calculated upon the possibility of this. a heavy heart," Me have ye bereaved of

Let us inquire into the evidence which Scripture and reason combine that it is truly good for us to have been afflicted; and let us inquire into the subject with a willingness and readiness of mind, as one which, properly understood, may serve to disarm affliction of its sharpest sting.

my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me." Yet these things, he soon found were the means in the hand of God of making his cup to overflow. And they who are duly attentive to the ways of Providence can If the assertion, that afflictions are for scarcely fail to discover in their own our good, shall at first sight appear to any experience, in the case of some seeming in the light of a paradox, they will do misfortunes, many traces of both the wiswell to remember that there are many dom and the goodness of the Almighty; things, both in the natural and moral nor is it unreasonable to conclude, that at world, much more paradoxical at first many times, when we are incapable of view, which we are notwithstanding con- tracing the ways of God, the very evils strained to admit. If we did but ac-on account of which our rebellious hearts knowledge that our afflictions proceed are most apt to murmur against him, may from the hand of God, this consideration be the special means of saving us from affords a strong presumption that they far greater calamities, or of conferring will be for a purpose more benevolent such advantages, even in this world, as we than what their outward aspect shows. would not be unwilling to purchase at a Hath he stamped on the creation many much greater price. Now, if our affliounequivocal marks of his goodness,- tions appear to be in any measure for our does he show much that is unquestionably good in this world, may they not safely good-so many indisputable blessings-has be regarded as a pledge and earnest of he so loved the world as not to spare even advantage to us in another and more imhis only begotten Son, but to deliver him portant world? It is only in our worldly up for the benefit of his people on earth, condition that any obvious objection seems and is it possible that he should not- to lie against the doctrine. We may, withstanding afflict his people willingly, therefore, proceed with more confidence and with any other view than for their to consider it in the more important view, ultimate good! This consideration should in reference to our spiritual and everlastat least remove any prejudice against the ing benefit. doctrine of affliction being for our good, Consider, then, in the first place, whether and should prepare our minds for enter- our afflictions be not well calculated to ing with candour into the consideration beget in us such a salutary fear of God, of the direct tendency of these afflictions. and such a dread of offending him, as Let me, then, call upon you now to con- become children of a father. The effect sider whether you have not convincing of the chastisement of a child by a dutiful experience that many of the seeming parent is of more efficacy in the way of evils of life, which you feel at the moment producing a fear to offend again, and a as extremely afflicting, do not redound gradual reformation of the conduct, than to your advantage, even in a worldly some are fully aware of. Our present view. Have you not sometimes found state may, in strictest propriety, be conthat the disappointment of your most sidered a state of infancy or childhood. ardent pursuits and endeavours has been, We know the salutary influence of chasin the hands of God, the mean of your tisement in childhood, which is the period escape from imminent danger, of which at allotted for preparing for the business of the moment you were not aware? Have life-for preparing for both the duties and you never found reason to acknowledge privileges afterwards to be discharged and that your seeming misfortunes over which, enjoyed in the world. It is strange if at the time, you sincerely lamented, have reproof be necessary for the just training in fact turned out to your good? When of the unpractised mind in the morning of the sons of Jacob told their father that life, and not necessary for training us in they had been constrained to leave their this life for another and a better which is brother Simeon in Egypt, and were to succeed it. The whole of our time in required, as a condition of his release, to this world is as certainly the period earry Benjamin thither, Jacob said, with allotted for the education for the future

and eternal state, as the period of infancy | from such parental restraints; and shall is the time allotted for the education for they not regard their present afflictions as manhood,—it is the period of our educa- an early and satisfying pledge of the tion for that heavenly country in which greater advantage of whatever they shall the good are destined to live. Our na- be called to suffer at the hand of a parent tural aversion to that education is not less more wise and great, who in no wise than the aversion of a froward child to afflicts his children willingly. Others the studies that are prescribed to it. may chastise after their own pleasure, Upon what ground, then, can you con- but He only for our profit, that we may clude that chastisement in this case may be partakers of his holiness. not be for good? The great use of the Consider, in the second place, that the chastisement of parents in the days of our afflictions of the present scene are calcuchildhood is to produce in us a salutary lated to moderate our attachment to the fear of offending them by a conduct pre- world, and our dependence on whatever is judicial to our interests; and why may not in the world. There can be nothing more our heavenly Father, prescribing a law for certain than that the immoderate love and the regulation of our conduct, see it desire of what is temporal and worldly equally meet to enforce our obedience, are incompatible with our maintaining a by such chastisement as may induce in us just regard to the things that are spiritual. a fear of offending Him? Many of the Afflictions serve the valuable purpose of troubles that befal us in the present life, weaning our hearts from the things that are the immediate and natural consequen- are, and of fixing our thoughts on the ces of our own sin and folly, in trans- hope that is set before us. Worldly disgressing the law which God has given us. appointments are therefore indispensibly The wise and benevolent Author of Na- requisite for chastising and restraining ture has so fixed and established the those extravagant expectations of worldly order and course of nature, that in many enjoyment which men are so apt to enter cases our sin immediately produces its tain, more especially in the morning of own punishment; and though we may not life. Were the worldly hopes of the be able to trace in every case so directly young, in particular, to be in all cases our sin to its punishment, we are strongly realised,-were men never to be surcalled to know that either more or less rounded and visited with the afflictions sin is the cause of all evil,-that it was which arise from disappointment, they sin that first brought misery into the would give themselves up entirely to world, and that the only just improve- things visible and present-the language ment of what we suffer at the hand of of their hearts would be, This is our place, God, is to be thereby more and more in- here do we desire to live; and the enjoy duced to hate and forsake that accursed ments of time and sense would engross thing which alone continues to embitter their affections to the exclusion of obthe cup of human life. Is it, then, with jects more noble and more worthy of a view to this blessed effect to the alien- their minds. Nor is there any noble or ation of our hearts from sin that we are worthy resolution or practice which an here afflicted? Do we in any measure uninterrupted round of pleasure and prosfeel that the salutary power of affliction perity of a worldly kind may not enis a mean of restraining us from evil; and danger. If we look around us in this shall we not allow that it is good for us world, few instances indeed will present thus to be chastised or afflicted? Our themselves, in which such long continued earthly parents are conscious of both the prosperity does not overset the mind, fill good design and the good effect of the it with daring agitations, seduce it from a restraints they impose, or the corrections they inflict on the young over whom their authority extends, and shall we notwithstanding presume to doubt either the good designs, or the salutary influence of the chastisements which we receive at the hands of our common Father? Do children, as they advance in years, gradually trace the advantages they have derived

just sense of the character of God, and destroy in it all the just knowledge of those principles within us, on the due regulation of which both the health and happiness of our nature depend.

Let me, therefore, request of you to consider more particularly, in the third place, that it is exclusively in the school of affliction that we learn patience and

For

fortitude-humility in our estimate of experience for the judgment we are able ourselves, and sympathetic affection to- to form of the tendency of outward things wards others. There are few things to produce either pleasure or pain, which, to a well regulated mind, will this reason was the Saviour of the world appear more unreasonable than the fret- made in all respects like his brethren, that fulness and impatience with which a man with a just feeling of their infirmity, he who is enjoying uninterrupted prosperity might be a merciful High Priest in the is so apt to look upon the least appear- house of God. If we could for a moment ance of any reverse of fortune. He is suppose man entirely destitute of that the mere creature of outward circum- which we thus acquire from our experistances, and depends on each change for ence, in what a degraded view would our both the temper of his mind and the nature appear? Sympathy is, to say the tenor of his conduct. It is impossible least of it, one of the most amiable exthat he should ever attain to independence periences of that charity which is the of character, without being duly exer- bond of hearts, and a just remembrance cised in the school of affliction. Where of our own afflictions is what enables us should he learn patience without trouble to recall those feelings into exercise when to endure, or how shall he learn fortitude circumstances similar to what were our without trials to undergo? These vir- own, are again presented to a view of the tues, like every other, require both time mind. and opportunity to cultivate, and if called into exercise under circumstances not beyond what we are able to bear, the more vigorous will they become.

Considering the subject in this view, who is there who is he among those now hearing me, that will dare to say that it is not good for him to have been Pride is in like manner cherished by afflicted? It is only to the people of prosperity. Uninterrupted draughts of God, indeed, that afflictions can be conworldly prosperity are calculated to in-sidered as a blessing, in the full extent toxicate. Perhaps the uninterrupted that has now been stated; but in whatpleasure of our first parents was a mean ever degree they fail to produce the same of generating in their hearts those prin- advantage to others, the deficiency must ciples of pride which first brought sin arise from their not being duly improved into the world. The nurture of afflictions by them, for afflictions are often a natural may now be indispensibly requisite in means in the first instance of weaning us order to our hereafter attaining a per- from the service of Satan, to the worship manent character of humility, in a state and service of God. And we hope that of permanent and unchanging bliss. Af- they have been an effectual means of flictions strongly call upon the heart to teaching many the vanity of worshipping look inward upon itself and its own the world rather than God. If even they desires, and, showing us how undeserving we are of a more unbroken and uninterrupted enjoyment, they are often calculated to remind us that in this world mortality is the law of our nature. Afflictions, in this manner, teach us humility. They have a tendency to make us think of ourselves not more highly than we ought to think, but to think of ourselves soberly.

who have in some measure experienced the advantage of affliction, would now be spared from saying that it is good for them to have been afflicted,-if even they find it difficult practically to acknowledge the goodness of their heavenly Father in such chastisements,-if a natural aversion in the heart to the thought of suffering would still make you unduly deprecate his chastening rod, I would not conclude Yet it is still more obvious, if possible, without reminding you that there is one that to be ourselves exercised in the way in which, consistently with both school of affliction, is the great and indis- your interest and your duty, you may pensible mean of teaching us to sympa- both deprecate and adopt the future chasthise with others in their afflicted state. tisement of the Lord,-I mean by imWe judge of other men's condition proving more and more daily under the chiefly from what we have experienced in afflictions which you have already exour own. It is only from experience that perienced. Afflictions may be messengers we learn what either joy or sorrow is to of the divine displeasure, but when their the heart: nor are we less indebted to voice has been duly listened to, when the

NOTE BY THE REPORTER.-From the height of the

lesson they would teach has been prac- these things, and God give you grace to tically received, they are not less the lay them to heart. Amen. messengers of salvation to our souls. Let it therefore be your first care to comply with their gracious design, and then shall the Lord turn away more speedily from his anger, and then shall you know that all things work together for good to them that truly love God. Consider

ceiling, the age of the officiating clergyman, and the not distinctly audible in the gallery, where the shortreading of the discourse, which rendered the voice hand writer sat, this discourse has not been exactly taken down as it was delivered, but very nearly so. A few of the phrases, but not one of the sentences, have been supplied by the Reporter.

THE SPIRITUAL TEMPLE OF JEHOVAH.

A SERMON, PREACHED IN THE NEW PARISH CHURCH, GREENOCK, ON THE
AFTERNOON OF THE 19th MARCH, 1832.

By the Rev. ROBERT BURNS, D. D.

Minister of St. George's Church Paisley.

"He shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory.”—
Zechariah vi. 13.

NOTHING can be more clear, my friends, was to constitute "the glory" of it, and than that the temple which was built by who was "to give peace" from within Solomon, and the temple which was after- its precincts to all generations of men. wards renewed and placed under the That illustrious person described as "the guardianship of Joshua, the son of Joza- Prince"-that glorious Messiah who was dak, the High Priest, were both designed to spring from the stem of Jesse-is reand fitted to be typical resemblances of presented as building and consecrating the the church of God under "Messiah the spiritual temple. He lays the foundations Prince." And hence it is that in the of it strong and deep amid the ruins of Scriptures of the Old Testament, Mount our fallen humanity, and he raises the Zion, the place on which the magnificent superstructure to his own glory, and the structure was reared, whither the people glory of his Father. True believers in of God went up from all parts of Pales- every age have been permitted to contine, to present themselves in the presence template the stately edifice rising to view, of their common Lord, and to engage in adorned with all the beauties of holiness, the various appointed services of religion, and shining with the lustre of grace; is spoken of in terms so magnificent, so while the inhabitants of other worlds elevated, and so closely connected with behold it beaming from afar, and reflecting spiritual things, as naturally and directly the glorious attributes of its great archito suggest to the mind of the reader a tect,-" to the intent that now unto the nobler economy than that of Moses; a principalities and powers in heavenly more extended dispensation than that of places might be made known by the the Law; and a "temple" in which the church the manifold wisdom of God." grace of God would be revealed in still While the church at large, considered as more striking manifestations. "The Lord a spiritual edilice, may be thus spoken of, hath chosen Zion; he hath selected it for and described as God's temple, we may his habitation: here," says he, "will say of every individual member of the I dwell, for I have desired it." "When church, that he is the temple of God. the Lord shall build up Zion, he will ap- Spiritual members of Christ are reprepear in his glory." This temple of the sented by the Apostle as "living stones;" spiritual church is placed under the super- and it is the striking characteristic of intendence and guardian care of him who these living stones that they not only was to "come to his temple," and who form constituent parts of one great edi

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fice, but that they individually exhibit in every Christian church and place sacred miniature the complete representation of to religious worship, that it is "the habithe prominent features of the great build- tation of God's house, and the place where ing itself. In each, as in all of them com- his honour dwells." It is indeed true, bined, we discover the same grand linea- that, in one sense, God dwells every ments of grace, and the same ornaments where, and "in him we live, and move, of holiness; and therefore it may, with and have our being;" but while, in a strict propriety, he said, that Christ Jesus general view, the Lord is every where is the Author and Finisher of the spiritual present, and while we rejoice in this debuilding, inasmuch as each member of his lightful truth of the omnipresence of Jespiritual body is by him created anew, hovah, there is a peculiar sense in which, led in the paths of righteousness, and of every true believer, and of him alone, fitted for the kingdom above. This is the it is affirmed, that God " dwelleth in him," view that I intend to take of the words and "he dwells in God;" "Christ in of our text, and, by selecting the case of an individual believer, we may be able to form a still more precise and connected view of the subject, than by allowing our thoughts to spread themselves over the wide surface of the church at large.

There are two points which the language of the text brings before us,

First, That every true believer is temple of God; and,

you, the hope of glory." Of all true believers under the New Testament economy, it is affirmed, that Christ "dwells in them"-that their bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost-that they are sacred to the residence of Jehovah-that they walk with God and in God-that "Christ dwells in their hearts by faith" a-and the highest, the noblest petition which apostolic fervour has addressed to the throne of grace in their behalf is"that they may be filled with all the

Second, That the glory of building, and beautifying, and completing the temple belongs exclusively to the gracious Re-fulness of God." In this view, every

deemer.

true believer is consecrated to God as a temple-the residence of Jehovah. It is, indeed, the grand, the prominent design of that gospel of the grace of God which we preach unto you to elevate God to the throne of the heart-to set aside all usurpers—to bring back man to his sense of allegiance to expel from the heart the images and ensigns of enmity to God

In the first place, a temple is the residence of Jehovah; and in this view every true believer is a temple of the living God. "Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them." We do not say that there is any real sacredness-any spiritual or moral sanctity-possessed by and to enthrone Jehovah in the affecone building, or by one place in this world tions, the dispositions, and the habits of of ours more than another; but we do men. It is in this view that Jehovah is say that certain times, and certain places, represented as taking up his abode in and certain vestments are represented in every renewed man, selecting his soul, the sacred Word as consecrated to the yea, even his body as his temple. Satan Lord-as taken out of the ordinary range is compelled to retire from the supremacy; of human objects, and invested with a and although he may still remain in some relative sanctity, inasmuch as they are distant corner of the field, and may still employed for sacred ends, and inasmuch continue to carry on a kind of predatory as they are detached from the ordinary warfare, yet he shall never be allowed to employment that may be made of them at regain his hated ascendancy, for "the other times, and are invested with this Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." peculiar attribute of being given up or The temple is his own residence, and dedicated to the Lord. It is in this way chosen by him as the place of his abode. that the temple of old, and the vestments" Ye are the temples of God, as God has of the priests, and the vessels of the sanc-said-I will dwell in them and walk in tuary, and the times and seasons of wor- them."

ship are all termed holy, and "holiness In the second place, a temple is conseto the Lord." And although the state of crated to the service, the worship, and the things under the Christian economy is glory of God; and, in this sense, every greatly changed, still we may affirm of true believer is a spiritual temple of the