought, not a movement of our hearts has escaped his notice;-when we recollect how he has come to our aid in the hour of need and guided us in the hour of difficulty ;—how he has comforted us in our affliction, and laid us low, when in danger of being lifted up in our prosperity,-how he has brought darkness out of light for us, and good out of evil, and peace out of bitterness;-when we remember all the way wherein the Lord our God has thus led us, we must stand amazed at the infinite condescension of our God. We must break out with the wondering psalmist, and say "Lord what is man that thou art" so "mindful of him"? and the son of man that thou "so" visitest him? And to place this goodness in a yet stronger light, consider for a moment, what we are, whom the Lord thus beholds. We are not dwelling in heaven but here in a fallen world, and we like the world, are mean and fallen. We are formed from the dust, and after a few years of weakness, vanity, and suffering, we turn to dust again, are buried in darkness and forgotten. And not only thus we are polluted as well as mean; the prey of vile affections and debasing lusts; so full of evil, that we can hardly bear with ourselves or with one another. As for God, the greater part of us forget him; some of us blaspheme him to his face, pour equal contempt on his mercy and on his wrath. And what is the service which the best of us render him? So polluted, that were an angel to offer him such service, he would be sent quick to hell. Yet we are the very beings whom the Lord preserves and provides for; this is the very earth in which he even dwells. But even this condescension falls short of the humility which he has manifested in the redemption of his church. Think

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THE CONDESCENSION OF GOD.

of the means by which this redemption was purchased! That the great and eternal God, the very God who "dwelleth on high," should descend so low as to become man; that emptying himself of his majesty, he should take upon him our meanness; that he to whom all honour, and glory, and happiness belong, should submit himself to contempt, reproach, and misery; that the holy one of Israel, into whose presence iniquity never came, should dwell among transgressors, be vexed with their pollutions, and numbered with them; that the Author and Giver of life should himself suffer death, be seen hanging in a sinner's likeness on a cross, bleeding, groaning, aud dying there; and after all this work was accomplished, that instead of casting off the form in which he had suffered, he should raise it out of the grave, take it with him into heaven, and sit down in it on his everlasting throne:-this is condescension indeed, the utmost depth of abasement-the infinite humility of an infinite God. Remember too, the condescension displayed in the application of this dearly purchased redemption. Behold the great king of heaven stooping from his height, and deigning to offer terms of reconciliation to a rebel in arms against him. Hear him persuading and beseeching him to accept these terms! Reasoning with the sinful worms of the earth with such earnestness, as though his own blessedness were bound up in their salvation. See him bearing to be despised and rejected, following the worthless object of his care into every scene of vanity, and striving with him there; alarming his conscience, rousing his fears, warring with his lusts, exciting his desires; never leaving nor forsaking him till he has laid him a suppliant penitent at his feet, and then rejoicing over him as though he had recovered a long lost son. Reader, is not this amazing condescension? Is it not enough to force every tongue to exclaim, "who is like unto the Lord our God?" Consider also the end at which all this wonderful goodness aims. It is this:" He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people.' These words appear to be taken out of the song of Hannah, in the second chapter of the first book of Samuel. In their primary application they relate probably to the elevation of such men as Saul and David, from the lowest ranks of life to the throne of Israel. But the connexion in which they stand, requires us to look for a higher meaning in them. They show us men like ourselves, raised from the lowest depths of sin and misery, not to an earthly throne, but to all the honour and blessedness of heaven, "He beholdeth the things that are in the earth," and this is the great end he has in view in all the preserving and redeeming mercy he has shewn them, to take the poorest he can find among his own kings and priests in a world of life; to lift up the needy, the contrite, and broken-hearted out of this wretched earth-this dunghill of vileness, and to cause them to sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God, to make them the sharers of his own glory and partakers of his own joy. And here we must stop. We can no more fathom the depth of the divine condescension, than we can measure the height of the divine greatness. Indeed without a full knowledge of the one, our views of the other must be partial. It is the infinite majesty of God that magnifies his condescension. It does more than adorn and augment it, it makes it infinite. In both cases our finite understandings fail us. Like men standing on the shore of a wide ocean, we can see a vastness that surprises and fills the mind; but there is beyond our sight a boundless immeasurable expanse which no eye can reach.

The Pearl of Days.

The Lord's-day.

THE Lord's day will be esteemed an honor and a delight by all who possess any measure of a devotional spirit. This day was made for contemplation and devotion. No word can describe, no imagination conceive of the loss which the Christian would sustain by having this blessed day struck out of the calendar. As the rest of the night recruits the body fatigued, and the spirits exhausted by the labours and cares of the week, so the rest of the weekly sabbath equally seems to refresh and re-invigorate the pious soul. How delightful, to have one day in seven separated by Divine appointment from the vexatious concerns of this lower world, and consecrated to the immediate service of God, our Creator and Redeemer.

There are three sets of objects which demand the thoughts, and are calculated to excite the devotional feelings of the sincere Christian on this day. First, the works of God in the created universe. This was the thing which originally occasioned the sanctification of a sabbath. God having been employed six days in the creation of the heavens and the earth and all which they contain, and having finished the work and pronounced it good, very good, he ceased from his work and rested from his creative exertion, and, therefore, "he blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."

This was no doubt done for the sake of giving an example to the newly formed man. God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, cannot be weary, nor does he need refreshment. "Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, nor is weary?" Isa. xl. 22. As man was made to glorify his Maker, it was meet that he should have some certain portion of time consecrated to the devout contemplation of the wonderful works of God. And this duty of praising God for his wisdom, power, and goodness manifest in creation, is as obligatory now as it ever was. We are as much the creatures of Divine power as Adam. The same works which he had set before him are exhibited to our view. The same sun, moon, and stars which he beheld, shine upon us. The same earth on which

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he trod is under our feet; and the truly devout man will not be disposed to forget the glorious work of creation on this holy day. "The heavens still declare the glory of God, and the firmament still showeth his handy work." Oh that men would praise the Lord for his wonderful works!" "One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts." "All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee."

But the first day of the week was appointed to be the Christian sabbath, on account of another and a greater work than the creation. This day commemorates the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ from the dead. This event is the most interesting and important which ever occurred in our world, as it gave full evidence and confirmation of the completion of the glorious work of redemption. As on the morning of this auspicious day Jesus arose to life, is it not meet that the soul redeemed by atoning blood from sin and death should be all alive with the glow of sacred gratitude? Ought not the Christian to be early at the sepulchre with his believing thoughts and meditations? Ought not his heart to be joyful in the Lord all the day long? Angels descended and rejoiced at a Saviour's birth; and they were not absent when he arose. They were thick around the sepulchre. They announced to the pious women the joyful fact, "He is not here; he is risen." Let every Christian then commence the Lord's day with joyful emotions; let his heart burn with the fire of devotion; let his tongue resound the praises of Emmanuel. Here, O Christian is a theme which should ever occupy your warmest thoughts. Be not sluggish nor careless on the morn of the holy sabbath. It is the day of your Saviour's triumph, and his triumph is yours. As he died for you, so he rose for you.

But there is a third object with which the sabbath has a close connection. It has not only a retrospective aspect, bringing to our minds great events which have occurred in the history of the world, but a prospective aspect, for it is the type of another rest which is to be enjoyed in the world to come. "There remaineth a rest, a sabbath-keeping for the people of God.”

DROPPINGS OF THE SANCTUARY.

Droppings of the Sanctuary.

THE intercession of Christ is as a wall of fire around his people; they are kept as by an impregnable garrison.-Hervey.

We can never lay too little stress on our own performances, or our own abilities, and never confide too much in Christ's righteousness, and Christ's intercession.Ibid.

The blood that was shed on Calvary, will do me no good, if it be not sprinkled on my heart by Faith.-Ibid.

I would rather have one tear shed in the closet before God, than ten thousand tears shed in public, before the congregation. Ibid.