soul died; his body became mortal or dying; and body and soul exposed (when the day of judgment should come) to the second death. Gen. v. records, that Adam begat a son in his own likeness :-not GoD's, but his own; the likeness of a dead man—a man cut off from God: and to this St. Paul alludes when he says,-" by man came death :"-but though man was thus cut off from God, yet still, as St. Paul testified to the gentiles at Athens, "In Him we live and move and have our being,"-that is, we depend every moment for our existence on God;-He takes our breath, we die. This, my dear children, brings strikingly to our minds the omnipresence of God, or God being always present, in all places and at all times; and I know of no figure that so fully illustrates this as the all-penetrating, all-pervading atmosphere; so that, when light itself in vain knocks, (as in a cavern or darkened room) for admission, the air comes in as the rightful occupant and dweller in all things-day and night, place or distance, makes no difference, and there is no possibility of putting it away but by artificial means, as I have shown in my previous letter; and then, wherever its absence is —there is death, reigning and ruling in all its power. There was one scene once acted upon the earth, the first (and O that it might be the last) that affords us the most solemn and awful consideration on this subject: I allude to the French Revolution of 1793, of which we were reading some time since. There it was that a nation of 30,000,000 of people, priding themselves on

being the most polite nation of the earth, and whose language was spoken in most of the courts of Europe, proclaimed by an edict of its national assembly two awful decrees,-first, that there was no God; and second, that death was an eternal sleep. Like the fool that said in his heart, they said OPENLY, "Tush, there is no God;" and the Lord left them for a little, and France was as if there was no God. And, oh! who can describe the horrors of that awful period? Historians, by common consent, have marked that era in the world's great chart of time as the "REIGN OF TERRORS." Scenes too terrible to describe followed each other in rapid succession! The rulers of to-day were the victims of tomorrow! The prince of the power of the air seemed as the alone monarch of that unhappy land; and the various forms of government that arose, were but as HIS VASSALS, till at last, drunk with the blood of her own children, (if God had not in mercy interposed!) the whole empire seemed threatened with annihilation. A military despotism succeeded the reign of terror; and this (bad as it is in itself), was hailed with acclamation by the people. I did not at all, when I commenced this letter, intend to have introduced this subject to your minds (though I am sure, and in the PRESENT DAY ESPECIALLY, every child should know it), but as it brought so forcibly before me the blessing to man of the omnipresence of God, I could not forbear. O how full of consolation to that child who loves God, and who is at peace with him in the precious blood of Christ, to know that God is as much invisible

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about his every footstep, as He was VISIBLE about the tents of Israel when marching through the wilderness! We have our cloud by day, our light by night; we have our manna, our bread of life, in this desert wilderness, and water flowing from the rock that follows; we have a robe that never wears, and a foot that never swells; and above all, far above all, a Lamb, even the Lamb of God, which (like the heavenly pattern seen by Mosesin the mount, and shown out in the altar of burnt offering) is as a sweet savour unto God, and bears away the sin of the world. When, then, beloved children, you breathe the air of life so freely and happily, O think of Him who is yet nearer still to you: for not only as His creatures "do we live and move and have our being in Him," but if adopted into His family, then are we partakers of the divine nature: for the word is wonderful which speaks of the oneness of believers with the Lord Jesus,-" No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth it, and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church," Eph. v. 29. In the prophet Daniel, chap. xii. 1-3, the figure of the firmament is introduced with great force and beauty; the scene is the resurrection, and the Prophet says, "And those that be wise shall shine as the the firmament; and those that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." In the margin it is "those that are teachers;" but in either sense it is very beautiful. But what makes the firmament so bright--so transparent-so dazzling? The Sun has his Tabernacle there, and the firmament is bright in

His brightness. O never forget His love that purchased that glory (for it is a glory of redemption)! and remember, that to secure it He gave that brow, ere now surrounded with glory, to be encircled with thorns; and that we might cry "Abba Father" in the spirit of adoption, He uttered the piercing cry, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?—-My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me," Mark xv. 34. "He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him," 2 Cor. v. 21. I know not how to stop on this subject. The love of Christ is infinite; it has lengths and breadths and depths and heights which pass knowledge. Eph. iii. 19. "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift," 2 Cor. ix. 15.

word of God

His gracious

How beau

How fertile the fields looked the other day after that long and painful drought. The rain came down the previous night, and we could almost see the arid and parched field change its color as we gazed on it. Such is the blessing of the when ministered by God's Holy Spirit to the soul. presence is like the showers upon the mown grass! tiful the language of Moses," Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass." Deut. xxxii. 1, 2. And again in that most interesting chapter of Isaiah,-" For as the rain cometh down, and the snow

from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off," Isa. lv. 10-13. Here the illustration is exactly the same as in Deuteronomy, though the ultimate extent of the prophecy looks forward to a period when all shall be joy—the times of the restitution of all things, when Creation delivered from the bondage of corruption shall rejoice in the reign of its rightful King who has redeemed it-the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, yet doubtless Now there is an earnest of it in those who have the first fruits of the Spirit (Rom. viii. 23), for when the Holy Spirit changes the heart, the brier and the thorn, the angry and cruel passions, are exchanged for the myrtle and the fir-so beautifully emblematic of those fruits of the Spirit (see Gal. v.22, 23), for though sin is not eradicated, it is subdued; and God's Holy Spirit, and not Satan, has the dominion, and reigns in, and over the new born child of God (Rom. vi. 14). Another beautiful figure in nature is the