manence,—nothing which could encourage them to forget the Promise of the other COMFORTER. And if we may reverently speculate on such high matters, it was for this very object that He left them in this state of perplexity and loneliness, lest they should be willing to take up with that state of imperfection, and be tempted to say, as St. Peter had on the occasion before referred to, "It is good for us to be here:" and let us build us our Tabernacles. There certainly is a mystery hanging over this period of time, which I know of no other way of accounting for. But mark how the Ascension removes the veil of obscurity, and makes all practical and complete. When the Christian thinks of the Resurrection, it is not to be a mere renewal of the term of his earthly pilgrimage, but the entrance for those who shall be found worthy, upon a state of heavenly blessedness. CHRIST rose, only to ascend; and it is the Ascension which gives all its value to the Resurrection. It were better indeed never to rise, than rising not to ascend. They who shall rise, and find not their Heavenly FATHER ready to receive them, will wish themselves in their coffins again; yea, will “call on the mountains to fall upon them, and the hills to cover them." For, if they do not ascend, they must certainly descend. If God is not ready to receive them, the Devil will be waiting. Or, could there even be, which there is not, and cannot be, any middle state between complete happiness and misery, such as is our present earth,-still, who could bear the idea of such an eternity? Resurrection to earth, without ascension to Heaven, would be, to the best of men, a curse instead of a blessing.

And that our LORD's Resurrection and Ascension do also involve our own, would seem to be made as plain

as words can make it. For what does HE say to Mary Magdalene? "Go to My brethren"; before, HE called His Disciples "friends;" "I call you not servants but friends." But now they are brethren,—children of the same FATHER,-heirs of the same inheritance. And what made them now brethren, who before were not? These two things, I conceive. First, His condescension to Death, by which He became like unto us in all things; and secondly, His direct adoption of us into GOD's family. Go and say to My brethren, I ascend unto My FATHER, and your FATHER. By His Word, HE here makes that to be which before was not. He is not ashamed to call us Brethren, and by so doing confers upon us a portion of His own Inheritance.

Such then being the power of CHRIST'S Ascension,such its importance in the Christian scheme, suffer me, Brethren, to plead for its due commemoration on Thursday next. There are two grounds on which it demands our highest attention: first, as being connected with our LORD's Personal history, and secondly, as forming the necessary conclusion of what He did "for us and for our salvation." If we have accompanied HIM in His Birth, His Agony, and His Resurrection,-last of all, taken leave of Him in His Ascension. In the chapter read as the First Lesson, we have heard Moses giving this direction to the Israelites, when they should be entered upon their promised inheritance. "Thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee those forty years in the wilderness.' And assuredly GOD would have us in the same way remember, i. e. maintain a grateful memorial of those great and wonderful acts, by which our deliverance and salvation have been accomplished. Of all those, none is greater or more thank-worthy, than the Ascension

of our REDEEMER; and therefore, no day is more deserving of religious observance. See, then, Brethren, that it is so honoured, as far as circumstances will admit, by you. Let all who are able, devote a portion of the morning to the meditation and worship of the ascended SAVIOUR: and those who have not the opportunity of so doing, will yet be able to offer their devotions in the evening. Slowly and hardly are our hearts elevated from the engagements of earth. How then shall he be without excuse, who misses this annual opportunity, of raising himself heavenwards? When CHRIST was about to ascend to His FATHER, HE went out with His Disciples, as far as to the Mount of Olives: and we shall find that it is from the Hill of the LORD, among those who call upon His Name, that we shall experience our affections to be most quickened-our desires most spiritualized. So are we most likely to lift up our hearts with our hands to GOD in the heavens.

T. C.

SERMON LI.

THE HOLINESS OF CONSECRATED PLACES.

PART I.

Rogation Monday.

ST. MARK XI. 17.

MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL

NATIONS.

FROM the beginning of the world it has pleased GOD to cause particular places to be set apart for His especial honour and worship; and holy men, prompted thereunto by the secret workings of GOD'S SPIRIT, or by His express commands, have likewise from the beginning offered to HIM their prayers and praises in some chosen spots rather than in others, and constantly in the same. A few examples will suffice to prove this. Thus, from the way in which the worship of Cain and Abel is mentioned, it would seem that in the family of the first man there was already some one place dedicated unto GOD. "In process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD; and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof."" Again, when

SERIES II.

i Gen. iv. 3.

P

VOL II.

is,

Noah came forth from the Ark, the first thing we hear "Noah builded an altar unto the LORD, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar." How highly acceptable this was to GOD we are told in the following words :"And the LORD smelled a sweet savour:" and forthwith a gracious promise was given. "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done." Again, after Abraham at GoD's bidding had left his own country, and come as a pilgrim into the Promised Land, when the LORD appeared unto him and said, “Unto thy seed will I give this land,” it follows, "there builded he an altar unto the LORD Who appeared unto him." Further, when he pitched his tent in another place, the sacred narrative, short as it is, takes care to repeat, "There builded he an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the Name of the LORD." When, on his return from Eyypt, we are told that he came back unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, it is added, "unto the place of the altar which he had made there at first."

Presently he reremoval is sum

moves to Hebron,-and though his med up in a single verse, yet the same thing is noticed, he "came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD. ''4

Surely it is not for nothing that we are told that so eminent a Saint of GOD as Abrahain, he who bore that singular title of "GOD's friend," took care wherever he went to plant his Church; to worship GoD in a 1 Gen. viii. 20. 2 Gen. xii. 7, 8. 3 Gen. xiii. 4. Gen. xiii. 18.