hope men throw themselves forward upon other future objects, even when these are uncertain, unsatisfying, fugitive! See what sacrifices men make, what indulgences they forego, what wealth of toil and forethought and vigilance they expend, in order to win a laurel which may never wreath their brow, or amass a fortune which they may never enjoy! Shame upon us Christians, that we do not with equal eagerness desire, with equal ardour pursue, with equal joy anticipate, that heavenly future which alone is certain, satisfying, endless, replete with bliss, and resplendent in glory! Let us shake off the dust of earth, and rise exultant on the wings of faith and hope. Let us climb the heights of Pisgah, and fill our souls with a view of "the good land beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon." Let us

rest not till we are able, in the full assurance of hope, to "rejoice that our names are written in heaven." And for the joy set before Him let us cheerfully bear our cross, despising the shame.

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SERMON IX.

THE MAN ON THE THRONE,

"And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. . . . As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about.”—EZEK. i. 26, 28.

THESE are the closing verses of a magnificent vision of the divine providence.

The vision is in substance this: A great shining cloud-the symbol of the divine presence— sweeps across the sky; and as it proceeds, there issues from its fiery recesses a splendid pageant or procession. First, there come into view certain living creatures, bearing the symbolic form of cherubim. Next, the wheels of a great chariot appear, drawn by the living creatures or cherubim. And, finally, there emerges a princely charioteer, seated above upon a throne and canopied by a rainbow.

K

What do these visionary objects symbolise?

By the cherubim which draw the chariot is probably meant that machinery of second causes by which the changes of the world and the events of human history are proximately effected or brought about. These cherubim are composite creatures, exhibiting, among other features, the face of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle. They therefore represent an aggregate of very diversified agency. They represent whatever has man-like intelligence, lionlike strength, ox-like patience of labour, eaglelike rapidity of movement. They represent, in short, all the natural forces or second causes, animate or inanimate, spiritual or physical, which co-operate in producing the events and changes of the world.

While the cherubim thus represent the natural forces or causes by which changes are effected, the chariot-wheels represent the changes themselves. For as it is by the motion of its wheels that a chariot is propelled, so it is by the various changes and revolutions in the world that the course of divine providence is developed. And how aptly do these mysterious wheels, with their involved and ceaseless motion, symbolise the actual course of the world's history! Ever since the world began, its history has been a succession of changes-changes sometimes calami

tous and sometimes beneficent, but always unintermitting. In bygone ages, the sweep of the wheels has passed over the pride and glory of nations-over the lordly towers of Assyria, the classic temples of Greece, the imperial palaces of Rome. And even in our day their rushing sound has been heard in the crash of falling thrones. Nor is their sweep less real, though less discernible, in the case of the milder and more gradual changes produced by the arts, by science, by commerce, by literature, by religion. The chariot of providence speeds onward, alike when the wheels thunder on the ear and when they move softly and silently as if their path lay across flowers.

It is in this lower world that the cherubim act and the chariot-wheels revolve. But the text brings into view another and higher scene. It points to a region above the sphere of the cherubim and the chariot-nay, above the firmament over their heads. And calling us away from this lower sky, calling us away from the rushing charers and the careering wheels, it bids us look above to an enthroned charioteer and an encircling rainbow. . . . To this, the third and principal part of the vision, I now invite your thoughts. And, that you may enter into its import, I shall speak, in the order in which they are here presented, of the Throne, the Charioteer, and the Rainbow.

I. THE THRONE.-" And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone."

Here we have the likeness of a throne high up in the serene heavens-a throne of sapphire or azure, the emblem of serenity. And why is our eye conducted up from the restless rushing objects under the firmament to this high and tranquil throne? Why, if not to apprise us that there is, indeed, a throne in heaven—a throne which, itself unchanged and undisturbed, directs and controls all the changes and revolutions on earth? On this point the vision is but a scenic representation of the great truth, elsewhere taught without a figure, that our sublunary world is under heavenly government, and that all its agencies evermore subserve the purposes and do the pleasure of a higher Will. To the narrow ken of man the world's history may seem a mere labyrinth of events—“a maze without a plan.” But as seen from the throne above, the whole is the result of design, of fore-ordination, of preadjustment, of government. All agents and all events hold the place and perform the functions antecedently appointed them. Every one of them, even the most trivial, has its prescribed sphere and use and end. Nothing is left at large, far less to chance.

and events which seem

Nay, the very agents fitted to obstruct the